Ranting | Moral support needed

[Yadira22]

Hello all,

Hope you are well. 
Currently we are having a guest who I want to shout at but know better than to let my anger come out! I am literally avoiding her like the plague. 

Background 

- she booked at 1am and because I was half asleep she messaged me with profanity about how I need to reply to her messages ASAP, despite the answers being already listed in my ad. 2-4am and no reply from me. When I woke up and responded and kindly reminded her that it was 3am when she sent the requests for further information and of course answered all her questions... turns out she was in a different time zone (One hour ahead 🥵).

-day of arrival, she promises to arrive within 30 mins from her plane landing to Heathrow (despite needing to reclaim luggage, get through customs and commute is approx 60 mins). This now passes my check in hours but as we are recovering from a loss last month, I say ok despite needing to be up and gone by 5:30am the next day. 

-day of check in

She  is not “getting” self check in instructions so I stay up (collect key from a local business and take a straight route to the house and let yourself in) ... it’s ok (I have coffee and chocolate for those days). I see her finding us will be a problem so I make the exception to meet her at the station (there are two), she insists  I meet her at station A, then changes  her route (getting confirming, then getting lost, despite telling her several times the easier route) and ends up waiting for me at station b and does not tell me. When she finally realises what happened despite sending notes saying I am here and what to look out for, she comes annoyed 30 mins later. All this time I am trying to call her, no answer. Apparently, I should have known to be waiting for her elsewhere.  At this point I have been up for 20 hours and working about 15 of these... #zombie

i tell her i need to be up in less than 5 hours by then and ask that she please keep it quiet- so she takes an hour shower and comes back to hairdry her hair next door to me for another 40 mins- it’s now 2am. i send a message and no response- no apology.

-remainder of stay.

Next couple of days she washes about 5 sets of laundry, each which equate to about 5 pairs of undergarments and a top- literally - so wasteful!

Every time she brushes her teeth she spits onto the mirror and then leaves it there (so disgusting) and now has left a dirty used sanitary towel on the communal toilet furniture for all to see (3 separate occasions).

I am so tired of this that I am literally avoiding her and frankly as a host this is not what you want. Any advice, I have written to her and spoken, explaining several times my expectations (which are quite reasonable) and now I am ready to throw in the towel and book a holiday until she is gone (the joy of being self employed). 

Thank you and sorry for ranting! 

Yadira 

ps- she has a 5* overall rating 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Yadira22 

You can always laugh at it.

For instance, you’ve just come to ask advice from the people who inflicted your **bleep**-fest Armageddon on you because of their 5 star ratings 🙂

[Md-Mizanur1]

Hi Yadira

I have also have some experience like you. What I did after that I have make my own rules in my Airbnb back office, first I have switch off instant booking and put there at least one day they have to book and some property having instant booking but make the same day booking until 10:00 PM only. The other things standard check in time 2:00 pm and check out time 12:00 pm. I want to have my peaceful night everyday so I make rules no check in or check out allowed in between 12:00 am to 06:00 am. Now I am having peace of mind.

The self check in and self check out is good for host but all Airbnb members are not educated enough on that matter and some time they feel we are going to stay a hotel or a services apartment. Some of them they want host must present in the time of check in or check out.

The usage of facility provided by host are not same in the all property and what's ever facility having there if the guest think i am staying others people home not in the hotel then no problem and their attitude will be good but if they treat like a conventional hotel then property host face lot problem as you faced.

I knew that you are hosting your property long time with Airbnb so, my suggestion just reluxe and hope for the good guest check in to your property and if some time you receive less maaner guest you need to consider yourself and accept them.

The pain not always come. We need to make ourselves humble and live in the society.

Thank you

Regards

Mizanur

[Ute42]

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@Yadira22 

If You act like a servant You'll be trated like a servant.

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22  So sorry. If it were me, I'd have called Airbnb to cancel her booking the instant she sent a profanity-laced message in the middle of the night demanding that her messages be answered immediately when almost everyone in your time zone is sound asleep. That was a humongous red flag. 

Tiptoe around her, yell at her, kick her out, I predict that she will leave a bad revew no matter what you do. And between picking her up at the station, and all the laundry she's doing and all the extra cleaning her disrespect is requiring, it sounds like she's actually costing you money (not to mention your sleep and sanity). What a horrible person she is.

[Linda108]

@Yadira22  Unfortunately you do not provide any information about this guest except all the stuff she does wrong.  I think travelers can be very self-absorbed due to many reasons related to traveling, not always about a character flaw in the guest.  Your natural instinct to be caring states more about you, but what might be missing is why the hell someone can book at 1 AM.  You are not a hotel, so why are you set up to allow hotel type bookings?  Be realistic and do not accept same day bookings.  good hosts need to be appreciated, but we cannot be for all travelers.

[Helen350]

@Linda108 I didn't read it as a same day booking.... just that she booked at 1am. - Which is inconsiderate, even without the swearing. Surely any of us can be on the receiving end of this unthinking 24hr culture, with no regard for the host's sleep times? (The nasty guest was only 1 hour ahead, - Western Europe - so must have been aware of the time in London?

