Post by High Priestess on Sept 25, 2015 2:01:47 GMT
Our Safety
I never thought it could happen to me…….it did. I just had to have the police remove my guest. Disturbing to say the least, I spent a night of fear. The guest was drinking and I am certain doing drugs (shared apartment). Thinking of quitting Airbnb but I also realized this was a guest with no reviews. Please be careful if they have no reviews be careful. ~
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Wow, so glad to hear you're safe, C! What a horrible experience.
What other verifications did the guest have? Just curious. Did they have a profile pic and description? I take it the communications were good...
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God Almighty ! I can't even handle 1 hour of fear living with a stranger that has no reviews and drinking and doing drugs. You need to be more careful of accepting guests with no reviews, nubies can be a nuisance and a high risk sometimes not always but you will never know. You really need to ask more questions when it comes to newbie's and sometimes they can be hard to please as well.. We are just glad that you came up in one piece LOL just kidding ! and I hope that you provided him a review that he deserved. Thanks and take dare.
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Wow, what horrible experience :-(... I also have a few bookings coming up, guests without reviews, no picture profile, even though they are members since 2012! Now it makes me very suspicious..
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Thank God you are OK. What a terrible experience. Better wait a little bit before hosting again, and this time besides Verified ID, you should look for good reviews for potential guests.
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Horrible, and disgusting that you were made to feel such fear in your own home. I hope this guest is banned from every being able to use Airbnb again.
And hopefully your message is a heads up to remind all hosts to have a strong lock on their bedroom door. At least you can retreat and call for assistance if matters turn ugly. Hope you are soon putting this behind you, with something great coming around the corner.
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Turn off your instant book C!
I'm so sorry you had to experience this. I hope you just take a little break, a little more booking requirements, a little more caution, or whatever you need to get comfortable again and return to your good AirBnB experiences.
Thank you for sharing as we all learn how and have take aways. I just realized that "member since" can mean no reviews from 1) cancellations where AirBnB disallows reviews, 2) previous hosts didn't leave reviews, or even 3) your same situation in which AirBnB doesn't kick off the member!
Before this, I only thought about my own completely innocent reason - looked into the platform quickly and never did anything more for a long while.
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As R pointed out, Please remove IB!
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I had this happen to me in January but i kicked them out without calling police. The woman lied about herself on her profile and had no reviews. It was not IB but a request within 24 hours, something i don't do now. Airbnb did not remove her.
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C thats awful & I suspect more to your story than a guest drinking/drunk to cause such fear & involve the Police. Thankfully you were unharmed.
Airbnb must disenable guests to register without a photograph, employment details, description & verification to include passport & at least one reference before they can 'book'
Hosts safety must be their top priority over-riding all else.
There is too much focus on guests needs & comfort at the expense of hosts whose goodwill and properties they rely upon to generate their income.
If this continues there could be a major backlash that will sink their brand & ruin everything for all the good guests and great hosts.
Hosts needs to band together & insist on stronger guest information uploaded before they become eligible to book any property.
What are they waiting for? Major press headlines when a host is attacked or worse? Have they not heeded the Uber example?
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Yes, I never understood how someone can just join and fill oout NOTHING and still be able to request a booking.
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Hosts can enable verified ID and remove instant book, right?
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Yes, I have verified ID and do not use instant book, but guests still contact me for a booking. I will tell them that they need to be verified since I accept only verified guests. If the guest is not verified when they inquire, they need to go through the process before it goes through BUT they can always inquire. My point is that a full profile and verification should be the minimum requirement to join Airbnb, or at least to inquire.
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Yes C, I wish it was a minimum requirement to join too. But my guess is AirBnB doesn't want to scare off potential new guests (I mean, income) before those newbies have a chance to get a taste (inquiry) and then appetite (reservation request) and then craving (reservation/payment commitment). I have to admit, sometimes if I'm not sure about the value or quality of a site/offering/online service, etc, it doesn't take much (like go and get an ID, passport, camera) to put it off or not even go back. However, if I were part of the AirBnB corp decision-making, I'd weigh out the quality of bad raps and good hosts leaving that come out of less upfront scrutiny of guests, or worse, not kicking off proven bad-behaving guests against raising quantity/numbers.
