Guest overstay so i need to cancel next guest.

[Ben3256]

Hi, i have this situation, hopefully anyone can help me.

I have a guest that should checkout at 10am therefore i sent cleaner to clean at 10.30. When cleaner arrive, nobody in the apartment but all their belonging still there all over the place. So i contact guest by message and call, but no reply. So i ask my cleaner to come back again later. Because she has other unit to do, she said the earliest will be around 12pm. My next guest checkin at 1pm. So it only give a short time to clean. So i ask my wife to help cleaning just to make sure it ready for next guest. 

When my wife arrive at 12pm, the place still haven’t been vacant. 

So my wife call me at work. what should they do. I straight away call Airbnb superhost help. J pick up the phone and explain that i need to leave the belonging there, and Airbnb will arrange cancelation to next guest.  J also explain the overstay policy, that i will received double the rate that the guest stay as a penalty because his overstay has affected me to cancel my next booking.

He also mention that in this case i  just need to sent a message to next guest explaining what happen and when the overstay guest contact me, just explain the situation and penalty rate, if they refuse to pay, Airbnb will help.  And nothing else i need to do because Airbnb will look after all the cancelation process. 

I did message next guest and apologies, then just before 1pm the guest contact me. He want me to call him, so i call him. He apologised because he though his checkout is tomorrow. So i explain to him about the penalty rate. He was very angry and becamee a bit aggressive  and i explained that is Airbnb policy. And i ask him to contact Airbnb directly. 

When he contact Airbnb, Airbnb waived the penalty rate without my permission. So he can stay another night. Why ? That is a betrayal ... because now guest will think i am lying about the policy. 

So i contact J again. He said he will get the case evaluated . After couple of day they dismiss my case and said Airbnb and Guest not responsible to pay penalty rate. 

So i call again and spoke to C, i would like to escalate this matter because its unfair. I follow all the instructions that J told me.  She said she will get this evaluate and someone will call me asap. After waiting for 2 days i just got message that their decision is final. 

Their only explanation is because the guest able to book the place again. But the guest was able to book again because Airbnb help him to book and waive the penalty. 

What should i do? I think this is unfair to me. I did ask the link so i can get this case reported and open but no answer.

If anyone can help me or been in this kind of situation, i’ll be grateful.

[Ben3256]

I found this Airbnb term and condition from other post regarding Overstay. 

8.2 Booking Accommodations

8.2.2 You agree to leave the Accommodation no later than the checkout time that the Host specifies in the Listing or such other time as mutually agreed upon between you and the Host. If you stay past the agreed upon checkout time without the Host's consent (“Overstay”), you no longer have a license to stay in the Accommodation and the Host is entitled to make you leave in a manner consistent with applicable law. In addition, you agree to pay, if requested by the Host, for each twenty-four (24) hour period (or any portion thereof) that you Overstay, an additional nightly fee of up to two (2) times the average nightly Listing Fee originally paid by you to cover the inconvenience suffered by the Host, plus all applicable Guest Fees, Taxes, and any legal expenses incurred by the Host to make you leave (collectively, "Overstay Fees"). Overstay Fees for late checkouts on the checkout date that do not impact upcoming bookings may be limited to the additional costs incurred by the Host as a result of such Overstay. If you Overstay at an Accommodation, you authorize Airbnb (via Airbnb Payments) to charge you to collect Overstay Fees. A Security Deposit, if required by a Host, may be applied to any Overstay Fees due for a Guest’s Overstay.

[Sarah977]

@Ben3256  I know you think you handled this correctly by contacting Airbnb first, but as you found out, they can't be trusted. And the first rep you spoke to gave you incorrect info. 

What you should have done is let Guest A know that he was past check-out, and if you didn't get a response, remove his belongings from the unit and let the cleaner get on with her job to ready it for your next reservation. Guest A was effectively trespassing when they didn't check out on time and Airbnb had no business telling you to let him stay and cancelling on the next guest last minute- that's outrageous to leave the second guest with a cancelled booking an hour before check-in.

All I can say is to keep fighting the terrible way you were dealt with.

And in the future, send guests a check-out time reminder the night before their check-out day.

[Ben3256]

yes, i learn my lesson. 

i believe our phone conversation is recorded , but now i know that it only use for their own protection. Not ours. We got nothing to prove and they just sent me a message that the decision is final. 

Is that possible to ask for written instruction so we can use as a proof ? 

How to open this case again? i sent a message couple of time and they didn’t give me any link or email i can escalate the problem. 

[Manasui0]

next ti8me record it also  with your phone.. 

it only works if it's come to a court matter.. yet the record made by can be ask to be open by your layer in court.. 

if you write a message to Airbnb ..

and no respond

write a new message asking why there are no respond after 24 hour..

and ask again 48 hours

and ask again at 72 hours..

then last but not least do I need to print this, and send it to you or some body else.. 

some times 3rd party customer service does not work as proper as 33% of the real all heart CS senior.. 

usually works after the 48 hour reminder..email is quite useless.. but your level at community service does effect the respond.. but it also comes with a more strict toward penalties consideration..

