HOUSE RULES VIOLATIONS

[Cobus11]

Dear Fellow hosts.

I have a 30 days guest and the booking was made by his 'girlfriend' - For guests staying longer than 7 days, we offer a complimentary linen change ever 7 days as well as a  laundry service ( wash & fold ).

On arrival to clean the apartment we found that the guest is in clear violation of the house rules.

It is clear that you may not smoke in the apartment, let alone marijuana. The person who made the booking informed me that she was to visit him so they can spend some time together while "working" from home. This appears not to be the case. When i removed the white linen i found that it was smeared with makeup foundation ( base ) on the pillow cases, duvet and the fitted sheets. I have been unable to clean the smeared linen and will have to get rid of it if a professional laundromat cant clean it ( these are 1000 thread count linen )

The guest is dirty, very unresponsive and dont want him in my apartment any longer. The fear of course is an adverse review as a result of any actions i may take as a result of this.

I am convinced that the profile on which the booking was made is fake as it has but 1 verification ( cell phone number )

Please assist as I am the end of my patience and cannot find assistance via a Person

[Anonymous]

@Cobus11   You have the right to terminate the booking due to violation of your smoking rule. You also have the right to request compensation for the stained linen (though bear in mind, claims like these usually fail). Both courses of action will inevitably result in a negative review, so you have to decide whether it's worth it. 

In the future, if it comes to your attention that a booking was made by a third party, you may cancel or decline it because these aren't allowed on Airbnb. You can also require in your House Rules that no unregistered visitors enter the property, but this usually only enforceable if you catch it early.

[Cobus11]

Hi Andrew. This is part of the flaw with Airbnb and I agree, If you discover this when the booking is made, its easier to decline. Its a totally different kettle of fish when the guests arrive - there is no easy way of handling that and we as hosts will always try NOT to judge guests based on appearance. Airbnb gracefully advertise that you have insurance cover and as it is, i have not been able to verify anyone that has been compensated for damages.

From what you say, it appears that Airbnb does not care about the hosts and what i would like to refer to as 'revenge reviews' - surely this is not what any one has signed up for.

I appreciate your input - it seems that an ambassador has been assigned to deal with the matter - so lets see what happens in the next day or so. I will update you.

Best and stay safe

[Sarah977]

@Cobus11  Of course it's easier if you reaize it's a third party booking before a guest shows up. But if that isn't the case, you really should refuse entry if the person who arrives isn't the person who shows up. 

I'm not sure how your comment about not judging on appearances is relevant.

There are some third party bookings which hosts might accept and not have any issues with, such as an adult child booking for their non-tech savvy parents, or because it was a gift they wanted to be a surprise. 

So you can make a decision on a case by case basis.

But even with these, there can be issues because the actual guests haven't read through the listing description and house rules themselves, so may arrive expecting things that weren't offered, or showing up with their dog, ignorant of the fact that you have a no pets listing.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977 @Cobus11  Another thing you can do is state in the listing that in order to check in, the guest must present a photo ID matching the name and credentials in the Airbnb profile. This is a useful security step that several jurisdictions require, but it's important to keep in mind that if you turn away a guest who doesn't meet the requirements, you're not going to get the payout for the booking.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  It seems to be pretty unusual, but I've never had a guest who didn't have a clear profile photo of themselves, so I could easily tell that the person who arrived was the person who booked. 

But if the profile photo was of something other than themselves, or it was a photo of a young woman, and a middle-aged guy showed up at the gate, I'd be asking for ID.

Never having had a third party booking, I do think I would deal with it on a case by case basis. Not all 3rd party bookings are nefarious, like booking for a friend who's been banned or for your 17 year old kid. I'd venture a guess most are made simply out of ignorance of the TOS. 

So if the person who showed up wasn't the person who booked, I'd probably go on my intuition, and if they seemed shocked and confused  that it wasn't okay and seemed nice and polite and decent, I likely wouldn't turn them away.

Like the sweet young couple who looked absolutely surprised and devastated when I pointed out she had booked for 1 and I only accept one guest at a time. It was her first Airbnb booking. I let him stay, they were content to squish into the single bed, and were lovely guests.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977   I think one thing that makes a huge difference is being an in-home host, who is clearly going to be privy to any goings-on in the house. It would take a seriously talented con artist to pull off a major ruse when the host is living in the same home, and it wouldn't make sense for such a gifted grifter to be booking budget accommodation when the world is their oyster.

I do suggest to in-home hosts - especially people living alone - that they put in their listings that they ask for ID, mostly as a deterrent against people who might try to exploit their vulnerability. But actually this advice seems even more practical for Entire Home hosts, who are giving an entire property to an unsupervised stranger from a dodgy website. It's kind of bizarre that so many people have been conditioned to think that's a good idea, just because Silicon Valley came up with a few horrific marketing strategies to sell that delusion. Example:  https://tinyurl.com/54ktt6mw

[Cobus11]

@Sarah977 @Anonymous - thank you for the notes. I am still waiting on a representative from Airbnb to get their acts together. The only reply i received was to inquire if i tried to made contact with the guest - they are clearly illiterate or just don't give a rats ass about the situation as all the information was provided ad nauseam.

take care

[Anonymous]

@Cobus11   Waiting for a support agent is a waste of your time unless you know precisely what you need them to do, and it's truly an in-platform task that you can't do yourself. 

If you need to evict the guest or enforce your rules, they can't help you there - you've gotta do all the dirty work. In this case, that would mean that you send the guest a Booking Alteration, inform him of the time by which he must vacate the property, and either you or a co-host should be there to oversee the departure. Your communication should make it apparent that the guest will be refunded for the remainder of the stay if he accepts the request to advance the checkout date.

This all becomes more complicated if the person in the home is not the account holder, but there's nothing Airbnb can do to make it less complicated. 

[Katja202 · Accepted solution]

@Cobus11  In any case do some damage control. Change the sheets and everything you can change in something that is cheap. He will not notice because he is to stoned 🙂 Next go and talk to him. He obviously can't stop smoking, but make a deal with him ... no smoking inside. Give him a good chair (sell it like it is the best place ever) some where away from harmsway and let him smoke there. Negotiate him to where you want to have him and where he can do no harm. Treat him like he is your troubled teenage son. This may safe your stuff and your review.

[Cobus11]

@Katja202 - you just me me smile ! Thank you. Jij bent de beste ! 

[Katja202]

@Cobus11  Baie dankie! I just thought of an other solution. You can also warn him their is a Pollsmore prison guard living in the appartment next door …. So he beter be carefull that guy doesn’t smell anything.

[Sarah977]

@Katja202  🙂

Long, long ago, back in my late teens, my boyfriend and I lived next door to a  retired ex chief of police. The 2 houses were on a little dead end road and shared a driveway. Sometimes a police car would pull up, coming to have a social visit with my ex- cop neighbor.

One time some friends were staying with us and had quite a bit of hash with them. They saw a police car pull up, thought they were coming to my house, and ran and flushed their whole stash down the toilet.

[Katja202]

@Sarah977 Hahaha …. we beter behave …. You never know 🤣😉

[Michael4446]

I recently had a similar situation with a guest who brought in extra guests, brought in a dog without permission and allowed the dog to run free on my neighbor’s property, and smoked and vaped in a non-smoking house. He broke every house rule I have an Airbnb, refused to pay the extra fees and airbnb did nothing. There are no ramifications for breaking house rules, no accountability and airbnb doesn’t care to support their superhosts.