Hi there I see your post was from a couple months ago.
What was the outcome? I am in the middle of going through something similar, but not as major or as blatant as smoking, which Airbnb also lists with pets (i.e.people that bring pets when you don’t authorize) although I don’t have cameras anywhere, I’m part of my rules mentioned that weekly outdoor maintenance will take place and that is the only reason that I am there to see all these rules being broken. Some are rules and some are just odd so I give them some tips about what they can do instead and they continue to ignore my reasonable request.
The person that suggested that you submit the videos of them smoking after the fact, so you can ask them for additional funds to clean your place is not the answer… Since I kindly called my issues, to my guests’ attention that there is a manual with house rules & the fact that they continue to violate the same 7 rules over and over again is frustrating because they have no intention of changing those behaviors but if I were a host in most situations, I wouldn’t even be at their space to even see what’s going on And I feel like a nit picky mom asking them over and over to close the windows if you have the air conditioning on or not to leave the air conditioning on if you’re gone from the house and that is in my rules unfortunately, my rules don’t say you will be responsible for any amount over $50 of what the general electricity bill usually is? My guess is you feel the same way that I do… That I no longer want people like that in my space and shouldn’t be liable for their refund regardless of your chosen cancellation policy. Does anybody have some specific stipulations in the rules such as potential overage charges?
I was on the phone with customer service because they use the examples of safety issues, smoking, or pets on the premises, and I was very matter-of-fact, saying that I have my instant book feature activated, and as soon as a guest books they are agreeing to your house rules as part of the contract, the customer service agent said to me what is the outcome that you would like? I said I want the guests to discontinue their reservation and I want full payment. It’s only fair since they broke the contract. somewhere in Airbnb‘s policy it says that they will block your calendar so you can’t rebook another reservation in other words double dip which is fair enough but just like people have travel plans, you have income plans & because this is a contract and they have breached the contract it shouldn’t be absurd to follow through with the consequence, yes?
As our conversation continued, she said, are you prepared to refund the guest for the remainder of their stay which by the way is 90 days that’s too long to let them stay as they continue to break the rules. I reminded her no I am not prepared to give them a refund. I just explained to you what my expected outcome is. She told me that it is at the “hosts’ discretion” which I later read that catchphrase in Air BnB’s policy.
I gave her the scenario of what happens after you contact my guests, and let them know that their booking is being discontinued, and they will not be receiving a refund and they dispute the decision (not to mention of course, I’ll be receiving ridiculous bad reviews and lose my super host status, and before the very moment they actually do leave the house and take their things with them, they can do a whole lot more than violate my rules… Things that I may not even know about till months or years down the line or decide to do any kind of future retaliation, because after all, they know where I live ….
I chose not to pursue having Air BnB confront my guests, and I’m just biting the bullet for 10 more days hoping nothing major goes wrong, will send them some monetary requests for extra charges I have incurred due to the various rule breaking, and be ready to except some ridiculous -1 star review & and of course they will decline to send the requested funds and I suppose Air BnB will make a decision at that point whether it will be covered in their air coverage policy or whatever it’s called.
It would be nice if Airbnb could some how negotiate rebooking them elsewhere, without revealing the exact reason in order to protect the host. This is something that they do in situations where a host may feel uncomfortable with a booking after it’s booked, and prior to check in. Airbnb can tack on a fee later or eat the cost or give them some platform restrictions in the future.
Their policy specifically states if you have reason to believe or if you can prove that your guest is planning to break the rules, then you may cancel with out penalty but nowhere in that policy does it say if the guest is already checked in will you receive a full refund if they are breaking rules during their stay, and you are wanting to terminate the booking prior to check out date.
I think it’s a complete gray area which I found out during my second year as a host. There was a guest who obviously did not read my rules, and when he checked in, he didn’t like the fact that I had a pet on the property, so he overcompensated by making up a bunch of lies, airbnb rebooked him elsewhere. I instantly got a new booking for the same dates and I never thought anything of it until 6 months later when the roles were reversed so I called Airbnb up and I said, can you tell me how many nights I was compensated for that guest 6 months back who canceled after checking in… I thought maybe I was compensated for one night out of the 10 that he had booked… They told me I was compensated for zero nights and I said according to the policy that you’re telling me right now I should have been compensated for half of the reservation, which would be five nights they agreed with me and they compensated me half of that booking from six months earlier which is what they should have done. I’m happy with their decision but obviously it’s their policy and they had to eat it out of their own pocket. It’s not like they were going to call up the guest from six months ago and say oh by the way we’re gonna charge you for that reservation that you canceled after you checked in six months ago. At the time customer service just sided with him because he was very aggressive and I didn’t get involved. Which is a good thing with their customer service. You shouldn’t have to get involved and be confronted by guests… After all, that’s what we pay all these extra fees for, yes? Anyway, sorry for rambling. I do look forward to hearing what the outcome of your situation was!
