Strange happenings

[Linda317]

We have experienced our first strange booking.  A young single woman booked in for 3 nights supposedly with her brother.  She arrived with a female friend but no luggage and a male arrived later and separately, also without luggage.  Over the time theynwere here the curtains were kept closed the whole time.  After 2 nights they disappeared without giving us any notice that they were leaving.  On inspection we found that the heating had been raised to the highest possible temperature, there was no rubbish left at all which meant that they had taken it with them and on stripping the bed we found it stained almost entirely with some sort of grease.

We firmly believe that our listing has been used for a sexual encounter and want to warn other hosts to be extra careful when accepting bookings from single females or males who do not have specific reasons for wanting to stay in your area.

[Linda108]

 Hi @Linda317,  You are right that the purpose for staying someplace not your own home might include intimate and/or strange behavior.  Doesn't sound like you are terribly upset, though.  The guests didn't break any of your house rules, right?  I have seen many discussion threads about allowing locals to book and some of the issues that arise.

So, what kind of review did you give...

[Annette33]

@Linda0 , oh don’t we love those juicy mysteries?!
 But seriously, before warning other hosts about such constellation, consider what one can do to prevent it in teh first place:

it sounds like you were right there when they checked in and you observed that it was 2 females, and a man later. Might be a bit awkward to do, but right then and there you have to speak up, like where is your brother, and who is this woman here now? That already makes them give you some answers and provides you with insight as to what is going on.
You also could have later registered the third person (and collected an extra $26 for that, according to your listing). Best is if you know yourself how to quickly access the reservation page  and click on “change reservation”, then you can do it quickly and the guests have to accept it - or not, right on the spot.  If they refuse to accept it right while you are there, well then we have an issue.....:they are  breaking the house rules - and you can get a bit more serious about having them leave.
But it sounds like you were okay with just observing it all and wondering. I wouldn’t! You never know ahead of time what is going to happen, so I think it is wise to not be passive but go by the book and register each guest. I also put it into my house rules, that only the registered guests are allowed on the property. Simple and very clear, and it gives you leverage with Airbnb when you clearly have it in your house rules, then there is no fudging like, "oh I just forgot to register the extra person" , or "oh I didn't see it on the reservation form."

Good luck to you in the future!

[David126]

Certainly not uncommon assuming it was what you thought it was, I can make a reasonable guess at which guest made the booking.