Unauthorized parties

[Laura4700]

Hi all!   Can I ask for guidance on how you screen to avoid unauthorized parties?  I am a super host, I NEVER use instabook, I always require guests to confirm number of guests, I make it clear we live on the property, I mention the drive is shared with out cars,  I don’t allow children under 18, I have a max of three people total despite it being a 4 bdrm home, I ask lots of questions -all coated in sugar and for the most part, things work out well.  But last night broke me. A party developed from a guest who, looking back, flat out lied about their intentions.  A story of a funeral in the family turned into a raging party that I had to involve the police.  They cleared more than 30 people from my home at 1am.  My  NO SMOKING home was filled with a tick could of haze from cigarettes, pot and incense. A police report was filed, damages were documented, and after sitting on hold for a loooong tome with air bnb Io now know little more than I did.  What other precautions do you take to screen and vet guests? I wish we had access to more information about potential guests before accepting bookings.  I’ve removed my listing for now as I’m so shaken by last night.  Need a chance to regroup and think about things going forward. Thanks in advance! 

[Alan1260]

I am on instant booking and would prefer to stay there but could change. I am seeing a pattern of locals booking like an overnight stay for 1 person, a couple, or family of 4 and then turning the booking into a party for many extended family and/or friends.  I have some locals that book my home for their out-of-town guests that works just fine so I would like to focus preventing the party rather than blocking locals or setting a minimum stay of 2 or more days but again could change if this is the only/best solution.

I wouldn't even mind a little more wear and tear and a little extra cleaning with guests having a few day visitors, but I am finding even 5 star review guests, in a party situation, let their visitors trash the house (and sometimes allow visitors to stay overnight as un unpaid guest which I know is another conversation).

I have checked the no parties checkbox.  There is no displayable note next to this checkbox, but I could certainly say more in the listing about no parties.  I think I understand if I allow guests to have day visitors, Airbnb will charge the guest for damage caused by their visitors but will not try to collect additional booking fees if the day visitors turn into overnight guests.

Where in the listing do hosts emphasize rules about no parties and what exactly do they say?  What do they routinely say in guest messaging? What do they provide onsite to emphasize no parties?

[Sarah977]

@Alan1260  The first sentence of your profile says "I have always enjoyed hosting parties." !!!???

Remove that line.

"I have some locals that book my home for their out-of-town guests that works just fine..."

Third party bookings are against Airbnb TOS and aren't supported. If you take a third party booking and they cause damage, Airbnb will completely wash their hands of it. These locals should tell their out of town guests to book under their own accounts.

"I think I understand if I allow guests to have day visitors, Airbnb will charge the guest for damage caused by their visitors but will not try to collect additional booking fees if the day visitors turn into overnight guests."

Airbnb will not charge guests for anything. You, the host, has to request payment from the guest, and if they refuse, which they usually do, then you have to pursue the matter with Airbnb and even then, your chances of getting paid are a crap shoot. 

You can't have it every which way and expect not to have partiers. Instant Book, allowing 1 night bookings, allowing visitors, allowing 3rd party bookings, are all contributing factors when it comes to parties and house trashings. You have to come up with a plan to thwart the party crowd, which may involve all or some of the above issues. 

There is a place to elaborate on House Rules in the House Rules section, and you can also make it prominent in your listing description.

[Alan1260]

Hi all,

I have been a landlord for 50 years for regular kinds of long term rentals - not bed and breakfasts.  I know that it is impossible to eliminate the risk of bad renters.  In this venue we use deposits, legally enforceable lease agreements, and notices of an impending inspection.  The point is, we do not tell people how to live in the rental (other than references to illegal activities in a lease). We focus on the consequences of damaging behavior.  I admit that I believe most renters are good people who follow the rules when they understand them.  If I didn't believe this, renting would be wrong activity for me.