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Okay everyone this is what I cannot believe AIRBNB says I have to pay to cancel this trip and they get a full refund~!!!!!! I am shocked!!!! This woman kept me up all night worried about my home, she was crying, yelling and banging on my bedroom door and they said it was because she had a guest over. I am out of this crazy system.
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Sorry, but screw that. Get a police report, telephone Airbnb and speak to a senior manager. Phoning and requesting to speak with someone senior is only way I have ever made any progress with this company. If they still insist you loose the whole booking and take a cancellation hit, I would personally, seriously, seek legal advice. Because surely they cannot be serious?
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C I am so sorry this has happened to you :-( but at least you got rid of her and are now safe! Yes you should definitely escalate this. Lately CX has been totally siding with guests when ever they can get away with it. Legal advice could be a good option... small claims court for cleaning costs !
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That's what they told me. I refused and said my crack addict guest could make the cancellation. She did not and therefore she was never refunded. After i threw her and her uninvited friends out, I found knives hidden in my entry way.
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Oh my!! Sounds like the CX rep was just reading from the standard rules book (you cancel then you get hit). So just leave it and let the guest cancel. If she doesn't then tough luck for her.
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So sorry C! Hope that come out of this unscathed....(morally I mean). This is traumatizing....
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Thoughts please?? Should I call the news & let other's know this can happen? I just received a message that the Airbnb handling this was "sorry" she didn't ask me what happened. Just listened to the guest and ignored my emails.
What do you think ……Should I receive compensation for the room booking (it was a week) they are paying for last night plus the cleaning fee and I am trying to get my carpet cleaned in the bedroom - (there was blood from the living room, dining room, hallway and bedroom & I don't know why the police did not find her hurt).
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I would start off by telling the Airbnb customer service person you are dealing with that you want to speak to a senior level person at Airbnb. Tell them you are not happy with the way they are handling this case, and that you feel you should not be expected to refund someone who caused such a serious problem in your house. Also submit a claim on the Airbnb host guarantee for extra cleaning fees --- what happened, was the woman attacked? Blood everywhere -- awful -- it could be a biohazard and Airbnb should pay you via the Host Guarantee (which is supposed to cover criminal situations like this) to get a professional level cleaning done. If you feel that Airbnb still doesn't respond appropriately, tell them you have in mind to contact the news media about this situation. Also I have heard from others that going on Twitter about problems can pressure them to be more sensitive to your case and respond more appropriately.
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Did you call Airbnb or just email them? FOr serious situations like this you need to call in. Go to "help" at the bottom of the webpage, then "contact us" and then click on "urgent" when you see that, and up will pop phone numbers to call Airbnb in your area.
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C, that is ridiculous, that when you have to call the police on a guest you are expected to then refund the guest.
I would strongly suggest, as D does, that you seek to speak to someone senior at Airbnb.
I would also suggest to all hosts reading this, that you all put these words in your house rules:
(1) Guests may not bring visitors or ANY OTHERS to my house (apartment) at any time, for any length of time. Only those guests whose names have been provided in advance and who have been paid for in advance, will be permitted to enter the premises.
(2) In the case of significant violation of house rules, the reservation will be immediately terminated and all fees forfeited.
It just is really important for hosts to protect themselves. Airbnb may not cover you sufficiently, and if problems arise, as they did in this case, you really, really want to have language in your listing or house rules that you can use to back up your actions and get Airbnb support. Yes, there are some things that should be obvious, and in this case any reasonable person would not give this guest a refund (it was her poor judgement to bring someone over who then became a serious problem in your house), but it just doesn't hurt to have yourself suitably protected in any situation.
I really also very very strongly advise that hosts not allow guests to bring friends or any visitors over. This is an example of what can happen when you do. You've had a chance to screen your guest, and you have their name and ID, but you have NOT screened the random person they are bringing over, and don't have that person's name, ID or any statement from them that they agree to follow your house rules. So please, don't allow guests to bring visitors. People on short stays just don't need to do that. They can visit their friends elsewhere, they don't need to bring people to YOUR house.
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If you call or write to AirBnB, you will chance getting a response from a service representative, good or bad, efficient or lousy, informed or totally out of whack. We all know, you win some and lose some in the service area. What's more important is the overall management attitudes, policies, procedures, and practices they support. As David said call, and do not stop until you have spoken to a supervisor. Then decide how reasonable, lacking or unacceptable AirBnB was/is.
