Hello everyone,
It has been awhile. The active contributors have immensely helped me when I was new here and I hope I can still count on you this time. This platform is where I learned things when I started eight years ago.
Now I am in a predicament. I have a current guest, violated different house rules; let a boyfriend come visit for longer than 6 hours at night, leaving the premises at almost midnight, using the bathroom fan for hours, does not observe quiet times, and having the boyfriend stayed overnight...all against house rules posted on site and a copy in the unit. We let go due to the fact that she is new to Airbnb and just patiently explained to her via messages what is allowed and what is not.
This was a same day booking by the mother of a 26 year old law student going on 18, in our opinion. Mother flew from out of state as she has to take her daughter out of the house where she was because it was a toxic situation (I was blindsided). Bookings are scarce and besides, what can a law student do; she of all people would know the consequences of breaking rules.
Now here is what prompted me to file a case. Yesterday, our neighbor sent me a message to inform me that there was a super loud music playing, laughter, and talking going on at about 1:00 in the morning that awakened her. She got up and opened the front door to see what was going on and found a truck parked in front of our house with doors opened, hence the loud music was heard. She recognized it was our guest. Naturally, we went and saw our neighbor personally to apologize, and was embarrassed to learn that the other neighbor in the cul de sac heard it too.
I sent a copy of the neighbor's message about that to the guest and she responded that they did not feel like they were super loud; most drank people would say that. The neighbor said, they sounded like they might have had a little more of a drink which is normal during spring break. This neighbor has no reason to make up stories. They are professionals and are highly regarded in the neighborhood.
Going back to previous violations, it was mentioned on one of my messages to the guest that we should not give our neighbors a reason to not allow us to have an Airbnb in our cul de sac. I specifically mentioned, that we provide guests with safe and friendly neighborhood, in return, we would like to honor their wishes to keep the environment safe. All four families here are young families with children; we are the only seniors.
So this complaint from the neighbors prompted me to file a case with Airbnb and that we want her out, graciously giving her until Thursday to vacate the place. The first Support Team ("who is always here to help") advice that I can either Modify the Reservation but have to pay the rest of the reservation or Cancel the Reservation and she WILL NOT be refunded for the rest of the stay IF I can provide documentations to support my claim which I did. I attached all messages I gave the guest regarding rules that she violated as well as copies of her alibis to the violations and a copy of the neighbor's complaint. Everything was good and said she will reach out to the guest to advice her of the move out with no refund.
Unfortunately, the following day, there were already different case managers handling the case, calling me, and asking me to provide documents, asked same questions repeatedly, I said, please go over thread of messages that states sequence of events.
Tonight, I got a message stating, unfortunately, the guest declined and will not move out without a refund. I told the support team that I will not refund the remaining 10 days because those days won't be booked anymore at this late in time. It is my lost.
Question: In this case of Disturbance/Neighbor's complaint, how can Airbnb protect the interest of the hosts?
Do you think it is right that we bear the burden caused by our guests?
What is the purpose of the House Rules if Airbnb cannot support it?
Where can I go to reach out to higher authorities who can make a sensible decision?
If I don't let go of the guest, that will not be good in the eyes of my neighbors. I am again so disappointed with how this is handled by Airbnb as it feels like these support team are limited in their capacity to resolve issues. The mother and daughter are both in the law system so this might have intimidated them. Worse comes to worse I have to refund the guest as my neighbor's interest weights more to us.
Thank you and desperately hoping to hear from you,
Juris