I prefer to not limit the options of good renters with minimum stays, limiting day guests, etc.  I am not trying to have it every which way.  I am trying to be an accommodating host for good renters. But to also reduce the risks of bad renters by focusing on the bad behavior rather than create rules/limitations that punish both good and bad renters.

Thank you for the tip on eliminating the line of I like to host parties (for my friends, not strangers).  This could be confusing.  You obviously invested time in looking at my listing.  I really appreciate that.

Thank you for alerting me to the loss of the Airbnb guarantee when local people book my apartment for their out-of-town guests.  Rather than eliminate this service for good people, I might start charging a deposit to make up for the loss of the guarantee.  It would frankly be impossible to stop this practice with rules.  I would have to do an ID bed check to know who is actually sleeping here, especially when the bookers open up the apartment for their out-of-town guests.  And/or I would have to use surveillance cameras to always know who is on the premises.  I am not ready to go this far.

I know how the Resolution Center works.  I have had a much better experience with them than you seem to have had.  They have reimbursed me for damage that a guest would not pay for when I have a strong argument/evidence.

I am not trying to eliminate the possibility of any parties - that seems impossible when I have a bad guest.  I am looking for carrots and sticks to discourage this behavior among misinformed guests. 

Thank you for the tip of where in the listing to further explain and warn against parties.

If there is someone who allows your guests to entertain grandma (who lives in town) as a day guest, what if anything do you do to reduce the risk of grandma turning into the whole clan and a party?  What kind of language do you use in your rules that seems to be effective?  Do you tell them up front that you will be inspecting the premises to ensure compliance?  Do you charge extra deposit?  Do you provide on premise lists of rules that spell this out?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Alan1260]

I have added the following to the additional rules section of the listing.  Again, I am trying to be very accommodating to my good guests but reduce the risk of bad behavior by misguided guests.  I will also provide this rule in on-premise rules.  I am open to changes in the text.  If you are interested, I will let you know how effective this is

1. Additional people you allow on the premises:

My goal is for you to have a wonderful stay at my home and that can include you sharing my home with additional visitors but within some limits. If you are not allowing additional people on the premises beyond those you have booked, you can skip this explanation about additional people. If you are allowing additional people on the premises:

a. You are responsible for their behavior, their cleanup, and any damage of your visitors.

b. You can provide limited daytime access to my apartment (living space, back yard facilities, and towels for pool) for free. I do not provide free use of laundry or bedding or food for these guests.

c. You can provide FULL access to my apartment (living space, back yard facilities, beds, linens, laundry facilities, and the extensive food I provide) by booking these additional visitors. I charge an additional $10 per person per day for this full access. Use an Airbnb booking inquiry to ask me for a special offer to charge only for the days these people will visit (Airbnb standard bookings do not allow this level of detail).

d. In any case you may not allow more than 10 people (including those you have booked) on the premises without my prior explicit consent. In this situation I may say no or charge a deposit and additional cleaning fees. But, you are still responsible for your guests' damage and cleaning up after them.

[Fiona358]

Hi Laura.
This is my first time here and reading your awful experience reminds my of my own. London lockdown and after was a hotspot of parties on all platforms. The guest that booked looks nice with a couple of good reviews. Fake ones I believe.
I have been caught out 3 times buy these party organisers and they are organised.   Police and attended on each occasion l have been spat at and a chair thrown at me. 
The parties attended by all similar ethnic backgrounds I’ll be called a Racist if I am more specific. 
On one occasion party organisers had moved all the furniture to another room and set up a silent disco the neighbours alerted me of swarms of people into the building.

I stopped offering self check in. Myself or a representative meets all arriving guests. Airbnb states listings with out self check in come lover down the page of available properties in your area.  

[Helen3]

Sorry to hear of your experience but if your place is attracting party goers don't rely on neighbours to alert . Install CCTV and monitor it. @Fiona358 

Party goers are much less likely to book places with outside cameras. 

