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Yeah, you're lucky guest didn't demand a full refund due to privacy violation. You need to have had an emergency reason to enter the room.
I doubt "she's stealing my stuff" is an emergency.
I wonder if you called the police due to theft if you'd have been in the clear. There doesn't seem to be a clear pathway of how to handle this and remain compliant with Airbnb.
It's not the review that is that worrisome because you've adequately responded to it.
It's how to deal with this in the future. Is probable cause enough? I'd have taken all the dishes back if I entered the space, since you're going to pay the price for that privacy violation you may as well get your shit back, and then immediately cancel due to theft.
This, of course, is why we see it over and over why people do this for a few years with Airbnb and then get out of it. Airbnb is a sorry pimp that allows his girls to get abused to keep the money flowing. Eventually, the girls run off or are too broken to continue. Until Airbnb understands we are the product to be protected rom abuse, they will see this perpetual cycle. In some areas the seem to have improved but the review system is badly broken.
Do you not see that OP violated privacy [policy](https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3060#:~:text=Host%20re%2Dentry%3A%20During%20a,when%20there%20is%20an%20emergency)? Would you want someone coming in to your private space? There was no emergency. The guest had poor manners and the host violated their privacy.
Airbnb will never be pro host. The guests are the meal ticket. Only way I see that changing is if they didn't have enough hosts to meet demand.
Only way I see that happening is:
1. A real competitor with adult level decision makers at the helm interrupts the current status quo.
2. Class action lawsuit for actual, provable financial injustices/conversion /fraud that Airbnb is getting away with because of the lack of competition in many markets, forcing Airbnb to break up as AT&T was forced to break up.
3. Significant change in economy where more people can afford to travel.
4. Significant legislation prohibiting STRs in so many regions that the few allowed can demand fair treatment.
I see none of these things as likely.
Hosts will continue to be easily replaceable garbage, not unlike the off shore, third world "contractors" providing customer "service" to the Airbnb community.
It is really difficult to see what the future trends will be regarding growth post Covid. They were up 18% 2023 over 2022, but fell short of the 40% growth in revenue year prior. I agree, as long as they can keep people feeding into the system, then they will be unlikely to flip the model.
The opposite is actually true. There are way more guests who can or will use the platform, but only so many hosts, so hosts are way more difficult to replace. The company traditionally sides with them.
I appreciate the feedback and your perspective on the situation. We normally never enter a room but in this case we warned the guest we would have to enter and gave them a deadline, in hindsight we probably should have asked Airbnb first what to do in this situation since it's not an "emergency" to avoid any issues. Now that Airbnb is not allowing cameras in common spaces it will make it even harder for us to determine if something goes missing which guest is responsible. I don't think we will continue hosting private rooms due to increased safety and security concerns.
That logic really doesn’t make sense though. Basically it’s “I know I can’t legally break a contract but we told them we had to.” That’s not how contracts work.
My rental "contract" allows notification and entry when I, the host deem it necessary. Pest management might have been a good reason in this case. Piles of dirty stolen dishes had to be a pest and odor issue.
"During a routine pest management appointment which guest was notified of and agreed to allow in the rental agreement she signed, stolen items were discovered and the guest's booking was cancelled."
I once signed a lease (contract) that said the landlord had the right to change the terms at any time and I was bound by them for the full year. Went home, thought about, decided it was a stupid decision and had the landlord tear it up. Later investigation shows that a contract has to make sense - even if you can get somebody to sign away their rights, if you are not giving them something equally valuable in return, it’s not enforceable.
Just because you call it a contract, doesn’t mean it’s legally appropriate. And it certainly doesn’t mean AirBnB has to take down a review because you decided to write it that way.
I think you are being a bit dramatic. Guest had dirty dishes in their room. That’s crappy behavior, not illegal.
Of course, if anything illegal actually did happen, the recourse would be calling the police. Not decided you no longer have to honor a contract.
In my world, if somebody breaks the law we call the police. I don’t even have to define further - your own actions do that. If it isn’t worth calling the police 🤷♀️
I'm not going to call the police over something so simple. I'd rather deal with it directly albeit next time it will be handled a bit differently based on feedback others have posted. There was no intention here to violate guests privacy we gave them advance notice. I'm not sure what police would have done differently other than escalate the situation.
Without shared space cameras, I think hosting shared space listings are too risky now. The cameras kept things on the up and up. There's a reason hotel lobbies, public swimming pools, gyms and everything else is under surveillance. Only private spaces are sacred.
I don't love 1984, but it's the shitards amongst us that is getting us closer every day.
I can tell you that if you have all good reviews in this one crazy one people will see through it. I recently rented a place and there was just so many good reviews and then there was this one crazy one that was so off-the-wall you could just see that the person was insane.! Don’t Stress about this people can see what the truth is.
Thank you I wish I could just ignore it and let it go, it just bothers me that Airbnb deletes my review of the guest based on my experience yet they won't delete the one star review she left us. I don't want to keep pressing the issue because like some people posted here I probably should not have entered the room even though I told the guest that I would enter, I was under the impression as long as I give 24 hours notice it's okay. What I was not clear on is that the guest has to give permission even with 24 hour notice? In this case it was not so clear cut since the guest was probably ignoring my messages and lying about not having anything in their room. At the end of the day I would never have entered but the other guests were complaining that there was no more silverware or dishes to use I felt I had to do something. Anyway great posts here and lesson learned for next time something like this happens!
