Unauthorized activity

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

I just hosted a guest over the weekend that lied about the purpose and the number of guest booked. He ended up using my home as some sort of undercover sting operation. They were filming various different alleged pedophiles that they were luring in through a 15 yr old teenager. I could see and hear them from my doorbell camera as the men would ring the doorbell and a very young looking 15yr old would open the door to greet him and then after about 5 min the men would run out of the house with the “journalist” and camera crew running out behind yelling and asking him was he a pedophile and did he know the girl he was coming to see was 15yrs old. There were security men in the back of the house and lots of equipment and ppl coming in and out throughout the weekend. 
It looked as if they were doing something illegal or some form of entrapment was taking place in my home. We tried reaching the guest over the weekend but to no avail. The police was called by my neighbor because of the suspicious activity, I also had to call the police to get them out after checkout time, there was one person left in the house sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. I had to turn on my alarm which triggered the police to come. Has anyone had this experience? 

[Sarah977]

@Waleed-and-Leslie0  How strange. You should contact Airbnb and tell them you need to report this "guest" account to the Trust and Safety team.

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

Yes I’ve started that process earlier today. Thank you 

[Helen3]

How awful. @Waleed-and-Leslie0 

Why didn't you ask Airbnb to cancel the booking when you saw what was happening so you could evict the guests straight away?

Please leave an honest review to warn future hosts.

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

@Helen3 

I wasn’t too sure of what my rights were at the time, I tried reaching out to the guest and I didn’t have a restriction on a “video production” as I do now in my house rules and description.

I’ve also added details about our neighbors being active duty police officers hoping this would hinder any future unscrupulous behavior. 

[Colleen253]

@Waleed-and-Leslie0 This person  violated your occupancy limits. That’s all you needed to get the booking terminated. You need to act fast when this happens, rather than let it escalate. You should still add strict language to your house rules regarding occupancy and unregistered guests. Vet your potential guests carefully and be mindful of red flags. It’s much better to keep sketchy people out than to have to deal with the  fallout from letting them access your space. Plus, Airbnb does not do a good job of backing hosts up when things go wrong. 

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

@Colleen253  Thank you for the advice. I’m currently working with Airbnb for some resolve. I put in a damage claim and I just completed my “warning review” of this guest.

[Linda108]

Until you added the warnings about filming and police neighbors, it seems that you are marketing to a particular party group, i.e., professional, well behaved, mature.  While this type of guest might be real, I think it will take a very hands on host to extensively vet the potential guest and obtain the names and ID's of all the guests.  Also, having indoor cameras is treading in dangerous waters for this platform even if you disclose the existence of them.  Good luck with your current claim and keep us posted on the outcome.

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

@Linda108 @Thank you for your feedback. I do agree that we will have to be more hands on with our vetting process. Also you mentioned “dangerous waters” regarding the camera’s, could you please elaborate on this as a potential future problem etc. 

[Clara116]

@Waleed-and-Leslie0 by "dangerous waters" she is saying you could very quickly get your listing delisted, closed. It only takes the right, aggressive guests calling and getting the CS person that just says "delisted" and an investigation begins and for weeks you will probably not be online at all and not know why you are closed down. Plus, help me here, why have cameras indoors if the people are going to turn them off/privacy mode??? help me out here. Most everyone I know will NOT book any place with indoor cameras. Outside front door and back door are fine but inside.....no, no - you will only be hurting your own booking possibilities, I think. I'd not consider a place with an indoor camera for ANY reason. not happening. 

Your listing sounds like you want large, party groups so get ready for what that entails. And know you will be busy hosting with this and just my guess, much of your efforts will be challenging. 

Also, seems you encourage filming and production groups. Just know, alot of porn folks will be liking this......just remember your neighbors and the power they have in most cities. You wanna keep them all happy. Good luck and happy hosting, Clara

[Sarah977]

@Waleed-and-Leslie0  Describing your place as suitable for parties or events is likely to get your listing suspended.

Also, your new wording about not allowing sting operations is weird and I believe it will appear as quite strange to guests looking at your listing. I suggest you remove it. This situation you just had was a one-off, not something to specifically mention to future guests.

The use of indoor cameras is also something that can get your listing suspended. It's extremely invasive  to guests's privacy, and not approved of by Airbnb. The only listings where it might be appropriate are those that are hostel-type situations, where multiple rooms are rented to unrelated guests, with common areas monitored. 

[Waleed-and-Leslie0]

@Sarah977 Thank you for the suggestion, I have removed that sentence. Everything that I’m reading within the community suggest that the indoor camera notification is acceptable per Airbnb if the locations of the cameras are in the common area’s etc. We’ve also included instructions to our guest of how to turn the cameras off or to set on privacy mode. Do you think that this is an appropriate compromise or should we remove the indoor cameras from the listing period? 

[Colleen253]

@Waleed-and-Leslie0 Airbnb regularly suspends listings when a guest makes any kind of complaint about cameras, even when properly disclosed, and even when a complaint is bogus. A quick search of the forum will yield some posts on that. Best to proceed with caution when it comes to cameras. 

[Helen3]

You can have indoor camera's in shared spaces but you will put off many guests from staying with you and can lead to customer complaints even where disclosed.

Three key things well help going forward

1. Vet your guests carefully

2. When you spot problems with your guests act immediately as the STR business owner you need to think about how you will deal with problem guests before problems arise and have a clear process for doing so. So in this situation you should have called Airbnb provided evidence of what was going on insist they cancel the booking and then contact the guest to tell them to vacate the premises and then go there (with support) to ensure they left

3. Have strong house rules to cover additional guests not booked not being allowed on the property etc.

[Quincy]

Hello @Waleed-and-Leslie0, I have passed this on to the team for further investigation.