Guest doesn't want to leave!! What can I do?

[Ana246]

I got a reservation from a couple in the last minute, and because I had other guest leaving in the same day of check-in and arriving at the same day of check-out, I was very clear that the times of check-out and check-in were very strict.

Now he sent me a message that "they are sorry but they won't leave the apartment" and is not answering my calls or text messages. I even offered him to reimburse the last night because I don't want to fight with him, but I need him to leave as promised and agreed.

OMG! What should I do?

[Lyndsey2]

@Ana246 Contact Airbnb: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165#M23397

Israel

+972 3 939 9977

[Eloise0]

Tell them they have broken the airbnb contractual agreement which is a legally binding agreement and they will be held accountable. email them through the airbnb platform to communicatte with them as well as having a record of the situation with airbnb.  Call airbnb now!  Do not break any of airbnb's rules yourself and if you have to call the police.  Try to get them to respond through the airbnb email platform and only deal in facts, do not make any unsubstanuated remarks.  What is their reason for not leaving? I hope this helps.  Please keep the forum posted.

Eloise

[Andrea9]

@Ana246

Additionally to the good advice of the other hosts here, it is an enormous help to hosts when they get out of the 'friends host' mentality and start wearing the "I'm a business" hat. That helped me a lot.

This way of thinking by no means decimates friendliness and helpfulness, yet helps you draw the line when your chain is yanked.

Your reluctant guest is in fact breaking their contract with you. Pull up those britches and kick 'em out.

[Sharon64]

I would call Airbnb and ask them to reach out to the reluctant guest to arrange another place for them to stay for their extended visit.

[Jude7]

This came up in another recent post.  Thanks to Elena from St. Petersburg, Russia, who shared:

Here is the ABB policy from the terms and conditions

if you as a Guest stay past the agreed upon checkout time without the Host’s consent, you agree that Airbnb Payments, in its role as limited collection agent for the Host, may charge any Payment Method(s) you have on file to collect, for each 24 hour period that the Guest stays over the agreed period without the Host’s consent, an additional nightly fee of two times the average nightly Accommodation Fee originally paid by the Guest to cover the inconvenience suffered by the Host, plus all applicable Service Fees, Taxes, and any legal expenses incurred by the Host to make the Guest leave (collectively, “Additional Sums”). In addition, Airbnb Payments may recover any costs and expenses it incurs in collecting the Additional Sums by charging the Guest’s Payment Method on file.

From Jude - You might want to copy and paste the above into a message  to your guest. When they made their reservation they agreed to have Airbnb charge their credit card double your nightly rate if they overstay their visit.  I would assume at double your rate, your place will become less appealing to them!

BTW- as an aside - I knew I had read the above recently on another post.  So, thinking it would be easy to find the answer, I went searching through Airbnb help, looking for the above information.  Now I understand why the same questions are posted over and over again on this forum!  In spite of diligent searching, I could not find anything under the HELP sections relating to penalties to guests for overstaying their reservations.  I never realized help was so difficult to find.

Jude

[Andrea9]

Good you were able to find that @Jude7. It's true that it's sometimes difficult to find something when searching and that one good post you know is there simply doesn't pop up...

If you overstay past check out in a hotel they'll charge an extra night. I've never tried it myself, but I guess they have a certain leeway of 15 min?, 30min?...

I am personally still quite fuzzy on how Airbnb interprets their new formulation in the TOS since  the last update " for each 24 hour period that the Guest stays over the agreed period" and wonder how they apply that.  If a  guest is still around an hour later past check out, then would that already be considered "a 24h period". Or would the guest have to have been hanging around for another night to be regarded as"a 24h period"?

Unfortunately, I've never seen a post in which somebody had in fact had such an experience and shared how Airbnb handled it.

[Air-Plus-Concierge0]

airbnb does'nt care!!!  Call the police and make a citizens arrest for tresspassing......its your home!! every second they can cause you thousand of dollars in damages..........once the police come...they will leave.....

[Jim564]

I would assume someone squatting in your place is not concerned with paying twice the amount, they'll cancel their credit card anyway. If within the US, I wonder if it turns into an eviction nightmare. Those kinds of people don't pay bills or fines. I want to airbnb a house in another state, that would be a drag to deal with someone who won't leave.

