Guests of guest leaving house in a mess

[Melina0]

I am unsure what to do and how to write a honest review about my last guest.

I was told by this first time guest that there would be 6 people staying at my house for 3 nights. Everything with the booking was ok and he seemed nice. He asked if they could bring a dog and I confirmed that there were not pets allowed he seemed ok with that.

After they checked out and I went to the house I found a real mess. Pasta sauce on walls, dried food stains on lounge suit, half eaten fruit on the floor, sticky marks on the new rug, empty wine bottles on window ledge, reading novels wet and left on the bedroom floor, jigsaw puzzle pieces all over the lounge room floor, damaged blind, burnt on marks on new saucepans and so on..........but the thing that really annoyed me were the 2 wet toilet rolls left in the bathroom vanity drawer!!! Who does that.

I texted the guest to ask if there was a medical emergency as the resusitation mask and other items were used/missing from the brand new first aid kit. He replied that he only stayed 1 night as his young son was ill with gastro and took him to hospital and didn't return to the house however his guests stayed on at the house. He said he would ask his guests if anything happened but I haven't heard back. 

It took my husband and I (8 hours) to clean the house and wash everything as there were dirty marks fingerprints everywhere.

I am unsure if I should contact the guest again and explain that his guests left the house in such a state and perhaps risk him writing a bad review about me. Or do I not say anything to him and just leave an honest review about what his guests did??

[Anna-and-Marcos0 · Accepted solution]

What an unpleasant experience! 😕 I had something similar happen once, though not nearly as bad as what you describe, and was also in a quandary about whether or not to write a bad review. In the end I opted for writing the guest privately saying how disappointed I was with the state they left the apartment in, and that was not done on airbnb - we're private home owners sharing our apartment, not some hotel to be trashed! I think they have to be informed that that is no ok so they don't do it again! I  then left them a review saying something very neutral( ie "guest was friendly and arrved on time"), but i gave them 1 star for cleanliness and a thumbs down review. Bear in mind that the guest only sees the text you write about them, not how many stars you give them or if you give them a thumbs down. You can also tell airbnb privately about the mess they left. If they get several reviews like that airbnb gets in touch with the user and gives them a warning.

[Melina0]

Thank you so much Anna.

I think I will contact them privately as you did in your situation and then complete a review. 🙂

[Gretchen0]

I hope you also had this and every guest leave a security deposit. When this kind of mess is left, that's when you contact Airbnb and request all or part of the deposit to be used for the additional clean up that was needed.

[Eileen4]

I had the same thing happen with a repeat guest. He left a day or so into a 4 day booking and left behind two travelling companions who left a mess. Not as bad as what you're describing (which sounds horrible, btw) but bad enough that I felt I'd hosted two strangers who didn't care at all about my place. Here's the review I left:

This is tough because I like X. The first time he stayed in my self-contained condo, he was travelling with two friends and everything was fine. This last time there were problems. Unbeknownst to me, X left about partway through the booking, leaving two other friends behind. Even with clear instructions, these friends mishandled the key return; they also left the house fairly messy: muddy boot prints everywhere, full garbage, leftovers in the fridge and wet towels on down duvets. I wish I'd known sooner that X wasn't staying the entire time and that I'd been given some clue about where the house keys had gone. (They went AWOL for about 48 hours before they were quietly returned, along with an outdoor key box. I say quietly because I wasn't notified.) Not the worst experience I've had with a guest, but the lack of communication afterwards was a bit troubling, especially since keys were involved. I made it clear I was concerned about security and yet got no response at all.

[Anastasia5]

Sorry, but I don't think it will work!

I have experience with few guests like that, and you know what?

They use new tactics now: in big "team" one guest get few bookings and he and his friends make mess and leave trash everywhere, get bad reviews and bad rep, then his friends booking new place for him, they get bad rep, then friends of they's friends book... because guests who came with booking guest don't get reviewed!

Be aware of big groups of guests, if they say they are on business trip - they will say that to get booking, but it very possible they are careless students who will trash the house. They even scratch floor tiles,  not only leave stains and burn stuff...

I don't know , if there any way to prevent this? May be register all guests who came along with guest who booking the place and give them reviews too?!

Any ideas?

[Venus5]

I'm a fairly new host and came upon this answer when I seemed to have gotten into this situation.

A guy with a good review came booking, at first for 3 ppl but then canceled because he said his third friend isn't coming anymore, and he would like to find somewhere with a budget for 2. Then shortly after, he came back and booked for 2 ppl. Because we have an extra people charge after 2, he discovered this and told me it would actually make a good deal for 2 ppl. They booked for 2 nights in the end.

