No more parties!

[Donald28]

In the past I've overlooked my rule of NO PARTIES and allowed small birthday parties for kids maybe 5 times in almost 3 years. It's always been a huge hassle but the pay is decent. I still always regret it. 

2 days ago I had a 13 yro's birthday party after his mom khalilah begged me relentlessly. Mom was nice enough and she even had a 25 yro male chaperone but still the kids were unruly, disrespectful, LOUD, literally stayed up all night fighting, wrestling and screaming. I had to go out at 4am and ask them to calm down.

They broke a bunch of things. I've hosted over 1000 people and no one has ever really broken anything. These 6 kids broke all the stuff in the pics in less than 12 hours. I was really surprised at the carelessness of these people.  I'm probably going to more find things that they've broken as I go forward. 

I've sent her a request for $149 to take care of it all. I'm sure she won't pay and then I'll have to fight airbnb for it. Grrrr!

This is the crap hosts sometimes have to put up with when we get bad guests. Airbnb could care less about our properties and the damages done by THIER guests. 

 snapped slide water nozzle off - I temporarily reglued it.Jumped in the boat and blew out the bottomstepped on the pool safety rope and broke the anchorsomehow broke a piece on my $18k pacman air hockey table.Tried to push the door open using the screen!

[Alice595]

@Donald28 You are brave. When you could foresee there will be issues brought by parties and you still accepted parties in your house. I had a no party rule and a guy still lied to me when I check him and his girl friend in. I was out of town that weekend. This guy held a big party, trashed my house and damages were near $1000. Fortunately I could get depreciated values of damaged and missing items back, which was over $600.

I then started to implement more measures to control guests who book my house and put a minimum three nights condition. These helped. 

[Mustafa67]

Just curios, what kind of measures were able to implement? I have been researching the market and I can't find anything effective. Thanks!

[Alice595]

@Mustafa67  There are some tips which were also discussed in the forum if you do a search

(1) Avoid bookings from local guests

(2) Increase your minimum length of stay especially for weekend. This can be achieved with Rule Set to set different minimum nights of stay for week days and weekends.

(3) Ask various questions before you accept the request to see if the guests try to avoid answering certain sensitive questions

(4) Read reviews from other hosts about the guests

(5) Avoid 3rd party booking

(6) Check in the guests in person and re-iterate house rules.

(7) Have security cameras installed so that you can stop the party once it starts

(8) If neighbors like to help, ask them to report any party activities.

[Mustafa67]

Thanks a lot @Alice595 

[Mustafa67]

I was considering listing a relatively big home and this was one of my biggest concerns 

[Donald28]

I live on the property so I can keep an eye on the partygoers. 

[Sandra126]

149 doesn't seem anywhere near enough.

so sorry. Adult to kid ratio should be as close to even as poss. 6 kids to one 25 year old= not enough.

[Donald28]

It was on a weekend and they pay $10 extra for each kid. That ended up being $282 total that I rec'd for the 1 night. It was NOT worth it. I am currently in the middle of filing a claim for all the damage and hoping airbnb stands behind me. It's only $149. Most of the work I will do. 

[Mark116]

@Donald28  Yeah, that looks like several hundred dollars of damage to me.  You need a new screen, you need a new boat, new water nozzle, and repairs to the air hockey table and the pool anchor.

You know what the answer is:  stop agreeing to host parties.  The only age worse than 13 would be 14-17, LOL.  At least with younger children they're small and it's harder for them to break things. 

[Donald28]

YUP! DONE WITH PARTIES. No MORE!

[Robin4]

@Donald28 

Bad luck Don, I am sorry this has happened to you, you are such a fine host.

But mate you are a practical guy, and I am sure you will soon put the damage right without putting yourself through the hassle of dealing with Airbnb through resolution.

You will learn from this, but don't let it override all the good that comes out of what you offer. Watch the video again of that 13 year olds reaction when you turned on those arcade games.

The good that comes your way far outweighs the bad Don.

Just fix it up and look forward to the next guest, the sooner you move on the better you will feel!

Every day teaches us something!

Cheers......Rob

[Donald28]

Lots of words of wisdom there thank you. You are right but I have started the claim process through airbnb. I felt that the guest should be responsible for her unruly guests and pay for the parts to fix everything. $149 is what I've come up with. I've boought the parts & fixed most everything already. I just don't feel like I should have to pay for stuff they broke. My labor should be free according to airbnb.  

[Robin4]

@Donald28 

Don, one of the first items on our news service this evening was, a northern suburbs RSL branch, (Returned Soldiers League) was broken into by two 13 and one 12 year old! Money and goods were stolen, many momentos provided by former troops were either trashed or stolen.

Somebody mate, is responsible for this! Why were 12-13 year olds roaming the streets at night looking for a soft target....where are their fu**ing parents!!!

Kids Don, are going to be kids no matter what country they are in. They are going to do stupid things. They don't possess the brain power that you and possibly I possess. 

I know you don't want to hear it but making them responsible will in all probability backfire on you. Individually our children are not capable of any wrongdoing Don, and I know, as far as you are concerned, it is the principal.

But what I am saying is, the principal may not be worth pursuing!

Cheers.....Rob

[Donald28]

I filed the claim, jumped through all of airbnbs hoops and they have ruled in my favor and say they will be adding the $149 to my account. 

Sadly, I just had a 12 yro boy throw a football into my prized VW dealer sign and break it. There is no logical reason in the world that a football would be anywhere near that sign.

This is going to be a huge pain to get off the wall, transport an hour north to the only neon repair shop, leave it... go back an hour north to pick it up and rehang it on the wall. Those two grey transformers weigh 25 lbs each. UGH