[Deborah175]

It does become an eviction situation, once the guest gains tenant’s rights. Especially true in CA…

[Caroline2015]

This will only work if their credit card still works. Most crooks like this are probably already maxed out on their card or will just cancel it so you can't charge them. I would not assume this method would work at all. If they have been there under 30 days they have no tenant's rights. I would change the locks and/or shut off the utilities to get them out.

[Sophia7]

I had something similiar happen a while back (luckily I didnt have a same day check in). The woman seemed to be on drugs would not leave the house. Since it is a room I rent out she was literally sharing a wall with me and proceeded to pass out in the room where she was no longer welcome.

1. I called my Airbnb local number (for the USA is it 415-800-5959

2. I called the police and she was forcibly removed and charged with trespassing. 

Airbnb will definitly tell you to call the police. Since theses people are no longer allowed on your proprty (per Aibnb agreement), they are 100% TRESPASSING. 

[L25]

e I had this incident happen to me today. A lady stayed at my place in a shared space with me, in the middle of night she began smoking weed and using kitchen equiments(which is not allowed in my listing since the space is small and I only allow single night stay), she booked 2 night separately, so she assumed she would be staying here the following night but then was high and refused to leave. She began threatening me in the middle of the night awaking other guests also in the same residence and threatening to take me to court and of being racist, when I called airbnb they kept saying they will forward it to the case manager but her threats was only getting worse and she was more agitated. Had to call the police and have her escorted out she asked for money since the checkout time was 10 Am and she hasn't heard back from airbnb(they needed a case manager and documentation from me to show the issue,thus had to wait on a case manager), but airbnb canceled her following night stay upon my request.  The police came and escorted her out she left a lot of her suff here and i put it in a plastic bag and kept it outside my door. Asked airbnb to let her know since i blocked her and said future attempts to contact me will be met with law enforcement. They adviced to throw out the stuff in 24 hours if no one picks it up.  Not sure what lesson i could learn from this, but I am in a apartment in atlanta so not sure what the regulations are to protect myself. Airbnb called me and said they gave her $50 credit for her issues. But they only did it after i had to call the police. I contacted airbnb multiple times, I really wish they provided some useful advice or was able to cancel her current reservation without delaying it to the point of involving the police. 

[Deborah175]

This is only true if the guest has only been in your place fewer than 30 days. Afterward, particularly if they are not in your actual home, but in a separate unit, you are in real (and expensive) trouble. In San Francisco, you may even have a hard time evicting a housemate. Read SF tenant’s rights law. You’ll definitely be surprised at how exposed you are. I had a houseguest try it once in SF, years ago. It was a nightmare.

[Dee9]

I dont understand why you arent calling the police.

[Bob91]

I had a problem with a bizarre guest who had booked for 30 days but started a disturbance early,  (domestic violence, calling police because of "noise" next door (construction workers playing their radio), and abused my co-host for mowing the lawn.  I was away traveling at the time and notified AirBNB that her reservation should be terminated,  and they dragged their feet initially.  Called it a "clash of personalities".  Once I returned and repeated my demand that she leave and tried again to cancel the reservation, it still took another week with AirBNB trying to get her to leave, (Finally accomplished on the 26th day) offering her hotel rooms (she refused) and a barrage of threatening and bizarro e-mails from the guest.  I finally consulted an attorney and he advised me that the AirBNB license is not a tenant/landlord relationship but a licenser/licensee situation and you can ask the guest to leave for any violation of the terms.  You also have the right to enter your property at any time and demand their departure.  The disturbances were clearly enough reason, not to mention her abusive emails and threats to stay until evicted, usually a 30, 60 or 90 day process.   I finally had her removed by the state police (in consultation with a local DA) or risk being charged with felony criminal trespass.   I was reluctant to enter the property myself as I had heard that there was a gun involved in the domestic violence arrest, (her assault on her husband, who was not supposed to be there).   All in all, a miserable experience, but I learned a lot.  I hope AirBNB will be more responsive to my take on things in the future (especially as a superhost), but you have the right to demand departure and you can ask the police to remove them for trespassing.