Difficult guest - help!

[M263]

All input much appreciated thank you 

I have a guest for 3 weeks who arrived yesterday, booked a single bedroom in my home. Things are getting strained and it’s only been 24 hours! She had 2 previous reviews that were ok, nothing bad flagged. I’ve only ever had lovely guests so quite unprepared for this. 

1. 1 week before sent me a message saying her son will visit her. I said sorry the room is single occupancy and we don’t allow visitors (mainly for safety; we had a bad experience previously). She argued back. I gave her option of free cancellation. She declined. 
2. Arrived 2 hours early to check in. The room was not ready. I reminded her that we agreed the check in time. She argued back. Again, I gave her opinion of free cancellation. 
3. Got annoyed when I would not carry her (extremely heavy) suitcases to her room. 
4. Today called me (twice!) to say her keys to house don’t work. Both times I came back, tried the keys. They work.

5. Called me to say my WiFi code is wrong. I checked. It’s correct. 

She seems unhappy with the booking, will likely crucify us in review, and I’m worried I’ll have 3 weeks of this behaviour. The next complaint I will again suggest free cancellation, but I don’t think she’ll take that option. I messaged Airbnb who were quite vague about my options (do I feel unsafe? No. Has she broken policy? No) 

How have you dealt with such guests? Just grin and bear it? Thank you in advance 

[Lorna170]

@M263  It's all up to you.  Tell her that her booking is cancelled OR suffer for the next three weeks.

This guest is going to fry you in her review and request a refund anyway.  Tell her it is not going to work out and that she needs to leave.  Her son can come and get her.

[M263]

Thank you Lorna, I appreciate your reply. I just laughed out loud about her son coming to get her - I needed a laugh about this! 

[Mark116 · Accepted solution]

@M263   I would recontact Airbnb and tell them you are uncomfortable with this guest in  your own home, that she is argumentative and aggressive.  Ask for a neutral cancellation and see if they will do it.  Otherwise, you can either live with it, presuming a negative review and a request for a refund after the fact or take the hit on cancelling her yourself.  

I would definitely ensure that all conversations are kept and/or documented on the Airbnb system to help protect you from whatever she may do or say in the future.

**You could try a 'clear the air' type of conversation and say it seems she is unhappy with the situation and that possibly she was not clear on what she was renting, e.g. expecting her bags to be carried for her like you were the bell hop.  Offer again to cancel the stay and tell her if she doesn't want to cancel that you'd like things to go smoothly and you recommend she read the listing in detail and try to troubleshoot some things herself rather than immediately assuming there has been some mistake, as with the keys and the wifi.  Show her everything again...keys, wifi, whatever, go over the rules again.

It's going to be a bad situation no matter what you do in all probability.

[M263]

Thank you! I appreciate your reply and suggestions, which I will follow 

[Steve2698]

We had something similar.  Our 120th guest was very high-maintenance.  Couldn't figure out how to operate things and demanded that we send someone over.  Was the first time they used Airbnb and didn't read the welcome letter where we told them what (standard Airbnb) things to expect. On about day 3 asked when the maid was coming,  on day 8 asked for more paper products--both covered in the welcome letter. The SEVENTH time they called to have someone come over was because the dishwasher wasn't working. Ends up, they had been loading the dishwasher with food left on the plates (for two weeks) which clogged the dishwasher and broke the pump. So we put in a claim for them to pay for a new dishwasher.   We were always responsive and nice, but he still gave us a horrible review because he was angry.  We tried to get it removed, and Airbnb said he didn't break any review rules.  I was very honest in my reply to his bad review, and suggested that people look at the 120 5-star reviews and raves about cleanliness and customer service,  which Airbnb said was the appropriate way to handle it.