Our First Airbnb Eviction! Much smoother than expected.

[Warren Marshall]

Last week we had a husband, wife and their 8 month old book at our airbnb.   Currently due to Covid our province (Alberta, Canada) has very strict rules such as: 

- No public gatherings indoor or outdoor. 

- $5000 fine to households that are hosting gatherings, as well as $1000 to each person at the household. 

- etc... 

Well, we noticed on our Ring doorbell the family checked in around noon and had 3 others joining them (total of 6).   We figured they were just local friends, and we gave them the benefit of the doubt.     Later that evening my wife noticed they had a total of 8 people at the house around 8pm, she sent them a message reminding them of the covid rules as well as our #1 house rule stating "Any un-authorized guests on the premises will force the cancelation of the booking immediately". We gave them until 9pm to respond- No response.   We called the guests and after being lied to, threatened and lied to again we decided to take a drive to the property.    Noticing that the tenants were obviously drunk and outnumbering myself, my wife and 6 month old we decided to call the police for advice.   They sent over a police officer who spoke to the tenants, kicked out the extras and told us there wasn't much we could do since they were paying guests and too drunk to drive.    

After a sleepless night of imagining how they were destroying the place my wife called Airbnb to see what options we had. We had to provide proof of police presence, negotiate a refund (in hindsight we probably could have refunded half, but we thought it was better for them to think that they won rather than stressing over another night of this. So we gave them 100% back.) and after a couple of messages to the tenant they were out! No Damage! ... all 8 beds were slept in, smelt like smoke and booze... but overall we were very happy with the Airbnb eviction process and would highly recommend getting a ring doorbell if you don't already have one for your STR. Its not only convenient for scheduling cleaning but gives peace of mind.

- Warren and Taryn 

Owners of: The Paddle-Inn