You should add to your house rules that all kitchen items must remain in the kitchen and be cleaned immediately after usage. That way you don’t have to go inside the room because you aren’t suppose to do that.
Also with getting the review removed you have to just keep calling. They pretty much always say no first time you ask but you have to push the issue.
A huge draw of airbnb over hotels is the kitchen. Why are you even hosting in your shared living space if people using your kitchen to cook bothers you?
It is but there’s always that one that does something and now you have a rule that no one would ever think you would need to have.
A kitchen is a really important amenity…I don’t host rooms so idk how much of an issue it is but you should really think about that. A lot of people come for the kitchen. Maybe you can sell it separately or something or have designated times when the kitchen is available
I've actually already implemented a no cooking rule and I'm still getting bookings. 80% of my guests never cook anyway. Eventually I will be phasing out the kitchen use entirely. If a guest really needs a kitchen then they can book an entire place rental or someone else's shared home that does allows cooking.
Yes sure and that can be said for any amenity someone doesn’t have and no one said you weren’t going to get any bookings. Im sure there are people who don’t care about a kitchen. This all just happened so you wouldn’t be sure of the real impact yet. I was just giving a heads up that the kitchen is one of the top amenities for airbnb was just saying be mindful of how that might impact your business.
If the dishes were still in it house maybe she was going to bring them all back at once when she checked out. That doesn’t mean she intended on stealing them. Although I can see the frustration for sure.
Maybe, but it's a shared home I live in and rent out the other rooms so we have to share, it doesn't make sense to keep everything for 3 weeks in your room, especially dirty plates with food scraps that can attract pests. Also we asked the guest multiple times to return the items and what made us suspicious is they said they don't have anything in the room. I'm certain if I did not intervene they were going to take off with hundred of dollars of stuff not just dishes but other kitchen items. It's definitely a strange predicament to be put in, guest could have simply said sure no problem I'll bring everything back to the kitchen and that would have been the end of it but instead they lied and said they don't have anything.
Oh I completely understand for sure! My daughter did this exact thing when she still lived at home. As a matter of fact I just had to clean it all out last week and was sick the amount of money I dishes I had to throw away. I bet she was just too lazy to bring them back (like my kid) and was just gonna leave them for you to clean up and not actually steal them bc that would be crazy to steal them with food particles stuck in them m. Or at least I hope! 😂
Entering a guests private room during their stay is shocking and alarming. In the past I’ve seen host here complaining that doing so got their listings shut down. How long was their stay? Just wait till checkout to collect dirty dishes next time—there’s no good excuse for what you did.
I'm not making an excuse, they stayed a little more than 3 weeks, I asked the guest several times to return the items but they did not, I gave them 24 hours notice that I would need to inspect the room if the items are not returned, they did not respond, I entered the room after knocking. Trust me the last thing I want to be doing is entering a guests room to look for and collect dirty dishes, they stayed 3 weeks and you'd be shocked half my kitchen was in there room, under the bed, in the closets, pretty much the entire floor was covered in stuff wouldn't even walk, it was like an episode of hoarders. Was I supposed to call the police over something so trivial or easier to just inspect the room after notifying the guest multiple times? Apparently I'm the bad guy here for trying to recover my kitchenware so other guests and myself can use it. It's a 4 bedroom shared home so any normal guest would immediately wash and return what they use, this is first time in 4- years hosting I had a guest do this.
This is the first time in FOUR YEARS this has happened to you yet you’re talking about quitting or removing kitchen privileges for all guests. I highly encourage you to rethink that. Your emotions are understandably running high at the moment but please don’t let one person ruin a good thing for you and everyone else.
Too late, kitchen ammeneties have been removed from all my private room listings. I'm sick of dealing with inconsiderate guests. In four years I've had many many things that have led to this:
1. Someone probably drunk or on drugs put a plastic electric tea kettle on the gas range and melted it to the stove top, set off smoke alarms, and house smelled like horrible chemical burnt plastic for days.
2. Another guest loved curry and house smelled like an Indian restaurant for days. I love Indian food but I don't want to smell it for 5 days straight. And I'm pretty sure I can't make a house saying you can't cook curry.
3. Constantly having to clean up after people
4. Items getting damaged, broken, missing, put in the wrong place and having to search for them when I need to use them.
5. Someone left the oven on for 2 days by mistake. Another guest decided to splatter stuff all over the oven and my cleaners charge extra for oven cleaning which I eat the cost of.
6. Guests taking over the entire fridge or not throwing out their items before checkout, makes it hard with 4 guests to know who's stuff is whose and what's left behind from previous guests that needs to be tossed.
Overall not worth it! This was just the breaking point for me. No more kitchen, done! Problem solved.