[Kristen114]

@Fiona358 

I just had an almost identical experience last night, and you are correct, it really can shake your up. 
This guest had 3 excellent reviews and her intentions were listed as ‘celebrating her cousins birthday by going bar hopping downtown with 3 family members’. I had confirmed with her and asked what establishments she planned to go to. Oh also made sure she had read the house rules.

I always leave wine and muffins and more breakfast items and I was worried she wouldn’t have enough coffee beans for morning so I made a later night trip 1:30am to leave coffee next to her door. On my way downtown (10 minutes drive), I received a call from my other guest in my other unit that the noise level next door was out of hand, and people were smoking weed and he described it as a ‘call the police situation’. 
Indeed it was. I was absolutely shocked by the noise level when I arrived. I have very clearly stated house rules and dbl check with them that they’ve read the rules. 
I messaged her multiple times and finally called the police. I did see and talk with the guest and told them to ‘get out now!’ There were at least 40 twenty somethings partying, calling me every name in the book. Standing on my granite counter, the floors were soaking wet. Yes, I was called a racist. My boyfriend was slapped across the face. The police arrived shortly after and we did get the whole group out and I changed all the lock codes. 
But it is indeed nerve wracking. I feel like these kids were aggressive and I have no idea if they want to get back at me for removing them for the weekend. I am offering no access back. I was also going to keep the second night’s fee as I have a mountain of cleaning to do and there are some small damages. They also broke every rule in the book and I feel that was their own doing, not mine. I plan on this income and I don’t intend on giving them money back for abusing my property and wasting my time. We finally got home at 4am.  
Thoughts on returning any money? Would anyone feel they would have to give any money back for a 2 night stay when the first night was a nightmare?

It will certainly take me a while to get over this one!

Thanks fellow hosts!

[Sarah977]

@Kristen114  Returning money? Absolutely not- they trashed your place, assaulted your boyfriend (for which you should press charges), disturbed the neighbors, and lied to you. 

[Georgina206]

This happened to me this evening.  Booked guest's flat out lied about intentions.  Thankfully, with help from Airbnb and a police threat we managed to get them to leave.  Quite shaken up and confidence is low for future hosting 😔.  We make it very clear on our listing, welcome book, and a text beforehand that we have a maximum six capacity.  No party's etc.  X

[Albert2146]

I recently had the same thing happen. I have a full house and it’s maximum 2 guests and any additional guest is more expensive per guest then the listing. I still had 2 car loads of people pull up and start to party and smoke pot in my non smoking house. I called Airbnb and they said they had a team that would be on it. Which is a complete lie, they just keep telling you that every time you call but nobody from Airbnb actually gets back to you. I ended up kicking everyone off the property myself as I am very close to the house thankfully. I showed Airbnb the damage and I have still yet to have anyone from Airbnb get back to me. They issued the person that booked a full refund as well. Please everyone beware. Airbnb doesn’t care about you or your property and just wants to make money off of people. 

[Lynda350]

I had a very similar experience and AirBnB did not cover all the damages, just part of the damages.  The pot smoking in the home was so bad that they fire alarm was set off and the fire department was dispatched. It took over a day to clean the pot smell out of the home. They has to leave the property and I don't know if Airbnb refunded their money or not.  I'm also I submitted loads of video footage to support my claim as well as photos but Airbnb claimed I needed to submit the photos before the next guest arrived.  I barely has the place cleaned up much less had time to convert the video (which Airbnb does not allow you to upload) until the guest has denied the charge.  Airbnb should allow host who have video evidence to upload the video as further proof of the party.

[Jennifer1119]

You think that's bad, I had one guest booked in, my policy is no guests or visitors except those on the booking. He brought 3 of his mates back at 3am to party, my kitchen bin full of beer cans and used condoms.

Airbnbs response, to delist my room because I hadn't stated whether my security cameras were motion activated or continually recording...what that had to do with it is illogical.

Airbnb wash their hands 

[Jennifer1119]

Yip Airbnb do nothing but find fault in the host