Shocked by Airbnb’s response

[Laura1776]

I advertise my home as a quiet peaceful home, no alcohol on property and the house rules state quiet time after 9pm

Last night my guest can’t home drunk at 1.30am waking me up trying to cook downstairs. I went downstairs and he kept saying he had nowhere to put his food in the fridge. I don’t offer food storage but allow guests to use the fridge. 

I calmly said it’s 1.30 am, I have work I’m the morning and I’m pregnant. He continued and got quite aggressive. I was scared. I almost called the police but drove to my husbands house instead. He came back with me to check the house wasn’t burnt down and to tell the guest he must leave in morning. Throughout the night he continued to text me saying where can I put my food? Which I ignored. 

I had had to miss work today as I had an hours sleep, and my pregnacy is already exhausting me. 

I spoke to my other guest and she was quite scared. 

I rang Airbnb at 3am and I found the agent not very understanding. She spoke to him and he agreed to leave at 8am. 

He didbg lesve and my partner spoke to him many times before he left at 10am

airbnb are only paying me for half the night as my checkout is 12pm. I’m not bothered about the payment, but was quite upset by the agents response. She said I had evicted him, and refused to answer his questions about the food by text! Why would I engage in a volatile situation! I shocked by their tone, and their lack of duty of care towards a pregnant woman. 

I want to make a complaint, is it worth it? 

Thanks in advance

[Rosemarie9]

Problem is Ana, that people's profiles are not removed, I have flagged people and rang airbnb and their profiles are still there. They can just put up another profile even if it is. Someone tried to book my place with a made up name, I reported him and nothing was done.

[Ana1136]

@Rosemarie9 I have seen peoples profiles get removed that is what I base my opinion upon, but maybe I was lucky, maybe Airbnb doesn't remove all profiles, in fact I am sure they dont. And yes they can remove his profile but he will travel with a friend who will book and same thing all over again. I am not sure what part of my responce made you feel that I approve his behaviour which of course I don't, I had the same problem and called the police immediately and didn't even bother contacting Airbnb, my property, my safety, my rules. The police escorted them out of the property and they were lucky I didn't file a lawsuit. Even if I called an Airbnb employee what would they do? Fly to Ohrid to remove him from my property? I am sorry that it happened to her, I was just trying to point out that her safety comes first and she shouldn't rely on Airbnb for that.

[Rosemarie9]

No argument from me, I dealt with the problem guests first myself also, I just think that airbnb could handle things better after the fact by removing and banning profiles, and also not insulting hosts by asking them to cough up money for bad guest behaviour. Early on I had a guest under the influence of drugs cause mayhem when I cancelled and she wouldn't accept the cancellation, I also had someone soliciting and using my place as a brothel and they were kicked out also. It is bad enough to have to deal with these people as a female host without having salt rubbed in your wounds by inexperienced CS who seem to side with bad guest behaviour. I am just saying that I can understand how Laura would be upset, my few bad instances took me a little while to shake off, it can be upsetting and sometimes it just feels better to let off steam here where most if us have seen it all before.

[Ana1136]

@Rosemarie9 I understand and it is discussed many many times here on the forum about the Airbnb responce to those kind of situations and we all agree that their support isn't enough. That is what some of the hosts on this thread are trying to point out to her in order to be safe. Even you said that you handled your problematic guests yourself. The advices of some hosts on how to select guests were taken as an insult and I was pointing out that they just want to help and not blame her. 

[Fred13]

 @Laura_R, Airbnb is a booking agency, regardless of promises or personal impressions, but one thing for sure, it is not a police force onto themselves nor could it successfuly cover all the differences or personal needs of all hosts throughout the world to everyone's full satisfaction.  That is never going to happen, because is impossible to do because all situations and hosts are indeed so different. 

   You are at a very vulnerable stage at the present time (pregnant) and living 'alone' and I get the impression sensitive by nature, so it stands to reason you should take some exceptional cautions in your hosting to make it work for you. Yes,  hosting only to females, of course, promises to be a good move, but no guarantee either that all will always go swimmingly, for there are some very aggressive (and scary) women in this world also, which Airbnb will have an equally tough time handling as this drunk buffon situation.

   In hosting, an ounce of prevention is always worth a lot than a pound of cure. Every host should consider carefully their own reality to make hosting,  in essence 'total strangers',  to make it work for them.

   Good luck.

[Laura1776]

Thanks Fred

[Victoria567]

Hello @Fred0

Sensitive?

thats a bit hysterical.....

Sensitive in thinking it unacceptable to condone this appalling behaviour by an entitled guest?

Sorry but I don’t agree with you and the more I read some of the responses from others from across the pond, I can see the huge gulf between both our cultures despite sharing a common language.

