Unauthorized guest and disarming of security camera

[Carol9807]

Our guest initially made the reservation for four adults, upon arrival there were 7 guests. During their stay the security cameras went offline. We attempted to contact the guest, the did not reply. I reached out to customer support. The guest told them the internet was "unstable". Customer service then told us that if we didn't address the issue that i would owe the guest a refund. 

I contacted my guest told them house house manager would be coming. The house manager arrives and is refused entry to the home. She is finally allowed in and the room with the internet is locked and the guest is refusing to unlock.... she gets the door open and finds the internet is unplugged.

My mind is blown, why would you do that unless your hiding something. I have reached out to customer support again, waiting to hear back from them.

What are my options here????????

[Frances3408]

@Carol9807. Hi Carol. A similar thing happened to me. They taped over the back camera lens to prevent it showing the smoking they knew was not permitted. After reviewing the footage online we contacted them. It was not resolved during their stay. Other things happened that resulted in them leaving the place dirty and early.

Airbnb support were no help and closed our Airbnb claim. I did not have the time or energy to fight it as I had another booking in a few days. So I just dug in and sorted out myself.

My saving grace was that being a preventative type of person I made sure the alarm and internet box were both secured behind a locked built in wall cabinet in a common area and the wiring could not be got at without destroying walls. Make sure it is clearly marked as Owner Only Use and not to be touched in House Rules and onsite info. At the time my alarm guys thought I was paranoid but I prefer to get a call from guest re internet issues than this. Besides, when the internet goes down the owner gets a text notification so easy enough to check with your internet provider as all outages get recorded in our area.

I am hoping you have captured online some external footage leading up to the "unstable" event. Copy it into another file as ours gets wiped every 30 days. Add this to your internet provider outage history and house manager statements and send it all to Airbnb support asap.

I think when guests start attacking your property you need to swing into action, not wait. Oh, and dont forget there is a separate area here called Host Circle which is for hosts only and you should get some more host support if you repost there as well. Good luck.

[Angela3989]

@Carol9807  Unfortunately from what we've read here, you cannot count on Airbnb support. Often they believe the guest even if you have clear evidence to support your point. I would just invest in a away to move the WiFi in such a away as to keep it locked. Perhaps a long cord into a room/cabinet where you have it locked. Or a box you can find on Amazon etc that you can put a lock on that. There are baby proof outlet covers as well that can be locked so they can't unplug it from the wall. It's better to prevent any issues that will be an argument between you and the guest with Airbnb. Best of luck!

[Helen3]

In your situation I would contact Airbnb and ask them to cancel the booking as the guest has seven people in the accommodation and has also tampered with your security cameras by turning off the internet .

if you charge per guest I would also charge for the additional guests not on the booking. @Carol9807 

[Deb216]

• Tampering with security devices: Guests may not disconnect or otherwise obscure any permissible and properly-disclosed security devices.

I found the above paragraph by searching:

"Airbnb, What's Expected of Guests"

If you fully disclosed all of your security cameras, the Guests are violating Airbnb's policy.

I would contact Airbnb Host Support.

[Frances3408]

@Deb216. Yep Deb, I knew camera policy inside out which is why I called the guest. It was the first of many House and Airbnb rule breaking these guests did and I told Airbnb about at claim time when I also asked for the review to be removed (second Airbnb fail but at least the 1 star I gave remained). As a newbie at the time I let the first one slide, then the second. I should have just thrown them out but at the time I felt sorry for the kids Summer holiday being spoilt by irresponsible adults. Silly me..

[Paula]

Hello @Carol9807, I’m sorry to hear about this situation. Many of our hosts have shared their opinions on the matter, so please keep us updated once you’ve had a chance to review their feedback.

I have also shared your case to the relevant team, as we are not part of the support team, they should contact you directly with further updates.

Additionally, I’ve merged all the comments you’ve received into this post to keep everything in one place. I hope that’s okay with you.

Regards,