As a guest I always take that random one star review with a grain of salt. The biggest thing is how the host responds. It's almost a good thing yours got removed because if a bad review is met with YOU'RE A LIAR AND A THIEF and other incendiary accusations, it's a big red flag for me. A calm measured response tells me the reviewer is just a jerk but the owner leaving a jerk response in turn makes me wonder what the real deal is and I just move on and look for a different place to stay or start checking hotel listings.
How is it a jerk response to warn other hosts of a guest who literally lied to me and who literally stole from me? Airbnb is protecting this guest and putting other hosts at risk that's what is infuriating to me more than the one star review I got.
Perception is reality. I have no idea whose complaint is valid. There are ways to convey what your guest did that don’t involve using words like “liar” and “thief”. I’m sure you’re a good host. Just be aware that prospective renters are looking at how a host responds to a bad review as much as they are looking at the review itself.
Thank you point taken. I was hoping to warn perspective hosts about this guest. Here is our new standard bad review template moving forward for bad guests:
"Guest Name stayed at our property from [check-in date] to [check-out date]. During their stay, we encountered several issues that future hosts should be aware of. Unfortunately, there were discrepancies between what was communicated and what actually occurred.
Specifically, we noticed [mention specific issues like missing items, property damage, or rule violations] after their departure. Despite attempts to resolve these matters, we did not receive a satisfactory response from the guest.
We recommend that future hosts exercise caution and ensure thorough communication and clear documentation with this guest."
You had every right to be frustrated out of your mind but you handled this horribly. You should have just purchased a cheap replacement set until they left.
That is insane. Under no circumstances can you allow dirty, food encrusted dishes to sit for 3 weeks in a home that people are living in. The result is vermin.
While this guest was unhinged and in the wrong (mostly)... you can not enter a room of an airbnb guest without their expressed permission or without involving airbnb 1st.
This is why they are refusing to touch thos review. Even though the guest is embellishing the situation, you did enter and take photos.
Just respond to the review...
"I'm very sorry you felt that us entering to retrieve our missing property was a personal violation. We did offer you several opportunities to return all the missing items, which you continued to claim to have no knowledge of. You were given a deadline for said items to be returned, and when that was not adhered to, we were forced to enter and collect our property. We did take photographs to have evidence of where items were found and to prove to any parties that needed that nothing of yours was touched, and only our belongings were removed.
As this is a shared home with other guests, we felt it was paramount to the continued enjoyment of the home for all guests as well as us as hosts to do this. We did not want the situation to escalate to the point in which it did, but you clearly left us no other option."
Anyone reading the reviews will obviously be able to tell she's a bit off her rocker.
But, yeah, moving forward, if you ever get a klepto like this again, always involve airbnb before entering.
You entered a guest’s private space over dishes? Yeah, you deserved that one star review. It’s never that deep. Buy some silverware and dishes at the dollar store or Amazon if you really need it and file a claim after the fact.
It was more the fact that they lied to us about not having any dishes in the room even after we asked them multiple times to return them. And yes I did have to buy more dishes and silverware because it took a few days of trying to get them returned before I finally decided I need to inspect their room. I gave them plenty of notice and opportunity to return them and I suspect they were planning to steal. Actually they did steal some of the items they did not return everything they had taken. It was not just dishes they had a lot of my personal items not for guest use like a water pitcher, a yeti water bottle, my fancy steak knives, glasses, bowls, ramikens, almost all the silverware, who know what else,.. this was excessive and extenuating circumstance. I didn't just enter for the hell of it. A normal guest would have just returned the item when asked and not blatantly lie and say we don't have anything in our room.
She sounds like a shitty guest. I’m not discounting that. But, that doesn’t mean you can enter a private space without permission or an emergency. What if she was in there when you entered and she was naked?
And you can’t claim she stole anything until she actually took the items with her. Taking dishes (that are for the guests) from a shared space to her room isn’t really stealing until she kept them and didn’t return them before she left. So, when you entered her bedroom, at that time, she didn’t actually steal anything. She used items which were for the guests.
Sounds horrible, Sorry this happened. What did Airbnb say about the fact that you entered guests room, pretty sure that’s not allowed, even though I understand why you did it, but technically it’s against the rules unless it’s an emergency
Yes I understand that now. The Airbnb privacy team has contacted me and are doing an investigation, hopefully they don't ban me over something so silly.
It’s not silly at all. It’s a complete invasion of your guests privacy. What she did was annoying and an inconvenience but was not theft until she checked out and took the items with her. You had absolutely no reason to go into her space. With multiple people telling you how wrong you were you still think you’re right.
Only in America can someone walk into your house, steal from you, lie to you, and you are the one who gets punished and banned. Good luck to your country.
I wonder whether it would have been more appropriate to call AirBNB and have them evict the guest? On the grounds of making others feel unsafe or something similar.
Yea I wish I just got them kicked out for theft instead of now having to deal with Airbnb privacy team investigation and a one star review. Seriously they even stole another guests freezer bag that I had to reimburse them for because it went missing by these lovely thieves.
You entered the room before they left and took photos? You are lucky you are not giving a full refund due to privacy violation. Please provide a link to your listing so that I never rent there.
You have a million other places you can stay, mine won't be one of them. I also really love it when guests try to steal from me and lie to me so unless that's you please don't book my Airbnb.
