Guest is breaking house rules!

Rosita11
Level 2
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Guest is breaking house rules!

Hi, my guest for today, 15 April, has broken my house rules by having a party with more than 20 people, a DJ station, disco lights etc. My House Rules clearly state “No events” can be held at the villa. When this guest first contacted me, she did say she would be having a birthday party but the number of people would be limited to 8 people. She failed to mention there would be so many guests (20 and counting!). It’s only 7 pm but these guests have already started behaving in a rowdy manner after consuming alcohol. I am worried they would damage the furniture. The guest is no longer answering my phone calls. I am unsure what to do. Should I cancel her booking? I just became a Superhost and am worried a cancellation might affect my Superhost status. But if I don’t cancel the reservation, the guest might leave a poor review, which would affect my Superhost status as well. Please help!

16 Replies 16

Call Airbnb and let them know that guests are breaking the house rules and you are asking that Airbnb intervene and cancel this guest's reservation, that they have more people in the listing than your maximum and that they are having a party.  Then send a message to the guest that you intend on having the reservation terminated immediately.  Call the police and have them removed from the property. 

 

Hi @Alice-and-Jeff0, many many thanks for your response. I called Airbnb as you suggested and they cancelled the reservation without much of a fuss. The guest didn't respond to Airbnb's attempts at contacting them so that probably expedited the process. I finally managed to get them out of the house at 11 pm. They had made such a mess and had damaged a divan, broken glasses etc! I can only imagine what other damage they would have caused had they been allowed to stay the night. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hello @Rosita11

 

This is awful and so disrepectful. Send your guest a message through Airbnb say that you agree she could have a small celebration with up to 8 guests, but she has far exceeded this with 20 guests already and a disco system. Say you are concerned that she is not responding to your calls and that if she doesn't respond in the next 10 or 15 minutes, you will need to arrange for Airbnb to cancel the booking and she will need to leave.

 

Don't cancel her booking yourself.

 

Call Airbnb and explain the situation, say you have called and messaged the guest and that she won't reply. Ask them to cancel the booking. You may need to be firm with them as sometimes they are reluctant to take action.

 

Don't worry about bad reviews, she is the one in the wrong.

 

You may need to go to the premises with a friend/s to ensure she leaves.

 

You may want to adjust your house rules to say that only visitors who have been agreed in advance with the host can come onto the premises in addition to guests who have paid.

 

Hi @Helen3, many thanks for your helpful response. I called Airbnb (I was on hold for 15 minutes!). But they cancelled the reservation without much fuss. The guest didn't respond to Airbnb's attempts at contacting them so that probably expedited the process. I went with my parents to the house at 11 pm and asked the DJ to stop the music. It's against the law to play loud music after 11 pm in Sri Lanka, unless you have a permit. The guest had the audacity to tell me they had connections with the police and could get approval to play loud music after 11, and that they should be entitled to have a party since they had told me it was a birthday etc etc. They had made such a mess and had damaged some property. I can only imagine what other damage they would have caused had they been allowed to stay the night. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hello @Rosita11

 

I am sorry this happened. Make sure you lodge a complaint throught the resolution centre for an extra cleaning and damage and that you take photos.

 

Generally if Airbnb cancel a booking, you don't need to wait until 11 p.m. but can go to the property straight away and ask the guests to leave.

 

The bottom line is she told you she was inviting 8 guest but had many more and a DJ with a sound system.

 

I do agree with others though. As an experienced host a local wanting a birthday party should have raised red flags. But lesson learned, we can all make mistakes.

 

 

 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Rosita11

Gee Rosita, your a Superhost, you should have seen this one coming!

There is a golden rule of hosting...you never, never, never let to locals! People who want to party, or have some sort of mischief on their minds do not go far from home to do it....... and there is nothing even subtle about this one. She even told you she would be having a birthday party and you accepted it.

You know I generally have a lot of sympathy for hosts who do all the right things, ask the right questions, do the required checks and get caught with some sort of complete booking fabrication and end up with their listing trashed.

But Rosita, gosh you walked headlong into this one with your eyes wide open. I don't know how much sympathy you will get from Airbnb because you actually sanctioned a party and that is what happened. Forget about house rules, you allowed this to happen, you agreed to it! The only debating point is the scale of the party!

Sorry, I will side with you on lots of things Rosita but, I think you have been your own worst enemy here!

Cheers.....Rob 

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Glad you got it sorted out @Rosita11, and yes you probably dodged an even larger bullet. The red flags should have instantly started waving in the breeze at  the points  @Robin4 has mentioned. 

