Guests brought a bug infestation

[Carly5]

Has anyone ever dealt with an infestation from a guest?

The bugs were visible in the first 15 hours of the guests arriving. They are scheduled to stay another 3 days but I feel I need to ask them to leave so that I can properly clean and sanitize my home immediately.

No pest control, google search or vet is able to identify the samples of the pests I have brought them! I'm happy to refund the money to the girls and point them to a hostel down the street  (which would charge them the exact same rate as my home).

I'm afraid of negative feedback and afraid of alienating two members of the Airbnb community.

Has anyone faced this issue? If so, how did you handle it and how did that play out.

Thanks!

[Clare0]

@Carly5 UGH! Bummer.  My advice is to contact Airbnb and ask for their guidance on this.  I'm sure it's not the first time they have had to deal with this sort of thing.  Good luck!

[Carly5]

Thank you so much, Clare.

I've reached out to AirBnb and am grateful to not have to solve this alone.

[Clare0]

@Carly5 I find Airbnb's support staff to be really great when I've needed them.  What did they tell you to do?

[Carly5]

I didn't get through until morning but when I did they were very kind and helpful.

They offered to reimburse me for the $30 oil treatment I puchased for my home. Then they reached out to the guests to make sure things were copacetic.

I had reimbursed the guests the full amount of their remaining days with me and sent them to an available hostel down the street. When we learned there was an unexpected price difference I refunded the money from the night they had stayed with me to make up for it.

Air bnb took care of both me and the guests concerns and facilitated the kindest conflict resolution I could hope for. It sounds like I'll be able to host again but after all this rigamarole I don't know if I'll be ready for a while. Right now I'm just hoping for some good nights of sleep.

Thanks for sending me to their support. Case Manager Ashley was an angel.

[Clare0]

@Carly5 Thanks for the update! So glad the hear all was resolved albeit at your expense.  But, better to have the guests gone than to have a bug infestation!  Hopefully you'll have more guests to make up for it.  Again, thanks!

[EcoBuilt0]

This past Saturday, June 11 we had guests arrive for a three day stay from the mid-west, Indiana.  They arrived late with a lot of baggage that they brought in from their car.  In the morning they said they were checking out and showed us a bed full of what looked like flying ants.  We didn't have a problem before they arrived and thought it might have been from a small gap in the screen of about 1/8th of an inch by 2-3 inchs long.  They left and we refunded their payment.  Then we tore the room apart and changed out the window screen so there was no gap and NO bugs.  

We kept checking the room and all was stable.  Last night, Tuesday, 6/14 another couple arrived and left at check out time this morning.  When we went to service the room we once again found 3 flying ants lying in their bed near death.  They too were from the mid-west, Wisconsin.  Both sets of guests drove in from the mid-west and spent two days driving. They had food with them and had made stops along the way.  

At this point we can't help but think that bugs are being transported in people's luggage and baggage and when they bring it all inside the bugs are escaping from their belongings into our guest room.   

After reading the message board in the Community center just now we will call AirBnb.  This is baffling to know what to do since people probably aren't aware this is happening and we don't want to be blamed for something we're not doing.

[Lee214]

I had guest come, complain about roaches, ants and spiders. I went right away and checked my house, there was food, and all sort of stuff everywhere. They said the washer didn’t drain good, the dryer didn’t dry good. 

I had did everything to fix the issues. My exterminator said the roaches were brought in they are too mature, no nesting or droppings in my home.   My cleaning crew said that the washers drain and spin heavy loads almost dry and the dryer is great, it gets hot enough to dry heavy loads in one use. All my other guest I talk with constantly and I check to make sure there are no issues. I called some previous guest that are coming again and not coming again. They all say my house is extremely clean especially no bugs.  All appliances work great. So what do you do with someone who complains like that, but  talk about coming again?  I am really worried about this because I pride myself in having a very clean, comfortable, pleasant and relaxing home for my guest.  I have had my A/C go out, my guest didn’t want to leave, so I brought in floor ac portable units. They were very impressed with my promptness and care to detail. I don’t play when it come to taking very good care of my guests. However, this worries me.