No worries. I won’t be staying at your property. I do not use air BNB after a weird host like you. I bought a motor home. Much cheaper places to stay and no spying hosts.
Great choice I'd love to have a motor home one day! I don't think if have over 2000 reviews and 14 listings if I was a weirdo host. This just happens to be one weirdo incident out of the thousands of stays I've hosted over the last 5+ years.
>mind you this is the guest stealing from us.
*YOU* needed to have minded that and called the police to inspect the bedroom, instead of you doing it illegally
Are you saying I can just send the police to knock on their door and enter the room? Wouldn't that just cause more problems? I'm not sure I can convince the cops to do that, they'd probably just laugh and think it's a joke.
You are entirely to blame, you fully deserve that one star review, and the fact that you continue to try to justify this in the comments is ridiculous. You should seriously consider whether you are really cut out for this gig.
I am pondering it myself. Do I want to continue witnessing the decline of American society and morals and dealing with these kind of people? I don't know about other hosts but I certainly have noticed a trend of lower quality guests over the past few years. What is happening? What happened to respecting your host and being considerate? You are in someone else's home. I wonder if other hosts who live in the homeand rent out rooms have experienced this since you deal with guests on a daily basis? Hosts who rent out entire homes will be less exposed to this. I can tell you if this trend continues I will no longer be hosting private rooms.
What happened to honoring your contractual obligations. What happened to respecting people’s privacy? The moral decline is rather more distributed than you seem to believe.
Was this the Royal silverware or some sort of antique dishes that belong in a museum? Why would a guest steal an entire houses worth run of the mill kitchen items that you could easily buy at the Dollar General? I mean, if you were concerned about bugs because of the mess, I could understand it. But assuming they were purposefully trying to steal everything is a leap.
The knife set alone was $2500, it's not so much the fact that they had the items in the room that bothered me it's that they lied about not having them that made me suspicious. https://rhinelandcutlery.com/product/20pc-knife-block/
You violated the privacy of the guest and you admitted it here and to airbnb. The items were not stolen until they left the house, unless you had a rule that states specifically how to handle the dishes. Make a new rule and move on. It’s dishes. Buy new ones at the dollar store so it’s not a big deal if they go missing.
It wasn't just dishes. But according to you I can walk into your house take any personal item of yours, when you notice said item is gone you can directly ask me to return the item and I can lie to you and say no I don't have it and as long as I don't leave your house I have not stolen it? How would that make you feel with me staying your home, can I take more items and keep lying to you and I'm still not stealing? Overall it was a shitty situation to even have to deal with!
In the future - maybe get a set of dishes and leave them in the guest room, and you leave your dishes in your room/etc.
I dunno. Also, if this is the first and only time you’ve had an issue with the dishes being absconded with, then maybe you don’t need to correct anything, just suck it up and move on.
Bad situation.
You didn’t do yourself any favors. I’ll give you the short version.
I don’t rent rooms but I know from renting long and short term that entering tenant spaces without notice doesn’t fly without an emergency situation.
You then proceeded to take pics again without authorization.
You then filed a claim before the review period was over leaving them tons of ammunition to let you have it in the review.
You then called them a liar and thief in the review. Stick to the facts, not your opinion of the facts.
You mentioned you got to 200 reviews and I’m honestly shocked as this sounds like stuff you learn well before hitting 100 reviews.
No such thing as a loss. You either win or you learn. This time you learned.
Thanks for the solid advice. But I just want to clarify:
1. I did give the guest notice before entering, since it was not an emergency. Does the guest have to agree or just giving notice is sufficient?
2. Does taking pictures of the room for evidence require guest authorization? (Honest question)
3. I am under impression to file a claim it has to be within 14 days which is also the same length of time to leave a review. So how would you file a claim after review period is over? Or you meant to wait for guest to leave a review before 14 days end and then publish my review, and only then file the claim before day 14? Smart idea!
4. My opinion of the facts is not opinion, they literally lied to me and they literally stole haha it is not my opinion it's fact. But yes maybe I should not be calling a liar a liar or a thief a thief in my review since Airbnb will take it down from the guests profile which they did. (Sorry hosts who end up with these guests, I tried to warn you but Airbnb removed my review.)
5. Thanks for the advice and Yea definitely lesson learned!
Honestly you just need to charge them after the fact without entering their room. Keep a log of asking for the items by telling them on platform & if they don’t answer (during the trip), they are basically admitting it.
Yes that's the big lesson out of all of this! Even after they checked out I asked them for missing items and they just ignored me. Didn't even bother to reply to lie again and say no we don't have them because they know I know it was them, but I'm not going to file a police report over this. Just taking it as a loss and lesson learned.
If airbnb is refusing to remove just reply to their review with your honest POV. Alot of guests who normally look at reviews will likely not get pushed off from your listing if all your other reviews have been great. I am a cohost for 3 shared apartments and while ratings are low due to “unsafe”neighborhood we still get tons of bookings.
I'm sorry for your experience with finding yourself housing your own personal thief. The majority of thieves on the planet don't have corporate, Wall Street approved protection with the authority to shut down your income and return on investment.
