What to do with scammer guests?

Mary5536
Level 1
Glendale, CA

What to do with scammer guests?

Hi everyone! I recently started hosting on airbnb again after my roommate moved out so we could make rent temporarily as we found a long term roommate. Someone booked through airbnb on memorial day weekend (which if you know LA, a motel 6 would be $200/night) and I accepted. I had plans but kept offering to meet with them but they did not get there until 11pm. It is everywhere on my listing that it is a shared space, the only private part is the master bedroom with master closet and bathroom. The common area is shared by two others, me and my roommate.

 

They immediately called to berate me saying the pictures were inaccurate (it was taken that same day since my roommate had just moved out and we didn't accept any requests until the room was cleaned and ready). They took a picture of the trash in the kitchen (surprise there is trash in a trash can; and even if it was a hotel lobby there would be trash in their bins!), the sink that had two things soaking (I had cleared the fridge from the roommate who had moved out and had scrubbed it out twice but it was stubborn so I had to leave it soaking), a dead fly that they had somehow found somewhere (did they plant it? like the common food scam?), a bleach stain where we had tried to unsuccessfully remove a dark spot from our very old carpet since our unit is unrenovated, the windowsill because there was dust (I have NEVER complained/ thought to look much less complain about windowsills in the history of ever), and then opened my roommates PRIVATE bedroom and took a picture to show the place was a mess.

 

They lied to airbnb to say they never stayed, when in fact their screaming child was banging on the door while the mom kept telling him to, "shhh" because they probably wanted one free night on Memorial day weekend and thought the best way to do it was to scam it sort of like customers who yell and create a mess in restaurants for a free meal. The worst part is airbnb sided with them and this lunacy. They said I should've had video evidence, and I asked them how I would've gotten the evidence knocked on the door and taken a picture? And they said no, you have to have recording although it's highly recommended against having a camera in the common areas, but I could've had a doorbell camera (what).

 

Has anyone else had to deal with this much insanity just coming back to hosting on airbnb. The first couple being a scammer has left a bad taste in my mouth and now I'm unsure if I want to do this again as this has wasted my time and money cleaning and setting up the room only to have the guests lie for a free stay. I've also had a previous stay where guests damaged brand new towels I bought for the stay and airbnb sided with them as well making the profit for that night almost nothing after the loss of towels. Is there anyway for hosts to protect themselves? I want to continue using airbnb but the two negative experiences make me wary of using airbnb and wasting my time and money on scammer guests.

1 Reply 1
Paula
Community Manager
Community Manager
Port Moody, Canada

Hello @Mary5536,

 

I am sorry to hear that you went through this situation when deciding to start hosting again. I have looked into our community and found various conversations among our hosts discussing similar situations. I am leaving the link  👉here for you to take a look.

 

Regards,

Paula

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