A Mouse in the House: How to Warn Guests

[Ashley264]

Our property is located in an old port city. The house itself is well over 100 years old—charming, exposed wood beams, modern kitchen and original wood floors. All of this invites the occasional critter from time to time. However, we do everything to mitigate this (regular deep cleans and sanitization between stays, monthly pest control, garbage removed from the property, etc.)

We just had a guest who, very late on their last night stay, reported to Airbnb they had found a mouse and separately saw a mouse trap and didn't feel safe on the property. They didn't reach out to me, although I talked to them only an hour earlier. Airbnb obviously sided with the guest, gave them a full refund for their entire stay and is giving us 96 hours to provide documentation of cleaning and pest control or they will cancel all our future bookings and remove our listing from the platform. Since this cleaning and pest control is routine for us, we can provide this. The reaction from Airbnb feels extreme and unfair to the host. They are not willing to share any documentation the guest provided, citing privacy concerns. The guest is also not willing to share the documentation. I can't help but feel like this guest is scamming us.

Airbnb's response to me was that the guest was not aware there could be mice. My question is, how do you make guests aware of the chance sighting and routine precautions taken to avoid mice to:

1. make the guest aware
2. avoid a mandatory full refund to the guest
3. not get booted off the Airbnb platform for mentioning that you may encounter a mouse.

It seems like a black and white issue for Airbnb, and despite years of five-star reviews, one mouse is basically an infestation. So how also do you get any support from Airbnb when they represent only the guest's interests in an issue.

I'm not disputing that mice are gross, and no one wants to see one. I just don't know how to arrive in the middle ground. It seems like having a mouse, having traps to prevent mice, or mentioning mice all violates Airbnb Host Standards. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Brian2036 I have some sympathy for guests here. We stayed in a house in France once that was overrun with mice - You could see them running around when watching TV ( we that is not the mice). If this was bad enough the host's attitude (not Airbnb by the way) was - 'If you visit the desert you will see snakes'.

[Brian2036]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

If they had more snakes they would have fewer mice. 😉

[Sarah977]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Well yes, if you visit the desert, you will see snakes.

That said, a mouse infestation like you describe isn't acceptable, for sure. But if a guest books a place where mice are endemic, freaking out and demanding a refund because you saw a lone mouse, and calling it an infestation isn't okay.

[Ashley264]

We have sympathy for the guests here as well @Mike-And-Jane0. I can absolutely appreciate not wanting to see a mouse in the house and we go to every length to keep them out of the house. In four years of visitors, no one has ever mentioned they saw one. The upsetting part as hosts was that was the guest went directly to Airbnb without trying to contact us first and Airbnb automatically gave them a full refund for their entire stay, which was over the next morning. I'm just trying to mitigate that happening again in the future should a mouse get in again in four years. Airbnb has no sympathy for one-offs. It sounds like your experience is a bit more extreme. 

[Helen427]

@Ashley264  your post coincided with our having found a great archive website with Vintage Cartoons, enjoy.

The Mouse of Tomorrow

https://archive.org/details/TheMouseOfTomorrow

This is an earlier topic on a Mouse found in house

Guest found Mouse in House requesting full refund 5 days later

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Guest-found-mouse-in-house-Requesting-full-refund-5-days-la...

@Brian2036 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Debra300 

[Holly552]

I’m going to add the disclaimer. I have had some really uptight guests, one wouldn’t use the toilet all night bc she saw a roach in there and was terrified, she said when she got home she left her suitcase in the car bc she couldn’t bring herself to bring it indoors! Sometimes I wonder how these ppl actually survive each day.

i once stayed at. 5 star marriott boutique eco lodge in Costa Rica, I was stung by scorpions twice in the suite, and killed about 10 of them. And guess what, I never got an apology or even a response when I emailed them letting them know… haha they probably figure there’s not much they can do. I say that to say, bugs and rodents are among us, we have pest control, but beyond that and cleaning there’s not much more we can do for these people.