[Helen350]

Clarification: Booking at 1am = OK, demanding an online conversation at 1am = not OK! (even without abuse.)

[Anonymous]

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[Rowena29]

@Yadira22 

I agree with @Sarah977 

The second I got a profanity laced message I would have cancelled. - Teh unreasonable hour only makes it worse  but even if it came through at 1 PM and I was rebuked for not answering within a few hours, I would have given her the flick  -she is clearly going to be trouble.

She's there now, but she doesn't have to continue to be. I'd be ringing up CS adn saying you are extremely uncomfortable with her in your home and you want her gone.  You obviously have a string of messages to her to support the fact you have TRIED.  Id' say you're up for a bad review anyway, and quite possibly she'll stay, leave, then make a claim about something and airbnb will possibly happily refund her,  so she'll have stayed for free, or next to nothing. Get her out now on your terms would be my advice. 

Good luck!

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22  Suggest you turn off your phone ringers when you go to bed. You need your sleep. The receptionist at the front desk at a hotel on the night shift hasn't been awake since 7AM, they sleep during the day. Airbnb hosts can't be expected to be on call 24/7. If a guest who's staying has a true emergency, they can call 911. A guest who can't wait until a reasonable hour for a response is not a guest worth hosting, IMO. If they get impatient and decide to book somewhere else, another guest, a better one, will likely come along to take their place.

[Yadira22]

Hi all and thanks for the input. 

@Md-Mizanur1 thanks for the advice. We do most of the points you mention already and before approving any reservation even if it’s IB we ask our guests to note several points such as to read all listing and rules as this helps managing any expectations, and to confirm acceptance of these. 
Single day bookings make about 1% of all of reservations, if that- we keep it on our listing as to encourage the visibility (we found this boosts position) of our page but we very rarely encourage it etc. 

@Ute42 thank you- tough but fair! I actually needed this reminder. 

@Linda108 this was not a same day booking- I am sorry if my wording gave you this incorrect impression. It was for a couple of days after- so, I don’t know why she wanted to have all this information so urgently. She asked such simple questions, eg. Is this a private room? Is there heating? Etc. 

@Sarah977 I was initially arranging self check in for her (go to a local business, collect key with six digit code and then walk to the apartment, let yourself in)- it’s the easiest but she clearly was not getting it. Given this and the fact that she obviously does not read anything (if the questions regarding the listing was an insight) I suspect she would get lost on the way from the station. It’s a straight route and I provide map links, screenshots, notes, “what to google” etc and people still get lost. Many turn an 8 mins walk into one of 40 mins so given this I thought... ok, will meet her there. I have genuinely come to the conclusion that it’s due to people not reading as it’s across all nationalities, professions etc so have no idea how to better this but that’s another thing. 

Heck I even told her what route to take from the airport to the station by our home- she still got lost. I know my brain won’t let me sleep until she is at the apartment and I would still need to open the door for her. Given its winter and night in London (my area is not rich but it’s safe, we treat everyone like family) I made the exception of just meeting her there. Would have been easier to cancel and will remember to listen to my instinct... 

@Rowena29 And @Helen350 the hour of booking is not the issue as I genuinely have my phone on silence all the time- this really annoys people but works for me and i will not be changing. Everyone knows I am on alert if my phone is on volume and to email/whatsapp me if it’s urgent.  I don’t mind people booking at any time (time zones differ between guests ) but do have an issue with them expecting an instant response just because it’s sunny where they are, in this case it wasn’t. 

Regarding the complaint section and asking for a refund- she has said several times there are  “no issues” and “it’s great”, so though sceptical as usual... I truly doubt it will come to this. Honestly, I suspect with all the things she has done, she’ll probably not write a review but will save myself to the last minute to publish mine. 

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22  I totally get the picking up the guest thing- I don't have self-check-in, it would never work for my place, and my house is really hard to find the first time. Even the local taxi drivers can't find it. So I offer to pick up all my guests at the bus station, which is only a 5 minute drive for me, and is preferrable to me being stressed that the guest will get lost or them having to walk the 20 minutes, trying to pull their wheelie suitcase down the dirt roads. I don't mention this offer in my ad, so it's one of those things that falls into the "offer less and deliver more" mentality that helps to get good reviews.

I just wouldn't have offered to do it for someone who sent me a nasty message in the middle of the night :-))

[Anonymous]

@Yadira22   Based on this guest's initial communication, would you have accepted her booking if it weren't for Instant Book?

[Yadira22]

@Anonymous  of course not! I would have literally cancelled and blocked! But was so busy that by the time I sat down and actually noticed this, it would have been mean! Plus last time I cancelled on someone as I was uncomfortable by them Airbnb still shared my address with them, even after cancelling and they still appeared at my door! Airbnb really should up their privacy... once a reservation is cancelled or finished all personal detail access should be removed and hidden from the email.