Hello, I am the relocation specialist for Vancouver Coastal ...
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Hello, I am the relocation specialist for Vancouver Coastal Health and I am wondering if Airbnb offers discounts for relocati...
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A new guest arrived yesterday. He was dropped off by a family member. The guest is kind and gracious but apparently has (perhaps) asbergers…Upon arrival , he changed my thermostat to 65. Then my hot water suddenly turned scorching hot. His groceries were just in a pile on the fridge shelf as are his pantry items. His plastic bags were left on the counter. He didnt put away his dishes. I feel like i have inherited a child. I have 3 jobs, i dont have time to take care of a special needs person. I want to be compassionate but i didnt sign up for caretaking and rearing. Help! What do i do? I have already had the message him 4 times about rules, and his family had to remind him to stay modest ( not nude). I have 3 woman living here- two of them abuse survivors- i cant have this responsibility. It isnt fair to me. Thanks for any feedback folks. I’ve come across lots of issues over the years ( 300 pound man cracked my tile floors, one guy painted rooms in my house and didn’t even paint all the way up to the ceiling). Help!
Did this man book himself? If someone else booked for him, that is in violation of Airbnb policy and you can contact whomever booked him to come pick him up.
If you don’t want to do that out of compassion, you can ride it out. How long is the booking for? Some guests are very high maintenance, and other guests are like magic and are no maintenance at all. Most fall somewhere in-between. It tends to all even out in the end.
If this is a longer booking, booked under his name, it is a bit more tricky. I notice that his family had to ask him to be more modest. How did his family know that he was not being modest? Do you have contact with the family? If so, and it becomes overwhelming for you, his family might continue to smooth it out.
I wouldn’t go the route of attempting to charge for high-maintenance. What constitutes high-maintenance is very subjective, as well as how to charge and what to charge.
As far as this situation not being “fair to you”, all of us in hospitality feel your pain. It can get that way sometimes.
@Christina1437 If you feel that the guest might pose a danger to other members of the household, or is behaving in a sexually provocative way (e.g. indecent exposure) I don't see a better option than terminating the booking. This should always begin with telling the guest the stay isn't working out and asking them to accept a booking alteration that advances the checkout date with a reasonable amount of notice. If they accept it, they'll be refunded for the unused dates and you'll be free to re-book. If they refuse, unfortunately you'll have to escalate the matter to customer support, which becomes an unpredictable adventure due to their absolute incompetence. I hope it doesn't come to that.
Some questions do come to mind. For example, why is he staying in an Airbnb when he apparently has relatives in the area? How long is he booked for? What was the reason he presented to you for his stay when he sent the request, and what made you decide to accept it? This sounds like a situation where someone dumped a difficult relative into an Airbnb for emergency housing, rather than an independent leisure or work visitor. It's certainly not your fault if someone misrepresented the situation to you, but it's possible that clearing up some of these details might help locate something you can change in your strategy to prevent this happening again.
@Christina1437 this is certainly a tricky situation but you must immediately call this persons family and request them to cancel the booking as your guest appears to be 'a special needs person ' and may be in some danger of having his behaviour affect others when apparently he is unaware of this as a normal adult would be. You are not a carer and this person obviously needs one . Ask the guest if it was his idea to book accomodation in this way ?He may simply be making an attempt at independant living as a 'try out' and since Airbnbs do have a non discrimination policy then this may be it especially since those who left him were not forthcoming as to his disabilitys. He does indeed have as much right as anyone to book and attend an Airbnb but possibly like everyone he may find a better fit elsewhere, i would suggest to his relatives that next time they pursue this obvious agenda that they book a whole house and stay with their son /friend/? Just say . This is not well planned for anyone and although you would like to assist it is not possible at the moment H
the whole nude thing does seem to be an irrelevance to those with high functioning autism. also the other unusual , to you , things that you are noticing . The shelf thing could be easily remedied by some instruction since Aspys are very rule driven and fussy so will most likely comply if you lay down a few rules in the meantime for your own convenience. Believe me it is probably just to avoid annoying. I am sure he would like nothing better than to organize his shelves . It is just People with Aspbergers cannot easily interpret meanings from other humans which are subtle or part of an assumed social contract .also remember that this stay is more important possibly to him than it is to you . just shorten the stay and suggest that one or two night stays would be a better fit .H
Also you do have a badge that says you help those in crisis