Pet friendly but outside only HELP

[Jackie867]

Hi,

Brand new host here and first booking is meant to arrive Saturday. We state that we are pet friendly to dog only and they are to remain outside. 
In the booking they didn’t state they had a dog but through communication I have found out they are bringing their dog and also 2 additional guest which they didn’t book for grrrrrr…. 
I wrote back to him that the dog is fine but as per our house rules it is to remain outside. He just wrote back asking if it was okay for it to be inside. I love dogs but I am not comfortable with them in our brand new renovated house with brand new furniture. 
So- what do I do? I don’t want a bad review but I also don’t want the dog inside. Can I cancel the booking based on this??? 

this is literally our first guests- not a good start!!!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jackie867 if the guest is planning to break your rules you can call Airbnb and ask them to cancel free of penalty.

[Jackie867]

Thank you! Very new to all of this. 
So seeing he has made a booking without adding the pet and asked for it to come inside even though my house rules clearly state they are to be outside only, I can get the booking cancelled by speaking with air b and b and he won’t be able to leave me a nasty review? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jackie867 Yes as long as you get a decent customer support person.

[Ana2038 · Accepted solution]

@Jackie867 , in moving forward you may consider removing the pet allowed option as many pet owners will try/bring their dog inside. Also, how are you going to monitor that their pet does in fact remain outside (i.e. security cameras) and do you really want to deal with this issue each time a guest breaks your rules and/or find out a dog was in fact allowed in your listing? 

I’d also rethink the maximum number of guest(s) allowed for a place with one bathroom. My listing is small, has one bathroom and a maximum of 2 people. Inevitably, I’ll encounter a guest who tried to flush way too much toilet paper which leads to a backed up or worse overflowed toilet. Plumbers are not cheap ($90-$100). 

As to the security cameras, make sure they are properly disclosed per Airbnb guidelines.

Welcome to Airbnb and Best of luck….

[Kia272]

@Jackie867  I'm afraid it's unrealistic to be pet friendly and then expect owners to leave their pets outside. I LOVE dogs, and would love to be pet friendly, but I'm not, for the exact reason that I don't want my property trashed. It's mostly the burden of cleaning up dog hair that I don't want to deal with. Your whole cleanliness rating can go down the tubes quickly if there's dog hair anywhere! 

It's okay to not be pet friendly. Ultimately you'll get the same amount of bookings, and there's definitely a market out there of people who don't want to stay in places that are pet friendly due to allergy issues. 

I think you have to make a decision to be all-in pet friendly and allow them in the house, or change your property rules to not allow pets. Keep in mind that if you do allow pets, owners will agree to your rules, but there's very little chance that you can monitor their behavior and they will ultimately break your pet rules. 

This guest sounds like a real doozy, so it may be wise to cancel the booking. On the other hand, it's your first, and you could just deal with the pet and allow it inside, and change your requirements after this booking. Whatever you do, don't count on AirBnB customer service to have your back. It's really hit and miss with whichever agent answers the phone, and this could be a Pandora's box. 

Good luck, whatever you decide. Kia

[Fred13]

A thought came to my mind: the dog, that to a lot people are like children, is forced to be outside howling and crying. Then some neighbor with nothing else to do calls animal control and reports a case of 'animal cruelty', then the cops come and arrest the host! Airbnb boots the host off the program (just as they got started) because now PETA got involved.

Ok, maybe I am overthinking this. 😗