Pet policy and guest refusing to cancel

[Priyanka44]

Hey folks, 

I feel like I’m on here every few days posting about something new and ridiculous.

So I have a guest that booked for my property from November 28 to December 19. I was very excited for the semi long stay and the business. I have had several issues with guests lately and therefore I sent her the house rules before approving her booking. My exact words to her in the message were these are the house rules do you agree to this do you need time to think about it before I approve your day? She supposedly read the email or the message and agreed to it. 

The third bullet point on that message was no pets allowed unless they are service animals. She messaged me today about two days after her booking was approved and asked me whether it’s OK to have a dog in the house. I said no. I said my booking says no animals and you agreed to a message that says no animals. She’s refusing to cancel the booking because it’s non refundable. Airbnb has advised me not to let her in if she shows up with an animal.

My concern is very simple. I’m not going to monitor her like a child.

What guarantee do I have that she’s not gonna come into my house and then sneak the animal in? I feel uncomfortable even allowing her to come, but she booked a nonrefundable trip and she’s claiming she doesn’t have money to live somewhere else. She said she’s planning to find another accommodation for her dog, but has no money to do so. It would be one thing if she didn’t read the rules and just got approved or did instabook. But I literally sent her a message with the rules and she agreed to no pets.

What would you do in my situation?

[Linda108 · Accepted solution]

Complicated situation and complicated advice but @Priyanka44 the advice you are getting from seasoned hosts is addressing what you can do now and how to prevent issues in the future.  Hopefully you will be able to accept and implement.  What is important to note is that often a host is caught in a situation with a potential guest that it is just not going to work out.  Often the host just has to realize that it is better to take control of the situation even if it means short term income loss.  You definitely do not want someone having access to an important and valuable asset for 3 weeks that you have good reason to not trust.  Good luck and keep us posted!

[Priyanka44]

Hey guys. First of all I appreciate all of the responses and this has been extremely helpful. I think I need to grow a thicker skin and a better mentality when it comes to doing business on Airbnb, but I’m very new to hosting. All of your expertise is tremendously helpful to me as I navigate this new territory in my life.

I have to be honest I was getting a lot of anxiety with the way she was behaving with me over messaging. I took @Mike-And-Jane0 ’s advice before seeing all these others. I reached out to Airbnb over the course of 24 hours to all different representatives and finally someone saw the situation and the fact that she had a blank black background picture as a profile screen without any image at all associated with it and cancelled the reservation. I stated two things for this to happen. First point was that I have health issues with having a pet in the house and second point was that Airbnb platform should be able to stop someone from posting a blank image as a profile imagine. If they can’t do that they’re further liable for my safety if the wrong person comes to the door. Between these two things the last representative I dealt with cancelled the booking for me. I’m informing you guys of this so if you run into this issue as well.

I have now significantly changed my posting to reflect all of these issues per your advice and better elaborated on all of the rules. It’s just really sad that this is what it comes to. I think there are a lot of hosts here who are not looking to screw over their guests and provide a good experience. Needing a disclaimer for the most basic of rules is just ridiculous.

Thank you all so much! I did lose out on the income even though it was a non-refundable trip. But at least I don’t have to deal with the issue. 🥂

[Anonymous]

@Priyanka44  I'm glad you were able to get the neutral cancellation processed before the check-in date. Hopefully this gives you a chance to find a replacement booking. Had you taken the first support ambassador's advice and refused entry to the guest on arrival, you still would have forfeited the whole payout for the booking.

I notice that your House Rules threaten to charge various fines for violations. I hope you're aware that this is not actually something you can do on Airbnb - they don't collect fines on hosts' behalf.  Your primary recourse for any violation of your rules is to end the booking and remove the guest.

[Annie1372]

Hi @Priyanka44 

thanks for sharing your story!

when I read your post last night, I could not believe that some people have the audacity to do that to AirBNB host.

i was feeling for you.

As a new host too, I got my first booking 3 days ago and will be receiving my 1st guests in 1 month (my house is not 100% ready yet). I’m exited because this guest is also an AirBNB host, so I taught they would understand my little stress and excitement to open my door for the 1st time.

Well I could NOT believe … only 2 minutes after reading this thread, I got a message from this upcoming guest… where they are asking to bring their dog despite my ‘no pet’ rules. I was speechless.

the most surprising thing is that this guest is also a SuperHost, and they also have a ´No pet’ rules on their own AirBNB.

my Booking rules are Flexible, I will see what they will do as I did not comply to their request