I would like to share my story with everyone. I recently published a listing on Airbnb that can accommodate six people. I had many guests who sent me inquiries asking if my place was available and many more questions.
After evaluating all the guests, I finally accepted one reservation as she had good reviews from other hosts. I immediately told her that my place can only accommodate six people and that she needed to pay an extra $30 for each guest she brings after the six confirmed guests. She agreed and promised me that only six people would be in my place.
Since I go to work every day, I was not there when she checked in but my caretaker welcomed them. Four hours after they checked in, my caretaker called me saying that there were 34 people in my place and that the guest told him not to tell me as she would be charged for such a big amount.
I called her right away when this was told to me and she admitted that there were 34 people in my place. I requested money from her via Airbnb but she refused to pay me and deleted her account. I called Airbnb and asked them to collect the money but they never helped me. They even gave me a deadline of 24 hours to send documents confirming that there were extra 28 people in my place when the guest already admitted it and even contacted Airbnb saying that she did not know what to do and how to pay me since she didn’t have enough money.
The case manager from Airbnb told me that they will not help me unless documents are sent when I told them a million times that I won’t be able to send documents as I live in a different place and that I had a business flight that day. Indeed the worse experience and customer service on earth.
Why on earth didn’t you just ask Airbnb to cancel her booking and evict the guest????
There is such a thing as too much freedom and this case illustrates that fact perfectly. I have friends with vacation rentals and this is a very common complaint. Your house rules say no pets or children and guests bring both. You have an occupancy limit and guests bring more guests than they have payed for. Most hosts are not there to police what goes on and guests know that and abuse is rampant. My advice is to use VRBO, Homeaway, Booking.com and NOT Airbnb. For some reason Airbnb seems to attract the absolute worst guests (and “hosts”) the other sites seem to attract a way better caliber of people. Airbnb is garbage and a real black eye on the hospitality business. Avoid!
Wow that’s a stereotype! As a devoted Airbnber, I am surely not an “absolute worst” guests and as a former host, was a great one. I’ve had just as shitty experiences with Booking.com accommodations.