Advice please: guests doing drugs in your rental

[Susan46]

So I am not seeing this sort of topic addressed but I had a quest that was doing drugs in my condo.  He was there supposedly just with his son but I had several neighbors say that there were alot of people there, windows open all the time, very noisey.  

He contacted me about 3 weeks after he had left to say first that he forgot his day planner under the upstairs  mattress and needed it, this then turned into his wallet with all his kids social security cards in it, then it became his sons insulin supplies.

 My husband found it and what it was actually was drug paraphenalia,  I know as I am a nurse and frequently have to take these items away from patients, sign of the times.  I did report him through the email where you can flag a person but have no response from airbnb.

 This could have been a serious situation had someone (think child) had found the needles and poked themselves.  Help!

[Eileen4]

Oh man, what a bummer. I have it in my house rules that "no substances" may be smoked in the house. I also market my unit as a "family" place since it is nestled in a building among condos full of families. Fortunately, I haven't had an issue like yours (after about 1 year + 1/4 of hosting). 

Not sure how you can prevent this, other than to describe the surroundings as non-amenable to the kind of privacy drug addicts crave. I.e., if they know that there are families right next door, and that there are kids coming and going, and parents watching over those kids, they may be less likely to want to rent from you, if only because they don't want to get caught?

Yikes. This is a hard one. 

[Clare0]

@Susan46 I would alert Airbnb personally if you are sure your guest was using drugs.  The best way would be by Direct Message (or Message) on twitter @airbnbhelp where you can explain the situation.  I certainly would not want this person staying at my place so Airbnb needs to remove his account. 

Otherwise, call (United States+1-415-800-5959 or +1-855-424-7262 (toll-free) but usually there's a long wait time. 

Happily, none of the bad things associated with drug users happened at you place!

[Matt-and-Heidi0]

My wife and I just had a horrible experience with 2 guests who smoked pot in the house (with their two kids downstairs) and then we found out there was additional drug use, evident in the fact that they almost burnt our bookcase with a space heater. We had DCFS at our house, police visited twice, and someone from the state also came (who my wife was told was their "aunt") but we think it was a case worker. They listed us as a permanent residence and eventually we asked them to leave after a month and they were supposed to stay for 3 months.We had payment issues and in the end with the items they took, broke, or damaged we had just under $1500 in loss. We called Airbnb late at night and were able to get through quickly and were able to get a hold of a manager.  AirBnB is very tight on what they'll help pay, so I highly recommend raising your security deposit. We increased ours from $150 to $500. 

Long story short if you are going to call, call late at night. 

[Clare0]

@Matt-and-Heidi0 Oh my! What a horrible experience, especially with long term guests!  So sorry this happened to you.  Other than calling late at night, do you have any other advice which would be helpful to the Community?  Was there anything in your vetting process that would have made a difference?  I'm sure everyone would love to know what you would have done differently, if anything was possible. 

Hopefully you will get back to normal soon!

[Matt-and-Heidi0]

There were a few things we wish we had done. Biggest one was listen to our gut instinct haha. My wife had told me she wanted to decline them and I said we shouldn't. But that aside I think the biggest thing for us was we didn't do any research on them. They were our 2nd guests as AirBnB hosts and the first 2 were amazingly awesome. Didn't even cross our minds to do a google search. We found them on facebook and a couple of things didn't match what they had told us about why they needed a place long term, which could be a red flag. After we kicked them out and the police knocked on our door asking if they had been staying there my wife googled them and there was mugshot after mugshot online of the husband and a couple for the wife. 

I would recommend googling them, not just searching on facebook. We've started asking a lot of questions of guests because of this experience and almost all are fine with answering. The ones who aren't, I am guessing, have something to hide. 

[Clare0]

@Matt-and-Heidi0  That's great information that many hosts will find educational! Following ones' instinct (woman's intuition?) is a good thing.  One host here also said that he does a google image search on the guest's profile pic to see if they use it for anything else.  Mugshots? Yikes!

