Now that we are getting a bit more settled in our new home I...
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Now that we are getting a bit more settled in our new home I need to begin moving onto marketing and booking. I have homewor...
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Here I am sharing my hosting experience, I currently have a guest staying at my 2 room condo for a week. My listing is pretty basic and cheap and occasionally when I don’t have my family member staying with me then I host Airbnb guest. My listing is very clear and contains all the information all up to date.
So talking about the guest I have, haves an Airbnb profile picture as a group photo and it’s hard to recognize that it’s her, also her profile says she is from DC which she disagreed upon confirming. And I kind of figured out she told me few details about date and time and purpose which were all blatant lies. She altered her reservation for 3 times before arriving. From the moment she arrived she demanded for tea, laundry, use common area etc all of which is not a part of my listing. Then she doubted me saying the towels and linens were not washed. I took everything and as a good host answered her humbly with a smile on face and also shared home cooked meal with her.
It got more annoying when she started disturbing me during my meetings. I work from home these days as a full time Sr. Environmental engineer. My meetings were put on hold and pause to request her to stay quite. Then further it carried on by she staying awake till 3am and being noisy which made me have sleepless night. Upon all these I contacted Airbnb support and asked for a solution. So I asked her if she wants to cancel the booking if it’s not fulfilling her demands and want to look for another listing, trust me! I was intimidated by her aggressive approach in this. Ultimately I decided to stay calm and avoid any interaction with her.
The main point of discussion is, when a race card was thrown at me. To be clear my guest started up an conversation about being from immigrant family and color. (I do not intend to discriminate or hurt any sentiment here). I am a brown lady, residing in the United States. Airbnb has always been my first choice when I travel domestically or internationally. Because of that I have met many people of different race and i feel good to know different culture. But this week when my guest started a conversation about discrimination i was little worried to extend the chat or what it might result into.
Folks please let me know your suggestions how to tackle such conversations. Also when you have demanding and disturbing guest can Airbnb step in and ask that guest to maintain some peace?
@Ritugandha0 oh my....you are way more accommodating than I could be with such a guest.. since the guests are in your home I am sure it makes things different. But many want to be left alone.....and then you seem to have one that is entitled and demanding. I would say no in many situations....that way you create boundaries. Also interrupting your work and so discussions of any sort i would NOT take part in. Just my thoughts. Also allowing 3 changes of the reservation should be the first flag that you don't have the regular guest. If this is the guest in your reviews named Emma none of this is surprising. Her past reviews she wrote for hosts are very telling. I personally would not want to try and please such a guest. I wish you well and hope u might look at boundaries somewhat and that might help. All the trouble would make me uncomfortable and I'd have Airbnb re-home such a guest. Best regards
@Clara116 thank you for the response. This is about my guest named Jen. Her loud personality is very intimidating and is the reason why I am hesitant to say her no. She is working from my dining area, taking things without asking me, stayinh up till 3am with constantly making some movement is too much for me. Also I haven’t found her following any covid safety standards for shared living. As a feedback I want Airbnb to ask the guests to update their profile timely.
@Ritugandha0 I don't understand why you think you must tolerate or put up with any of this behavior. As long as you do not say no....or have Airbnb move her out she will do as she pleases.....it is obvious from what you write. Your home should be respected and she is not doing anything respectful. You as the host do not ....and are not expecting to take abuse, disrespect and total disregard for your house rules, Covid regulations....on that I would end the reservation. I have a saying that I try to remember "What you permit, you promote". Stand strong
@Clara116 how can I end the reservation as per the terms and conditions by Airbnb ? I read few articles about cancellation policies and it was mostly concerned with refund. I truly wanted her to leave 2 days before. I asked her to look for another listing on which she got little mad.
In such cases can I ask my guest to leave or cancel the existing reservation?
@Ritugandha0 "Also I haven’t found her following any covid safety standards for shared living."
What standards do you expect her to follow? The main way Covid is transferred is from indoor transmission- any common spaces shared pose a big risk. A recent MIT study found virus particles in the air 60 ft. away from where they were expelled. So sharing any indoor space is risky.
This why my home-share listing has been closed to bookings since March 2020.
Aside from that, I second what Clara has said- guests can only disrespect you and your home if you allow them to. You need to speak up as soon as a guest does something that isn't acceptable. A pushy guest like you have will treat you like a doormat if you act like one. And if someone isn't a good fit for you and your home, you should do what you need to in order to get them to leave.
