Guest unplugged my router deactivating my disclosed cameras, wifi and door keypad

[Jennie198]

Hi fellow hosts!

First time experiencing something like this and I have generally had really great guests. My guest checked in yesterday and 30 minutes into checking in, I notice that all the disclosed cameras were offline and so was the wifi and door keypad. I thought it was strange so I immediately check if there was an internet outage in the area but there was not. Immediately reported this to airbnb to be documented as suspicious activity. Next morning rolls around, everything is still offline so I checked with my internet provider again for the second time to confirm that no outages were reported whatsoever. Now I contact the guest to make sure everything is okay and let her know that the routers seem to be disconnect/unplugged. She then informs me they were having trouble with connecting to wifi last night and it was too late to reach out (I find this to be an excuse because 8pm is not too late to reach out especially when I just sent her a welcome message when she confirmed she checked-in). I immediately ask if she would allow me to send my staff to check out the router situation and she completely stopped replying. Now  I am very concerned. I am sending updates to airbnb to document everything but get minimal replies and seem to be of no help. I am a superhost with a 4.97 average rating and I really expected more assistance from Airbnb...

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Jennie

[Emiel1]

@Jennie198 

If your technical equipment seems  not to be working as expected, there is no need to bother Airbnb with that. They can not solve such a issue. Just check it with the guest and investigate the situation.

[Jennie198]

@Emiel1  thank you for the reply! It seems the guest has unplugged the router to deactivate the cameras. I find it suspicious that she is no longer responding and doesn't seem to want us to go in and plug the router back in. Suspecting they brought more guests than they promised and they wanted to deactivate our cameras so we would have no way of confirming that. 

Do you know if airbnb has a policy that states guests would be breaking rules by tampering with the equipment in the house? Very hard to get answers from airbnb since their response times are too long. 

Thank you for your support and your time in advance!

Jennie

[Jennifer1774]

We have had guests unplug our technology as well. That did disable our cameras and also disabled the notices for the lock. We messaged the guest and told them that we needed to come down and ensure the lock was functional so they kept access. We did not give them a choice about that. Suddenly and magically the technology fixed itself. If it had not we would have knocked on the door. You need to protect your investment.

[Jennie198]

@Jennifer1774 Thank you so much for the response. I am really trying to be nice about this since I dont want them to leave a bad review but you are right, I have to protect my investment. Will be making a trip out there to see what's going on since they are not responding to my messages now.

[Mark116]

@Jennie198   Tell the guest that the cameras and keypad are offline, that as disclosed in the listing [presumably] they are there for host and guest protection, and you will need to send someone/come over yourself to fix the issue, ask the guest when is the soonest most convenient time.  If the guest does not reply, contact Airbnb again and tell them you feel it is important to go to the property, check on the guest and turn the cameras & keypad on [so you don't get reported by the guest for a privacy violation].  If you don't hear from the guest, give them the time you will be coming and mention you've communicated this to Airbnb and then go or send someone.

[Jennie198]

@Mark116 Thank you so much for the reply and I really appreciate the advice and information! Will be going out there to find out what is going on. In the meantime, will be communicating my plans to airbnb first just to have things documented.  

[Enri1804]

@Jennie198 “Do you know if airbnb has a policy that states guests would be breaking rules by tampering with the equipment in the house” - Yes they do - specifically tampering with security cameras is against terms of service. 

It’s your right to go to the house now-if you can. Our home is more rural, so we call the local police if we don’t hear back from the guest. Our local police will at least drive back and let us know if they see a party or anything out of the ordinary. 

[Jennie198]

@Enri1804 Thank you so much for the reply! This is really good information and I appreciate it all! I will definitely be making sure my router is locked up in a closet or lockbox so future guests dont have access to it. Figured if the router ever needed to be restarted, guests would have access so we could save a trip out there but now we know, probably not a good idea to allow guests access to equipment because they can tamper with it. Should have seen the red flag from the beginning. Guest said their other reservation canceled on them so they needed something for the weekend and I gave in seeing that she had 5 star reviews over 4 different stays.

[Helen3]

Hi @Jennie198 

Sorry to hear about your problem guest. I do hope you found everything was okay when you went there.

[Enri1804]

@Jennie198 There may come a time some renters need to unplug and replug back in do to Internet updates so it shouldn't be too locked away unless you want to have to go over to the home to do that yourself. I have it in my rules something like "no tampering with wifi, internet, security cameras." Plus $200 fee for police dispatch. Mine hasn't been unplugged yet. (Fingers crossed)

Hope everything turned out ok at your home.

[Jennie198]

@Enri1804 ahh, great suggestions! Will definitely be adding that to our house rules. So turns out, I was right! Guest did unplug the router because the had extra guests. I confirmed this after I plugged the router back in and all offline footage suddenly came up. I did not know this but my cameras actually record up to an hour of motion footage even in an outage. Definitely going to send the footage/screenshots to airbnb and charge the guest for the extra people. 

Thank you again for your support and awesome suggestions!

[Amanda660]

@Jennie198every day is a school day - as hosts we’re always learning. 

How many extra bodies did they sneak in?  

[Jennie198]

@Amanda660 they just had 2 extra adults and a few extra small children is what it looks like. Not a huge issue if they had just been honest but they just wanted to avoid the extra guest fees. Thankfully, they were a clean group and did not ruin our home. 

You're right, everyday is a school day for us hosts, lol.

Thank you for the support! Much appreciated!

[Ben205]

@Jennie198So what happened when you got there?