Guest refused to checkout, Airbnb did not help, Guest was able to leave a one-star review

[Nomads5]

I had a problem with  guests that refused to checkout of the apartment, their checkout time was by 11:00AM they were unreachable when I tried contacting them for their checkout, they were sleeping until after 4:00PM I had other guests that did not enter the apartment, nor the cleaning team was able to enter, the new guests cancelled the reservation, and the current guests refused to leave until 5:30PM until they finally left, after many arguments and threats of having the authorities coming to handle the situation. by 3:30PM I contacted Airbnb to help me out, and they told me not to worry and they will intervene from their side to help with the problem.

Results:

1] Airbnb did not answer until next day, they sent me a message to see if I managed to solve the problem.

2] The guest was able to leave me a bad review stating that I rented the place twice, although he was past his checkout time by almost 6 hours.

3]Airbnb did not intervene to help me get the guest out of my place, then they told me that his review is not against their policies and sent me a message saying that this decision is final and don't ever contact us about that matter again.

I know that I will not be able to take any rights from such a management like this, but I just wanted to share this with the community so you know what you are signing up for. And to what extend you could rely on Airbnb having your back as a host.

[Nomads5]

UPDATE : CASE NOT SOLVED: The guest review was saying that I double booked his place, while he clearly overextended his stay by more than 5 hour, Airbnb support ambassadors (Call center)  says that his review is relevant to the property and space according to their review guidelines. The next guest had to cancel the reservation because they couldn't enter the apartment by 3:41 PM, althou the checkout of the first guest was supposed to be on 11:00AM let alone the cleaning team that was not able to enter. And the support ambassadors were able to access the other guest chat and checked the situation, yet told me they could do nothing. The problematic guest had no previous reservations, did not have a picture, NEVER accept guests like that, and until now I figured that Airbnb are give those problematic guests the upper hand.

My case is still open and I will put any further updates here.

[Ana7]

I am so sorry to hear your case. Yes, often I feel alone with this problem as well. Airbnb can and will do nothing.

[Frances3408]

@Nomads5. Hi Nomads. I do empathise with what you went through. However, yes, you need your own plan when getting rid of overstaying guests. The contract with the guest ended at check out time: after that its tresspassing. If, after several attempts to contact the guest and notification their stay had been ended and with no response to loud door knocking I would have sent the cleaning crew in at 12pm- assume they had keys/code so not sure why they couldnt enter?

In future you might find it less stressful to leave a night between bookings and have a clear late fee penalty amount in your House Rules.

As both reviews have already been posted what did you rate the guest? You should continue to complain (twice daily at least) to Airbnb that the review is retaliatory as it was not true you double booked guests (factually incorrect should be grounds for review removal as well as 1 star (was every category rated a 1 star?)

[Nomads5]

Thanks Frances, truly appreciate your response, do you happen to know a way to contact the management directly? The call center wants to close my case as soon as possible they don't even let me have a feedback form. I want to reach someone outside the call center as it appears that their main target is closing up the case, about the review yes everything was one star.

[Cheri354]

I'm sorry this happened ! We're in the US and if a guest would not respond to our calls, messages or knocking on the door, call the police or fire department to make sure they were okay. If they had simply overslept, we would have the police escort them off the property. Unfortunately, support doesn't seem to work instantly for things so definitely report the incident but do have a Plan B in place. 🙂

[Helen3]

If the guest refuses to leave by the check out time you or your cohost need to go into the property at the check out time to ensure they leave. There's nothing Airbnb can do to make them leave,  Thats your responsibility as the business owner.

@Nomads5 

hopefully you raised a claim with guest for the extra day they stayed and an additional cleaning fee for your cleaners to return and of course an honest review to warn future hosts. 

i would continue to ask CS to remove the review .?