Guest lied about cleanliness

[Kitty107]

Hello. I host in Peachtree Towers located in Atlanta, GA. I had a guest book four nights. On the first night I get a complaint about the unit not being clean and an odor coming from a mattress which made it “inhabitable”. I was just in the unit the day before this guest so I knew this was not true. I still proceeded to try to accommodate the guest by buying new sheets, pillows and towels and having a cleaning crew go to the unit and clean since the complaint was that the linens were “dirty”. After spending all that money the guest decided they cannot be there while the place was being cleaned and wanted a refund instead. I refused the refund because my policy is firm and now  I felt like they wasted my time, money and resources. As the cleaners were stripping the beds, these guest made a stain on one of my mattresses and sent the picture to Airbnb. Airbnb decided to issue a refund to the guests and has now put a violation on my account. I don’t have time stamped pictures of my mattress to prove that they put the stain there. How do I get this violation off of my account and how do I get Airbnb to support me as the host and not be taken advantage of?

[Will2063]

Aloha Kitty this has happened to me twice during my hosting tenure and now I have a recent incident today.   I know it will be difficult to remove the violation, but please know there are scams "hacks" on line that teach guest how to get free cleaning, big discounts or full refunds.  My guest is still I'm my hone, but prior to check-in they offered to clean the house after as there were 10 people who are school teachers and could not afford our cleaning rate.  I politely informed them, this is a violation of our policy and I'm sure they could understand how this would impact the next guest.  She persisted, but I gave her the opportunity to cancel or comply as she was within our cancelation window,  

Since she arrived she has sent multiple complaints and most of them are untrue.  My partner and housekeeper company is monitoring the thread.  We all agree this was a potential scam and so we "proactively" reported to Airbnb, just to give them a heads up there may be trouble brewing.  We are always Leary when guests start marginalizing our feeds and accommodations.  Airbnb politely recorded the incident and put it in guest file and heard my intention not to provide a refund.  

All the data is in our message thread including the unsubstantiated claims.  My advice is to work with Airbnb support - if you are a Superhost, even better.  After similar experiences with Airbnb, we opted to join VRBO and Booking.Com.  I think the best way to promote your concerns is to take away their share.  I'm guessing they lost 30% of our revenue in 2024.  So be proactive and diligent.  And if you sustained monetary loss in any form, I would put it in the resolution center asking requesting the guest reimburse you for your loss.

[Armin246]

Smelling guests are the worst. They know Airbnb will take their side because "bad smells" cant be documented, they will not have to submit any proof. Whe  a guest wants to get a full refund for whatever reason, they start smelling bad smells that noone ever smelled before and that doesnt exist.