We are fairly new to airbnb, but have been doing vacation rental on vrbo for a few years now. We take extra steps to screen our guests over the phone (with VRBO, since phone number is provided) and we make sure everyone knows they are renting our 2nd home and we are not running a business..etc etc.. and make sure it's a good fit. Whenever we sense any issue over the phone, we usually turn down our booking. With airbnb, since we are not able to get phone number until booking is confirmed, we are not able to talk to our guest until booking is confirmed. Asking questions or screening via messages doesn't seem as effective. In the area where our vacations home located at, most of the booking/inquiry (90%) are new airbnb members that has 0 reviews and have only been verified with phone/facebook verification. I'm wondering if anyone have a better suggestion in how to pre-screen guest to make sure they aren't problmatic guest or scammer. Please share your thoughts.
Here's the nightmare guest we just encountered:
We received booking for 1 week from a Grandmother that wants to take her kids and grandchildren to the beach for a week long vacation. We asked the usual screening questions and explain this is our personal home. Since it's a grandmother with family vacation, that seems like a perfect fit (we have best luck with family vacation guest).
On her checkin date, at 12AM midnight - she called and woke us. We expected it to be an emergency situation, or maybe she was locked out of the house. Instead she was screaming at us over the phone and complaining about very small cleaning issues (such as sand in the back of the couch - this is a beach house). I was startled by her call but listened and tried to explain that I could contact my housekeeper to help her in the morning (we are remote owners, 4 hours away). She was never sympathetic to waking me and cut me off when I tried to answer her questions. She then began piling on more claims - some of her claims were about a stool and a foosball table being broken and "dangerous". This concerned me since our home and all its furnishings are only a year old and there were not issues with the previous guests. She exaggerated about bugs in the house and said she wanted to use insect foggers in my house - I told her I did NOT approve this and I did have a professional pest control company to send. She was actually mad that I would not approve a stranger to use unknown fogger products in my own home and that I would send out the professional pest control company instead.
The next day morning, we made special arrangement to have our house keeper and pest control company (they treated our house in quarterly basis and has just treated the house 3-4 weeks ago) to re-treat the house and clean up the "sands" (despite that there was no severe bug problem). Not only was it not appreciated by the guest, she message us and said we "did not do right by her" and she refuse to talk to us until after her stay.
We recently became "Superhost"; therefore, we contacted airbnb customer service to further assist us with this. We asked airbnb staff to reach out to our guest and offer her to terminate their stay early so that she can receive her refund for the unuse night. The guest told airbnb "it is not acceptable" and continue with her stay. When the week is finally over, my house keeper immediately checked out the house and said all her claims are falsify (foosball table nor stools were not falling aparts).
Sure enough, the day after they check out, the renter contacted us and request partial refund of their stay!! They claim my house is NOT clean and I mis-represent my listing. They sent some picture with my foosball pictures and stools screw that was loose (supprisingly, my house keeper said the screw were not loose before or after this guest occupied my house). They hinted that the money will avoid loosing my 5 stars rating or my super host status. This is extreamly upsetting. I declined their request and reported this to airbnb. Hopefully, airbnb will do the right thing as I document everything since their midnight phone call and try to do everything I possiblty could. As it turn out, the guest is just a grandmother whom trying to scam a free / discounted vacation for her family.
I would appreciate any tips or advise to avoid this type of guest on airbnb. Does anyone have feedback or good/bad expereience with airbnb superhost support? Are they truely helpful?
Thank you very much in advance.
Ray
