Hello!
What an experience we have had during our first month as a short term rental provider. Below, I am going to briefly provide the experience that my girlfriend and I have had so far hosting out house on Airbnb. Ask, and I will provide you a link to the property.
To begin, we read, listened, and studied all of the available AirBnB books, many of the available podcasts, and blog posts available around the internet, but I tell you, you are never completely ready for everything that is to come your way.
We have created a very nice experience for our guests, which includes many small amenities, such as disposable slippers, tooth brushes, tooth paste, sleeping shades, and a few extra goodies that you may have left at home.... At least I do all the time while traveling.
Way back before we opened our doors, I contacted AirBnB through their customer support chat, and asked a very specific question: "Can I list my place as an Entire Place if I live in the property and the guest can use all spaces?"... This uneducated rep provided me with an answer that would haunt me for many nights, and is still haunting me to this very post. I am sure, as many of you are quite experienced in this space, that I was provided with a very wrong answer.
No, of course you cannot list this space as an Entire Space if you live there, you dummy! Well, if only I was wise enough to listen to everyone around me sounding the alarms and waving the red flags.
Fast forward, 3 months from that question and answer: We are booking nights like they were going out of style! $150 per night up to $170 per night like it was nothing.
FYI ****** All throughout the listing, it was mentioned that we LIVED IN THE PROPERTY ****** But as we soon came to understand, not one guests made their decision on anymore than the listing photos.
Then came the first guest... They did not expect us to be on the property, and this led to a late night on the phone with AirBNB, negotiating for a full refund of the guest did not leave a review, and it was agreed upon.
This uncomfortable experience led to the notification of all future bookings inquiring as to whether or not they in fact read the listing and noticed that we lived in the property. As I am sure you guessed, absolutely not! Not one of them realized that.
Next thing you know we are providing over $4,000.00 in refunds.
Ok, so we learned the lesson. This was not an Entire Place, as we provided Private Rooms in a shared space...
So, we made the adjustment after spending a good amount of time with multiple AirBnB representatives over the period of a few days.
But, do you think the guests understood what a "Private Room in a Shared Space was either? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Fast forward, a few days, we began receiving more bookings again, but as a Shared Space with Private Rooms... The title was presented as follows" 2 Private Bedrooms / 1.5 Private Bathrooms Shared Space".
Guests still showed up and did not expect us to be there. Just so you know, our master suite is large enough to reside in, and remain comfortable. So yea, more guests began showing up and kept trying to open out bedroom door from the inside and outside. Eventually we had to come out and approach them confirming that they in fact booked a "Shared Space". What a wild ride.
One of these bookings ended terribly. I will provide the exact language of the public and private review below: PLEASE NOTE, all of these accusations are completely false, and have been investigated by AirBnb... P.S. > their internal customer service is as slow and painstaking as customer service comes... I have 7 years in customer service and sales.
Here is her first message to me: "Your place is highly not recommend she walked in on us. This is not a private bedroom y’all are watching people and your business wont last doing that at all! Invasive almost ridiculous ghetto place to rent ! I will spread the word"
Here is my response: "Makayla, This is a shared place. You booked it knowing that. Contact Airbnb with any issues. Thanks,Nick".
She cancelled and left the property shortly after these messages. Next comes her Public Review: "Don’t come to this home the gave us 24 hrs but check in is at 4pm we had to leave at 11am ! Not even 24hrs . Also her and her weird *** husband has cameras everywhere even in the bathroom! They walked in on us . Don’t fall victim to their scamming ***. With this ghetto *** house they want $169 for! Then the crazy mf said quiet time between 10pm & 6am hell no !!!"
Here is her private review and feedback:
Private feedback: Your business will close this year, the house loans yall have on that display fake living house in the ghetto, you will pay out of pocket! Your house is ****** & y’all are a weird *** set of people.y’all will stop scamming people you would reap what you sow shady bi****s !
Accuracy feedback:
They lied & said they weren’t there but when we pulled up they were in the back room . They should have just opened the door for us very unprofessional!
Cleanliness feedback:
They said we can’t touch anything & that we have to be quiet .
Communication feedback:
They said we had a full day to rent but check in was @ 4pm & we had to leave at 11am . Not even a full day
Location feedback:
Ghetto
Value feedback:
They walked in on us naked & lied on their terms and conditions
Crazy, right? All totally bogus, as they booked it as a "Shared Space".
The next thing you know, AirBnB is freezing my account and beginning an investigation on whether or not we have cameras in the bathroom and bedrooms, which of course ended confirming no cameras inside of the property. BUT we still have her public 1 star review, which is going on 8 days of dispute review... How does it take 8 days to review such a terrible review?
Believe it or not, but the story just gets better!
Fast forward two guests: Three females rent the spaces for 6 nights. The first night, they smoke marijuana in the backyard, and I message them stating that we smelled it, and she apologized and said that she thought that we meant no smoking in the house. We let that slide.
One night later, we get some motion on the ring doorbell camera at 2am and 4am. When we woke up and checked the cameras, there were two unregistered males entering and leaving the property at the above mentioned times.
Later that AM, we receive more motion on the front door camera... Guest what! Three females, none of which we have seen before pull up and begin standing on the porch speaking with the guests on their cell phone. Next thing you know, they are dropping something into our mailbox! We now live in a studio apartment down the road, and hi-tailed it over to the property to try and arrive before the guests did, but they beat us to the mailbox and received their bounty on camera like the rest of the activities. Oh, and we called the cops after we arrived, but they were not Abel to do anything, because there was no evidence, and due to the legal contract nature of the AirBnB reservation.
This began the first of many calls to AirBnB. Of course, their service was super slow. I spoke with 4-6 different ambassadors over the next 24 hours. No joke. It's absolutely insane, but I do understand the time differences, due to the fact that they all pretty much work in the Philippines or Europe.
After repeating the same information to representative after representative, and providing photo and video evidence, 24 hours later, they were finally kicked out of our house.
What's funny, is that they were the first to provide us with a "review" in our journal on the coffee table.... "Thanks for letting us stay, we loved the space". They had no idea why they were being removed, because AirBnB does not provide a reason, for safety reasons, I can only assume.
Earlier today, I receive the notification to review the group.... Oh no, not again! You mean that these girls are going to be given the right to review their stay???? My answer from AirBnB was as follows: "Unfurtuanally, right now we're unsure if the guest will be able to leave a review for this reservation. However, in case they leave a review, please do not heasitate to contact us back and the team specialized will be able to assist you, you can provide them with the below ticket number which is related to this cancellation and they will investigate how they can help you.
Ticket number: ***********"
Are you kidding me? After all that we just went through, AirBnB has just provided this delinquent guest with the opportunity to review their stay! FU****** incredible! It's like one punch to the gut after another with this company. Is customer service this complicated? Are they really not set up to prevent an evicted guest from leaving a review?
As you have seen, the ride has been quite adventurous so far.
The good news is, we have learned and are learning. Price per night has more than doubled, Instant Book has been turned off, and we will vet prospective customers as well as you possible can without being invasive.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your comments,
Nick
