I have been proudly hosting for four years but currently feel let down by Airbnb as a result of a unfortunate situation that could happen to any dedicated host.
On the 2nd of Feb a couple checked in to my 2 bedroom listing with a reservation of 8 days.
First time guests on this platform, we discovered on the 4th of Feb, the guest had broken our house rules by smoking in-house.
Trying to remove the smoke odor by opening all windows and doors did not help.
I informed the guest smoking was not allowed in our house rules and anticipating difficulties, resorted to the call center for support as
the guest insisted the odor would eventually clear and was not a bad thing.
Meanwhile, the Airbnb call center provided two solutions.
1. Solution 1: Rules and Regulations allow the host to cancel on the guest's reservation mid stay, on account of breaking the house rules.
However the host is forced to refund the monies of the unused days, leaving any host out of pocket at such short notice, not to mention in the running for a really negative review.
So hosts out there, beware. Should your guests break the house rules, remember you are liable to refund the unused days should you insist the guest vacates your property.
Seems rather biased if I may say so myself.
Solution 2: Proceed to the resolution center for claims post check out.
Smoke odor does not disappear.
We have to call the professionals with a ozone generator.
With back to back reservations, and the guest checking out on a Sunday, thr next reservation has to be cancelled to allow for the professional's to proceed on Monday.
The host call center, could not guarantee the loss of revenue, and the professional cost of removing cigarette odor as this matter would be handled thru the resolution centre.
Anticipating difficulty, I requested my ticket remain open until the said guest check's out. I did not want to have to repeat the smoking issues again with a different case manager should a situation arrise.
Wanting some support while I approached the guest for permission to allow the professionals with an ozone generator some hours to leave the machine in-house while they were out.
My request was flatly rejected as no case manager wanted to keep a case pending.
I suppose they lose out on brownie points for a unresolved ticket.
Left unsupported, I approached the guest with the options of a surcharge poststay for a minimum of two nights ( as they depart on a Sunday and the clearing of bad odor could only effectively begin on a Monday )
and the professional costs of a ozone generator or engage the services of the professionals to activate the ozone generator for a minimum of 8 hours without the guests entering the home.
Cost of the ozone generator to be borne by the guest. I have once requested Airbnb to halt guests and host from writing reviews when resolution is involved to no avail. It is almost as if all this is good for business and competition to make angry host pit against angry guest and vice versa.
It was a nervous time for me for the duration of the said guest's 8 day stay.
Of course I was worried of the possibility of rebound with a bad review, so I bent over backwards to ensure this guest was well taken care of while asking for 8 hours of minimum time to activate the ozone generator.
This was by no means and easy feat and the guest initially objected to my suggestion for several days, before finally relenting when we pointed out, the odour persisted.
With this resolved I apologized and thanked the guest hoping there would be no more hard feelings.
With 8 days of stressful hosting a unaccommodating guest almost over, I thought I was home free.
They were scheduled to depart at 5am the following day, but my real nightmare was about to begin.
At 2.45am the morning of their check out, I was barraged with messages from the hysterical guest with photos of a bug on the guest bed. The guest claimed her husband was bitten, and emphasized, bug bites were far worst then cigarette smoke.
Literally less then three hours before the guest checked out, she threatened to make sure her complaint was to Airbnb.
Eight days of stay with no complaints of any bugs and bam just before check out at a time I least expected any trouble my world came crashing down.
She immediately wrote a bad review upon her arrival and immediately after, the guest changed both name and profile pic, leaving the joke on me.
Her Chinese character name had changed to the word 'People, People'
and her profile pic a maze of polkadots.
It's so strange that I receive a notification to leave a review for a 晓薇 Xiaowei and then recieve a notification that 'People's, People' left me a review.
Well her complaint to Airbnb via email got the immediate attention of a case manager at 2.45am while at 4.30am when I woke up to her barrage of complaints, I was left waiting for over 24 hours to speak to anyone of authority and was kept in the dark till Monday.
This was a likely case of sabotaging my good name and tarnishing the unblemished records I worked so hard to for on account of reprimanding the guest to pay for the ozone generator.
It could happen to any host out there should a guest decide it's pay back time and Airbnb will not see past the history that happened which triggered this.
Thou the guest was asked to provide proof of the rash and has not complied, I am told there will be an amount I will be paying back to the guest and there was some implications of shutting down my listing as the procedural thing to do in a case like this. Yet Airbnb remains unclear still on the action to take with me keeping me in limbo.
Surely, if the guest can submit pictures of a bug simeltaneously they would send pictures of the bad rash she claimed her husband was infected with.
However, Airbnb has to give the benefit of the doubt to someone rather then assist one of their super hosts who has close to 900 positive reviews.
Oh yes, Airbnb finally apologized of course for not responding to me during the whole course of the time the guest was in-house, but hey that issue of smoking has since been resolved right? Now they are mediating on the bugs and what I am to be pinalized with on top of the untrue review.
And that folks, is a sure fire way of destroying any host.
Just a heads-up warning how things can take a turn for the worst when a nasty guest decides to run a nasty on you. We don't stand a chance. Check my profile record, what Airbnb can do to me they can do to you.
