How to deal with complaints of banging, arguing and screaming?

[Krystal16]

I have a 2 unit airbnb, one lower and one upper.  I receieved messages from the guests in my lower unit who are in their 18th day of their stay that they have heard arguing all day from the family upstairs (they checked in 3 hours ago), as well as screaming, banging and loud noises.  They actually said they are not worried about the noise but are concerned about the screaming and banging and are concerned for someones safety. 

What should I do?  Do I go over and try to address myself, am I going to be walking into a domestic violence dispute, do I call the police? Advise much appreciated.....

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Krystal16 You absolutely have an obligation to your downstairs tenants to talk to the upstairs folks. If you don’t want to confront them personally, you can try sending them a message on Airbnb and also texting them (since some people don’t check their Airbnb quickly) If it continues, you should make an in-person attempt. If there is something dangerous going on, contact Airbnb and have them re-homed. 

[Kathy334]

How do we contact Airbnb to get guests re-homed.  They came in last night and they screamed, slammed doors, cursed, etc. until past 4am.  The owner of the property believes they were drunk.  He and his familyt lives on site and was too afraid to go up and see if he could get them to stop.  He wants to evict them.  How do we go about having them re-homed.  He has rented studios on his property for more than a year but this is the first Airbnb rental for this property.  We won't have the Airbnb payment for a week so we can't give them their money back.

[Fred13]

I would limit my role to how it affects your hosting, in this case your other guests, and not take actions that are based more on guesses or suspicions. I know a few families who talked as if they always want to kill each other, why I always circumvented spending too much time in their 'crazy' houses, though we were good friends. Actually, one of a VERY famous family, they were just spooky. LoL

[Paul154]

First thing first. You must find out for yourself. You cannot make any decisions now, because you are just relying on the basement tenants story.

Second, you must diffuse the situation. Bring them extra towels or make up some non judmental reason to come over.

Chat with them, ask them how they are,  be nice all the while you are accessing the situation.

Only then can you make a more informed decision.

Good luck

[Connie258]

I guess they are in a joyful mood.  laughing.  playing. loud thumping.  things dropping on the floor.  which is completely ok if it's a hotel room.  but our family lives in the house and there are also 2 other guests.  I stayed downstairs as long as possible hoping they would come in and may be talk to them and act quite to hint them. at 12:40 I decided it's probably too late and they didn't come out since check in at 2pm,  probably not gonna come out...  but as soon as I got upstairs,  dishes where clinging,  fridge doors opening... cookie jars.  cereal boxes... ( it's a brand new house,  but we're in Canada so all wood and soundproof just ISN'T great)  I wanted to go down to tell them be quite but also hoped it's late they will go to bed soon...  I should just suck it up and hopefully my folks won't be woken up...  but it just continued...  at least have the decency to slow close the doors...  after all its 1 in the morning...  AM I EXPECTING TOO MUCH? 

[Sarah977]

@Connie258  No you are not expecting too much, and no you don't have to suck it up. When guests do things like this, you don't wait until the wee hours of the night- at 10PM, you send them a message-"Glad to hear it sounds like you're having a good time, but the hour is late and sound travels in this house. Would much appreciate you toning it down and closing the door. My folks have gone to bed. Thanks. See you tomorrow."

So since it's the middle of the night now, you'll either send that message now, or go knock on their door and tell them that if they're still carousing, or wait and bring it up tomorrow. Doesn't have to be a big confrontation, keep it friendly and light and hopefully they'll be more respectful.

[Marie-Christine35]

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to the Airbnb hosting life. I have had great experiences since I started by in Feb, but I just had a really odd experience last night, and would really appreciate some insight. I have already contacted airbnb support, but if they don't get back to me, hopefully this can be a place to find some help.

I have a guest living in my basement suite, and I have a guest staying in a private bedroom on the second level. The guest in the basement has her boyfriend over frequently, but it works because they have their own space and practically don't frequent the common areas a lot. Unfortunately the two got very drunk last night (as they do almost every single day when he visits) to the point of belligerency, and the boyfriend became physically violent by pushing and allegedly putting his hands around her neck. All we heard was the screaming, arguing and throwing of her things, and her crying. 

My partner and I were standing by, ready to intervene and kick him out on behalf of the home, but she assured us that she had it handled (through text), and she kicked him out around 10:30pm. 

My concern is for the house, my sweet guest (the victim), and my other guest upstairs. I don't want the (now ex) boyfriend to return, and i'm wondering if Airbnb has a protocol for this? the guest has assured me that he is not welcome back, however I think we're all intelligent enough to understand that these situations are never that simple when talking about someone who may be emotionally unstable.

Any insight would be helpful!

[Alexandra316]

@Marie-Christine35 Wow, so sorry you went through that. What a horrible situation.

First of all, was the boyfriend a registered guest, or were you just allowing him to visit? I hope he doesn't have a key. If the latter, I would make it clear to your guest that he is not allowed inside your property again or you will be contacting police immediately. It's potentially a dangerous situation for both you and your other guest, as domestic violence often escalates. How much longer is the guest with the boyfriend staying with you for? Do you have any kind of monitoring like a Ring doorbell camera to make sure he doesn't re-enter your property?

I would also consider making a rule that you don't allow your guests to bring other people over. It sounds like they were causing issues even before the situation escalated to violence. I know it doesn't help now, but hopefully will stop future situations. 

[Huma0]

I had two similar situtations, but both quite different in their own way.

1. Early on in my hosting experience, I had a couple stay for two weeks. The first night they were arguing loudly until 4am. I live in the property and have other guests, so that's not ideal. The next day, I brought it up and said it was not okay. They apologised. Third night, loud partying until 3am. This time I knocked on their door, told them it was not okay and they apologised. But, it went on (together with some other problems). I called Airbnb and asked them to relocate the guests. The rep agreed that this was in breach of my house rules. She called the guests and told them to follow my rules or leave and get zero refund. That worked.

2. Had two 'friends/colleagues' come to stay for ten days. Became apparent very quickly that they were more than friends (turns out they were ex-partners). Within a couple of days, tensions rose, big fight ensued and booking guest stormed out of the house. She told me her ex had thrown something at her head. I was then stuck with the guy for the rest of the stay, which made me feel pretty uncomfortable. However, he was totally respectful and there were no further problems, but it could have turned out otherwise...

My first resort is always to try to discuss it reasonably with the guest, if that is possible, either in person (then reiterate it via message) or via Airbnb message. I remind them of the rules they signed up to and kindly ask them to respect them. If that doesn't work, I get on the phone to Airbnb and ask for the guest to be relocated. I have only had to resort to the latter a couple of times, but found the rep to be totally sympathetic. and find in my favour.

[Oscar16]

I can’t believe how airbnb pretends to care but then makes it incredibly hard to reach them to consult or report an issue and instead they have this mediocre forum, no that other hosts are mediocre but airbnb is definitely incompetent about this, specially when there are more serious issues such as domestic violence