Guest from Hell

[Toni225]

So I had this young couple checkin on 6/8/19 for two nights, the female who made the booking asked if  I would do an early check-in, that they would be arriving at 9:00AM. I had a one night booking for 6/7/19 and was not sure how early I could check them in ,so I offered to allow them to drop off their luggage. My booking for 6/7/19 cancelled so I message the female and said my booking cancelled so I can do the early check-in, then I get a request for a one night booking again for 6/7/19 which I declined.

So the couple arrives at 10:30AM and I checked them in going through the apartment with them and going over the house rules with them verbally again.  So I was  at a loss for words when I return home from dinner that night to find my entrance door wide open. that was 11:08 PM, I  then heard the male  come in about 20 mins., later and again reminded him to please close  the entrance door when entering and leaving the home. He was very nice and said he was sorry and will make sure to close the door when leaving or entering. 

     On Saturday night 6/ 9/19  around 12:15AM they both left out of the home, now remember I had gone over the house rules with them, So on Sunday morning at around 9:30 AM I notice that the utilities had not been turned off like I have in my house rules and I also went over verbally with them. So I sent her a message over Airbnb at 11:13 AM.   I got no response back from her so at 12:18 PM I called Airbnb who reached out to her at 1:07 PM the male calls and said I could go and turn the utilities off, so I go up and walk right into a mess., they had eaten and placed all the garbage in a bag and left the bag in the middle of the kitchen floor, mind you there is a brand new stainless steel garbage can right there in the kitchen, a bottle with unfinsh smoothie in the middle of the living room , a plate with pizza on the sofa and two pillows from the bedroom also on the sofa, on the sofa was also a wet bath towel.

Their dirty clothes were thrown over the back of the dining room chairs  and all the kitchen , dining room and bathroom lights were left on. You could also see that one of them had been sleeping on the sofa because the room smelled of body odor. At this time I also on the phone with Jason from Airbnb and he is telling me thanks for reaching out to Airbnb support team he has forward my inquiry to a member of his team so they can help me better.

   Today at 11: 15 AM,  I go up to let them know its time to check out only to find out that she has already checked out and leaves  him there, he told me she told him checkout was 12:00 Noon  I pulled up my listing and showed him its 11:00  AM . I then called Airbnb and as always its have you reach out to the guest, now remember some one was to get back to me.  So at 7:01 PM tonight I get a request from Emily over Airnb requesting a full refund stating that her stuff was tampered with and being locked out the apartment upon return, plus a review based with lies. I find it horrendous that Airbnb has yet to return a call to me since  I made the first call to them yesterday , allow this person to ask for a refund based on lies when a member from the Airbnb support team was with me on the phone at 12:00PM when her male friend was checking out .

It is my honest opinion that Airbnb cares nothing about its host and thats why guest does the things they do.  I am interesd to see if any other host has ever had ths same problem, I am considering delisting my home again from Airbnb  and going back to 9Flats .

[Tye1]

Wow, so what happened? I’ve never experienced this. I have had guest not check out on time which can be frustrating.

[Helen350]

Yeah, what happened? These people sound just mildly inconsiderate, rather than "Guests from Hell." I read the O.P. several times, & I'm still unclear as to what went SO "wrong"..... - Door to street left open would be bad, a security risk, but was it an outer or inner door? Lights left on is annoying, but as @David6 said, it happens all the time; We grin & bear it! Regarding trash BAGGED in middle of room, it it was a PRIVATE kitchen for the guest then Who cares mid way through the trip? Regarding the messy room, it's up to them mid-trip, so long as everything is tidied up before they leave.... I read Emily, the guest's review & I can see where she's coming from.... Of course, It's hard to know where the truth lies, I wasn't there.... Maybe more give-and-take on both sides needed...? 

I do wonder if you're over-reacting @Toni225 , & coming across as a teensy-weensy bit passive-aggressive ? (No offence intended!)

[David6]

@Helen350  your post made me smile. A yoga ‘lecturer’ wanted to stay for 6 weeks. We agreed a fee for weekly cleaning/linen change. My cleaner said the place was filthy. Underwear all over floor. The kitchen -  mould  in dishes with rotting food. Garbage left from the whole week. It was summer and was not fresh smelling! Dishes for week stacked high. ‘Personal/intimate’ items all around room. 

just asked  my cleaner  put all dishes  in dishwasher and (with gloves 🙂 move the underwear/dirty laundry/personnel stuff to one side. At checkout the place was sparkling clean/ brand new looking. Some people live like this. The guest obviously thought: ‘you know what, I’m paying for weekly cleaning; I don’t need to bother!’

I thought about it, and agreed.

 Some people use the shower as a toilet, some have used my kitchen sink as a toilet! I just cannot consider this OP a ‘guest from hell.’ Sorry. 

[Sarah977]

@David6  I have been property managing a small house for friends for many years that gets rented out long-term (lease, not Airbnb) At one point it was rented to a young doctor. When I had to go up there to attend to a repair he had asked me to do, I was shocked at the squalor he lived in. Garbage all over the floor, piles of dirty dishes with encrusted food, kitchen counters covered in food waste. I asked him if, as a doctor, he didn't make the connection between filth and disease. He turned red. I also told him that if he brought any dates back to the house, their initial excitement at dating a doctor might quickly change to a realization that if the relationship turned serious, they'd be looking at a lifetime of cleaning up after him 🙂

[David6]

@Sarah977 

I can actually picture the Dr face :)))

I’ve lived in many shared houses. In Sydney our flat mate drank from each and every cartoon/ juice bottle in the fridge. And each morning would  clear his smokers throat, and ‘deposit’ everything in the kitchen sink 😞  So semi filthy is fine by me, haha. I survived. Apparently we need a certain level of germs? 🙂 

[Helen350]

@Sarah977 Been there, done that!  - Divorced & doing Airbnb these days!

