We have been renting for almost two years, mostly longer-term rentals, and are proud of having received 23 straight 5-star reviews. We always try to go the extra mile for our guests and take pride in having met their needs, especially when they say so in their reviews.
Recently, we received a 9-day booking from a Spanish man who wanted to take his elderly aunt and his even-more-elderly grandmother to our place in Portugal. The guest insisted on us communicating through an external messaging app, which we usually don't like to do but have done without incident in the past. We agreed, and the messages kept pouring in. He repeatedly asked things which we had already explained to him, such as whether they could check in early, whether there was parking, etc. Even so, he was not our first demanding guest, and so we happily answered all his questions.
This past Monday, he was due to arrive at 11:00 Portugal time (we live in Hong Kong, seven hours ahead), and that's when all the strangeness started. First, he couldn't find our home--despite my having given him very precise directions--simply because he hadn't written the directions down. He sent about 10 messages to me and, I would learn later, to our house manager Mike, and we were both re-explaining to him how to get there. I even sent him the exact quote I had previously sent him on Airbnb showing him precisely how to get there.
Then, when they arrived, they said that they couldn't open the door with the key. This was the first time with over 30 guests (we have also rented out privately, not on Airbnb) that a guest could neither find the home nor open the door. Again, the panic messages started coming in left and right, and so Mike was on his way over there when the guest texted him to say that they had finally figured out how to open the door.
After that, the messages just kept coming: Would someone be coming by every day to change the towels? (No, this is an Airbnb. You are supposed to wash them yourself.) Why is there only one Spanish TV channel? (Because you are in Portugal. But there are over 200 channels, and so surely you can something to watch.) Where are the sponges for the mop? (In the cleaning room where the mop, broom, vacuum and other cleaning products are kept.)
And so on. And so on.
And then, things turned REALLY bizarre. At around 1:50 am Portugal time, I got a text message here in Hong Kong from him in which he claimed that someone had thrown rocks at our window and run away, that it had woken him and his two elderly relatives, that they were terrified, and that they had called the police. Naturally, we were very concerned but also very surprised. Our resort is next to a golf course and not near any main streets, bars, etc. It is patrolled regularly by security, and most of the people who live there are retirees. In over two years since we bought the villa, we have never heard a single story of a break-in or anything remotely like that. It is really a safe, peaceful and quiet community, and so we were more than a little surprised to hear this.
Anyway, the guest told us the police had come but were not very friendly or helpful, and then he started saying that they didn't feel safe, that it was our fault for not having security cameras, and that they were going to move to a hotel. In fact, they had already booked one, he said, and he asked if they could have their money back. So, I told him that I'd see what I could do about getting him a refund, but that I also needed to talk with Airbnb because we had never experienced anything like this before.
Here's where the real strangeness started. While I was emailing the condominium agency at our resort to let them know about this, the guest sent me a photo of a vase that he alleged had been broken by the rock-thrower. But here's what makes that point strange: the vase was on a table inside the house, behind a window which was covered with metal grates on the outside and which had blinds in front of it on the inside. If you understand physics even slightly, then you know that it is physically impossible for a rock to go through a metal grate, a windowpane and a set of blinds--without breaking the window glass--and then shatter a vase inside the room.
He also let it slip that his grandmother had stated that she would have preferred to stay in a hotel, and he then announced that they would be leaving in the morning. I told them that while they were sleeping, I would contact Airbnb to try to look into a refund, and he was showering me with praise about how "kind" I was and promised that he would write us a good review.
(Wisely, I told him that from there on after, we should do all our correspondence within the Airbnb app so that we have a record of everything.)
I contacted Airbnb that morning by message and was told by a "bot" that they had recorded my case, but then the bot disappeared when I mentioned the refund. So, I decided to wait to call them a bit later in the day, when I was more sure that I could reach an agent.
