How to kick out a current guest you are no longer comfortable with and is hazardous?

[Stefan2719]

So, my husband and I have been hosting a lady for two months and during her tenancy so far, she has abused the utilities in our house such as overrunning the water in the kitchen and bathroom. She keeps her bedroom light on day and night for her rabbit (more on that later). She spends hours cooking in the kitchen so much so that you feel like she owns the place. We barely have the time to cook our own meals let alone have other guests use the kitchen because she would use the whole kitchen and cook plenty of food for hours. She has taken over the guest shared fridge AND some of the space in our own personal fridge to store her groceries.

Furthermore, she sometimes plays her music too loudly which obviously bothered the other guests staying next door to her room upstairs and us downstairs. And since we allowed guests with pets in our house, we thought a pet rabbit was Ok since it lived in a cage, right? WRONG. Every time her rabbit makes noises in her room which would prevent her from sleeping, she would put the rabbit in the bathtub of the shared bathroom overnight. Two of our other guests were annoyed and startled to find a rabbit starring up at them early in the morning as they were heading in the shower. She also takes so much time in the shared bathroom doing god knows what and we feel bad for the other guests who cannot use it properly when they need it.

And today felt like it was the final straw because of the spilled contents under the stove element, the stove caught on fire while she was cooking. Fortunately, my husband and I were there to witness it and my husband quickly put out the flames. What was strange was her reaction to it: a non-reaction and a muted “oh” when my husband came to the scene. It could have been a huge disaster but she played as if nothing had happened.

Moreover, we have tried talking to her nicely a few times before this fire incident. We reasoned with her as calmly and with as much understanding as possible. She would nod Ok and showed a bit of improvement for a few days, but then that didn't last long. 

Honestly, we have always been patient with all our guests and we almost always have had amazing people staying here with us. And by us saying almost always, we mean that of course there are bound to be one or two quirky ones, but we have never had any major issues like this before.  We understand that no one is perfect in this world, but we still have this guest for another 2 more months and I really fear that she can really hurt our business as two of our other guests have complained so far. Not to mention, she could have hurt herself and other people in the house. We have concluded that we no longer feel comfortable with her around, especially leaving our house with her in it alone. We fear she would burn our house down.

So how do we kick her out? Has anyone had similar experiences with hazardous people? 

[Helen3]

Hello  @Stefan2719 

I am sorry to hear you are having such issues with your guest (they aren't a tenant).

I am not sure what your house rules are - but one thing for sure, if you let guests push boundaries and break house rules, they will just do so more - as in this case.

Why haven't you done anything to make sure this guest is not abusing your kitchen - such as reinforcing the space she has available in the guest fridge, not letting her store items in your personal fridge and agreeing times when she can use the kitchen so there is time for you and your other guests to use it.  I am sure you have some systems in place to manage social distancing in communal area because of Covid between guests and of course yourself so you are not using them at the same time. You could have used this to restrict access to your kitchen/bathroom etc.

You should not be allowing her to keep her rabbit in the guest bathroom overnight.

Hopefully you have kept a record on Airbnb messaging to follow up with the guest on all of these issues, every time these issues happen, pointing out which house rules she is breaking. Use this information to confirm with Airbnb that you need to cancel as the guest refuses to comply with your house rules around use of the kitchen, disturbing your other guests with loud music, use of communal areas etc.

Ask them to cancel the booking and give the guest a few days to find somewhere else.

[Stefan2719]

Hi Helen. Thanks for your reply.

Yes. I understand what you were saying and sorry for the confusion I meant to say stay and not tenancy. We have done all that you have said above and we've talked to the guest multiple-times, reminding her about the rules of the house directly and through messages sent to her on Airbnb and on texts to her phone. We've laid down the rules multiple times and as I have said before, she would only nod "OK", she would make a few changes but then reverts to her same ways over again. We gave her the benefit of the doubt, but she still does the same thing. So we are literally tired of this bull... She's a 40 year old grown woman and it feels like we are babysitting this person. 

But you are right and we have indeed started the process with Airbnb and we have proof so we hope that this will be resolved soon. 

We really appreciate your message and praying for the best. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

@Stefan2719  Aside from extinguishing the actual fire started by your guest, how have you and your husband been communicating with this guest about your boundaries and expectations? She does certainly sound like a horror, but it seems very odd that you haven't mentioned any conversations you've had with her about the kitchen, noise, and rabbit issues. Not only would that be the natural first course of action before resorting to eviction; it's also your responsibility to the other guests in your home, to run your house with authority and not shrink away from confrontation. If guests have been bathing in unsanitary conditions because an animal was defecating in the tub, the blame for that will ultimately fall at your feet for letting the situation progress to that point.

If you and the guest can form a mutual agreement to move the checkout date forward, it's possible to bypass Airbnb's customer support by opening the reservation, choosing "Change or Cancel," amending the dates, and releasing the appropriate refund for the rest of the stay. If this is unsuccessful and you have to get the call center involved, you'll want to have some paper trail of an attempt to remedy the situation before resorting to kicking the guest out. But if someone is posing an immediate hazard to the household, I'm not sure a notice period is warranted.

