My guests husband just threatened to sue me.

[Angel205]

Los Angeles Superhost here. 

I booked a woman who initially booked for 3 months. 

She drove by my home and said oh, this looks like a busy place and parking is concerning to me.

She downgraded her reservation to one month.

This was in May 2018.

From May-August 2018 I got her a parking permit allowing her to park on all surrounding 15 blocks of my home but she would need to walk 2-5 minutes home. I explained this. She said amazing thank you. I paid for these permits out of pocket  $100.

Fast forward to her showing up and freaking the hell out that she can't unload her car and there is no parking directly at the house and on the block. 

I live IN the sauce in hipsterville in LA. It is a busy spot. 

I am aware of this and we all combat it by using our driveway and the neighbors driveway to double park with flashers to unload.

This is ok to do so, I assure her. I show her a screenshot of where to unload with my finger showing where. 

She freaks the hell out and says shes going to a hotel.

Which is completely absurd. You take a couple of trips upstairs you leave your flashers on. It's not ideal -

I was waiting to help her check in her items and she couldnt make it so I drove the keys to her and she came on her own later that day..

She goes to a hotel.

Next day she freaks out and says that someone in my driveway and she cant park there still.

I said thats perfectly ok. My neighbor can park there. Just park in the next driveway over its ok.

I go above and beyond and offer a friend to come over and help her unload her things.

At this point she stops replying to me goes over my head goes to airbnb and tries to get a full refund on her reservation to which they deny her.

It's day 2 into the reservation at that point. 

They uphold my strict cancellation policy. 

It takes her 4 days to get her things out of my house and leave the keys. 

Finally she is out, she can't get a refund from airbnb. Airbnb said you went above and beyond you gave her parking when the listing said street parking only and she agreed to that. you owe her nothing. 

Today I get this text from her husband - threatening, bribing and extorting me:

-----

Hi, this is Neil ***, husband of Ann ***.  I am sorry that Ann wasn’t able to stay in your place as she was looking forward to being in such a good location.  As you can see, having a reliable place to park is really important to her as she and my young son have multiple trips daily.  The listing promised parking and there is none. She couldn’t even unload on the first night and had to get a hotel room.  I have contacted an attorney and he is confident that he can recover 100% of her payment based on this.  He will charge 1/3 as well as hard cost on filing.  To avoid this, you can choose to credit us back half of our total payment for you place.   That is a little less than with the attorney for us but much easier.  You have your place back.  You can make the other half back easy.  Plus if you take our deal- no review.  Please let me know.  I will hire attorney on Monday morning if I don’t hear from you

------

As a woman I love being threatened by a man out of the blue that I've never met and I'm not in a business transaction with at all and he is trying to scare me and strong arm me. I love that as your first line of communication with.

And I don't owe you anything. 

I went above and beyond and gave the woman parking permits, explained what that meant in the city, she agreed.

Then had a weird panic and wanted to leave.

She has not offically cancelled either. She is still on my calendar blocking it all up.

So for him to say oh just rent it out - technically I can't

and She booked in MAY. trying to get someone for a month long booking today is absurd. Almost no one is coming to rent like that. Last minute for a month.

This puts me in a financial hardship. We all plan on those monies. 

I can let the dice roll on this and feel secure that Airbnb has my back (feels like for once) but they really have had my back and said you have done nothing wrong she's not getting a cent back from you.

But I have been in many a lawsuit and have seen how it can fall, and to people who don't deserve it. 

My skin crawls and my stomach is twisted just getting this text. 

Lawsuits dredge up so much **bleep**. 

My boyfriend (rational pragmatic type) says just pay them to avoid anything popping up in the future. 

I feel like this is the final straw with men pushing me around. 

I do see where she is coming from that she is not happy with the place and its not entirely fair to pay me $4,000 to not stay there for a month.

I would feel bad if she didnt see it in May and have 3 months to cancel and didnt. And then have the parking explained to her and then still say wonderful. Then suddenly pull up and wanted assigned parking and door man and freaked out wouldnt let me help her even more and here we are...

What do you guys think I should do??

Thank you so much in advance. 

[Paul154]

Yicky. I hate them. We all hate them.

They should be punished.

Now, take a breath, a glass of wine and have a good nights sleep.

When rested and refreshed , look at this in a business way. Regardless of your strict policy, Airbnb's support and husband's hatefulness you want to resolve this.