But then as the day progressed, more things didn't add up. First, when the condominium agency received my message in the morning in Portugal, they immediately contacted the resort security, who then went to check on our guests. However, when they inspected the so-called 'attack area,' they found no rocks around the windows at all and no evidence of any rocks having hit the window or wall. So, when we heard back from the condominium agency, they said that the guest had changed the story to say that no rocks had been thrown but rather that some man had been outside "banging loudly on the metal grates." This, despite the fact that he had already stated several times on both the messenger and Airbnb apps that someone had thrown rocks.
Next, our house manager Mike visited the villa after the guests had left in the morning and likewise had found no rocks near the window, and so he went around to talk to our neighbours. Not one of them had heard any loud banging that night, and the neighbour closest to us, who can see everything on that side of our home and with whom we share an entranceway, said that he had been up until 3 am and had not only heard nothing of the sort, but that he also had not seen or heard the police come.
By now, of course, we were starting to become very suspicious. And then, when the Airbnb agent and I finally spoke on the phone and I explained the story to her, she likewise seemed skeptical but told me that she would need to forward this to a Case Manager. I was put on hold for quite some time but the Case Manager still didn't come on, and so the agent told me that the CM would call me later. I waited till 11:30 that night and fell asleep on the sofa.
(Side note: The guest and I had continued texting that day, on the Airbnb app, and I just told him that I was still trying to find out what the procedure for doing this was from Airbnb--which was absolutely true. He kept telling me how "kind" and "wonderful" I was.)
When I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to see that the Case Manager had written in detail and had explained very clearly that if a guest checks in and then wants to check out for supposedly "safety reasons," then the guest needs to "provide documentation about their claim," and if the guest cannot provide any such written evidence, then THEY can cancel on their end and the Moderate cancellation policy will apply--meaning the guest would have to pay 50% of the booking fee.
Now, if anyone thinks this is unfair to the guest, please understand: they had booked the room for 9 days during peak season, had already checked in, had already stayed for one night (meaning that if we earn nothing, then we incur the 150 EUR cleaning cost as well as the loss of all the amenities we had put out for them), and had broken a lovely ceramic vase--all for what looked, at this point, like they changed their minds after checking in, decided to move to a hotel, and then created this whole elaborate story to get out of paying anything.
Anyway, I was still on fairly pleasant terms with the guest, who was unaware that we had been piecing together all this information behind the scenes, while he and his relatives were relaxing in their 5-star hotel. And so, I sent him a friendly message explaining what Airbnb had told me and quoting that part of the Case Manager's message, and I told him, politely, that if he could give me a copy of the police report or give us the officers' names and or contact information, then we should be able to get him the full refund.
And THAT is when things turned nasty.
He suddenly started sending angry messages, saying that the police were rude and didn't give them a report, and that they were "too shaken up" by the whole incident to have checked the officers' names and such. He also couldn't give me any contact information and told me that it should be the job of Mike, our house manager, to track down the officers who had supposedly visited our home.
When these angry messages started coming in, I just happened to be at work and was scheduled to be in meetings all afternoon, and so I answered politely that I would be tied up for awhile but that he could try contacting Airbnb support, and I sent him the link for it. He did contact them, and he sent me a short message telling me that he had spoken with an agent and that she would be contacting me. However, when she texted me, she said exactly the same thing that the Case Manager had said: that if the guest could not provide any written documentation supporting his claim, then he would need to cancel on his end and be subject to the Moderate cancellation policy.
I again copied what the agent had said and told him that I still wanted to find a resolution that we could all live with. But then he wrote back something to the effect of, "You are not a man of your word, and so I am going to give you a bad evaluation."
So, that's the story. I know that it's long, and for those of you who have read this far, I appreciate your hanging in there. We are about to receive our first bad review in two years for something that looks unmistakably like an intricate plan to deceive and cheat us, and so I wanted to share it with our fellow hosts so that you, too, can be prepared if any such thing ever happens to you.
This has been, without question, the strangest and most stressful week in our entire Airbnb rental history...