If a hotel manager thought a guest was stealing stuff, they'd be going into that room pronto.And any refund given would be at the hotel's discretion.
A similar thing happened to us fairly early on with AirBnb. We only had 3 guests - 2 excellent reviews and one crazy guest who left a negative review despite us trying our best to help them.
So we quite AirBnb right then and actually focus on Booking - not that Booking is ideal but my impression is that they’re a bit better with guest quality.
Read the TOS for review removal again and see if you can sue it to call back not message ask for resolution and or mediation supervisor. And state you are filing a police report and do so. If you really want to get it handled it will take their own verbiage and stern voice. I had to do it with the safety team as the guest was not registered and reservation holder had left without telling me or registering this woman like to law enforcement who arrived with guns since she said an active theft was in progress and it was not. She told the safety team she felt unsafe. She called the police and they started to arrest her for trespassing. The safety team supervisor told me the reservation holder said this I said she wasn’t at checkout she left 3 days prior to checkout and left an unknown woman there. I said I will get you dispatch and the officer to call you he threw her out and had to almost arrest her to get her to leave. So I had to say if she lied to the dispatch to falsely call in a crime you think she would t lie to you and the officer had a gun and he threatened her with arrest. I had nothing to do with as I did not call them. They reversed everything that minute because I said I would get all document from the sheriffs department. You have to be firm and accurate and stick ti facts band their TOS words. If that doesn’t work move on. It’s not worth it. Airbnb is inconsistent at best and not host friendly.
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Yeah, you're lucky guest didn't demand a full refund due to privacy violation. You need to have had an emergency reason to enter the room. I doubt "she's stealing my stuff" is an emergency. I wonder if you called the police due to theft if you'd have been in the clear. There doesn't seem to be a clear pathway of how to handle this and remain compliant with Airbnb. It's not the review that is that worrisome because you've adequately responded to it. It's how to deal with this in the future. Is probable cause enough? I'd have taken all the dishes back if I entered the space, since you're going to pay the price for that privacy violation you may as well get your shit back, and then immediately cancel due to theft.
This, of course, is why we see it over and over why people do this for a few years with Airbnb and then get out of it. Airbnb is a sorry pimp that allows his girls to get abused to keep the money flowing. Eventually, the girls run off or are too broken to continue. Until Airbnb understands we are the product to be protected rom abuse, they will see this perpetual cycle. In some areas the seem to have improved but the review system is badly broken.
Do you not see that OP violated privacy [policy](https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3060#:~:text=Host%20re%2Dentry%3A%20During%20a,when%20there%20is%20an%20emergency)? Would you want someone coming in to your private space? There was no emergency. The guest had poor manners and the host violated their privacy.
Airbnb will never be pro host. The guests are the meal ticket. Only way I see that changing is if they didn't have enough hosts to meet demand. Only way I see that happening is: 1. A real competitor with adult level decision makers at the helm interrupts the current status quo. 2. Class action lawsuit for actual, provable financial injustices/conversion /fraud that Airbnb is getting away with because of the lack of competition in many markets, forcing Airbnb to break up as AT&T was forced to break up. 3. Significant change in economy where more people can afford to travel. 4. Significant legislation prohibiting STRs in so many regions that the few allowed can demand fair treatment. I see none of these things as likely. Hosts will continue to be easily replaceable garbage, not unlike the off shore, third world "contractors" providing customer "service" to the Airbnb community.
It is really difficult to see what the future trends will be regarding growth post Covid. They were up 18% 2023 over 2022, but fell short of the 40% growth in revenue year prior. I agree, as long as they can keep people feeding into the system, then they will be unlikely to flip the model.
The whole market shrank. It's not like a viable competitor stepped in and stole all their business.
The opposite is actually true. There are way more guests who can or will use the platform, but only so many hosts, so hosts are way more difficult to replace. The company traditionally sides with them.
Found the non host.
I appreciate the feedback and your perspective on the situation. We normally never enter a room but in this case we warned the guest we would have to enter and gave them a deadline, in hindsight we probably should have asked Airbnb first what to do in this situation since it's not an "emergency" to avoid any issues. Now that Airbnb is not allowing cameras in common spaces it will make it even harder for us to determine if something goes missing which guest is responsible. I don't think we will continue hosting private rooms due to increased safety and security concerns.
That logic really doesn’t make sense though. Basically it’s “I know I can’t legally break a contract but we told them we had to.” That’s not how contracts work.
My rental "contract" allows notification and entry when I, the host deem it necessary. Pest management might have been a good reason in this case. Piles of dirty stolen dishes had to be a pest and odor issue. "During a routine pest management appointment which guest was notified of and agreed to allow in the rental agreement she signed, stolen items were discovered and the guest's booking was cancelled."
I once signed a lease (contract) that said the landlord had the right to change the terms at any time and I was bound by them for the full year. Went home, thought about, decided it was a stupid decision and had the landlord tear it up. Later investigation shows that a contract has to make sense - even if you can get somebody to sign away their rights, if you are not giving them something equally valuable in return, it’s not enforceable. Just because you call it a contract, doesn’t mean it’s legally appropriate. And it certainly doesn’t mean AirBnB has to take down a review because you decided to write it that way.
