Guest taking over Entire Shared Space and not following house rules

[Lorna15]

The current guest has had the Entire Space for over a week. She has filled up the fridge, cupboards and bathroom with her things.

Another guest checked in late a few days ago. I sent the current guest a "heads up" and asked to ensure the place was tidy.

Upon entering, I found the Unit smelly: composting, garbage and Recycling was not taken out.

In order to make the space acceptable for the new guest, I had to scrub the bathroom, kitchen, living and dining room areas. This took me hours (up to 2:00 am).

 I sent the current guest a message that we needed to talk. She preferred that I send a list of my "issues".

This list was sent to her mother!!

[Lorna15]

Continued:

Her Mother sent me an email emphasizing that I had no right to be cleaning at such an hour: that I was disturbing her daughter and causing her stress!

She didn't want to leave me a bad review...

I advised the current guest that the location, value and comparable listings didn't come close to what was offered at my house; that the agreement was between us and that I would not allow for another "intervention" by her Mother.

Please advise.

[Tim-and-Holly0]

Sounds like you are handling it by bringing the issue up to the guest. You are correct in not dealing with the mother. I would not reply to her again. Be sure you write a truthful review of your guest to warn other hosts. Don't worry about the review they are threatening to write as they will probably write you a bad one regardless. 

If you feel the situation warrants, you can ask the guest to leave and you can also call ABNB and get them involved to help you.

[Lorna15]

Thanks for your support.

[Coln0]

The current guest has entire space, and yet you have new guest check in? Oh you mean she checked out already and leave the place dirty?

[Lorna15]

Hi Coln,

The space is SHARED, the guest I was seeking help with has a room on the Second Floor. Because no one was in the Third Floor space for a couple weeks (I'm assuming that's why she took over the Entire Space), she didn't maintain the space as required on the house rules. When I sent her the "list", her Mother sent a long email, called and complained about my "mistreatment" of her daughter.

The guest who checked in a couple days ago is occupying the Third Floor (the full bathroom, kitchen and dining areas are shared between the 2 guests.

[Sandra126]

I am not sure I understand completely, is she renting Entire Space or was she renting Entire Space and it has not changed ro Shared once another guest has moved in? In which case, you would have to go in and clean before the added guest arrived, it is impossible to rely on a present guest to make sure the place is welcoming to new guests.

As far as dealing with the mother goes, you are doing ok in avoiding her as she is not the renter here. If she had planned to be in for long and does not follow house rules you can be sure the new guest will not be happy, you can ask the first one to move for disregarding the rules (I haven't read them). Either way, you will need some communication.

and you cannot blackmail into good/bad reviews as the mother was threatening. It is frowned upon by Airbnb.

[Lorna15]

Thank you for your response.

The space is shared. The guest I posted about has a room on the 2nd Floor. The Third Floor was not booked for a over a week. The 2nd Floor guest took over the Kitchen, living and dining room as well as the Full bathroom leaving her garbage and personal items everywhere.

The house rules show that the space was to be kept clean and tidy. The listing shows that the space is Shared. When she moved in, there was another guest on the Third Floor.

I understand that the place should be ready for the new guest, that's why I ended up cleaning for hours...

[Kelmany0]

I think this is the give an inch they take a mile scenario. Perhaps make the shared space fully equipped with your items and don’t let them move anything in. I have an experience similar. She asked for dimensions of the room so she could move her personal items in. I immediately said no furniture is allowed in. I asked her to give me a list of what she was intending to bring in before I accepted the listing. She asked me where she could store her bread. I said I have left space in the fridge. She said I don’t want it in the fridge. My reasons e was “then you keep it in your room”. 

[Andrea9 · Accepted solution]

@Lorna15

tacking onto @Sandra126's advice I simply want to add that I hope you kept the exchange with your Messy guest on the booking message page. This can also be used to factually remind guests about certain parts of the house rules they may not be following or to reiterate conversations that were done person to person or on other devices. This is then the record that ABB looks at in case there is a later complaint or other issue raised by guests. Harder to prove they were in the wrong if there's nothing there.

And yes, ignore the mother. In fact, you could even send your guest a message on the thread stating that you're surprised she involved her mother when she was the one staying and not heading xxx. You could even copy/paste all the points in the message again.

If she slams you with a bad review, having things on record might give you a tiny sliver of a chance to prove she's lying. But most often reviews aren't removed, though I have read single cases in the community where it was done.

[Lorna15]

Thank You.

I'm hesitant to paste the correspondence on the conversation history as it may escalate the situation. Do you know if there's another way to notify Airbnb prior to any repercussions?

[Andrea9]

@Lorna15

You could report the guest either by clicking on the little gray flag in the corner of one of their messages or under their profile and writing something to Airbnb. Just make sure you make a screen grab of your text before sending to have a back-up just in case for later. What I can't tell you for sure is whether that is then visible to helpdesk personnel on the computer when they open up your reservation history. I would think so, but cannot give you a guarantee for it.

For your next visitors staying longer than a few days, why don't you set some damage control in place from the start and tell them that you will go in after X amount of days to bring new towels (bedding, whatever). That way you have an eye on things and can message them nicely through ABB that you noticed this and that and would they please this and that. Just an idea from what I've gleaned on the forum by other hosts with shared spaces.