She still has not cancelled the reservation. She has power over you, which you want to break.

Tell her, if she cancels timely and quit claims, you will give her back $xx.

$xx should be what you plan to make when you rebook.

You 'll be out no money and you will have no more risk.

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

Don’t do anything. Do not respond to messages by him. 

 Phone calls nothing. Only go through ABB. Simply ignore knowing you followed policy. DoNOT respond to them. They can call ABB and cancel, they CAN call a lawyer. So What if you are following rules and both parties are signatories to those rules- then you are OK. Man or Woman it’s not about Men pushing you around. Stick up for yourself and do nothing except deal with things as they come through A BB because if you communicate outside the platform, you are going to make mistakes, emotionally involved and allow to be sucked into their vortex of fear and lies. remember anyone can sue but a judge decides and you have done nothing wrong. IIt’s like any other contract or landlord tenant claim. You are following the rules. Wait until she cancels then and only them offer some money back. 

[Angel205]

Thank you for the reply Paul. I like almost all of what you said. Wise stuff. 

quits claims - likes puts it in writing she wont sue me? 

[Paul154]

@Angel205

Exactly.

[Sarah977]

@Angel205    Report this text to airbnb. It's extortion, not allowed.

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

No court of law will look favourably upon someone who says I will give you a  food or no review for money indact,  good lawyer would say same.

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

Typo/ good review and infact

[Angel205]

I did, I sent them the text immediatly and they sent back an extorsion policy they have, I felt good about that. 

[Fred13]

   This is not about about a gender war (men trying to intimidate you), since this is really about a  moronic woman which you allowed to intitially book for 3 months (risky move - after 30 days could lead to tenancy problems in many places), then because she can't find  a close-enough place to park, which she objected to in the first inspection (back in May) day and again upon arrival; and then her equally-stupid husband got involved and is trying to salvage something out of the whole mess and then start mentioning a lawsuit and reviews, proving he is just as much as an idiot as her. They usually come in pairs.

   What *I* would have done? I would have given her 1/2 her money for the first month - for no other reason that you stumbled on two morons,  and then moved on. Forget everything else, or any other causes or emotion, or their idle threats, they should be nothing but a number at this point.  She saw the place, adjusted her stay and still didn't work out upon arrival.  She won't be leaving a review anyway (the stupid husband with the threat of not leaving one guaranteed that).

   I would do two things as a result: never, ever allow anyone to book for 3 months & make sure to be very explicit about the parking situation in case you run into another stupid set of guests as these two in the future. I was not able to see your listing btw, thus no clue how you worded the issue of parking.

  NEXT.

[Angel205]

Thanks Fred. 

My lesson in this is when a guest starts saying I dont know about the parrrrrrkkkking but I want to "try" the city to kindly say this isn't the place for you, and deny the stay. That's my lesson to trust my intuition on who will be a bad guest and not paint red flags white. 

The advertisement of my rental is very very clear 

“There is no assigned parking - but there is ALWAYS free parking to be found on the block.”

And i went above and beyond to get permits.

but You just cant please some people. You just cant. ill make peace with that. 

[Fred13]

   You then really have done your part, you just happened to stumble on two morons. You are totally correct (and a great reminder)- if one gets any inclination there may be a 'problem' with a potential guest- best to bail gracefully.

   I have had to learn this myself, being a bit of a saleman, no more;  This is my place, if it fits 'Horray', if it doesn't 'Good Luck'. Next 😉

[Sarah977]

@Angel205   What does this creep think he can sue you for, buying his wife a $100 parking permit out of your own pocket? What a belligerent loser.

[Angel205]

I have to be honest I have gone back and forth on this several times, even in the course of one day I have changed my mind a bunch. I am a spiritual person. I consider myself to be a good human. But when someone strong arms me, threatens me, extorts me - I dont fold well to that. But I keep hearing do you want to be right or happy? And I know how law suits can spring up 5 years from now and they sue for one thing and then it becomes something else entirely. So I hear the first poster saying - take the power away from her and be free. The principal keeps burning my ass.

And that Airbnb is 100% behind me and just said we have a legal team for this. And since he tried to extort you they can be banned from the platform. That shifted me back to holding my ground..

[Mark116]

Hold your ground, these people are jerks.  They still owe you $100!!  Don't give them a dime.  Airbnb should cancel on their behalf so the dates are open again.