Warning: Don't Host Marijuana Business Proprietors

[Paul450]

I'm pretty good about screening guests.  I don't have anything against people who smoke marijuana or even proprietors of marijuana businesses.  Our home is a non-smoking home and it's one of the check boxes people must check when booking.

I'm going to be somewhat vague here but I want owners to think about who they rent to and what they might do when alone in your home.

I rented our home to someone with a common name that was hard to research on the internet.  It was only later that I identified him as the owner of a marijuana business after all this went down and I had more identifying information to go off of.

After he vacated the house we discovered evidence that our home was being used to turn marijuana into Butane Hash Oil (BHO)/marijuana wax.  Yes, that is the process that you've read about in the newspaper where the butane/house explodes and the people doing it are severely burned.  Fortunately, there were no explosions in our house during his stay, but we know what he did.  Needless to say, it placed our home, his safety and our neighbors' safety at risk.  And if there had been an explosion?  Not only would the house have suffered severe damage, but you can bet there would be a public outcry and a push to outlaw AirBnB in your entire city, and if not the whole city, then certainly your home would be barred from AirBnB rentals.

So my advice to you, especially if you host in an area where marijuana is legal and there is a pot shop on every corner, don't rent to anyone you identify as a marijuana business owner.  There are houses in the area that advertise as being 420 friendly and even provide marijuana upon check-in.  Why he didn't rent one of those is beyond me.

On the bright side, at least now I know how to clean marijuana wax off of hard surfaces.  We tried Clorox wipes, Lysol wipes, glass cleaner, etc., all had no effect.  Isopropyl alcohol was the only thing that did the trick.

Live and learn.

I should add that my review of the guest documents much of what I found, but it does not specifically say they were making BHO or otherwise engaged in illegal activity due to my fear of being sued.  Any host reading my review will not rent to this guy.  Hosts need to call guests out on their behavior in their reviews so other hosts can choose guests wisely.  I suspect that this person will not be writing a review because he knows that it is unlikely I wrote a good review, so my review of him/warning to other hosts will never post.  As such, he will continue to be able to book with AirBnB and put other hosts at risk.

[Sarah977]

@Paul450  Good warning.

However, you are misinformed as to how reviews work- all reviews are published regardless of whether both parties submit a review or not. If only one party submits a review, that will appear on the profile 14 days after check-out day. If both write a review, they will both be published as soon as the second one is submitted if before 14 days.

So your review will appear, and thank you for writing an honest review to warn others. And good that you knew not to actually accuse him of the specific behavior, as that could be sufficient for the guest to ask Airbnb to remove it, claiming libel.

[Paul450]

Sarah,

Thank you for the info.  I wasn't aware mine would still be published if he doesn't write a review.  Good to know.

Can he still respond to my review if he doesn't post his own review, or is he locked out of that as well?  Because he won't be happy when he reads my review and I'm afraid his "response" to my review will actually be a poor review narrative in an effort to get back at me.  But whatever.  I can only tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.

Thanks.

[Sarah977]

@Paul450  I've read on these forums that hosts can't leave a response to a review unless the host has also submitted a review. So I'd assume that is true for guests as well, but couldn't say for sure.

One technique hosts use when having to leave a bad review for a guest is, as long as you don't get a notification that the guest has submitted a review, wait to submit your review of the guest until the 11th hour- i.e. halfway through the 13th day (being careful not to miss the deadline). That way, the guest may not notice that you've submitted a review and will miss their window of time for leaving one of their own.

More often than not, responses to reviews can make the responder come across as unhinged or vindictive, so I wouldn't worry too much about a possible response. (this can hold true for responses that hosts write to guest reviews as well, if they go on a long rant) Since reviews are blind, the guest has no idea what you've written until it's published, so if they get their knickers in a knot over what you've written, and use the response to claim all kinds of things they never mentioned in their initial review, it comes across as the revenge sour grapes that it is.

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

re: 'I've read on these forums that hosts can't leave a response to a review unless the host has also submitted a review.'

I don't know where you read it, and won't bother to search in archive.

Though I don't know either from experience, I would be surprised if a one-way review can't be responded. 

'Help' simply states one can respond to a review. So I would take it as given.

[Sarah977]

@Alon1  You don't know where I read it? I said I had read it here on the forums. Doing a search for something doesn't always come up with the post one is looking for, as it could have been posted under another thread, the title of which doesn't relate. But a few hosts mentioned it. I don't know if it's true, which is why I didn't state it as fact, and as you say, Help doesn't exactly address that question.

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

Of course I understood 'forum' pertains to CC, what else could it be?

Otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned the archive.

I couldn't have meant anything else.

I think sometimes it gets a bit much with misunderstandings of phrasing.

Perhaps we use the language in slightly different ways.

But it also seems that sometimes people state things not necessarily based on their experience, rather impressions.-- In this case, I would respond that 'Help' doesn't exactly address it because there is nothing to address; i.e. if a review is written its possible to respond even if the other party reviewed or not. 

To prove it in my case I would need to trawl through some 400 Reviews I've written.

Just under 80% of my guests have reciprocated. So I'd have to go through the residual 20% to see if anyone who hadn't reviewed me, responded to my review of them. It's simply not worth the effort. 