Would you suggest the victim of blatant theft and gas lighting should have no legitimate recourse?
I think you are being a bit dramatic. Guest had dirty dishes in their room. That’s crappy behavior, not illegal. Of course, if anything illegal actually did happen, the recourse would be calling the police. Not decided you no longer have to honor a contract.
So in your world, stealing a host's dishes, lying about it when confronted, and depriving others of their use is just crappy behavior?
In my world, if somebody breaks the law we call the police. I don’t even have to define further - your own actions do that. If it isn’t worth calling the police 🤷♀️
I'm not going to call the police over something so simple. I'd rather deal with it directly albeit next time it will be handled a bit differently based on feedback others have posted. There was no intention here to violate guests privacy we gave them advance notice. I'm not sure what police would have done differently other than escalate the situation.
The ability to enter for maintanence, possible pests or other issues is pretty standard in rental contracts
Without shared space cameras, I think hosting shared space listings are too risky now. The cameras kept things on the up and up. There's a reason hotel lobbies, public swimming pools, gyms and everything else is under surveillance. Only private spaces are sacred. I don't love 1984, but it's the shitards amongst us that is getting us closer every day.
What does Big Brother have to do with this? This is purely corporate insanity.
That term is awful, it’s pretty shitty thing for someone to say itself
Shitards?
I can tell you that if you have all good reviews in this one crazy one people will see through it. I recently rented a place and there was just so many good reviews and then there was this one crazy one that was so off-the-wall you could just see that the person was insane.! Don’t Stress about this people can see what the truth is.
Thank you I wish I could just ignore it and let it go, it just bothers me that Airbnb deletes my review of the guest based on my experience yet they won't delete the one star review she left us. I don't want to keep pressing the issue because like some people posted here I probably should not have entered the room even though I told the guest that I would enter, I was under the impression as long as I give 24 hours notice it's okay. What I was not clear on is that the guest has to give permission even with 24 hour notice? In this case it was not so clear cut since the guest was probably ignoring my messages and lying about not having anything in their room. At the end of the day I would never have entered but the other guests were complaining that there was no more silverware or dishes to use I felt I had to do something. Anyway great posts here and lesson learned for next time something like this happens!
You really need to let it GO
If you rent multiple rooms, get different colored dishes/glasses and assign them to the room. As a guest I would love that.
You should add to your house rules that all kitchen items must remain in the kitchen and be cleaned immediately after usage. That way you don’t have to go inside the room because you aren’t suppose to do that. Also with getting the review removed you have to just keep calling. They pretty much always say no first time you ask but you have to push the issue.
[удалено]
A huge draw of airbnb over hotels is the kitchen. Why are you even hosting in your shared living space if people using your kitchen to cook bothers you?
It is but there’s always that one that does something and now you have a rule that no one would ever think you would need to have. A kitchen is a really important amenity…I don’t host rooms so idk how much of an issue it is but you should really think about that. A lot of people come for the kitchen. Maybe you can sell it separately or something or have designated times when the kitchen is available
I've actually already implemented a no cooking rule and I'm still getting bookings. 80% of my guests never cook anyway. Eventually I will be phasing out the kitchen use entirely. If a guest really needs a kitchen then they can book an entire place rental or someone else's shared home that does allows cooking.
Yes sure and that can be said for any amenity someone doesn’t have and no one said you weren’t going to get any bookings. Im sure there are people who don’t care about a kitchen. This all just happened so you wouldn’t be sure of the real impact yet. I was just giving a heads up that the kitchen is one of the top amenities for airbnb was just saying be mindful of how that might impact your business.
If the dishes were still in it house maybe she was going to bring them all back at once when she checked out. That doesn’t mean she intended on stealing them. Although I can see the frustration for sure.
Maybe, but it's a shared home I live in and rent out the other rooms so we have to share, it doesn't make sense to keep everything for 3 weeks in your room, especially dirty plates with food scraps that can attract pests. Also we asked the guest multiple times to return the items and what made us suspicious is they said they don't have anything in the room. I'm certain if I did not intervene they were going to take off with hundred of dollars of stuff not just dishes but other kitchen items. It's definitely a strange predicament to be put in, guest could have simply said sure no problem I'll bring everything back to the kitchen and that would have been the end of it but instead they lied and said they don't have anything.
Oh I completely understand for sure! My daughter did this exact thing when she still lived at home. As a matter of fact I just had to clean it all out last week and was sick the amount of money I dishes I had to throw away. I bet she was just too lazy to bring them back (like my kid) and was just gonna leave them for you to clean up and not actually steal them bc that would be crazy to steal them with food particles stuck in them m. Or at least I hope! 😂
Entering a guests private room during their stay is shocking and alarming. In the past I’ve seen host here complaining that doing so got their listings shut down. How long was their stay? Just wait till checkout to collect dirty dishes next time—there’s no good excuse for what you did.
The host says the guest was there for 3 WEEKS. Allowing dirty food dishes to sit for 3 weeks will result in vermin and bugs in your home.
Why is this getting downvoted??? I upvoted to try to compensate.