@Sarah977 You are right about being strong and standing up for myself. By covid safety standards I want her to use alcohol wipes or disinfectant wipes after her use in kitchen at least. I have kept hand sanitizer in every room for convenience. Being very honest, I am scared to ask her to do or act. Since has come across with topic like immigrant, women empowerment and don’t want her to feel discriminated or any BLM kind of thing. ( please note - I do not mean to disrespect any community, I apologize at first if my words are inappropriate).
@Ritugandha0 The thing is, surface transmission of the virus has been shown to not pose much risk, if any. There have to be a certain set of circumstances to contract the virus like that.
The infected person would have had to touch their mouth or nose before touching the surface (the virus doesn't ooze out of your pores).
Then you would have to touch that spot, and then touch your mouth or nose so you breathed the virus in. And there has to be enough of a "viral load" to get infected without your immune system being able to handle it.
So while it's certainly important to take all precautions possible, it is breathing the same air as an infected person that is the overwhelmingly common method of transmission.
I would get on the phone to Airbnb now, tell them your guest isn't following your house rules by using parts of your home that are not open to them, they are interrupting your work meetings, even though you have asked them not to and have been making racial comments.
Insist they cancel the booking as the guests behaviour is not improving.
Things will only improve, when you take control of the situation and your home and have her leave.
Ask a friend to be with you when she is asked to leave if you feel nervous about being alone with her.
@Ritugandha0
That's a common ploy for bad actors to throw the "race card" up when you ask them to comply with rules. Airbnb is so scared of discrimination they create a climate that makes it impossible to have standards.
But it's your home. And you work from home. And although women are taught to be "non confrontational" there are people out there, including other women, who will use that to their advantage. Those are also likely people who don't take Covid-19 seriously.
I am now really good friends with a host whose home i stayed in during a conference. She has since stayed at my Airbnb and when it was booked, she just stays at my house as as family guest. There are a lot of women out there who are like THAT. So you will have to screen better.
I've found that guest who answer questions and ask questions and are genuinely communicative are better than the ones who are a bit sketchy.
And I love that @Sarah977 mentioned the MIT study. My alma mater. They take their research seriously!
@Ritugandha0 oh, just begin coughing, heavy breathing, and say you wonder why you suddenly lost a taste 🙂
@Ritugandha0 what Sarah writes is absolutely correct.
Call Airbnb and tell them "I am not comfortable with this guest in my home....I am fearful of the guest and I am afraid to speak to her about all the things she is refusing to respect, like not following Covid expectations in a shared home space...and she is interrupting home work meetings I am having. She is disrespectful and I need to have my home back without her. I am afraid. I am afraid to tell her and need Airbnb to contact her and tell her. I will have a friend come over to support me because I fear when she is told for what she might do." This is sorta what I'd tell them. And make sure they know it is no LONGER okay for her to be in my home. Stand strong and get a friend to come and hang out in your room till she is gone. That's my take of it. Some others might do different...but u should be comfortable in your home with guest.
@Clara116 @Sarah977 @Branka-and-Silvia0 Here is the update with the situation at my apartment. I took control over the situation by asking her to be quite after 12am tonight. Her response was " don't get on that way, I know what you are trying to do, you don't know me and you don't know what I can do to you, don't try to mess around" and door was slammed loudly. At night 10 pm I had to contact airbnb emergency help line and explain the situation. I was sitting in my car all time while talking to the airbnb help center executives. They provided me few solutions complying the terms and conditions. All of sudden in another 15 mins the guest checked out the apartment without informing me. So here I don't know if she left willingly or airbnb have her moved. I am for sure worried for tonight but relief is that she is no longer on the premises and my safety is not at stake.
@Ritugandha0 Wow. Thanks for the update. Glad to hear she is gone. I hope you made it clear to Airbnb that she threatened you. She sounds not just pushy, but deranged.
In the future, when you have a guest who does things which are disturbing to you, as a home share host, it's best to mention it right away, in a friendly, but firm way, rather than to let it continue and hope it will change or try to unhappily live with it. Best to get the message across that you don't take orders from guests nor do they get to decide what they can and can't do in your home.
Of course, if we are sharing our homes with guests, we have to be somewhat tolerant of other people's ways, that they might be messier than we would like, or not be someone we would choose to be friends with under other circumstances. But being loud when you are obviously trying to work or have gone to bed for the night, disrespecting personal space, leaving a mess in a shared kitchen, are all behaviors that just aren't acceptable in a home share.