One thing new hosts don't realize is that hosting is a business before it is a "movement" if you get what I mean.  Hosts have to look out for their best interest and not be overly "nice"especially if it turns the host into a doormat.  If I don't feel comfortable about a guest, I have no problem hitting the decline button.  That said, I try to be a gracious host and hope to provide a great experience.  But all within reason.  

Thanks for your reply and hopefully another host in the same situation will glean some useful advice from you!

[Ashley60]

What kind of questions do you ask? 

[Nancy2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Susan,

I'd be more concerned about the extra people in the condo in terms of damage and noise.  I noticed you don't have anything in your house rules about no one but registered guests are allowed in the condo (as an example). 

I'm not sure there is much you can do after the fact other than notify Airbnb that drug paraphenalia was found on the property and let them decide what to do with that info.  Be specific as some drugs can be legal with a medical card.

[Susan46]

Thanks all for your suggestions.  And yes I am sure these were illegal drugs from the items that were present.   I will make some changes in my listing and probably have to call airbnb as I don't do tweet.  Am making some changes to my listing also. thanks again!

[Leah39]

All - we have jst gone to meet the guests who arrived last night. Upon arrival their was a blanket over the door.  The guy who showed his head then disappeared and we proceeded to enter property.  

There were drugs on table and a bong.

I want to go and evict - I have a bad feeling......and feel we need to go with gut.  They are meant to leave tomorrow.

There were no reviews etc.  This booking was an instant booking and I have now turned this off.

Guideance from this forum appreciated.

Thanks

[Sarah977]

@Leah39   As a host, I think you should always go with your gut feeling, if you don't you'll just be anxious and may find the place a mess or damaged after they leave.

Everyone has different comfort levels with the drug issue. Myself, and plenty of other hosts have no issue with people smoking marijuana, altho most don't want smoking inside the unit, for the lingering smell factor. Someone doing heavy drugs, or even drinking to excess, is a different story. 

But a guest who immediately hangs a blanket over the door, doesn't come to the door and greet you in a friendly way, and seems to be trying to hide what they're doing, doesn't sound like good news, aside from whatever they've got in the bong.

[Leah39]

Thanks - yes its a group of 6 - and alcohol bootles everywhere and not just a joint - there was a lot more going on it seemed.  I am not a prude when it comes drinking and drugs but it is excessive and the place a bomb.  I am concerend about future guest booking this week and the smoke smell.

Thanks for your reply - I appreciate it!!

[Tom387]

I'm wondering if anyone has had drugs made in their airbnb.  We recently went to a 30 day rental situation due to city restrictions. It's gone very well until yesterday. Guest completely trashed the unit after having stayed for 30 days. marijuana found. Smoked in unit. bathroom was completely trashed. burn marks on walls. shower area was stained with a brownish substance. We had our tub reglazed 2 years ago. The stains are not coming off with anything we try. even the tub is stained in areas which was not reglazed. Had police inspect. concluded it wasn't meth made because we were concerned about being exposed to chemicals.  My instinct tells me something illegal was made in the unit. I feel terribly violated. Guest completely denied all and has accused us of scamming him. I want to know how 30 small burn marks happen in a small bathroom and what the stains on the tub area are. Anyone with knowledge or thoughts. We'd appreciate as we move forward. I will be completely changing our airbnb structure from here on out. Back to vetting for sure. I may even leave airbnb all together. Long term rent. Any direction would be appreciated. Thanks. 

[Marshelle1]

As a neighbor of an Airbnb that allows marijuana smoking but only outdoors, can I ask you hosts to consider stopping that? If your going to allow it, you should take responsibility for the mess it makes. We are constantly inundated with weed smoke from guests, it blankets our backyard and seeps into our house even with the windows and doors closed. It makes my eyes and throat burn. All the neighbors have kids that are being exposed to it. We can't have friends or family visit because it's so bad. Please, if you're going to allow weed smoking think of some ways to manage it. Keep it inside your homes, don'tforce the neighbors to be exposed to it. Or require the tenants to only consume it by edibles. Please think about how miserable it is to live next to, especially when you have groups of people sitting around the yard taking bong hit after bong hit. Your neighbors should have the right to say no to the nuisance. Thank you for listening.