[Fred13]

You are welcome to disagree, that is for sure. Airbnb didn't condone the behavior, they simply are limited in what they can do. That is the reality. I have read the same realization by hosts listing with other booking agencies. It is not a matter of different culture, but more of personal reality. There is an element of risk in the STR pursuit, which is, in essence, allowing relatively speaking, total strangers to stay in one's personal home; a tricky reality when we stop and think about it. It is not for everyone.

[Linda108]

@Laura1776 Thank you for posting this discussion thread.  While you might not have gotten the response and support you were expecting and do not feel the CC is worth it for you, your discussion thread did provide information for other hosts.  I have participated on this site for almost 3 years with over 5000 postings.  While I sometimes am helpful to others, I personally benefit from reviewing host responses and suggestions about situations I had not encountered or even thought of.  I wish you well. Take care of yourself.

[Victoria567]

Hello @Laura_R

I sympathise and can see why you did not want to confront a drunk man cooking in your kitchen at 1:30 am in the early morning.

You need to make it quite clear in your description that your kitchen is not available for guests to cook meals, prepare snacks or drinks, as you use your kitchen daily to prepare family meals, as it IS your family home., after all.

You need to make it clear in your description, that your fridge is NOT available for the storage of food and that food can be stored in the guests car overnight.

I hate to rain on your parade but a stricter listing and strict house rules tend to screen out the majority of entitled guests....but you will still get the odd bad Apple in the future...the advice is to try and screen these entitled people as best as you can with strict criteria before they cross your threshold.

Ive just had 2 sets of really lovely guests after my entitled horrors from Utah.

Good luck but perhaps fit a lock to your kitchen!

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

In your question about dealing with ABB Is---do nothing. You got your answer and in their eyes its a "he said, she said" situation. Perhaps we all should record these situations on our phone as proof. And I know you don't want advice but you did post something for which you can't police responses, so I do have another suggestion: Ask the guests be Non Drinkers. 

Anna

[Anonymous]

@Andreas-and-Anna0 Perhaps I'm veering off topic here, but how would a host go about enforcing a "non drinkers only" rule?  It's one thing to set rules about behavior inside the home, but it's all but impossible to monitor guests' behavior when they're out on their own. 

In my view, this guest's behavior was in itself the problem - whether he was drunk or on drugs or stone cold sober, there is no excuse for violating the rules and harrassing the host. It's not unreasonable to  expect that adult guests will behave decently inside the host's home regardless of what they consume outside of it.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  Well said, as usual. I don't have any no drinking rule in my shared home and will often share a bottle of wine with my guests. One guest was obviously an alcoholic, judging from the number of empty micky bottles in the garbage can in his room, but he was clean and respectful, actually the quietest guest I've had- when he wasn't at the beach, he was working online in his room. 

It's the behavior that's the problem, not what "caused" the behavior.

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@Andreas-and-Anna0 Perhaps I'm veering off topic here, but how would a host go about enforcing a "non drinkers only" rule?  It's one thing to set rules about behavior inside the home, but it's all but impossible to monitor guests' behavior when they're out on their own. 

In my view, this guest's behavior was in itself the problem - whether he was drunk or on drugs or stone cold sober, there is no excuse for violating the rules and harrassing the host. It's not unreasonable to  expect that adult guests will behave decently inside the host's home regardless of what they consume outside of it.

---

I understand your confusion, it;s the same as smoking. We ask for NON-Smokers and it's non negotiable and rule for dismissal . Same could be asked for drinkers. Non Drinkers...that means no coming home drunk etc. YOu can write that in House Rules, better than the situation she ended up with and dangerous too. Plus, It's a definite way to ensure ABB will enforce your rule...worth  a try. Anna

[Clara116]

@Laura1776 that had to be really scarey stuff and I'm sure you are glad it behind you.  So everyone seems to be offering advice and that is not what you wanted....... but, you got the best way to deal with customer service CS .....and I hope everyone pays attention to the quote below - Fred said it Airbnb is just a booking agency and really that's what they are. So in getting support from them on any level from any of their CS peeps - that quote and how it is written is the way to go. 

How to approach and speak to CS/customer service at Airbnb

"I am sorry to trouble you but I am a female host who is being confronted with an aggressive drunk male guest I cannot reason with! Please how can you help me?" 

CS are peeps and when we give em too much info/ or demand/ or get wild/angry/pushy - OR in reverse are just OK with whatever they say it matters! we really do have to consider it when calling.

Be safe and take care of you and your baby! I am alway amazed that women can host in their own home men or women.  Something I couldn't do - I have a cottage behind our home and that works for me - there are just too many strange peeps and sometimes even evil. I saw evil up close once and so I host totally different because of that 2 yrs ago. Been hosting alittle over a year and learning every day. Happy hosting