Hosting disaster. Guests brought 4 extra people. Instead a family of 5 I have 9 people!

[Maya94]

Hi, Im having a hosting nightmare. I checked-in a family of 6 (two adults, two kids and two infants were declared at the time of booking).

My booking settings are clear-I charge an extra 5 euros for an additional guest after 4. It was a long-term, 1 month booking. My booking policy is set to STRICT AND THE TOTAL CAPACITY OF MY APARTMENT IS SET UP TO SIX PEOPLE.

At the time of check-in I saw only two adults with two kids (around 12 and 2) when checked them in, they said the other babies are in the car sleeping. As it happened they brought 3 kids (around 3, 5 and 12) and only one baby. It makes 5 guests already, not 4 as declared.

My mother lives next door and she informed me immediatly same evening. But I did not ask my guest anything and was ready to let it go.

But the next day, on 01.08 another party arrived-the guests sister with her 2 other kids (definetly not infants, big kids!) Another 3 undeclared guests!

 My mother met them in the hall as they were bringing their massive luggage! My guest didnt deny that they plan to stay all together. They said they even brought their own inflatable matrasses so its not a problem for them!!!

SO in a two bedroom freshly renovated flat instead of party of 4 guests and two babies I have a camp of 8 people and a baby around two (she is allegedly the one infant, cant say her age exactly)

At my request the Support center answered that I can OFFER or REQUEST money through the The Resolution Center where I can create a thread and discuss an issue and "upload photos and share experiences". 

BUT IT SEEMS THAT THIS OPERATION WAS PLANNED CAREFULLY BY MY GUESTS (SEPARATE DATES OF ARRIVAL, HIDING THE OTHER KID) AND I DOUBT THAT THEY BE WILLING TO PAY ANYTHING! They had everything planned, too bad my mother lives next door and cathched them. 

Im having huge problems with my neighbours already and the best solution for me if the other party would just move out. But if they insist to stay what should I do? I can request an additional money but what happens if they dont comply or simply wouldnt answer or ignore m request? 

I want to know what are my rights as a host in this case? 

Will I be obliged to return money if I cancel the reservation and ask them to leave? Its a peak season and its a huge loss for me!

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Linda108]

If you can accommodate all these people, @Maya94, you request the extra guest fees.  The guest must accept and will be charged accordingly.  If they do not respond with an acceptance or you cannot accommodate, then you contact Air BNB and request them to be relocated.  Your guests will be refunded according to your cancellation policy.

I agree with your assessment that the guests planned to violate your rules and I am pretty sure the problems you will have with them will far out weigh any financial benefit.  If this is your high season, you will be able to get new guests but you must get Air BNB to open up your calendar.

[Pete28]

More generally if the guest breaks your house rules etc they should not be allowed to review. Hosts are being forced to put up with this madness because they fear 1* reviews. It's no way to run a company. Fix it Airbnb !

[Maya94]

I honestly dont care about a review now, I care about the apartment itself and my neighbours and police in perspective.  My mother brought them a an extra casserole yesterday and asked why there is so many people, the lady who rented a flat answered literally. "WE PAID FOR A FLAT AND THIS IS WHAT WE ALWAYS DO, NOONE EVER COMPLAINED, WHEN I SAW YOU LIVING NEXT TO US, I WANTED TO CLAIM THE MONEY BACK BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO BE SUPERVISED BY SOMEONE AND WE HAVE MANY COMPLAINS ABOUT THIS FLAT TOO!!!!. THERE IS NO RULE THAT WE CANNOT BRING WHOEVER WE WANT". 

[Maya94]

Its just getting better.  Another man arrived. Now I have 10 people in the flat. They were drinking and arguing till four in the morining! I had two complains from neighbours! One- from mine and another from the opposite house!

I dont know what is more frustrating- my tennants or the total lack of support from Airbnb. I recieved two letters from them-one with an offer try to alterate my reservation request money (which doesnt work), other -'thanks for reaching out, we are forvarding this matter to the member of our team".

[Maya94]

Thank you very much for your support, people, really, I am terrified and honestly don't know what to do, I'm so frustrated. No Support from Support team is what terrified me the most( It seems like the husband of the other lady is an ex-con or something their behavior is arrogant and I'm ready to call a police.

But this situation with a total negligence from AirBnB is questioning the safety of using this platform. I'm definitely questioning if I want to use it again. At least when I pay commission to an agent,   they would get involved. Here I have a total silence. (

Oh yes, the booking was made to another name- the mother of the tenant ( from her words) and I dont know how to explain to police who is this bunch of people living in my flat.

