Unauthorized Guest

[Ryan2309]

I recently had a guest reserve my house for one night for one guest. I could barely understand their messages and they had no reviews - but I am in the business of hosting and need money. I also understand that everyone starts out with no reviews at some point. 

The day before they decided to show up they switched their plans and asked to add 3 more people to the reservation but did not explain why at all. I politely informed them that I didn’t think it was a good fit as they had no reviews and I wasn’t informed of what they were doing in the first place. Unfortunately we’ve had several incidents of people trying to throw parties around here so I take this situation seriously. 

The guest still came for their stay and brought guests that were not authorized. They broke things in the house and then wrote me a scathing review that I believe to be retaliatory. 

I had three issues here:

1. Guests broke things

2. Guest brought unauthorized guests

3. Guest left an inflammatory review. For example they told me my house had a 1-star for communication… I am a super host with hundreds of reviews. I assure you I communicate much better than 1-star and go above and beyond for guests. Which is why I’m even reaching out here for some advice. 

Airbnb has so far partially addressed the first issue. (They allowed the guest to not pay the full amount requested and closed the request). The other two issues I’m told they can’t do anything for me on.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? 

[Sarah977]

@Ryan2309  I'm not going to sugar coat this for you. My suggestion would be to not accept bookings  that have red flags all over them. You know this wasn't just that the guest had no reviews and should be given a chance. 

What did you do when he showed up with unauthorized guests? You just let them all stay? 

I'm sorry you had an awful guest, but you ignored your intuition and the bad communication because you wanted the money. That seldom turns out well or financially advantageous.

You can waste hours of your time trying to get the review removed, to no avail. You can waste hours of your time trying to get compensated for the damages. 

Or you can take this as a hard lesson to not ignore warning signs and to take immediate action when a guest thinks they can break all the rules and your home as well.

[Ryan2309]

Thanks for the reply Sarah. I’m seeing a couple things here.

First and foremost - in this case I only found out about the unauthorized guest when I found things broken after their stay and they added in their public review that they brought someone else with them who was unregistered.

Also it’s helpful to hear another host understand some of the situation so thank you.

It’s not helpful to tell me I “ignored my intuition”. A) I of course did not do that. Sure he had less than perfect communication - that’s not a crime. Some people are bad at computers and typing. And If my only other intuition is that a guest has 0 reviews - so they must be a problem - I don’t think that is fair either. In fact, if that’s the only data I’m going off of than I’d be in rough shape in the area I live in. Airbnb is still pretty new around here so there are a lot of people with 0 reviews and bad typing skills. B) Intuition is only going to take you so far. Wether or not hosts and guests have positive experiences on the Airbnb platform starts with Airbnb. As hosts, we need better tools to help us make decisions so we don’t have to waste those hours you mentioned and so that we’re not basing most of our decisions on guess work and hunches. I’m calling for more data for hosts. 

Lastly, I joined the community only a couple months ago and it seems to be the elephant in the room that we are all in this situation of numerous disputes ending in guests favors. I get it - not everything will go your way all the time. But after a year and a half of hosting - I can say that the overwhelming majority of issues land in the favor of the guests. Reviews seem to basically always land in favor of guests and hosts are powerless. And if I canceled this guest - I would have been hit for that too and lost superhost status most likely (or been well on my way to it).

In short: It’s stressful having this many bad actors on Airbnb. 

[Sarah977]

@Ryan2309  Yes, Airbnb is guest-centric, has horrible customer service, and doesn't seem to care that they have bad guests they allow to remain on the platform. The company is not our "partners" and we are basically on our own.

What I meant about you not following your intuition and that there were red flags all over this- sure, some people are poor communicators. Not everyone has the potential to be a successful writer.

But if you get a message from a guest that is virtually unintelligible, you need to ask them to clarify. Then you said they messaged about a change of plans and bringing more people. You told him that wasn't a good fit for your place. What was his reply to that? It seems he didn't reply, just showed up with these extra people anyway.

When he didn't reply or cancel, that was the point where you should have contacted Airbnb to say you feel quite uncomfortable with this booking, as the guest has not responded, and you have some indication he is intending to show up with more people than he booked for and possibly throw a party. You could have asked them to do a neutral cancellation- no penalties to you. It would have been wise to try that.

Do you not have any outdoor cameras to see how many people are entering? That's pretty crucial security in an entire place, off-site host rental. You need to be monitoring who and how many people there are and take action as soon as you see unaccounted for guests.

I am sorry you had this situation. It actually is quite dismaying to me to read about how many bad guests hosts are having to deal with these days. It's hard to believe that there are so many disrespectful people out there who have no conscience about lying and no qualms about maltreating other's property. And Airbnb seems to welcome them with open arms.

[Christine615]

Sorry this happened to you.

1. You need cameras on your exterior. We use Blink cameras because they don't require subscriptions and the batteries last a long time. They work really well in the dark too.

2. You may need the money but bad guests cost more than you make. I used to be a long term landlord before I converted the apartment to family and personal guest use. We rent it on Airbnb as well. The ONLY time I've had damage was when I had a bad feeling and overrode it. You have to ask a lot of questions of the guest about why they are coming. The best guests respond with answers, and ask questions too. If you have suspicions about a party or extra guests then make it clear there are cameras on the exterior. There are some people out their that think renting an Airbnb means they can do whatever they want.

3. Call AIrbnb and report the guest and ask to have the review removed. It would be easier if you had camera footage. YOU MUST bill the guest for damage in the resolution center. It will help if you also inbox them to ask about the damage before you put the bill in the resolution center (they won't respond - but it helps to show Airbnb that you tried to ask about it.) You have to bill them for the damage before the next guest checks in or Airbnb won't help or pay under the host guarantee.

4. Change your listing to state unauthorized people are billed at $150/person/night. Then bill them for that too. But again, you need the camera to tell you how many people showed up.

5. Get to know the neighbors. Our neighbors keep an eye on the place and everyone has read my listing so they know what I allow and don't allow. But we live around the corner and our co-host lives in the other unit onsite so it's harder for people to party or bring other people. But they did before I put up cameras.

There are so many new guests joining the platform who are afraid of bad reviews, or absentee hosts doing it for the revenue generation who just let things go that it hurts the rest of us. If you can't get the review removed, write a polite but accurate response to their review spelling out the damage they left and that they booked for 1 person then 4 arrived and trashed your place.

[Audrey707]

Having same issue with my villa . Last guess reserved for one person and left me more than 5 large garbage bags… airbnb still “processing” claim. Cameras can tell you what is going on but will them or Airbnb pay you??

I am no longer accepting instant booking .. and although I need the revenue I am being more careful with my property. I pay more in cleaning and damages than I am getting back.