Reply
A guest misunderstood my listing accommodations for her group. She seemed honest and I accepted the very ahead of time booking as a genuine mistake. I wrote to AirBnB, said she wanted to cancel and asked them to refund her all her monies. The rep wrote back and said it was my mistake and I needed to cancel. Whaattt? I replied (as the system allows) with being unsatisfied with the answer without saying why. I just wanted to wait for the next step. I received a phone call fairly quickly with the new rep already had urged the guest to cancel and refunded all her monies so this rep was just calling to reassure me. So, it really matters who starts the ball rolling, and who picks it up and runs with it, or...who drops it!
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Thank you R and Deborah yes indeed that is a must do~!!!
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Thank you to D as well - I am done with Airbnb for hopefully ever that was a brutal experience
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Oh your all amazing ~ thank you~!! I was too upset to call them again (yes called Airbnb once told my story…I'm exhausted) Thank you thank you thank you~ whoever said to tweet it ………instant attention~!!!! Thank you so very much everyone~! I am still scared of strangers in my home though I did meet some amazing people throughout my short time.
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So airbnb... what about a statement to the backbone of your business, us hosts that rely on your procedures and our gut feeling to welcome strangers into our home. Collette, we feel for you, an experience you should not have had to go through. We have been very fortunate with our guests so far, however one would hope that our major partner (airbnb ) would be there to fully support us in a nasty incident such as the one you have described. It's over to you airbnb... let us know your hosts are important to you.
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I always checked the guests SNS like Facebook or Twitter before confirm
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How awfull...so sorry.
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I wish you that you will be able to leave this nightmare experience behind you and regain peace of mind and trust in people (you don't know). Hopefully the good experiences you had with other guests will help. All the best for you Collette!
Reply
The IB is not an option for the people hosting at their homes or hosting an upscale property. Sure, IB saves time, energy, and it promises quick gains... Too good to be true? Well, it probably ain't true... Learn from this experience and turn off the IB ASAP:)
I never thought it could happen to me…….it did. I just had to have the police remove my guest. Disturbing to say the least, I spent a night of fear. The guest was drinking and I am certain doing drugs (shared apartment). Thinking of quitting Airbnb but I also realized this was a guest with no reviews. Please be careful if they have no reviews be careful. ~
Reply
Wow, so glad to hear you're safe, C! What a horrible experience.
What other verifications did the guest have? Just curious. Did they have a profile pic and description? I take it the communications were good...
Reply
God Almighty ! I can't even handle 1 hour of fear living with a stranger that has no reviews and drinking and doing drugs. You need to be more careful of accepting guests with no reviews, nubies can be a nuisance and a high risk sometimes not always but you will never know. You really need to ask more questions when it comes to newbie's and sometimes they can be hard to please as well.. We are just glad that you came up in one piece LOL just kidding ! and I hope that you provided him a review that he deserved. Thanks and take dare.
Reply
Wow, what horrible experience :-(... I also have a few bookings coming up, guests without reviews, no picture profile, even though they are members since 2012! Now it makes me very suspicious..
Reply
Thank God you are OK. What a terrible experience. Better wait a little bit before hosting again, and this time besides Verified ID, you should look for good reviews for potential guests.
Reply
Horrible, and disgusting that you were made to feel such fear in your own home. I hope this guest is banned from every being able to use Airbnb again.
And hopefully your message is a heads up to remind all hosts to have a strong lock on their bedroom door. At least you can retreat and call for assistance if matters turn ugly. Hope you are soon putting this behind you, with something great coming around the corner.
Reply
Turn off your instant book C!
I'm so sorry you had to experience this. I hope you just take a little break, a little more booking requirements, a little more caution, or whatever you need to get comfortable again and return to your good AirBnB experiences.
Thank you for sharing as we all learn how and have take aways. I just realized that "member since" can mean no reviews from 1) cancellations where AirBnB disallows reviews, 2) previous hosts didn't leave reviews, or even 3) your same situation in which AirBnB doesn't kick off the member!
Before this, I only thought about my own completely innocent reason - looked into the platform quickly and never did anything more for a long while.
Reply
As R pointed out, Please remove IB!