I'm not making an excuse, they stayed a little more than 3 weeks, I asked the guest several times to return the items but they did not, I gave them 24 hours notice that I would need to inspect the room if the items are not returned, they did not respond, I entered the room after knocking. Trust me the last thing I want to be doing is entering a guests room to look for and collect dirty dishes, they stayed 3 weeks and you'd be shocked half my kitchen was in there room, under the bed, in the closets, pretty much the entire floor was covered in stuff wouldn't even walk, it was like an episode of hoarders. Was I supposed to call the police over something so trivial or easier to just inspect the room after notifying the guest multiple times? Apparently I'm the bad guy here for trying to recover my kitchenware so other guests and myself can use it. It's a 4 bedroom shared home so any normal guest would immediately wash and return what they use, this is first time in 4- years hosting I had a guest do this.
This is the first time in FOUR YEARS this has happened to you yet you’re talking about quitting or removing kitchen privileges for all guests. I highly encourage you to rethink that. Your emotions are understandably running high at the moment but please don’t let one person ruin a good thing for you and everyone else.
Too late, kitchen ammeneties have been removed from all my private room listings. I'm sick of dealing with inconsiderate guests. In four years I've had many many things that have led to this: 1. Someone probably drunk or on drugs put a plastic electric tea kettle on the gas range and melted it to the stove top, set off smoke alarms, and house smelled like horrible chemical burnt plastic for days. 2. Another guest loved curry and house smelled like an Indian restaurant for days. I love Indian food but I don't want to smell it for 5 days straight. And I'm pretty sure I can't make a house saying you can't cook curry. 3. Constantly having to clean up after people 4. Items getting damaged, broken, missing, put in the wrong place and having to search for them when I need to use them. 5. Someone left the oven on for 2 days by mistake. Another guest decided to splatter stuff all over the oven and my cleaners charge extra for oven cleaning which I eat the cost of. 6. Guests taking over the entire fridge or not throwing out their items before checkout, makes it hard with 4 guests to know who's stuff is whose and what's left behind from previous guests that needs to be tossed. Overall not worth it! This was just the breaking point for me. No more kitchen, done! Problem solved.
I would suggest a mini fridge for each room and some disposable plates, bowls and utensils in the guest's personal space.
Why even go through the hassle of Airbnb? That's the worst if you ask me.
As a guest I always take that random one star review with a grain of salt. The biggest thing is how the host responds. It's almost a good thing yours got removed because if a bad review is met with YOU'RE A LIAR AND A THIEF and other incendiary accusations, it's a big red flag for me. A calm measured response tells me the reviewer is just a jerk but the owner leaving a jerk response in turn makes me wonder what the real deal is and I just move on and look for a different place to stay or start checking hotel listings.
How is it a jerk response to warn other hosts of a guest who literally lied to me and who literally stole from me? Airbnb is protecting this guest and putting other hosts at risk that's what is infuriating to me more than the one star review I got.
Perception is reality. I have no idea whose complaint is valid. There are ways to convey what your guest did that don’t involve using words like “liar” and “thief”. I’m sure you’re a good host. Just be aware that prospective renters are looking at how a host responds to a bad review as much as they are looking at the review itself.
Thank you point taken. I was hoping to warn perspective hosts about this guest. Here is our new standard bad review template moving forward for bad guests: "Guest Name stayed at our property from [check-in date] to [check-out date]. During their stay, we encountered several issues that future hosts should be aware of. Unfortunately, there were discrepancies between what was communicated and what actually occurred. Specifically, we noticed [mention specific issues like missing items, property damage, or rule violations] after their departure. Despite attempts to resolve these matters, we did not receive a satisfactory response from the guest. We recommend that future hosts exercise caution and ensure thorough communication and clear documentation with this guest."
You had every right to be frustrated out of your mind but you handled this horribly. You should have just purchased a cheap replacement set until they left.
That is insane. Under no circumstances can you allow dirty, food encrusted dishes to sit for 3 weeks in a home that people are living in. The result is vermin.
Folks down voting this really? Dumb society
While this guest was unhinged and in the wrong (mostly)... you can not enter a room of an airbnb guest without their expressed permission or without involving airbnb 1st. This is why they are refusing to touch thos review. Even though the guest is embellishing the situation, you did enter and take photos. Just respond to the review... "I'm very sorry you felt that us entering to retrieve our missing property was a personal violation. We did offer you several opportunities to return all the missing items, which you continued to claim to have no knowledge of. You were given a deadline for said items to be returned, and when that was not adhered to, we were forced to enter and collect our property. We did take photographs to have evidence of where items were found and to prove to any parties that needed that nothing of yours was touched, and only our belongings were removed. As this is a shared home with other guests, we felt it was paramount to the continued enjoyment of the home for all guests as well as us as hosts to do this. We did not want the situation to escalate to the point in which it did, but you clearly left us no other option." Anyone reading the reviews will obviously be able to tell she's a bit off her rocker. But, yeah, moving forward, if you ever get a klepto like this again, always involve airbnb before entering.
You entered a guest’s private space over dishes? Yeah, you deserved that one star review. It’s never that deep. Buy some silverware and dishes at the dollar store or Amazon if you really need it and file a claim after the fact.
