San Diego Airbnb guest refuses to leave

Peter shared in SEpt 2015

When your Airbnb guest won't leave

"It began back in January, when a couple whose Airbnb profile is listed as 'Alfred and Sharon' contacted Lang through the online community marketplace about her room for rent. 'We are signed up for Airbnb but we are looking for a month’s stay for our daughter and her girlfriend who are moving to San Diego and will be looking for jobs,' the message began. Their intention was to pay for their daughter Lori, 38, and her girlfriend Jesse, 30, to stay for one month, 'to help them out.'

Lang checked out Alfred and Sharon’s profile, and saw only positive reviews from past connections made through the site. “I thought, okay, they seem like standup people."

"When the originally agreed-upon month was up, Lang says, 'Alfred and Sharon asked to avoid the Airbnb fees and just pay the $975 directly.' On April 7, Alfred and Sharon sent a check, along with a note that they would no longer be paying for their daughter, whose stay was already a month longer than anticipated. 'May rolls around, and I get an envelope, late, with only $700 cash in it,' Lang says."

Click here bit.ly/1NisI8m for SanDiegoReader story.

My two cents: The Guests arrived Feb. 7 for a month's stay. They finally agreed to vacate on August 21. In the interim, they tried to get the Host to commit welfare fraud, filed a false report to child protection services alleging the Host was abusing her son and of course, paid no rent.

Although in San Diego, this could happen in San Francisco. To be fair, the Host made a couple of bad mistakes - (a) allowing Airbnb users to book a stay for third parties (b) agreeing to transact off the Airbnb platform once the original booking ended. Also, this is really not a story about Airbnb or home sharing per se. It's really another landlord-tenant horror story where the tenants take advantage of the very tenant-protective laws in CA.


Keith:
In sf it could be worse due to rent control laws.

Also rent control wouldn't allow enforcement of airbnbs new "over stay pay double" policy since rent control limits rent increases.

This is a good cautionary tale for anyone subletting in sf...even if you own a single family house and rent a room on occasion getting a tenant out in sf can be challenging and expensive.


Gina:
No good deed goes unpunished! There were alot of red flags here that I think the host ignored. For one thing, a 38 year old and a 30 year old needing the parent to pay their rent? That alone would make me think twice about renting to individuals that cannot afford to pay their own rent. And I never allow a third party to book on behalf of the actual guests.


Alessandra:
Then what do you suggest when a local, established company is bringing in employees for training, etc?


Keith:
I've hosted many corporate employees.. I've had a lot of people here for conferences or work training, etc... the booking people are clear about for whom they're booking and why. I assume it's a preference to keep the transaction on the corporate credit card and they're usually for multiple different people so asking the employees to individually book isn't practical. I assume most come from the business portal and eventually AirBnB will get better at requiring profiles for each guest, but they're woefully behind in technological innovation despite their blogs and claims otherwise.

Alessandra
I'm referring to third party bookings conducted by companies on behalf of their visiting employees from around the world.