[Maya94]

My mother locked herself inside the flat and is afraid to go out. My guests were fighting and drinking till the morning and the lady beat the man. I asked for a return call from AirBnB but they called  me and afer I explained the situation to the lady "we assigning you to the other team blah blah hanged out on me".THEN THEY HANG UP ON ME.  Can someone help me please?

I tried to cancel the reservation or alter it but I cannot do anything with an ongong reservation, the system doesnt allow me to!!!

THERE IS NO ONE TO HELP, I'M REALLY PANICKING (  I am afraid to deal with people under influence of alcohol or I dunno what they use there.  The Police in Cyprus will interfere if something would happen to me but hardly for an airbn issue! 

[Marie21]

@Maya94 if i was you even if i have to spend the whole day over the phone to ABB i will do it to have the guests relocated 

this is not heathly hosting for a month booking and when he start this way he lead to desaster and claim for money back after stay

Try to call ABB UK OR IRISH NBRE They are the best dealing with issue

use Skype credit to call those nbre 

Dont let it go evenn 1min call ABB till they take care of the issue

[Maya94]

Yes, thats what Im doing right now.

[Kenneth12]

Ahoj!   a ....

Ugh.  Sorry to hear you are going through this.  These are clearly not respectful guests willing to follow your rules.

Under the circumstances you have outlined,  I would throw them out immediately,  using the local police authorities if necessary and possible (I'm not highly familiar with Cyprus,  but I'd tell them you have trespassers/intruders who refuse to leave,  if I had to) -- then figure it out with Airbnb.  Relocation should be their problem,  not yours.  

It's in the local police's interest to support you,   not a bunch of drunken tourists.

There is another active thread today about disrespectful guests in Ireland,  with much useful advice on screening and rules.

The lack of appropriate and quick support mechanisms from Airbnb is deafening in situations like these,  alas-- you're mostly on your own.

Good luck.  I've had a few long nights with bad guests,  one which required police to remove them, and it is in no way fun.  Delay to daytime hours if you can,  and develop relationships with the local authorities if possible,  who will then be more likely to support you (if they are not already).

[Maya94]

Thank you everyone, really, this is a major help. I finally have someone assigned directly to my case and first, they said they would contact them and tell them the extra people have to vacate the premises.

But I hardly think that if people went all the way with such scam would comply, they would probably agree and would do the same.

I don’t want to involve the police just yet if there will be no accidents at night like shouting and noise where it will be unavoidable.  Because if there will be Police than its the end to my airbnb rentals, the neighbours wouldn’t stand it-such a scandal and eviction with Police. 

How do I made the people to vacate the premises with no police involved? Do Airbnb help in this?

I asked the assigned person if I can evict them and should I return the money in this case and he said lets wait and see if that would come to this.

But I would really love to see where I stand here. 

Do Airbnb relocate people in situations like this?

[Maya94]

I finally have someone looking into it and Im so grateful as I've been scared to deal with this people alone. These extra people should vacate the premises as the assigned Arbnb official said but technically I really dont know if they would do so willingly.(

I would love if they vacate my premises all together. (  I rather give them money back just that they would go in peace.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Maya94

You could just insist that you are no longer comfortable allowing the guest to stay, even if extra people vacate what's to stop them from barging back in later? Or the remaining guests could  intentionally damage your home!

Airbnb will try to pursuade you to give them another chance, to let them stay but they've already shown you the type of people they are. If you insist and stand firm that all guests have to leave then Airbnb will have no choice but to proceed with a cancellation and "re-home" those guests. Airbnb can't MAKE those people behave or respect your rules. All Airbnb can do is call the guest and just repeat what you have been telling them all along. 

Once the booking is cancelled, guests have to leave - if they refuse you can get police involved to kick them out because without a reservation they will be trespassing.  The important thing is to get the booking cancelled in order to kick them out and the sooner the booking is officially cancelled the better~

[Maya94]

Well, after spending a horrible three days and sleepless nights AirBnB sais their booking would be voided or "annuled", I didnt quite get, but they will be compensated for the rest of nights. So Ive lost a lot of nerves, my mom got sick from stress, Ive lost several days of work and 1200 euros. Yes, I want  them gone ASAP at any price but I still dont understand why its me who should bear the financial loss. Im not yet sure if my own holiday is ruined but it seems so. Sad story.( 

[Steve143]

Hello @Maya94,

You say "Oh yes, the booking was made to another name- the mother of the tenant ".

Is the mother of the tenant staying with you?

If not, then this is a third party booking which is not supported by Airbnb and you must tell this to Airbnb and say that you do not want a third party booking.

It has happened to ma a few times that I found out before checkin that it was a third party booking and Airbnb has always cancelled it with no penalty to me.

Steve.