All Forum Posts by: Kadeidra Honey-Brooks

Hello all! I own a seasonal STR rental outside Chicago - summers are very busy and Sept-May is pretty empty. I have a guest (airbnb) staying one weekend during the off season but had an opportunity to rent to a mid-term tenant for the entire off season (lease is now signed and deposit paid), which is way better for my bottom line. I now need to cancel on the Airbnb guest. Any advice?

Should I ask them to cancel so it doesn’t affect my host status? Offer a discount on another date? Just cancel and deal with the fee?

 Great ideas. My permits are all up to date and I’ve actually spoken to the county several times and they’ve said my neighbor is a complete pain in the neck and they basically don’t listen to them anymore. I also got decibel monitors so when my guests were falsely accused of partying until 1:30am, I showed the monitor report and that was the end of that. 

@Nicholas Misch and @John Teachout, I think you’re both right that these are miserable people. The complaints Airbnb forwarded were unbelievably lengthy, negative, accusatory, etc. Not something a reasonable person would write.

I’ll implement some of this great advice and see if I can win them over, or at the very least, gather my own evidence to rebut their accusations. 

@Michael Baum good ideas all around, thanks. 

I can’t go talk to them in person because I manage the property from across the country. But I did send a card in the mail introducing myself. 

I understand they paid a lot of money for their home. This is a lake community where probably 50% are full-time residents and the other 50% are second homes that are either used the by owner or rented for the full summer, or for 1-2 months. I thought they’d be used to renters. Even if we used the house ourselves, we’d be outside having fun so they’d probably complain about that. 

@Rodney Sums hahahah, amazing!!!

Thanks @Joshua Messinger and @Bruce Woodruff! It’s all booked for the summer season so we’ll see how it goes. I’m also sending my mother-in-law over with cookies to try to see if we can catch more bees with honey. But like you said, some people…

Darn it! I tried! I actually took your course and made about 25+ offers across 3 different markets with STS agents with no luck. But now I see why I should’ve stuck it out. Any Destin houses y’all want to unload for $650k? Kidding, kidding. 

Anyone have advice on what to do about an STR neighbor who hates us? We just purchased our first property and the people across the street keep complaining to Airbnb about everything we do. My rental is in a residential neighborhood and is pretty pricey so it's catered to a clientele who can afford ($1k+/night). These are the complaints so far:

1. They didn’t like that we referred to the land behind our property as a “wooded area” because it’s their private property and we are “falsely advertising” and “encouraging guests to trespass.” Ok, my bad, we were told by the agent it wasn’t owned by anyone. But we’ve now changed the listing and made sure to tell guests it’s private property and not to go on it. 

2. A huge tree fell on our property and we didn’t get it removed fast enough. 

3. When we did get the tree removed, the chainsaws were too loud. 

4. The most recent guests were too loud, their dog was “on the loose and chasing people down” (they didn’t have a dog - I confirmed with my cleaner that there wasn’t a single dog hair found on the property). And the guests were “throwing fireworks at each other’s bare chests until 1:30am” (I don’t even know what that means. Also, they had a baby so I highly doubt this is true).

5. They don’t think it’s appropriate that I manage the property from afar. 

Do I just ignore these complaints? Should I be worried about them shutting me down or contacting the city to revoke my STR license, even though I've done nothing wrong?

Any advice from the sage BP community would be much appreciated!