 

And let me gues - it was only for a single night?  A sure give-away it was a wild party booking. One night to have the party and won't have to stay a second night in the trashed apartment or clean it up.

 

How about adding to your house rules "No unbooked or unregistered guests on the premises."

Zoran25
Level 2
HN, Montenegro

Hi Rosita,

Would you mind please telling me if the guest still had the option to leave a review?

I just had a similar experience today and Airbnb Customer Service told me that the guest still mantains the right to post a review even if the cancellation is handled by Airbnb Resolution Centre and for obviously valid reasons.

Thanx!

Have a great day!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Zoran25

Hello Zoran, If the cancellation took place on the scheduled day of arrival, the opportunity to review the listing will be offered to the guest! But, Airbnb's guidelines state a review cannot be posted for a stay that did not take place.

So, If the cancellation took place before the guest arrives in the property, although offered, a review can, and will be, removed. If the guest entered the property and susequently cancelled, a review will be regarded as valid because the guest had the opportunity to appraise the property, and provided it adheres to review guidelines it will remain.

 

There you go, it's as clear as mud now Zoran, isn't it....but that's the rules!

 

Cheers......Rob

Hi Robin, thanx so much for your reply!

I understand! However, I would say that this situation is a tad more specific than that.

Namely, the cancellation in this case occured via Airbnb Resolution Centre as a result of guests breaking the house rules mid-stay.

Now, here is the source of my doubts.

I already contacted customer service about this kind of issue twice. The first feedback was that, in case there is undenaible evidence that the house rules were broken, Airbnb takes over and cancels the rest of the stay with no negative reprecussions on the host whatsoever (including the ability of the guest to retaliate via bad review). This was clearly stated to me by the Customer Service member.

On the next occasion I received a contrasting feedback: even if Airbnb handles the most troublesome case of breaking the house rules imaginable and cancles the rest of the stay themselves, the guest still mantains the right to post a review and potentially retaliate.

I identified Rositas experience as very particular to my doubt, so I was wondering if she could share with me and the rest of the community which of these two is acctually true in practice. Hence, I find it relevant to learn from Rosita or anyone with similar experience if the guest still has the option of leaving a review under such circumstances.

Thanx!

Cheers,

Zoran.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Zoran25 You are 100% right Zoran you need someone with cold hard experience of this situation to answer this.....all I can do is tell you what the rules are but, rules are open to interpretation and whether a particular review stays or is removed is up to the intepretation of the CS agent and its stay or removal will probably be....not so much subject to the CS agents opinion but, subject to Airbnb's content policy. One review may have overstepped the bounds of the content policy guidelines where as another equally unpalatable may not have!

The nuts and bolts of it are, the guest stayed, so they have an acceptable right according to the platforms rules, to post a review!

I hope you can get a response from @Rosita11 or someone else who has had a similar situation.

All the best Zoran. I hope it works out for you!

 

Cheers.....Rob

@Robin0, yes, thanx so much for your reply!

Sure, there is a gray area here. And sure its not common (thank Godness!), but it does occur. You may post extenssive and clear house rules on your listing description, do your best to check the profile of the guest, be very communicative in the message thread prior to their arrival and still be in for a nasty surprise. Without getting into the specifics of my personal experience, I would just like to know what to do if/when Im faced with that the next time.

I am aware of content policy rules, and they are not the core of this issue since they target reviews with bad semantics. This is more fundamental than that.

Id be very curious to know if there is any way to avoid retaliation reviews, designed purely for spite and vanity,  affecting your business when a guest is undeniably and objectively putting you in a situation of having to cancel the rest of their stay?

Otherwise, a guest can break the reservation contract and your choises are: a) kindly protect your property and other tenants and still be rewarded for it with a retaliation review; b) smile it away and allow your place to be tarnished, other tenants unhappy, and be unable to successfully fulfill your hosting responsibility towards the following guest as a result.

Are these the only options?

If so, well then I have a very hard time to wrap my head around it.

Thanx!

Zoran

What the rules maybe and what actually happens varies, so I would never assume that a Guest who cancels same day will have their review removed whether they have set foot on the property or not.

 

Seen plenty of cases where a review has been removed but the star rating remains.

 

I have been reminded to review people who have not stayed, sometimes I do, sometimes I do not, but am still asked to do so.

David
Robbe0
Level 3
Ormond Beach, FL

I have a question,

 

I had a guest check in and within 3 hours  was asked to leave by airbnb for breaking house rules and for breaking into my passcodes on my computer Network.

 

With this being said can this guest still leave me a review? and if so can I have it removed?

 

Thanks