[Oad0]

Guests with unfavorable reviews simply open a new account. You may google it... especially guests with rapsheet. Guests have very little to lose when getting a brand new profile. And Air, unfortunately let them get away with it. Go figure. leaving a bad review is moot IMO. I do agree though that screening out bad guests is paramount!! And read about others that also use social media to stalk bookers. It is beyond me though, why you didn’t call law enforcement, I know I would. 

[Paul450]

Why didn't I call law enforcement?

I don't know where you live, but within 2 miles of our AirBnB there are about 8 storefronts where anybody over 21 can walk in and buy marijuana, wax, edibles, etc., all completely legal (depending on amount).  You can order online and have it delivered.  Depending on how the wind is blowing, you can drive past City Hall and the police department and there is a strong smell of the weed growing in the many closed up commercial businesses that have been turned into indoor grows on the street behind City Hall.  Weed crimes aren't considered a big deal around here.

It's the danger to the neighbors and our house that is so upsetting to me.  Plus, if there had been an explosion, some slimy personal injury lawyer of theirs would have figured out a way to sue us for *something* we did to contribute to their burned faces, figuring we would pay to avoid the cost of litigation (we wouldn't).

You'd think the city would ease up on taxing the citizens with the HUGE amount of weed tax dollars coming in, but they want their 12% of short term rental proceeds (and we pay every penny, several thousand dollars this season).  They also get 3% of our natural gas bill, 3% of electric and 3% of water.  I've never lived in a city which taxed any of those.  Probably our internet and cable TV as well.  And then another $1,000 or so yearly for a business permit and fire inspection.  But I'm getting off topic.

The crush of homeless, parolees, probationers and their associated crimes in California keep the police busy enough as it is.  Nothing out here is a felony anymore unless it's a serious, violent crime.

As for social media trolling/stalking......no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no nothing.  We have our listing on AirBnB and that's it.  He would be making a very big mistake to try that on me anyway.

[Donna635]

This exact experience happened to me just 4 weeks ago.  The problem is, I did not know it was a thing, all I knew is I had immense clean up for wax buildup on my kitchen counters, floor and stove top, ruined pots and pans, 4 stolen towels, ruined shower mat, bath mat and curtain in the guest bathroom.  There was one woman on the reservation that was "waiting for her apartment to get ready."  There was obviously more than one person there due to the damage and the mess but the beds were never slept in.  There were used bandages all over the place and a red substance (maybe blood) in the upstairs tub.  After it dawned on me they were probably doing something drug related, and after reading some other Airbnb accounts, I called the local police to confirm what I thought.  They said they were probably making "wax" and PLEASE next time take pictures and call them immediately to confirm that activity.  I tried to get the "host deposit" due to the damage, but then discovered the "host deposit" does not really exist.  The whole "investigation" took so much time through airbnb I did not get to write a review.  I am not sure how you can screen guests for this before hand.  Very frustrating!!!  

[Paul450]

Hi, Donna.

Thank you for posting about your horrible experience.  It's good that this was bumped up.....this is an increasingly common problem for hosts.

I will take this opportunity to apologize for being misleading in my posts and not fully disclosing everything.

Much of what I said about reasons for not reporting to law enforcement are true.  How do I know this?  I'm a retired law enforcement officer.  If my dummy stoner guests had bothered to Google my full name when they booked they would have known their host had been in law enforcement, as there are many articles with my name and agency listed (along with an occasional photo).

However.....I did report this to law enforcement.  I did not post about it in order to protect an investigation just in case the suspects were able to locate my original post.

I took pictures, gathered evidence, interviewed a possible witness, located a shipment they made (which was intercepted by law enforcement), wrote a summary exactly how I would write a police report and ultimately I believe there was a prosecution.  The prosecution was only related to the shipment of the finished product across state lines and intent to possess/distribute.  The laws in my state do not allow prosecutions for manufacturing unless they are caught in the act, no matter how much circumstantial evidence there may be (and there was a lot of it).  I was on the case very quickly and it would have fallen apart had I not been able to identify a tracking number and shipment details.

I would always encourage reporting this sort of thing to law enforcement as soon as you have an inkling that something like this may have taken place.  At the very least the incident can be documented and suspect names entered into a computer in which case the documentation may come in handy for a subsequent incident even if what happened at your home didn't result in a prosecution for that particular incident.  The police may decide not to take a report, which wouldn't surprise me.  I did not call out the local PD on my case....I reported it to the Feds and the local PD for where the shipment was sent, as I knew I could do far more locally than my local PD would be willing or able to do.

As for the guest who booked my home?  My scathing review was posted and went unanswered.  I check his profile from time to time and it does not appear he booked any other stays under that profile.

Again....it never hurts to call out your local PD and I would always encourage hosts who find evidence of criminal activity by their guests to do so.  Do not be mad if the locals do not take a report, but do ask why they are not and what you can do for the next time something like this happens.

[Helen3]

I am sorry these people abused your hospitality @Donna635  but when guests stay with you do you not have anything like CCTV to monitor that the guest who booked is the one who is staying @Donna635 

The host deposit does exist but you could also have made a claim under the host guarantee by submitting a claim through Airbnb , by collecting photos and evidence of damages and starting the claim process before the next guests checked in...Did you do this?

Why would the Airbnb investigation stop you from writing an honest review to warn your fellow hosts.

If you let us know what your screening process of guests currently involves we can give you suggestions on how you can improve it.