declining a group of guys

[Hollye-And-Will0]

Hi Guys, 

  I received this request today which seems to have all the red flags that have caused me trouble in the past.  Group of guys, obviously looking to party late and hard, expressing concern about the on-site manager, mention of "inappropriate guests" (which always means they want to bring dancers by) 

  How can I respectfully and honestly decline without upsetting them?  The last few times we had groups of more than 7 guys at the house there were holes in the walls and a broken couch that they denied saying they were "too stoned" to break a couch.   I understand the security can cover damages but it's such a pain to deal with damages.  It often costs us more time and money than what the damages cover.

Curious your thoughts and feedback...

"Hi,

We have a group of guys coming to Scottsdale for golf and to celebrate a birthday party at the end of April and we are very interested in staying at this home! My only concern is that I see you have someone living on the property right next to the main house. Him being there is not a concern, but we want to make sure we aren't disturbing anyone else due to noise, that is kind of why we liked the large property with privacy. We get together once a year and plan to have a good time and play golf and drink and also play the sports provided on your awesome property, but we will likely be up late or coming back from Old Town early in the morning. We will not be having any type of inappropriate guests, just the men. I am just wanting to make sure beforehand that there aren't expectations of a bed time per se. Of course we will be respectful of the property and your belongings, I am just not wanting to upset someone living on the property due to us being up late and drinking. Thank you very much! I look forward to hearing back from you!"

When I told him the property wasn't available that weekend he rudely said, "Are you allowed to discriminate based on gender or bed time?"

I didn't mention anything about his group gender, size, or bedtime...I simply said we weren't available on that weekend.  He seems edgy and rude.  I can only imagine what they would be like as renters.

Thoughts?

[Kelly149]

@Hollye-And-Will0 I agree with the others, if the listing says it's available then it should be available and your behavior expectations should be the same regardless of gender. So things like: quiet hours, no additional guests, guest count, vehicle count... all of these things should be good or bad regardless of what age or gender the guests are.

based on what he wrote, I wouldn't have told him it wasn't availble but rather that yes, he's right, it seems like their group would prefer some place more private.

[Robin4]

@Hollye-And-Will0 

Hollye, your listing puts you in a difficult position, it sleeps 10 + people and it looks like a vacation groups resort paradise. The very people you don't want to have anything to do with are the people who are going to be attracted to your property. 

I know you want to show your beautiful property at its best but, it just screams 'Party House' and you don't attempt to hide that in your listing description. You say "Playing Volleyball, Basketball with your friends"....."No groups of 15+ without prior approval" and "no DJ's or bands" which indicates that the property caters for party groups, albeit with some restrictions.

I feel the only way to stop this Hollye is to remove your listing as  it currently shows and split it up into 3 smaller separate listings and retain the ability to offer as a whole to someone you know will meet your larger group requirements.

People who search for 10+ person listings do not do it for a quiet getaway.....they do it to have a party!

You need to remove yourself from that search criteria!

It may be impractical to split your house like that Hollye, but my feeling is that is the only way you will stop getting 'golfing mates from another town'.......'that old high school reunion' pestering you with booking requests for which you then have to decline!

Cheers......Rob

[Hollye-And-Will0]

Hi Rob,

  thanks for your response. 

  We’ve been renting this house for over 8 years and have hosted hundreds of guests. We mostly attract larger families, girls trips, and the occasional guys golfing trip and have had great success.  Since I’ve started vetting more carefully we haven’t had one incidence.   All out prior incidences were always from groups of guys over 7 in count who were looking to party.  They don’t come along too often surprisingly.  

I see the value in splitting it up but I’m not really geared up to drop my current listing. 

Beat,

 hollye

[William1809]

How do you prevent people from lying when they're booking? We're bring 7 and they're planning to have 9+, or were bringing 8 and they bring 16, were an all male party but don't worry we're all employed and we're golfing (and instead spend three days drinking).  We have had good and bad experiences with all male groups. The first was a good experience with  4 men on a golf weekend. The next group was mostly good as well 6 men (it was a bachelor party) they left the place spotless but two of the men got so drunk they vomited in the beds and we had complaints about noise and profanity. The responsible guest called us and paid for the replacement mattresses (so we gave him a good rating - I think he was embarrassed about what happened). The next group was not good - so we asked the next groups how many were coming and that we were putting cameras on the parking area and walkway to the entrance - this resulted in the same reaction as you had with one of the bookings (rude response).

Some of this could be solved by charging an upfront damage deposit if airbnb would allow it, that way if someone does damage or decide to have a gang of friends up after they arrive you have some compensation already to repair the damage - which is usually additional cleaning costs. 

We're going to continue with airbnb for now but if we continue to have these kind of problems we will pull our listing and advertise on facebook instead and directly purchase additional insurance. I hope we figure this out. Too much trial and error

[Huma0]

@William1809 

Well, you can't prevent people from lying when they are booking. I don't have the problems you do because I have an entirely different type of listing, but the way I see it is you can do a few things.

1. If you use instant book, turn it off if you feel you can do this without suffering too much in the search rankings.

2. Try to spot red flags. This means communicating with your guests and asking them questions as much as is reasonable to do so. Sometimes guests will inadvertently give themselves away but not always in the first message. I also ask guests to confirm they have read the full house rules (I have an Easter egg question they need to answer) and to confirm they understand specific points, which in your case would be no parties and no extra visitors. 3. If you have charges based on the number of guests, remind them of this (also include it in your house rules) and of the security camera. Don't mention the camera in the context that it's there to check up on them, but rather, "Just a reminder that there is an external camera there for your security." This will still get the point across that they can't just bring in extra people. You might want to mention in your rules not to tamper with the camera if that is something you've experienced guests doing.

4. You have the correct info in your house rules, e.g. no parties/events, no extra guests, noise level, disturbance to neighbours, but not all guests read the full rules. Make sure they have done so (see above) but I think it's also worth mentioning some of these points in the listing description itself, under other things to note and also 'you must acknowledge'. 

5. It might also be worth mentioning something about guests being responsible for paying for damage or extra cleaning. It's great that your guest was upfront about the mattresses, but you really don't need this sort of thing happening. What if you had new guests checking in before you were able to replace them? Also, not all guests are going to be that honest about it.

6. Get your own additional insurance anyway. You will see from many other posts on the CC that Airbnb does not always pay out for damages and, also, they could even suspend your listing if they think a party has happened there, especially if there have been complaints from neighbours. 

7. If you are able to do an in person check in, I would advise you do that whenever possible.

[J-Renato0]

 Hollye-And-Will0

Your house rules state - No parties !

All you had to do is - Sorry, You are not suitable to book my listing.  Parties are not allowed.

[David8879]

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