Airbnb would not remove guests blatantly breaking house rules

[Karah4]

Saturday night I had a group, who prior to their arrival I had a feeling they were having a party, which is against my house policy. They lived in the same city, so I called Airbnb and asked how to handle the situation. The lady said to remind her of the no party rule and tell her if she throws a party Airbnb will shut her down immediately and her trip will be nonrefundable. I followed those instructions and the lady finally responded she got the message from me. 

Disclaimer: I have two Ring Doorbells on the outside of my home so I’m watching all of this happen. These are disclosed in my listing, so my guests are aware of it.

A couple days later, they arrive at 8pm with 9 people. My house only accommodates 4 people. I called Airbnb they called the guest asked the extra people to leave. The extra people left. 

Around 945, 5 more girls show up. I let this happen for a few minutes, hoping these girls were there to pick up the birthday girl and go out for the evening.

Then at 11pm, 5 men show up, lit marijuana in hand walking into my home. Now there are 13 people in my home and they are smoking inside!!! I have guests coming in two days and this is unacceptable.

As I was trying to get Airbnb to shut it down, at least 10 more people showed up.  

So I immediately call Airbnb, I tell the man who answers they need to leave now. I truly BEGGED Airbnb to kick them out and no one would respond to me. They would say “we’ve escalated the issue, you’ll hear back in 10 minutes from us” then I would hear nothing for an hour until I called again. After I called back same thing.

A neighbor of mine, I’m assuming, called the cops around midnight. I tried calling Airbnb 3 times to get them to remove the guests. Finally at 3am the police shut down the party. Now my house is trashed and reeks of weed, which is very illegal where I live, and I cannot get a phone call answer or a reply via support messages from Airbnb. I’m at a total loss. What can I do???? 

[Helen3]

I am sorry you had this horrible experience. @Karah4 

However, the only person who can remove guests from your listing who break your house rules is  you . @Karah4  Airbnb cannot do this for you. All they can do is cancel the booking.

Why didn't you or your co-host go over to the listing immediately when you saw the additional guests arrive at 9.45 (after already having to get Airbnb to remove earlier additional guests) and ask the guests to leave immediately.

Instead you let the party get into full flow, so that your neighbour had to contact the police at midnight and the party being shut down at 3.00 a.m. by which time the damage had been done to your listing.

[Karah4]

Thank you for your viewpoint. I thought I HAD to involve Airbnb in order to ask the guests to leave the home. I definitely did not feel safe to go over myself and ask them to leave. This is a great learning experience and next time will ask police to escort as soon as the rules are violated. Thank you for your insight, it helped me a ton!

[Helen3]

@Karah4  yes you have to involve Airbnb  (which you did) if you want them to cancel a paying guest.  And yes Airbnb need to cancel the guests booking for you to ask the paying guest to leave.

That doesn't mean you couldn't have gone over and asked the other non paying guests to leave and told Airbnb you expect them to reach out to the paying guest while you are on route.

This listing is your business  and sadly dealing with difficult guests is sometimes part of it. If you don't feel safe going by yourself to resolve difficult issues with your guests in person, then you will need to arrange to have friends go with you or pay for security (I know some hosts do this).

You can't expect the police to give you an escort. This is a civil matter not a criminal matter. (obviously if there are criminal matters you call the police).

I think the lesson here for you is that if you had gone over when your guest first turned up with five additional guests on check in and made it clear that no guests were allowed on the premises who hadn't booked and that if any additional guests returned,  you would return and ask Airbnb to cancel immediately, then it is likely that the party wouldn't have happened.

[Maia29]

When I have issues with rogue guests, I call either my son or my nephew (both young men are over 6-feet tall and have an imposing presence) to go knock on the Airbnb unit door and speak to the guests directly in a firm but friendly manner. Works like a charm every time.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Taking bookings from local people is a red flag for me. When we had one we only didn't cancel it because the person explained there was a glitch with the house they were buying.

Horse bolted stable door ----sorry