Tell me about your bad guests!

[Heidi Schlueter]

Tell me about your worst guests. I have a bad one this week, and I"d love to hear what you've been through and that you made it through the other side. 

I will admit - it's not a great situation. We heard a few days before the guest's arrival that there would be construction on our building. I notified the guest, he said he understood and still wanted to come. He has been a nightmare since he arrived. Any compensation I offer is declined. i have rented another unit for him to use during the day - not acceptable. I've offered to refund money - nope. The only thing he will accept is for the construction to stop. Out of my control. He's harassing the construction crew and my on-site person is ready to take him on a one-way fishing trip. I'm trying to come up with any creative way to make his vacation better, and he wants nothing to do with any of it. 

I know everyone has bad guests from time to time. Let's enjoy a few of the stories in hindsight.

[John Underwood]

Sounds like you have tried everything possible. 

At this point you could cancel his reservation and tell him he can stay the duration of his stay for free. If it not a huge amount of money.

This would prevent him from leaving a bad review which you know is likely coming.

Or refund him part of the trip and when he does leave you a bad review you can show how you compensated him.

[John Underwood]

My only issue is a Mom rented our Lake house for after Prom. She would be there along with 6 girls.

Well the Mom left them alone and 20 or 30 kids showed up to party.

Neighbors called me. I called Mom she assured me that she was there, she wasn't. 

I have a commercial grade camera system watching the outside now. 

I also charge a lot more money which leads to a higher clientele. 

[Heidi Schlueter]

He's my first AirBNB guest, and I have no other AirBNB reservations (most traffic in my area comes from VRBO), so I've already shut down my AirBNB listing. If he wants to leave me a bad review, totally fine. At this point I've sunk so much money as I rented the other condo for his use, so refunding him leaves me about a grand negative. I have refunded one night, and he declined further refunds. The only thing he'll accept is the construction to stop.

[Nat C.]

Not the worst guests I've had but still memorable. Turned up and checked in, then said they'd prefer to stay at a place closer to the beach. They asked for a full refund and I declined. The following day they contacted Airbnb and said the police turned up and raided the house and said it was a drug house and they should leave for their own safety ASAP. No surprises, Airbnb refunded them in full, including the night they stayed. Their story was 100% fictional. I even called the police to check.  

[Heidi Schlueter]

@Nat Chan - OK that's horrible. (and I feel bad that you've had worse guests!)

[Paul Sandhu]

Had 3 guys in a place for about 6 months.  1 guy left.  The other 2 thought they should still pay the same amount per person as they did when there were 3 people.  They decided not to pay. I decided to disconnect their electric and water.  Someone else had put up an ad for a furnished house, my competition.  I gave my 2 renters their phone number and got rid of my problems and got rid of my competition.  I met the lady that owned the house a few years later.  She said they were gone but storing a bunch of stuff in her rental house.  They were supposed to pay her rent for storing it.  They never did.  

These were the same people that had the incident with the rattlesnakes.

Yesterday I found out that one of the 2 guys found a new job in his home town.  He was the foreman over a crew of welders.  He lasted 2 days and was fired.  He was then committed to a psychiatric ward in a hospital.  His sister got him out.  His wife divorced him.

[Elizabeth Goforth]

1) Someone brought their own grill to my house (I don't have one.) It started raining. They decided to bring the grill inside.... And grill inside... In a 3 story log cabin. :o I'm thankful they didn't burn it to the ground, and only burned the hardwoods. 

I learned from this one, to raise the damage protection policy amount I required on VRBO. 

2) Then there was that time someone stole someone else's wallet, booked a beautiful historic house on a stolen credit card, got high and/or angry, and trashed it out. Yanked light fixtures out, punched holes through sheetrock walls, broke glass door etc. Then the actual card holder charged the expense back, since it was a stolen card. 

I learned from this one, that you have to get a photo of the ID to verify the card... or else you're liable to have chargebacks and be totally unable to contest them. 

There have been others, not necessarily as notable as those two... But overall, I've had a great experience. It's just that one in every couple hundred that's terrible. 

[Lynne Cregar Hernandez]

You can report him to airbnb and tell them he is being a nuisance to the neighborhood, obstructing the ongoing construction . 

I just experienced the worst guest I ever had in the 7 years that Ive been using the Airbnb platform. It was non stop complaints starting on her first day. The major one was my mini fridge, which she said wasnt working, so I defrosted it for her, then few days later said it wasnt working again, I decided that same day just to buy her a new fridge. Meanwhile, I monitored the temp of the old fridge with a thermometer for 3 days, and it was always at 4C . Then she started complaining about the new fridge! she said all her food was spoiled and she wanted me to reimburse her for her food, in the end she ended up leaving one day early of a 30 day stay and told airbnb she wanted to be reimbursed for stay and food. I determined there was never anything wrong with the new fridge , ( monitored temp). So her complaint was completely invalid. Come to find out shes done the same thing to another host , who messaged me after seeing my review of her. After a quick google search I find out she is in the habit of taking people to small claims court a few times per year for the past 5 years, meanwhile shes ruining hosts 5 star ratings by leaving false reviews. 

Wish there was a way I could warn other hosts!