Host cancelation penalty

[Aylin9]

We are really upset with Airbnb.  We have been super hosts for 7 years.  Three young men checked in to our Airbnb home yesterday.  They ended up breaking 3 of our house rules.  Four trucks and 9 or 10 people stayed the night.  Maximum guests are 4 people.  No smoking is allowed.  Cigarette butts were seen on a table and the floor.  No parties are allowed.  We called Airbnb to make aware of the situation this morning.  We asked the guests to depart and that we would refund their remaining nights.  Airbnb calls back after conferring with their team and that if we cancel the reservation they will penalize us $245 and block the remaining nights. Rent is $99 a night.  We explained that we were worried about our safety as we live next door in our house and cannot afford to have the rental home damaged with too many people and smoking inside.  The home was completely gutted and rebuilt after Hurricane Ian left 5 feet of salt water muck inside, at a huge cost.  It is a brand new home.  Even the Airbnb representative disagreed with Airbnb's cancelation policy but said there was nothing she could do.  Basically this situation shows the greed of this company and the disregard for the well fair of us as hosts.  Fortunately the guest agreed to cancel the reservation just now, but have not left yet.  But ruined our morning and left a us with bad feelings about Airbnb the company.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Aylin9 ,

I hope you are doing safe! As you mentioned, seems like your guests agreed to cancel the reservation. Did they eventually cancel it, and have left? 

I also wanted to pop in this article regarding Host Cancellation Policies, in case you wanted to have a look: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/990.

Do keep us posted!

[Aylin9 · Accepted solution]

Hi Bhumika,

Yes they did cancel and have left.  Upon inspection of our home we found cigarette and marijuana butts in the kitchen trash can, smelling up the house.  Broken shower rod and bathroom tub stopper. Glad we were able to make them leave.  Will be filing for a portion of the security deposit to replace broken items, shortly.

[Kia272]

@Aylin9  I hate to burst your bubble, but there is no security deposit. If you've been superhosts for 7 years, you should know that. 

BTW, the representative you spoke with was dead wrong. For all of the reasons you named above, AirBnB should have terminated the reservation, informed the guests that they had to leave, and you should not have received any kind of cancellation penalty. You should keep working on AirBnB to correct this (too late) or at least acknowledge it. The guests should also not be able to leave you a review, as they had a party, and that's not allowed. 

The mods @Bhumika  should assist you in getting this corrected. The way this was handled is just dead wrong. 

[Marie7084]

So sorry you had to deal with this @Aylin9 .  Best of luck with future bookings!  Do you have security cameras?  I noticed less problems with guests since I know have proof for airbnb in case guests violate my rules.

[Helen3]

I am truly saddened to hear that Airbnb treated you in this way. @Aylin9 

And worse that their customer services are so ignorant of their own policies that they misinformed you. Of course you won't be charged and have the dates blocked.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2894

Can I suggest that next time if you have a situation like this where you know many more people are at the listing than have booked and you live next door that you go to the listing.

Reiterate that only those who have booked can be at the listing (I presume you have this in your house rules) and that it is a no smoking listing. Confirm that if they continue to have visitors not on the booking/smoke you will need to tell Airbnb to cancel the booking and have them leave immediately.

In this way you minimise the risk of damage to your listing.

As you live next door I would also suggest you do personal check in's where you confirm your no smoking rules and guest rules that mean no visitors are allowed at the listing. 

[Fred13]

"Three young men checked in to our Airbnb home yesterday. They ended up breaking 3 of our house rules. Four trucks and 9 or 10 people stayed the night. Maximum guests are 4 people."

You live right next door, the place is for 4 people only: when four trucks arrived, and 9-10 people came out of them and ended up staying and had a grand party what did you think at the time things were headed?

You now want the booking agency (all Airbnb is, they are not property managers) to make it all perfectly right, the morning after. Why, because they should have been clairvoyant and guess correctly how these 3 characters were going to behave in your property? You been doing this for 7 years, you know how touchy the whole 'party' subject is nowadays.

Considering the facts, perhaps you were quite fortunate that things didn't take a worse turn, they often do in this type of scenario.