[Susan1028]

😆

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Toni225 

Uh, in 3 years of hosting we had just one group of guests who didn't check out on time (unintentionally, they mixed up the dates) We barely have time to prepare the apartment for the next guest so every delay is very stressful when you have back to back bookings.

I really don't understand why Airbnb is refusing to remove obvious retaliatory ratings and reviews and side with a bad guest at the cost of the host and its own business. There is no sense.

[Toni225]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  At least your guest check out was unintentional , this guest broke all my house rules treated the place with disdain ,  checked out late ,waited until after she checked out to lie and make false accusations and is demnanding a full refund.

Quite frankly I don't think Aibnb gives a hoot about host and is very quick to penalize host while keeping bad guest .

[Robin4]

@Toni225 

Yep, the early check-in request should have set off some alarm bells Toni.

I have a policy, I won't deal with people who want to push my boundaries. Now that doesn't mean I will just give them the heave ho, I can't have a mass of declines because sooner or later it will affect my status.

I very politely tell them that what they require in all probability will not be possible and suggest that they maybe look for other hosts in the area who will be in a position to accept their request. Now that stops them in their tracks. All of a sudden they realise if they want to use this property they have patiently searched for, they need to listen, not talk! 

I actally detailed this scenario in another thread today Toni, here is the link to it. You will find the post at the bottom of page 1.......

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/These-heavy-handed-tactics-need-to-stop/td-p/1047432

Toni, as long as you give them the advantage they will take it and make use of it. As soon as you let them know that you are not prepared to play their game they will become much more conciliatory and will ask instead of demanding. I have ended up accepting guests I intially thought I would reject and they turned out to be good once we got the way we deal with each other sorted out!

It is indeed a pity that Airbnb are bending over backwards to pander to guests like this. All it does is breed suspicion and in the end it will be bad for Airbnb's business. They would be much better drawing a firm line and putting a few of them back in their box.....Lets face it what good are guests like this to the platform, they simply breed problems, get rid of them. close their accounts, neither Airbnb or us hosts need them!

Cheers......Rob

[Toni225]

@Robin4  You are absolutely correct about the early check-in setting off alarms  a few things did and I completelly ignored them . 1) was the early check-in at 10:30 AM when my listing clearly states 3:00 PM check-in,  2) she could have seen that my Calender was also block on June 7th with Dimitri who was checking out on the 8th., the same day she was arriving . 3) Her questions to me about how the place was set up and do I live on the premises , that all told me she did not read the listing or house rules. Yes Airbnb does not  allows us to decline guest often, Host is always penalized  by Airbnb which I find is so unfair.

Thank you so much for the link it was very helpful , great way to be firm and polite at the same time its just excellent thanks for sharing.

I am just waiting to see if and when Airbnb will get back to me, I find that they drag their feet when it comes to getting back the their Host. Yes it would be so much better if they draw  a firm line and stop breeding these problems, it takes away from great guest who really wants to book and makes excellent Host skeptical .

Thank you again for the link.

Cheers,

Toni

[Robin4]

@Toni225 

Toni she was a particulary bad one. In that situation I would have declined her request without explanation to her other than being an unsatisfactory fit,  and stated to Airbnb that she did not,  and her requests infered she would not abide by your house rules, even when asked!

Toni neither of you have handled yourselves well in the review process. You have to remember the review says as much about you as it does about the guest and reading those reviews makes the guest look like a prime candidate to stay away from.....but it makes you look a brittle host and hard to get on with. Toni, I am not having a go at you, I am just saying reviews stay with you forever more, and you need to be diplomatic, stay away from verbal arrows!

I had a guest here who was straight out of hell from a hosting point of view. Her communication was none existent, in the two hours she was here she totally turned the cottage upside down, used every towel she  could find, cooked up a meal  and she called me a creepy old man because I did not pull down window shades onto our rear garden while she was roaming around in it! She said my wife and I were spying on her. She left after two hours, took a number of supplied condiments with her and requested a full refund!

I could have used my 500 words plus another 1,000 on her in the review process Toni....but this is how I handled it .....

I have not got into a 'he said/she said' session with her, I have done my duty and said I cannot recommend her and at least I come out of it with a level of sympathy.

When you give a review, stay away from specifics and be general with your approach. Don't give the guest anything they can complain about to CX and have your review removed.

Cheers......Rob

[Toni225]

@Robin4  Thank you so much for your input, you are correct in saying that I did not handle my reply to her review correctly, I should have never stoop to her level . When  she lied and made false accusations it just made me so upset , that I just decided to call her out on her lies. 

 I don't care about her review, if a decent guest wants to book then fine , no one has to book my place, while I love hosting and  I can use the extra cash, I do not depend on it , its just something to do to keep me busy.

I have hosted with Airbnb, 9flats and Wimdu and has never had a guest like this one , I have also never had a bad review and if the CX wants to take her side when my video proves she is lying then so be, there is nothing I can do about. I just know that in life when ever you put out into the universe it comes right back to you . 

Thank you and have a great day.

Cheers,

Toni

[Erika620]

I had an incident too and Airbnb review system is freaking me out as nobody really cares about us! Yea, they sweet to reply, but why hell client still on airbnb and STILL can review when all evidence were against them. Airbnb should stop this and deal with it in a serious matter when we proved that the GUEST breached airbnb and our house rules!