Reply
I had this happen to me in January but i kicked them out without calling police. The woman lied about herself on her profile and had no reviews. It was not IB but a request within 24 hours, something i don't do now. Airbnb did not remove her.
Reply
C thats awful & I suspect more to your story than a guest drinking/drunk to cause such fear & involve the Police. Thankfully you were unharmed.
Airbnb must disenable guests to register without a photograph, employment details, description & verification to include passport & at least one reference before they can 'book'
Hosts safety must be their top priority over-riding all else.
There is too much focus on guests needs & comfort at the expense of hosts whose goodwill and properties they rely upon to generate their income.
If this continues there could be a major backlash that will sink their brand & ruin everything for all the good guests and great hosts.
Hosts needs to band together & insist on stronger guest information uploaded before they become eligible to book any property.
What are they waiting for? Major press headlines when a host is attacked or worse? Have they not heeded the Uber example?
Reply
Yes, I never understood how someone can just join and fill oout NOTHING and still be able to request a booking.
Reply
Hosts can enable verified ID and remove instant book, right?
Reply
Yes, I have verified ID and do not use instant book, but guests still contact me for a booking. I will tell them that they need to be verified since I accept only verified guests. If the guest is not verified when they inquire, they need to go through the process before it goes through BUT they can always inquire. My point is that a full profile and verification should be the minimum requirement to join Airbnb, or at least to inquire.
Reply
Yes C, I wish it was a minimum requirement to join too. But my guess is AirBnB doesn't want to scare off potential new guests (I mean, income) before those newbies have a chance to get a taste (inquiry) and then appetite (reservation request) and then craving (reservation/payment commitment). I have to admit, sometimes if I'm not sure about the value or quality of a site/offering/online service, etc, it doesn't take much (like go and get an ID, passport, camera) to put it off or not even go back. However, if I were part of the AirBnB corp decision-making, I'd weigh out the quality of bad raps and good hosts leaving that come out of less upfront scrutiny of guests, or worse, not kicking off proven bad-behaving guests against raising quantity/numbers.
Reply
Okay everyone this is what I cannot believe AIRBNB says I have to pay to cancel this trip and they get a full refund~!!!!!! I am shocked!!!! This woman kept me up all night worried about my home, she was crying, yelling and banging on my bedroom door and they said it was because she had a guest over. I am out of this crazy system.
Reply
Sorry, but screw that. Get a police report, telephone Airbnb and speak to a senior manager. Phoning and requesting to speak with someone senior is only way I have ever made any progress with this company. If they still insist you loose the whole booking and take a cancellation hit, I would personally, seriously, seek legal advice. Because surely they cannot be serious?
Reply
C I am so sorry this has happened to you :-( but at least you got rid of her and are now safe! Yes you should definitely escalate this. Lately CX has been totally siding with guests when ever they can get away with it. Legal advice could be a good option... small claims court for cleaning costs !
Reply
That's what they told me. I refused and said my crack addict guest could make the cancellation. She did not and therefore she was never refunded. After i threw her and her uninvited friends out, I found knives hidden in my entry way.
Reply
Oh my!! Sounds like the CX rep was just reading from the standard rules book (you cancel then you get hit). So just leave it and let the guest cancel. If she doesn't then tough luck for her.
Reply
So sorry C! Hope that come out of this unscathed....(morally I mean). This is traumatizing....
Reply
Thoughts please?? Should I call the news & let other's know this can happen? I just received a message that the Airbnb handling this was "sorry" she didn't ask me what happened. Just listened to the guest and ignored my emails.
What do you think ……Should I receive compensation for the room booking (it was a week) they are paying for last night plus the cleaning fee and I am trying to get my carpet cleaned in the bedroom - (there was blood from the living room, dining room, hallway and bedroom & I don't know why the police did not find her hurt).
Reply
I would start off by telling the Airbnb customer service person you are dealing with that you want to speak to a senior level person at Airbnb. Tell them you are not happy with the way they are handling this case, and that you feel you should not be expected to refund someone who caused such a serious problem in your house. Also submit a claim on the Airbnb host guarantee for extra cleaning fees --- what happened, was the woman attacked? Blood everywhere -- awful -- it could be a biohazard and Airbnb should pay you via the Host Guarantee (which is supposed to cover criminal situations like this) to get a professional level cleaning done. If you feel that Airbnb still doesn't respond appropriately, tell them you have in mind to contact the news media about this situation. Also I have heard from others that going on Twitter about problems can pressure them to be more sensitive to your case and respond more appropriately.
