We thought that we heard everything...until THIS guest!

[Rich-and-Yan0]

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...

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Laura2592 Wow, you have had quite a run of it yourself. I'm so sorry as well that you had to go through these kinds of things. You're right, people are interesting, and some are just downright rude. We really enjoy the Airbnb hosting, but we know as well that it is often a "crap shoot," as you will inevitably get some guests trying to pull stuff that they would never try to pull in a hotel. We can only hope that we will be able to host far more of the good ones than nightmare guests like this.

Thank you for sharing your stories of woe. It's a shame that you had to go through that, but hopefully you (or we) will not have too many more experiences like this and can continue to enjoy the good things about being an Airbnb host.

Take care, and have a great (and safe) summer. 

[Fred13]

Some rules of thumbs when hosting via Airbnb.

#1 Never advocate for the guest to deal with Airbnb, because then everything becomes your responsibility.

#2 10% of the world's population are lunatics, another 20% are nothing but hustlers, do everything in your power to get guests from only the remaining 70% pool of humanity.

#3. Never communicate outside of the Airbnb messaging. That includes talking to them on the phone!

#4. The usual pattern in all these cases is: the 'hustle' is in, then they come to you to 'make a deal', when told no they run to Airbnb, then oftentimes the Airbnb rep starts to try to get you to give the guest what they want so they do not badmouth Airbnb in all the 'social media' trash platforms available to them, you have to insist what is fair to you, and finally 50/50% of the time reason may prevail.

#5. If one of the 30% falls through the crack and end up being one of your guests and be allow to leave a review, they will embarrass themselves all on their own if you let them, all you have to do is cunningly dismiss them with a short answer to help future potential readers/guest do the same. No defensive 'War & Peace' lengthy explanations, no one will read them. You only have to come across as just being cool - its a damage control situation, not a tribunal on fairness.

Good luck.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Fred13 Hey Fred, thanks for the advice from someone who seems to be a "seasoned veteran" with such cases. This was only our 24th Airbnb guest and an experience not even slightly like the previous 23 rentals, and so we are learning lots as we go. That's part of the reason that I posted this message here.

Regarding Point #3 that you have made, I don't talk to them on the phone but have used outside messenger apps on occasion--but I will never do so in future. Lesson learned. (But for the record, once I realised that this guy was trying to scam us, I quickly got him back on the Airbnb app, repeated all the main points we had discussed externally and got him to agree to them all. So, most of the main information is on Airbnb.)

As for Points #1 and #4, as I said in responses above, Airbnb actually surprised me by not taking the guest's side at all. I think they could see from the start that the guest was not acting ethically or logically, and so they simply told me--and then told him--that if he wanted to leave after checking in, then he needed to provide "written documentation" as "evidence" for his claim. He could not, and so he turned his anger at us.

Point #2 you made is comical, but probably true--and as for Point #5, this is exactly what we did. He wrote a review that makes him look, in the words of another host here, "unhinged," and I wrote a short, logical and professional response to that which simply stated the facts of what happened. I also quoted where he vowed to write us a bad review in my response, and so it makes him look, in my opinion, like a petulant child who did not get his way.

Thanks again for all your detailed advice. It is much appreciated. 

[Fred13]

I always throw humor into all my posts.

Airbnb by reason of some sanity will not be taking the guest's side, but still allowed their review,  despite the fact the guest was a classic hustler. It does no one any favors.

[Pete69]

Insisting on communicating through an external messaging app would have been a deal-breaker for me. I don't have time for this. Best to have messages saved for Airbnb to review anyway.

If there's high demand for your stay then you can afford to be more selective.

Guests who make inquiries instead of booking their reservation right away are more likely to be problematic. Guests who inquire with too many questions that are already answered in your listing are also more likely to be needy.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Pete69 Thanks for your feedback. He actually did the booking first and the barrage of questions started coming later. We have instant book set up for guests and it had never been a problem before. Perhaps we may have to rethink that after this guest, but he booked a couple of months back and only really started signs of weirdness in the run-up to his arrival.

Anyway, as I've stated above, we have learned our lesson about communicating outside of Airbnb--though as I've also said, once we recognised that things were moving toward the dark side, so to speak, we immediately made him do all his correspondence on Airbnb and admit to key parts of the story he had said on the external app. I simply told him that I wanted to record all the facts so that Airbnb could review his case, which was largely true--but I also wanted to make sure we had the evidence in writing if we ended up needed it (and sure enough, we did).

Thanks again. 

[Fred13]

Frankly I have noticed little benefit by not having  Instant Booking and thus getting to ask a potential guest some questions first before allowing them to book. After all, how can I ask them what would be the most important questions I would love to ask before someone books, such as:

#1 Are you considered a pain by others in real life?

#2 Are you known as a whinner?

#3 Are you cheap by nature?

#4 Are you considered 'needy' by others?

#5 Are you insecure?

#6 Do you tend to leave reviews or not? (I am hoping they don't tend to leave reviews)

If the guests promises to start giving signals after booking they will be a pain, then is up to me to control the situation any way. 🙂

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Fred13 Haha. The "cheap by nature" one would be funny, but I don't know if I would be brave enough to ask it, lol. But I do tend to ask questions of guests who have no Airbnb history, such as what they do, who is in their group and why they are interested in staying at our place.

From that, I can usually ascertain what kind of guests they will be. For instance, we had an inquiry a few months ago from five young British women, and my first thought was, "They're going to our place to party." I expressed my concerns, politely, in my reply, and they assured that they just wanted a tropical holiday and that we would have nothing to worry about. We then approved their booking, and they turned out to be the nicest guests: very polite, very communicative, left our place spotlessly clean and gave us a great review. 

So sometimes, as a host, you can trust your instincts. But with the guest in question, there wasn't much I could do once he had already booked the place. Plus, as I've mentioned already, there wasn't any indication that he was going to be considered "a pain by others in real life," as you put it, until just prior to his arrival. By that time it was too late, because as you know, if a host cancels a booking without justification, that is a strike against the host, not the guest.