Guests that bring pets against your house rules - recommendations on followup

Guests that bring pets against your house rules - recommendations on followup

I recently had a guest break my House Rule on No Pets. The reason I have this rule is that in addition to the risk of damage, there are many guests with allergies that inquire about the presence of pets in the past. So any introduction of a pet into the house costs you extra cleaning and future guests.

 

My response after finding dog hair all over the house was for additional payment for a deep cleaning. 

 

The guests response was that she'd already paid for a cleaning fee, didn't read the AirBnB rules other than my supplemental rules, and that since we're in the midst of Covid, my standard cleaning for Covid should cover the dog hair.

 

Just curious what fellow hosts would do here:

 

1- Would you be infuriated?

2- What are the odds that I'll get compensated?

3- What are the odds that Airbnb helps? Most of the threads on the community indicate that Airbnb is not supportive of hosts when it comes to house rules.

 

 

2 Replies 2
Maxine33
Level 8
Alexandria, VA

I have a $150 pet fee to cover the additional cleaning costs.  But I am a pet lover and have been fortunate to this point not to have any serious pet damage.  

 

My guess would be that you could make a claim through resolution for the additional costs of cleaning.  I do not know exactly what a "COVID Clean" entails but it is more of a disinfecting process.  Dogs and cats require a different, deeper clean to remove animal hair. 

 

Hopefully Airbnb will stand behind you here.  

@Scott1183 

I would probably want to focus on making sure people aren't able to bring any unauthorized pets (and children and friends or other guests) into my home from the beginning. 

 

Imo, cleaning after a pet (hair, smell) is completely different from covid-19 cleaning (disinfecting "touch" surfaces) so the guest's claim is nonsense. The cleaning fee included did not include additional cleaning needed for a PET so if they brought an unauthorized pet then I believe you are entitled to collect and receive payment. Not sure how Airbnb will handle this though..... as long as the additional pet cleaning fee is a reasonable sum (compared to your nightly rate and regular cleaning fee) I don't see why Airbnb would refuse to make the guest pay.