To call the police or not? My first bad guest in my home.

[Amy-and-Joseph0]

This morning if found myself awake and on the phone with airbnb at 5am pacing because there was domestic violence happening in my attached airbnb flat. I am very happy we have solid doors locked between us. I am 7.5 months pregnant, with a 20month old, mother and husband in our home. We live in a quiet neighbour hood and we try to keep our airbnb as low key as possible as we respect our neigbours. 

We had a young couple check in and I noticed their review had a 3 star for cleaning and they said they left the place in a pigsty. I have instant book and they booked and arrived alll in a couple of hours. I was so nervous that I wrote on here wondering what people do when guest have bad reviews... even though 3 stars isn't bad. 

Long story short after an hour of what sounded like a wrestling match at 4am yelling and crying the woman cries out "let me go, Let me go!" She keeps crying  and yelling and the sounds of the furniture moving and banging around. There were 2 men which she mentioned she may have one guy guest to visit but not to stay the night. I was not sure what to do as I wanted to call the police but was thinking this is the end to my Airbnb and my only income while im off for maternity leave so I decided to call airbnb and they said they would ask them to leave. They handled it really well and they did leave about 5 hours later. Should I have called the cops... i dont know. You could hear them yelling about drugs and im pretty sure they were on drugs. 

THE WORST OF IT.

What they left behind. They lodged the key insided the toaster as if to try and start a fire. They splattered spaghetti all on the ceiling. Moved the beds off thier frames and off the walls. Every single pot and pan, dish had been plastered in red pasta sauce and grubby food... dishes wet, sticky and all over the wood furniture leaving marks. Board games flung across the room with pieces everywhere.  Stains all over the linen.. Thrown everywhere. I mean it goes on and on... my cleaner would not clean it so I had to get my family to help me. I have had like 100 plus check ins and I have never encountered such a mess or such disrespect. I felt so unsafe in my own home I couldn't leave for work because I was worried for my child being home with my mom and my pets. I couldnt not approach them for fear of being pregnant and my husband was at work and did not want me to get involved.  What an experience and Im so traumatised by this I will probably be over paranoid with having guest in my home.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Amy-and-Joseph0 So sorry that happened to you! Very scary indeed. I would say in situations of obvious criminal activity (drugs, violence) I would definitely call the police and Airbnb. 

[David126]

Agree a Police issue.

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Hi @Amy-and-Joseph0@David126@Cynthia-and-Chris1

Thanks for posting this Amy, I find this really concerning! I see you're in Sydney and I'm not too far away, in Wollongong.

I wonder how this guest was allowed to INstant Book with only 3 stars. Do you know if Airbnb are going to remove their profile? I would certainly hope that they would be banned!! 

We are relatively new to hosting, and so far have had wonderful guests.... many through IB, but it does concern me that some have only 1 review ...... in my opinion, it should be at least 3 reviews, and definitely more than 3 stars!! 

I know it's not possible for all guests to have reviews, because everyone needs to start somewhere, but when a request is sent with a message, you can usually get a feel if they are going to be a risk or not, and at least the decision is the hosts then. But, when a guest only has 1 substandard review and they are allowed to IB...... that just doesn't seem right! 

Amy, I hope you can put this awful experience behind you.... and nothing like this ever happens again! 

All the Best,

Michelle

[Amy-and-Joseph0]

She had one good review and one review with 3 stars under cleanliness and observation of house rules but then she had 5 stars on the communication and other one so it gave her an overall 4 stars or 4.5.. I can't remember exactly. I asked if I could review her and they said no she is deleted off my calendar and in their hands for privacy. I really hope that they ban her from Airbnb. 

[Allison116]

If you honestly felt something violent, unsafe or criminal is going on in your unit, definately call the police.  Not sure if this is something you would want to consider for future bookings.  I also have instant booking enabled, however, I do not allow same day booking. You can set how much advance notice is required in your booking parameters.  I like 2 days.  So if someone wants to book Friday, they must do so no later than Wednesday.  It seems a lot of "problem" people book last minute and I also require a 2 night minimum which eliminates those looking for a crash pad for a quick hook-up. 

[Ric11]

Hi

It must be so horrible to have guests like this.  

I have instant book switched on. But I am not as strict as @Allison116. I allow same day bookings up until 6am of that particular day. 

After 6am they can still request the room however it won't allow instant booking. 

Only a few weeks ago I had a young lad ask if him and his girlfriend can stay the same night.  He went on to ask if they could stay in an area of the apartment which would be away from everyone else. This immediately raised alarm bells especially as he was local. I went down the lines of declining for the reasons of:

Unfortunately I can not change my apartments lay out for your stay. The 2 bedrooms, mine and guest room are next to each other. The walls are pretty thin as with all modern apartments and therefore general noise can be heard throughout. It's modern city apartments. Hopefully to not subject another host to this, what sounded like he wanted a bunk up with his girlfriend, I suggested that he went to get a hotel, but of course he didn't want to pay hotel prices.  Well, he wasn't going to be staying at mine.  

I have no switched on minimum bookings.  I take minimum 3 nights on Monday to Thursday, and 2 nights at all other times. However I add exception rules such as when there is a MAN UTD match on and I am charging around double the normal rate. Or when I am having a low occupancy week then I add the exception to allow single nights.  

This helps massively as I am now getting longer booking with doing a lot less work.  

Play around with settings, there is so many of them now and see what works for you.  If you think something doesn't seem right with an instant book reservation then cancel it penalty free. 

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2022/how-do-penalty-free-cancellations-work-for-instant-book-h...

[David-And-Sally0]

For me that would be an immediate call to the police. Hosts should have zero tolerance for that sort of thing.

[Ute42]

Dear @Amy-and-Joseph0, I'm very sorry to read what happened to You and I hope You are allright now.

You've made 2 mistakes.

The minor mistake was, that You disregarded the 3star review.

The big mistake though was to allow same day booking. You should not allow same or next day booking at all which You can set under rental conditions in Your dashboard. People with such short notice booking requirements shoul refer to hotels with a 24/7 reception. Something such guests don't want to do because it's expensive. My guess ist, that the chance that You will have problems with Your guests is 10 to 20 times higher on extremely short notice bookings. Such reservations smell like trouble.

I've made this remark in the german community center and I got a thumbs up from the airbnb admin in London.

[Danika2]

Never hesitate to call the police. It's your property not your guests. And you can absolutely have them removed if you dont feel safe. Put some verbiage in your house manual that says you can remove or have removed "any unwanted guest" and show it to the police if they ask for something that says the guest agreed to your policies.