Guests brings a friend over night, without asking the host and then wrote a bad review .

[Ani37]

Hi everyone,

I rent my guest bedroom only for some extra income.

A week ago I had a booking for one. The last night of the booking at 10:30 PM I saw two people entering the flat but didn't react. I thought they will come and talk to me.

After both took shower, one after another ..  I knocked on the bedroom door.

When I asked why there is a second person in the room, I  was told they've taught as the room has max capacity

for 2 people its normal to bring someone else. (?!?!)  I've explained : 1st- its not without asking me first,  2ndly/ there is extra charge for a second person and 3rd/ the reservation was for 1 guest ONLY. They offered to pay but as my charge is £15 for extra person I refused saying its not matter of money but respect for me.

The extra guest was insisting they had the right to do so. This pissed me off and I furmly said that's it's too late ( passing 11pm)  and I didn’t want to argue more.  I took the ID of the unauthorised person and kept it over the night.

Next morning when they were leaving I ve returned the ID. No one was happy and I told them they are trying to play cheeky.

Two days later they wrote a bad review describing me as a monster and accusing me of taking money from them... 😞

I contacted ABB asking to remove the review…...but guess what ? They will not !!!!

They take the revengeful comments as "guest opinion" and not even spoken to them.

Do we have to bend over and put up with such mistreatment , just NOT to get a bad review?  

ABB T&C seems to protect their interests only ( the commision)  and allow guest to abuse our life and property.

Is there a way, as hosts, we can demand more respect and being treated more fairly?

Thank you.

[Lisa723]

@Ani37 why didn't you just accept the extra person fee and be done with it? What did you want from these guests? It sounds like an honest mistake on their part, to which you reacted irrationally and punitively. I'd leave you a bad review too.

[Ana1136]

@Lisa723 I don't think the guests were so naive. Everywhere you stay you should let the owners know if you are bringing guest and especially if it is a private home. Those 15$ won't make her richer or the guests poorer, it is a matter of manners.

[Lisa723]

@Ana1136 it's a shared home, obviously they didn't think they were going to be undetected. If you read the review you will see that one guest stayed several nights, then had a friend on her last night. Especially if she is used to hotels, where pricing is always based on double occupancy, it's very likely to be an honest mistake. In any case, if I were in that guest's position, after offering and being refused to pay the extra guest fee, and being treated like a naughty child that needed to be punished, I would definitely not recommend the host to future guests. (She had some other complaints as well, but those may have been piling on. Once a guest decides to leave a bad review, every possible slight gets dumped in the bucket.)

[Ana1136]

@Ani37 This happens more often than you think. Next time contact Airbnb immediately and have them cancel the reservation and leave them on the street at 11PM. If they didn't respect you enough to at least inform you why should you be worried about them having nowhere to sleep. There is nothing you can do now, just leave a responce to their review and give them a thumbs down.

[Linda108]

@Ani37   I agree with @Lisa723 in that as a host we need to allow for guests to be mistaken about the listing rules.  I see that you do allow 2 guests and you do not have a rule that the requires overnight guests be registered.  You have so many reviews that are praising you as a host, so it seems that this particular situation caused you much upset.  

Perhaps there is an opportunity to review your listing to ensure you are as clear as possible about the extra guest fee and the registration requirement.  No need to be punitive the guest unless you truly feel that there was malicious disregard of your space.  

[Elizabeth429]

@Ani37,

I am absolutely with you. In fact, I wouldnt have allowed the extra guest to stay in. The original guest had stayed longer at your place and should have used her common sense and let you know about her plans of bringing somebody at the end of the night. You arent her chaperone, but it is a matter not only of respect but safety.  Imagine something went badly wrong: a fall in the shower, robbery, etc; would your insurance cover it since you allowed the person to come in? 

I can just imagine if the extra guest was a male confronting you in your own home, it must have been quite scary.  

Renew those house rules now. Your house, rules rules!!

I would insist on that review to be removed. If you have the time, drive them crazy over the phone, dont take a no for an answer.

