What Would you Do on a Guest who did not follow House Rules

[Tammy350]

Hello I am new to this and need some guidance.

We just hosted a guest who did not abide by our house rule of No Smoking, plus when we walked onto our front porch you could see a bunch of ashes all over the front porch.  When we entered our cabin you could smell that someone had just smoked pot in there which of course ticked me off but when I went out to our screened porch not only had they smoked out there and left ashes all over but they also had put out there butts out on our floor in several places. Then when I was cleaning I found a pot "roach" on the rug in the 1 bedroom, found cigarette butt on the rug in the living room, and found cigarette butts thrown into a trash can in the bedroom. 

Plus on top of that they left the kitchen a pigsty, all the dishes left in the sink but in the dishwasher they put a cast iron skillet and a frying pan plus another pan, in the oven they left a pan with bacon and the grease was left in a pan. The stove top was an absolutely disgusting plus they got something all over the burner that we couldn't even get off. I am not expecting them to leave the place as clean as we gave it to them but at least make an effort to clean up after your self.

Am I wrong dinging these guests a poor rating on cleanliness and house rules? I won't mention in the comments what I found but I would send them a private message that we did not appreciate the mess they left and really do not appreciate that they were smoking in our house.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Nanxing0]

Disrespectful guests are everywhere. Most hosts here have dealed with bad guest occationally. Just collect all evidence and ask for reimbursement following the standard claim protocol. It's a business so we need to deal with those bad guests. Find a local cleaning company who does odor elimination. If the smoking odor is difficult to remove by yourself ask them to step in and do it professionally. The cost can be reimbursed by the host guarantee. Make sure you follow the host guarantee claim procedure precisely otherwise they will not honor. As long as you proceduralize it you won't find it bothe too much.

As for the review, definitely leave them an honest review describing what actually happened. Don't "be nice". Your courtesy and goodwill will make a nightmare to another host. One exception I would give is that some guests accidentally damaged something and they immediately contacted me to apologize and offer to compensate/replace.

[Sarah977]

@Tammy350  Why wouldn't you mention their terrible behavior in the written review? That's what reviews are for, to let other hosts know whether these are suitable guests. If you say nothing, you are doing a huge disservice to your fellow hosts- wouldn't you have wanted to be warned about these people? 

Of course you should give them low marks for cleanliness and following house rules. But hosts who don't use IB cannot see guests star ratings, we rely on the written reviews. You don't have to go into detail. "Extensive evidence of smoking in our non-smoking listing found on check-out. Cleaning time required after departure was far above normal- piles of dirty dishes, greasy counters and stovetop and pan left with grease and food found in the oven. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend these guests."

Telling them these things in a private message is pointless. People who show so little respect will not be moved to change their ways, or they wouldn't have been so disrespectful in the first place. I would use the PM function to message an otherwise decent guest about something they did that was annoying, that I didn't want to call them out for publicly, if they were otherwise good guests and I felt they would take it to heart and make sure not to do that again. Like a guest who actually did wash all their dishes, but left bits of food and grease stuck onto them.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tammy350 Absolutely leave an accurate review with less than 5 stars. Stick to facts and it won't be removed by Airbnb.

I'm not sure a claim through Airbnb will achieve much as they seem to have a reputation for not paying for additional cleaning. Sadly a claim will also guarantee you a bad review due to the stupid way the system works.