This person was very polite and respecful during the booking process. As a first-time host, I didn't have many guests who came with previous reviews, and this guy has one good review, so I had confidence in him. Some days before check-in he asked me nicely whether he could have a few friends over to do a pre-drinking before heading to an event. I trusted his character and gave the okay. But stated explicitly "no partying, no heavy drinking and no staying overnight". His response was very satisfying.

After he checked-in, I texted him on the second night, asking what time would he want to check out the next day. He then told me he had a family emergency and had to leave the condo half-way, and that his other best friend was able to be there to keep his friend company! Wait, does this mean his 'other friend' stayed instead of him without my approval? I never get to find out.

What I found out after they checked out was that the place was covered in muddy footprints, food stains everywhere on the floor (even under the carpet), garbage full and an odor that couldn't be gotten rid of to this day. There were sticky stains on everything like bathroom sinks, bathroom switches, sofa pillows, which took a good amount of time to take off. I can't possibly believe that this was done by two guys in just two nights.

We have a two bedroom and a sofa bed. The sofa bed was clearly used because I can see the tag pulled out. Two extra comforters were pulled out as well. Why would two guys need to use three beds and four comforters is beyond me. 

After I read your thread I believe what you said. There is a pattern here. I can't believe I didn't see this coming. Other hosts should be warned.

But now I hesitate to leave a bad review for this guy. Partly because he had a previous good review, and I'm just a new host without any reviews. If he were vindictive and leave a bad review for me, it would be the first review of my house. That doesn't look so good for a new listing, does it?

[Judalon0]

A guest can not give a review based on your review of them, nor are you able to do your review based on how the guest reviews you. ALL REVIEWS ARE DONE BLIND and you can only see the other review when both have written and submitted their review or the time has run out, but then only the person who wrote the review in the time limit has their review made public. 

You also need to know that the Airbnb policy becomes null and void if the booking has been compromised by a non-registered guest. For this reason, I have a "no guest of guests policy" and I stick to it. 

Sounds like your guy had a party with your permission. Don't be the "nice guy" and ignore your own house rules, guests rarely appreciate it in kind and 99% of the time leave your regretting your niceness.

Give an honest review: Guest was pleasant and cooperative in the booking process, had a previous good review so when he asked me to allow him to have a few friends by for pre-drink on the way to an event I agreed and lived to regret it when he clearly had a party leaving my place a sticky, dirty mess along with evidence of more than the 2 people sleeping over.

I also have a 3 night minimum for a few reasons, one is that a guy like this looking for a party night might spring for 2 nights, but not usually 3 nights.

Sorry you had this experience, but learn from it and set your rules and stand by them.

[Ellen17]

Curious if writing them privately should be done in the part of your review where you leave a private note. Then they must leave a review before seeing your review. If you message them ahead of the review process they might get vindictive in knowing your rating wil be less than glowing and leave poor review. 

[Lucie3]

You take pictures of the mess, take notes of everything that they broke or abused. If your cleaning usually takes you 4 hours, you also charge the difference.

Communication is always your best proof. You write a message without accusations, you simply ask what happen and make sure that you don't send a long and emotional message.  

You can contest a bad review to airbnb after you made a claim. They understand that it's call revenge.

And, I don't rent to people without reviews anymore. We've work to hard in our life to have our little paradise destroyed in one weekend.

[Ana7]

After reading all this, I am so glad I can host two people only at a time! And I was always sorry I don't have a bigger place...

I'm really sorry for these bad experiences. I would definitely mention all of it in the review. Airbnb can ban a guest, right?

[Rc1]

I would suggest being completely honest in your review and let other hosts know that your guest and his/her travel party left your house in a horrible state. Regardless of if the main guest left the mess or not, her/she was the one responsible for the travel party. I would also contact the person who made the reservation and let them know the state the house was left in was not acceptable and ask for financial compensation from the security deposit to cover the number of hours you had to clean. These are the type of guests others should be warned about and they should be looking to use hotels instead of people's personal homes for their stay if that is how they are going to treat their accomodations. 

[Sarah160]

Never be afraid to leave an honest review. If you fluff things over or don't state how it was, someone else is going to be sucked in to having a similar bad experience. I've read too many stories of and spoken to hosts and guests worried about leaving a negative review because they'll get a bad review in return. This is not what happens. The other person does not see the review until after theirs is published.  You can generalise in the public review and leave detailed advice/complaints for the guest/host in those private message boxes. (even for lovely hosts/guests, if I can think of ways they can improve, I put it there.)

Your review is what others need to get a feeling of the place or person.

[Lidia116]

Perfect! I think the same, I just left a short public review for people that stayed for 2 weeks and were actually really nice,but they left the place really dirty. Dirtier than all guests before them. So I wrote publicly " Very nice people but left a big mess"  In the private box, I let them know how disappointed I was. Why do we have be so afraid and always be so nice? Their review about the place was a glowing one, made me feel a little guilty but it was the truth!