Guest booked, but only his guests showed up

[Mickayla2]

I have a guest that booked for his 'employee' under his guest profile.

Such guest is not registered with the for work / company side of Airbnb. The guest who booked never showed up to the property. However, the guest's guest did. We were never provided with this random guests' contact information.

We were not made aware of the actual guest who booked not showing up until the closure of the reservation when it was found the guests guest damaged our property, brought unauthorized pets, and the actual account holder never showed up to their reservation, but their guest did.

They left us a 1-star review based upon cleaning concerns however they failed to supply documentation for such issues within 24-hours. They sent a message at 19-hours stating there was a mess but couldn't supply anything documentation until 25-hours later.

The damage that was left at the property was found to be directly tied to the dogs photographed on the security cameras the evening of their reservation. Airbnb is stating that the review is legitimate and that the guest is in the right however the actual booking guest never showed up!

How would you handle this? 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Mickayla2 👋

Did you speak to Airbnb Support about this? What did you do in the end? It'd be great to hear how you moved froward with this so that others Hosts can learn from your experience. 😊

[Mickayla2]

We went back and forth with Airbnb a lot for a couple of weeks. They told us they'd call us back or email us back and didn't. At first they did not want to help us. Eventually we spoke to someone actually willing to listen to what we were saying with our concerns. The Airbnb ambassador that actually listened to us ended up confirming that we were correct - the guest was not allowed to have a random guest stay without that primary guest being present. They confirmed that the guest did not have a business account. Business accounts would show all names of the primary guests the business is booking for - this account for the guest that stayed with us did not. The guest who just showed up in the primary guest's place ended up having pets that caused a lot of unnecessary maintenance for us (dog fur everywhere - in the beds, in between furniture, etc.). They ended up removing the guests bad review for us - since it was done on behalf of the primary guest for someone else that shouldn't have even been at the property without that primary guest being present. Their Review gave that away - primary guest admitted he booked for someone else in writing. We opened an aircover request and received a portion of the actual damages (better than nothing). With Airbnb it takes a lot of persistence sometimes in these situations. This was a couple week matter. The guest who left the bad review didn't even stay at our property - which is why it was so upsetting to have this. That guest almost got our accounts suspended temporarily because of that bad review. Luckily it was removed and we were able to overcome this. Always ensure to read Airbnb's terms and conditions before calling Airbnb. Airbnb does not help hosts in removing or canceling active reservations - hosts are just made out to be SOL in those situations. You have to get the police involved. 

[Helen3]

A horrible situation but as hosts we need to take some responsibility for vetting guests carefully and using resources such as cctv to monitor use of our properties....

1) I would have not accepted the booking as a standard booking but advised the person booking that they needed to book through Airbnb at work @Mickayla2 

2. What's the point of you having cctv so you can check that only those on the booking use the accommodation if you don't use it ???This would have enabled you to cancel the booking on arrival 

3 having missed opportunities 1 and 2 I would have left an honest review and made a claim for damages and additional cleaning - what did you do @Mickayla2