[Elizabeth429]

@Ani37,

I´ve  just checked out this guest´s profile and even though there are four reviews she has only got TWO recommendations.  So disturbing that a host writes "Everything was OK", but doesnt recommend. 

ARRGGGGG!!!!

Plus she went out of her way to make very immature comments.  @Ani37, you can easily get that review removed, her review of you is childish and her profile isnt that brilliant. Fight it!!

[Lawrene0]

Just a note, @Elizabeth429, for hosts who see four reviews but two recommendations. If you look, three of the reviews of that guest were from the same host. So the host may have recommended three times, but the system takes that as one recommendation. That's why her numbers are off. It has been brought up before in the forum - it's a design flaw that can seriously hurt a good guest who is trying to book. 

Not saying this was a good guest. I don't know. Taking @Ani37's word for it, as she was there, and sorry, Ani, I'm no help with the problem. It does not look like you reviewed the guest? Or was your review taken down? 

[Sarah977]

@Ani37   I have had this situation twice now, in spite of the fact that my listing is for 1 guest only, ever. The guest room only has a single bed. Both times it was young women in their 20's bringing a "friend" back for the night.

The first time it happened, I was a new host, and she was only my second booking. She was also new to the platform. She had gone into town her first night, I had gone to bed, and was shocked when I saw her emerge from her room in the morning with a guy. I thought, "What, did she just pick some guy up at the bar and bring him home for the night?" It turned out that he was her boyfriend who she hadn't seen for 6 months, as he was traveling and working out of the country. He had been hitchhiking back and they had a tentative plan to meet in my town, but neither really knew when he'd arrive. I told her she made a booking for 1 person and I only rent to one- I asked if they were both going to squish into that single bed and they said they had no problem with that. So I told her I'd have to charge extra for 2, which they were fine with, and let her know that what she had done was totally uncool as far as Airbnb bookings. They stayed for a week, and they were the sweetest guests- quiet,respectful and friendly. No acrimony.  Her review- "I spent the best week of my life here."

The second time it happened was a little different. This gal went into town in the evening her first night, I went to bed, then I was woken a 3AM by loud talking and laughter, showering together, and then the headboard banging against the wall. I was not interested in making a scene about it in the middle of the night. But this guest should have known better- she was a host herself and had been a guest in many places. And the noise level was really disrespectful. When I got up in the morning, they had already left (she had booked for 4 days), so I messaged her saying what she had done was not okay, that her booking was for 1. She messaged back giving some lame excuse- "Sorry, but you know how these things just happen, love and all" and went on to say she's like him to stay with her. I told her no, if she wanted to have her friend over during the day, to share a drink or a meal after introducing him to me, that was acceptable, but that he could not spend the night, shower, or otherwise avail himself of facilities. She didn't argue and was otherwise a good guest. No lasting acrimony, no bad review.

[Mikki0]

Any time I communicate with a guest directly, I always then type up the conversation in the airbnb site/app. This way Airbnb knows all the information. 

In this case, because you have an extra guest fee, you could have asked them to leave because they lied in their request, or sent them a reservation change and request for money to cover the second guest.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Ani37

I would have taken pictures (probably even recorded the conversation), ordered the unregistered guest to LEAVE NOW, and then would have sent a message to the guest thru Airbnb that she needs to pack and leave first thing next morning because bringing strangers into my home is something I do not tolerate at all. Totally understand and agree that it is NOT about the money.

I have in my house rules that any guest that brings an unauthorized guest into my home must proceed with a guest cancellation and leave immediately. I also emphasize this very strongly to all guests during initial contact/communication so they all know how serious I am about this rule. I've been hosting for about 1.5yrs now and this has not been a problem yet. I do get the occasional  "can my GF/BF hang out with me in my room" inquiry from potential guests - I always send them a saved message, their gf/bf is an UNREGISTERED GUEST and is therefore not welcome to enter MY HOME under any circumstance."

Keep on contacting ABB persistently to get that review removed. It may take a couple tries but I think in the end you probably could get it removed.