Just encountered my first evil guest--beware ***

[Sharon64]

Hosts, please beware of new folks to Airbnb community going by the names of Osensang and Imkong from India. I will not post their last name for obvious reasons. They are a father and son team who wanted to travel around Floida some before the son commenced attending USF to get his phD. They are extremely high maintenance, demanding, refuse to rent a car, have no respect for women, eat and drink anything they see whether it belongs to them or not, demand to wash their clothes every two days, leave empty beer bottles all over the house, the father refuses to watch the tv in their room and comes downstairs all day and night watching my big screen tv and refuses to allow me or anyone else to have the remote, goes into areas that they are not allowed, e.g., guest bathroom and leaves the seat up,  etc. The day before they were due to leave they trashed the kitchen...food was all over the counters, dining tables, half eaten food in dishes in the sink, the coffee pot was left on with burnt coffee in the bottom, they burnt rice and left the pot on the counter, plates with food were left on the dining room table, there was a non-descript chicken dish in a pot which they left all day to the point it congealed. I got home from work early and unexpectedly to be greeted by this mess. They were on an outing and were quite surprised to come in and see me in the kitchen. I did not throw them out because they were leaving the next day but I told them both to clean up the mess and there would be no more cooking by them in my home. By the way, the son had a very nice profile (which he deleted upon their departure).  I was totally taken by these low lifes posing as well-educated and decent folks. Their plan is for the father (Imkong) and his wife to visit the U.S. and the son, Osensang, the whole month of December 2016 beginning in Florida. Beware! Don't accept a booking with either of their names and don't fall for the USF phD trick.  One of their intended trips will be to New Orleans. I have a photo of them but do not want to post it....

[Dawn33]

These stories remind me WHY I changed my kitchen privileges to zero, except for fridge use and coffee station.

It sounds like they have no respect for others, especially women.

Thank you for the headsup. I hope they don't make it to Texas.

[Sharon64]

Horrible experience. I think I may follow your suggestion with no kitchen privileges.

Question, the son deleted his profile and now it only shows O instead of his and his father's name. Can they still review me and although they no longer have their original profile do I review O? This is very confusing because O did not stay with me... I am not sure if the entire profile was deleted never to be seen again. Thanks, Sharon

[Julie262]

I think air b&b should be more careful, they like to have their deposit but where does it leave us as hosts!!! Anyone can make a booking. Maybe airb&b should think of making guests using this service a subscription, yearly. I travel a lot through air b& b myself. Im in a place now which i find well below par, unfortunately i cant change accomodation. If a guest is staying long term we have to let them have some use of the kitchen... I had a woman stay with me who always came down around 10pm starting to cook, it really annoyed me, smells of garlic reeked the house and noisy when its my time downstairs at night.

[Dawn33]

@Julie0 @Sharon0

My part of the house (when I have guests) is on the other side of the kitchen. In my house rules, I have quiet hours from 10pm - 7am inside the house and out. This includes any noise in the kitchen. Getting ice is LOUD in the middle of the night.

@Sharon0 I still think that you can write your view unless they completely deleted their account.

[Sharon64]

Julie in UK ..earlier this year I decided to do no long term...(no more than 10 days) and there are no kitchen privileges other than microwave, coffee. I get business travelers or those here for a weekend and that works for me. I will be traveling next summer to UK...if I am in your area I will request to book with you.

[Rosemary12]

Sounds like a nighmare Sharon,

Hope you reported it to Airbnb. You can check the flag that is next to their name to report a guest. Please do everyone a favour and give an honest review.

The moment someone insisted I do their laundry they would be out! In 3 years I have never had any of the problems that I see posted here. From some of the stories I have seen posted I think some hosts are not thinking of this as a business, but more like you are letting friends stay with you. I have mostly had wonderful guests but abuse of my hospitality should not be tolerated.

I think part of the reason I haven't had problems in more than 60 bookings is that is that I live in the home and I have turned down a few people where something didn't seem right.  (but you couldn't have avoided this by the sounds of it). Maybe it's luck or the fact that I work it into the conversation that my oldest son is a police officer. I am thinking I should put his photo in his RCMP uniform prominently by the front door! LOL

[Adrian53]

Thank you for sharing. This is a very unfortunate situation. Is there a way to remove these individuals from Airbnb altogether? 

[Sarah977]

@Adrian53  Only Airbnb can ban guests from the platform, not a host. You can call and report them, flag their account, and give them an across-the-board 1* rating and an honest review and that's about it. The 1* review will prevent them from being able to Instant Book anything. Airbnb may or may not ban them, if they get more than one report on the same guests, or if they have done something which is documented, like send an Airbnb message to the host which is discriminatory or profane, or get caught red-handed stealing, they may be more likely to.

And there is a Facebook guest blacklist where you can warn other hosts or check to make sure a prospective guest isn't on it.

[Pete69]

Your price is too low. $35 a night? How do you even stay in business? Hopefully your cleaning fee is about $70 a night! Charge a dead beat's rate and you are bound to attract more dead beats.

If you have a bedroom and bath that can be accessed through a door from outside (rather than through your house) then turn that into your Airbnb stay as a separate in-law unit. Then you don't have to deal with these people. Lots of people would rather have their privacy rather than have a kitchen, living room, laundry room, etc.

[Sharon64]

Pete in LA, thanks for the heads up on prices...$35 is summer prices which is when they were here....I did raise prices somewhat...there is so much competition here in Tampa I must stay competitive ..... $38 during the season weekly and $40 on weekend...no kitchen privileges other than microwave and coffee.