[Jones5]

@Ben3256 I totally agree with Sarah. I would have first contacted the guest that left their items to let them know that I had to remove them due to next booking.  It is not the new guest's fault that they made an error in their reservation. As a general rule, I always send a reminder to my guest the evening before their check-out thanking them for their stay with the check-out reminders of how I expect the suite to be left. I include the check out time also. That way there is no confusion. Sometimes guests have misjudged their stay and have asked for an extended stay and amendments are made to their reservation to include additional nights. (I monitor the business carefully because I can't leave that up to anyone else.) So far, I have not had this situation to occur and I believe that sending that check out message has helped to avoid any mishaps. I hope that this helps in the future. !!~

[Mary996]

Excellent advice @Jones5 

Thanks for the tip.... my place is not self contained but if it were I'd do as you suggest.

[Mary996]

Very well said. Outrageous treatment by Airbnb. So sorry and appalled.

AIRBNB please investigate this matter and enforce your own rules.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??????

Maybe we need to look at HOST's  WITHHOLDING airbnb fees for abuses of process????

[Sarah977]

@Mary996 How in the world could hosts withhold Airbnb fees when they take them off. our payments before they pay us?

[James975]

Honestly, I would not remove the guests belongings from the unit without looking into local laws.  This is a tricky situation, but often renters rights laws protect guests more than you would guess.  If you rent your house to someone and they refuse to move out, break lease agreement, etc..., you can't just break in and throw their stuff on the sidewalk.  You need to evict them through the proper channels, and these laws often apply to short term renters too.  So you as the owner can find yourself in hot water quickly for acting hastily.  I know an individual who ended getting sued by a tenant who did not leave even though their lease had expired (the tenant was technically trespassing as you say) and owner took it upon themselves to remove the tenant's belongings.  The owner was found to be in violation of renters rights laws, and was sued for damages.  

Moral of the story, don't just assume that when the check-out time comes that the renter is done.  And always know your local renters rights laws.  

[Rowena29]

Good advice @James975 

but in Australia ( where @Ben3256 lives) teneacy rights such as you have described do not apply to STR. They only apply to stays over 28 days.  

[Karin1404]

Hi, if you struggle send another email, try writing on Facebook and comment on the situation. Those guys can open the case again or open a new case for you. 

But I also agree - it's always best to stick.to your own rules and make sure the listing is ready for the next guest. If a guest makes a mistake with the dates, that is unfortunately his own mistake - which can be tricky at the same time, because we always want to help everyone to get the best reviews. But your rules are your rules, and you have every right to then pack.up the guests things (which is unfortunately a lot of extra work, but sometimes there's no.ither way around it...) And get the listing ready for the next guest. 

What you can do, if the overstayed guest writes a review, you can reply in that review adding "due to the mistake of your dates, I had to cancel the next booking and carry the penalties - please be careful next time". Or something like that - don't be harsh, but be firm. Because the cancelled booking will show in the reviews after the overstayed booking. This just gives an explanation to future guests that they know why you had to cancel, and they have no questions further to ask. 

I hope that helps you. You are a good host! So dont take this as something that will ruin you for life, but rather as a lesson learnt and that you now know how to handle should it ever occur again 😉❤️. 

[Ben3256]

I haven’t been to their facebook page. I”ll give it a try.  Do you know what is the email address to contact Airbnb for this matter?

[Sarah977]

@Ben3256  There is no email address for writing to Airbnb. There is only the messaging function, phone numbers, or their Facebook or Twitter accounts. For some reason, people often refer to the messaging as "emails", which they aren't, so it just makes it confusing.

Depending on what the issue is, and what team is dealing with it, you might sometimes get an email from someone from the tech team or the trust and safety team, which you can respond to by hitting reply on the email, but there's no way to initiate an email with Airbnb.

[Rowena29]

@Ben3256 

Sorry you have had this dreadful experience.

I dont' have a lot more to add, other than to say that "getting it in writing" doesn't help at all.  When I first started hosting I used to message rather than ring, thinking that "having it in writing" would be an excellent backup.  It's not.  CS will still slide and slither around or refer the matter to the technical department and you'll never hear from anyone again,  or just close the case without responding. GENERALLY you get better service from a phone call.  the messaging system is slow, frustrating and generally useless. 

 I agree with @Sarah977 , the advice the first CS rep gave you was outrageous - no CS rep should ever suggest cancelling a guest, like that at the very last minute, what an appalling thing to do. Especially when that guest was completely blameless.  CS normally goes to enormous  lengths to prevent a host from cancelling a guest very last minute, even when the guest has done something dreadful.  That should have been a red flag for you that your CS rep was an idiot.   I do really feel for you though as when you ring CS and they give you specific instructions you do feel as though they are on your side and of course you do what they suggest. Unfortunately as you have discovered, a lot of them are not well informed at all, but it's the HOST that suffers as a consequence, not the company.

It's very easy to be wise in hindsight, but when you have a conflict like this, it's best to approach it by thinking about who is in the "right" ( the guest about to check in) and who is in the "wrong" the guest who has overstayed, and make decisions based on that.  your action plan would then be - what can I do to get this place ready as effectively as possible for my new guest.   So you do need to be a bit perceptive and if you get information  from CS that just doesn't seem right - like suggesting cancelling a guest, thank them politely and hang up. Ring up again and get a new CS rep.  

All in all a very messy situation.

Since you have such a tight turn over ( i personally leave a day between bookings to give me some wiggle room) I again agree with @Sarah977 i think it's critically important that you email or message the guest the night before reminding them of checkout and procedures.   

Good luck!