Hosts with Pets abused by guests

[Anonymous]

I currently live in Italy where i run an airbnb. i live with a cat sinc 3 and half years. a little sweet kitten rescued from the street. in my last reservation my guest during her stay hurted my cat at least two times, the times i was able to see anyway.. once she kicked her making her fall on her back and the cat screamed and ran under my bed, my cat looked terrorized and for a week barely walked the room to go to her toilette or bowl containing her food. i asked help to the italian call center and they told me they couldnt help me with this problem because i needed evidence. so since cats can't speak i didn't know how to prove that. i have to underline that i am a superhost with 36 five stars review out of 36 trips i have hosted. they told me that if i cancelled my reservation i was going to face penalties. i see airbnb is really much concerned about racism and different human rights issue which is a wonderful thing, but they have a very little consideration about animal rights. what i wanted to ask is that: this is just because i live in Italy or also everywhere in the world airbnb let guests hurt host's pets without taking the drastic actions that are needed? 

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Sounds more like a conversation you need to have with your guest instead of Airbnb.  Talk to your guest and them them it is unacceptable to harm any of the animals and you will be forced to cancel the remainder of their reservation if you discover they have done anything again.

[Anonymous]

i was scared to have a bad review because airbnb already told me they were not going to back me up. i also called to the US call center and spoke to Jane and Michelle they both told me that it was non of their business.

[Anonymous]

*none

[Lynn54]

I'm not sure if AirBnB review system works the same outside the US but if you never review the guest, their review never shows up in your reviews.  I have learned to not always review guests unless I feel like I will get the 5 star review. 

[Huma0]

@Lynn54, I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in the UK, if only one side writes a review, it will still go up, but only after 14 days. If a host leaves it until after then, they have lost the opportunity to review the guest.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

This is absolutely FALSE information. 

If only one party writes a review, the review will become public 14 days after checkout REGARDLESS of the other party writing a review.

Become acquainted with how reviews work here:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/13/how-do-reviews-work

[Lynn54]

Ok, so maybe the people that I haven't reviewed never reviewed me so it never showed up. Good to know.  I had read that info from another user after I got my one and only bad review.  Luckily, I was able to get AirBnB to agree that the review was not appropriate. 

[Huma0]

@Anonymous, I am not sure why I am the only one who finds this shocking. I have three cats and if I saw a guest kicking or otherwise deliberately hurting one of them, I would go insane and they would be asked to leave, whether Airbnb was going to back me up or not and I wouldn't care about being penalised or getting a bad review. It's simply not acceptable to treat anyone's pet in this way and cats are very sensitive animals. This type of ill treatment can have a long lasting effect on them.

I am not you, so you must decide how best to approach this, but yes, you should talk to the guest and politely but firmly tell them it is not okay, if you have not done so already. I would also put this in writing to the guest on the Airbnb messaging system so that there is a record of it. If she responds admitting it in any way, then you have some proof.

You may not want to take any extreme action, but personally I would be posting on Airbnb's Facebook and Twitter that your guest kicked your cat and that Airbnb seems to think that's okay.

I have not used the social media in this way, but I have read on other threads here that it works very well. It does not look good for Airbnb to be ignoring something like this.

That's just my opinion.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Is a good review more important than the well-being of your pets?  Not in my opinion.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Airbnb does not get involved in Pet issues, including if your pet bites the guest.  All of these things are outlined in the terms of service agreement.  

That being said, you need to have a conversation with the guest IMMEDIATELY.  Tell them to leave the cat alone and not to touch her again for the remainder of their stay or else you will ask them to leave.  Putting them on notice of bad behavior will provide you with some standing for a potential cancellation.  Follow up this verbal conversation with a written conversation of your request and their agreement on the Airbnb email system.

Then, when the guest leaves, give them a THUMBS DOWN review.  No one wants a person staying with them if they think it's okay to hurt an animal (can you say psychopath?!).  Then in the written portion, make note that the guest should not stay with hosts with animals - and leave it at that.  Do not go into details or else Airbnb may take the review down.

Don't be afraid to tell a guest that their behavior is not wanted in your home.  It really doesn't matter what it is, you must not be held hostage by a potential bad review when your safety and the safety of your pets are concerned.  

[Anonymous]

i immediatly reported what was going on both to italy and US airbnb and they told me i needed to bring evidence (but cats can't talk) otherwise if i cancelled the reservation i was going to face penalties and i was still subjected to a guest review down-grading my status of super host. So i had put up and take all the s**t. BTW my cat is still shocked. 

[Anonymous]

please if anyone else is disgusted by the way i was treated from the Italian assistence center write them an email namely to Laura, Helena and Mariangela. The three persons "followed" my case. 

[Diana271]

I completely sympathise with your anger and frustration. I have had a similar incident with guests being negligent and causing harm to one of my dogs. The guests then refused to help pay as they'd agreed for the resulting vet large vet bill. Airbnb gave me even less than the guests did towards the bill. While my dog has recovered, I am still paying for the damages. I find Airbnb's policy of not engaging in pet related insurance issues not only hypocritical, but a bad business practice, considering they encourage pet owners to host and be guests, advertise listings on their social media sites featuring host's pets, and run the #airbnbpets hastag. My disappointment and irritation is profound. 

[Liz140]

I would like to encourage everyone who even suspects that their pet has been harmed by a guest to report it, no matter how long ago. And make sure you voice it not as an inquiry, like what do I do? But rather as a statement of fact. Airbnb will start a file on people with these types of complaints and the after the first one, where there's substantial evidence, they will be permanetly banned fom the system.

My dog recently had emergency surgery for removal of a forien body that according to the vet was forced down his throat. Its amazing that he survived the initial incident and that he did not puncture an organ. There's just no way a small animal could accidently swallow whole, an object of this shape and size.

Wolfie has developed extreme shyness to guests at times, and I suspect that this is not the first incident he has experienced. In the last year he has become extrmely phobic about knives. Whenever I pull one out of the butcher block to cut up some food, he hides. Also, he will not warm up to any tall dark-haired man. God only knows what he has suffered in my absence.

Due to work restrictions, I sometimes allowed guests to arrive before I get home. But no longer. I will never leave him home alone with anyone ever again.