Reply
Did you call Airbnb or just email them? FOr serious situations like this you need to call in. Go to "help" at the bottom of the webpage, then "contact us" and then click on "urgent" when you see that, and up will pop phone numbers to call Airbnb in your area.
Reply
C, that is ridiculous, that when you have to call the police on a guest you are expected to then refund the guest.
I would strongly suggest, as D does, that you seek to speak to someone senior at Airbnb.
I would also suggest to all hosts reading this, that you all put these words in your house rules:
(1) Guests may not bring visitors or ANY OTHERS to my house (apartment) at any time, for any length of time. Only those guests whose names have been provided in advance and who have been paid for in advance, will be permitted to enter the premises.
(2) In the case of significant violation of house rules, the reservation will be immediately terminated and all fees forfeited.
It just is really important for hosts to protect themselves. Airbnb may not cover you sufficiently, and if problems arise, as they did in this case, you really, really want to have language in your listing or house rules that you can use to back up your actions and get Airbnb support. Yes, there are some things that should be obvious, and in this case any reasonable person would not give this guest a refund (it was her poor judgement to bring someone over who then became a serious problem in your house), but it just doesn't hurt to have yourself suitably protected in any situation.
I really also very very strongly advise that hosts not allow guests to bring friends or any visitors over. This is an example of what can happen when you do. You've had a chance to screen your guest, and you have their name and ID, but you have NOT screened the random person they are bringing over, and don't have that person's name, ID or any statement from them that they agree to follow your house rules. So please, don't allow guests to bring visitors. People on short stays just don't need to do that. They can visit their friends elsewhere, they don't need to bring people to YOUR house.
Reply
If you call or write to AirBnB, you will chance getting a response from a service representative, good or bad, efficient or lousy, informed or totally out of whack. We all know, you win some and lose some in the service area. What's more important is the overall management attitudes, policies, procedures, and practices they support. As David said call, and do not stop until you have spoken to a supervisor. Then decide how reasonable, lacking or unacceptable AirBnB was/is.
Reply
A guest misunderstood my listing accommodations for her group. She seemed honest and I accepted the very ahead of time booking as a genuine mistake. I wrote to AirBnB, said she wanted to cancel and asked them to refund her all her monies. The rep wrote back and said it was my mistake and I needed to cancel. Whaattt? I replied (as the system allows) with being unsatisfied with the answer without saying why. I just wanted to wait for the next step. I received a phone call fairly quickly with the new rep already had urged the guest to cancel and refunded all her monies so this rep was just calling to reassure me. So, it really matters who starts the ball rolling, and who picks it up and runs with it, or...who drops it!
Reply
Thank you R and Deborah yes indeed that is a must do~!!!
Reply
Thank you to D as well - I am done with Airbnb for hopefully ever that was a brutal experience
Reply
Oh your all amazing ~ thank you~!! I was too upset to call them again (yes called Airbnb once told my story…I'm exhausted) Thank you thank you thank you~ whoever said to tweet it ………instant attention~!!!! Thank you so very much everyone~! I am still scared of strangers in my home though I did meet some amazing people throughout my short time.
Reply
So airbnb... what about a statement to the backbone of your business, us hosts that rely on your procedures and our gut feeling to welcome strangers into our home. Collette, we feel for you, an experience you should not have had to go through. We have been very fortunate with our guests so far, however one would hope that our major partner (airbnb ) would be there to fully support us in a nasty incident such as the one you have described. It's over to you airbnb... let us know your hosts are important to you.
Reply
I always checked the guests SNS like Facebook or Twitter before confirm
Reply
How awfull...so sorry.
Reply
I wish you that you will be able to leave this nightmare experience behind you and regain peace of mind and trust in people (you don't know). Hopefully the good experiences you had with other guests will help. All the best for you Collette!
Reply
The IB is not an option for the people hosting at their homes or hosting an upscale property. Sure, IB saves time, energy, and it promises quick gains... Too good to be true? Well, it probably ain't true... Learn from this experience and turn off the IB ASAP:)