[Stefan2719]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your reply. We understand and will consider the options carefully. We really still have a  lot to learn. We truly appreciate this. Thank you for your guidance.

[John5097]

May be different where you live but once you agree to let someone rent it can be very difficult to kick them out. I learned this the hard way, renting long term, and person misrepresented themselves. We didn't have a lease so I assumed I could just kick them out but renters have a lot of rights once they are there. So far renting short term has worked out well, and no real issues with people staying. They all seem to read the rules. I ended up offering renter a months rent back if they agreed to move. I would offer this person a weeks rent if she moved. If you haven't already include more specific rules before they book, set time limit preparing meals, pets can't bother other guest, etc. Then communicate though the message feature to have some proof. Otherwise be careful not to make any mistakes. Gust may claim you are harassing her. 

[Stefan2719]

Hi John. Thanks for your reply.  I agree with what you said and that is why we need to take safety measures so that this case doesn't bite us back. We still have a lot to learn when it comes to running a business like this and so having people from this community to give us feedback and share, as well as exchange experiences with us, is very important. We truly appreciate this. Thank you.

[John5097]

@Stefan2719 Thank you for the kind reply. You know maybe you could implement a schedule sheet where each guest and host has to sign up for a time slot to use the kitchen. As someone said this would conform to covid social distancing. You could then send that info as a message also, so that guest would be more inclined to comply with more structured time sharing. With the pet rabbit you could use that to try and have the guest leave or try and find some way to better accommodate her. I'm sure you will sort it out. 

[Sarah977]

"Moreover, we have tried talking to her nicely a few times before this fire incident. We reasoned with her as calmly and with as much understanding as possible."

Talking to her this way was fine the first time. But when it went in one ear and out the other, there shouldn't have been any more discussions in that tone. The second time it should have been "Look, XX, we talked to you about these things nicely, but you have obviously decided to ignore them. Neither we nor our other guests are willing to put up with the lack of respect you've shown, so we will need to cancel the remainder of your booking- you simply aren't a good fit for a shared space with others. Please look for somewhere else to move to- you have a week."

When you are sharing your home with others (I'm a home-share host myself but luckily have never had to deal with this type of guest), you can't let things fester- be casual and matter of fact the first time, but if guests still don't comply, they need to go. Also firm up and be very clear about boundaries from the outset- "We like to make our dinner from XX-YY o'clock so aside from getting a glass of water or a drink from the fridge, the kitchen is off-limits to guests' dinner-making during that time."

@Stefan2719

[Pqushia0]

It appears no response from super hosts or a host who are more experienced. I would asked the actually company ( Airbnb) for best solutions or you need to have a major cleaning process in between her schedule time and you need to end her stay sooner. A full refund for the days not used and hope her experience at your place was enjoyable. 

[Anonymous]

@Pqushia0  It's not possible to "ask the company" for a solution. What you can do is contact customer service and speak to an outsourced call-center operator who is not an employee of Airbnb, nor an experienced host, nor someone with any knowledge of your local tenancy laws. The CS operator can assist with issues pertaining to the Airbnb platform itself, but they can not give you useful advice about hosting. It would be like calling the Apple Store for advice about how to bake an apple pie.

[Clara116]

@Pqushia0  Since you are new on here......I say this because you don't know that several hosts that have posted brilliant info already are indeed Super Hosts and the most experienced like @Anonymous @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Sarah977 and more.....and these hosts will give the most qualified answers on the community center.  Just wanted you to know they have the info and experience to share and not the call in center, customer service or some other source.  Just FYI.....happy hosting, Clara

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Stefan2719 

I replied to another post that asked a similar question - here's the link. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-do-you-kick-out-a-guest-before-his-long-term-booking...

And a few more links on this topic that might help. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Kicking-out-a-current-guest-earlier/m-p/777490

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Has-anyone-ever-kicked-out-a-guest/m-p/182540

Hope this helps. 

[Anonymous]

@Stefan2719  Seeing as how you say you are new to all this,  how are you navigating the pandemic situation in a home where several unrelated strangers are sharing a kitchen, bathroom, and common areas?  It's hard to imagine how you can enforce any sort of safety measures against spreading Covid, when even preventing a guest from burning your house down is a struggle.

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Stefan2719 , Good luck with evictions of guests with over 30 consecutive day stays (if Canada law is anything like US).  Maybe you would get her attention if you left a recipe book in the kitchen open to "Hasenpfeffer" and a can of engine ether on the counter?   Or a phony business card laying around (in your fridge maybe?) for "Dewey, Screwem and Howe", Real Estate Legal services.   If you feel comfortable, eat the stuff she leaves in your fridge and when she asks, say "I thought you left it in "MY"  fridge cause you didn't want it".   

No really, my actual advice aside from the sage advice others have offered is that maybe you could take the conversation to a higher level to save the booking and $.  Tell her via your Airbnb messenger the things she will need to change to prevent you from asking Airbnb to have her cancelled due to failure to comply with house rules and tell her you wont be able to refund her payments under those conditions.  

Also, a side question- has covid made you rethink your business plan cause to be perfectly honest, I would feel more comfortable sharing common spaces with the rabbit more than guests right at the moment.  I'm not saying long term, just until you and folks you care about can get a vaccine.  Stay well, JR