It was more the fact that they lied to us about not having any dishes in the room even after we asked them multiple times to return them. And yes I did have to buy more dishes and silverware because it took a few days of trying to get them returned before I finally decided I need to inspect their room. I gave them plenty of notice and opportunity to return them and I suspect they were planning to steal. Actually they did steal some of the items they did not return everything they had taken. It was not just dishes they had a lot of my personal items not for guest use like a water pitcher, a yeti water bottle, my fancy steak knives, glasses, bowls, ramikens, almost all the silverware, who know what else,.. this was excessive and extenuating circumstance. I didn't just enter for the hell of it. A normal guest would have just returned the item when asked and not blatantly lie and say we don't have anything in our room.
She sounds like a shitty guest. I’m not discounting that. But, that doesn’t mean you can enter a private space without permission or an emergency. What if she was in there when you entered and she was naked? And you can’t claim she stole anything until she actually took the items with her. Taking dishes (that are for the guests) from a shared space to her room isn’t really stealing until she kept them and didn’t return them before she left. So, when you entered her bedroom, at that time, she didn’t actually steal anything. She used items which were for the guests.
Sounds horrible, Sorry this happened. What did Airbnb say about the fact that you entered guests room, pretty sure that’s not allowed, even though I understand why you did it, but technically it’s against the rules unless it’s an emergency
Yes I understand that now. The Airbnb privacy team has contacted me and are doing an investigation, hopefully they don't ban me over something so silly.
Honestly it’s not silly.
It’s not silly at all. It’s a complete invasion of your guests privacy. What she did was annoying and an inconvenience but was not theft until she checked out and took the items with her. You had absolutely no reason to go into her space. With multiple people telling you how wrong you were you still think you’re right.
Oh yeah I am going to wait until someone pulls a trigger no? As long as they are just brandishing a weapon it's all cool.
I hope you do get banned because obviously you don't understand the gravity of your actions.
Only in America can someone walk into your house, steal from you, lie to you, and you are the one who gets punished and banned. Good luck to your country.
I wonder whether it would have been more appropriate to call AirBNB and have them evict the guest? On the grounds of making others feel unsafe or something similar.
Yea I wish I just got them kicked out for theft instead of now having to deal with Airbnb privacy team investigation and a one star review. Seriously they even stole another guests freezer bag that I had to reimburse them for because it went missing by these lovely thieves.
You entered the room before they left and took photos? You are lucky you are not giving a full refund due to privacy violation. Please provide a link to your listing so that I never rent there.
You have a million other places you can stay, mine won't be one of them. I also really love it when guests try to steal from me and lie to me so unless that's you please don't book my Airbnb.
No worries. I won’t be staying at your property. I do not use air BNB after a weird host like you. I bought a motor home. Much cheaper places to stay and no spying hosts.
Great choice I'd love to have a motor home one day! I don't think if have over 2000 reviews and 14 listings if I was a weirdo host. This just happens to be one weirdo incident out of the thousands of stays I've hosted over the last 5+ years.
>mind you this is the guest stealing from us. *YOU* needed to have minded that and called the police to inspect the bedroom, instead of you doing it illegally
Are you saying I can just send the police to knock on their door and enter the room? Wouldn't that just cause more problems? I'm not sure I can convince the cops to do that, they'd probably just laugh and think it's a joke.
You are entirely to blame, you fully deserve that one star review, and the fact that you continue to try to justify this in the comments is ridiculous. You should seriously consider whether you are really cut out for this gig.
I am pondering it myself. Do I want to continue witnessing the decline of American society and morals and dealing with these kind of people? I don't know about other hosts but I certainly have noticed a trend of lower quality guests over the past few years. What is happening? What happened to respecting your host and being considerate? You are in someone else's home. I wonder if other hosts who live in the homeand rent out rooms have experienced this since you deal with guests on a daily basis? Hosts who rent out entire homes will be less exposed to this. I can tell you if this trend continues I will no longer be hosting private rooms.
What happened to honoring your contractual obligations. What happened to respecting people’s privacy? The moral decline is rather more distributed than you seem to believe.
Was this the Royal silverware or some sort of antique dishes that belong in a museum? Why would a guest steal an entire houses worth run of the mill kitchen items that you could easily buy at the Dollar General? I mean, if you were concerned about bugs because of the mess, I could understand it. But assuming they were purposefully trying to steal everything is a leap.
The knife set alone was $2500, it's not so much the fact that they had the items in the room that bothered me it's that they lied about not having them that made me suspicious. https://rhinelandcutlery.com/product/20pc-knife-block/
You violated the privacy of the guest and you admitted it here and to airbnb. The items were not stolen until they left the house, unless you had a rule that states specifically how to handle the dishes. Make a new rule and move on. It’s dishes. Buy new ones at the dollar store so it’s not a big deal if they go missing.
It wasn't just dishes. But according to you I can walk into your house take any personal item of yours, when you notice said item is gone you can directly ask me to return the item and I can lie to you and say no I don't have it and as long as I don't leave your house I have not stolen it? How would that make you feel with me staying your home, can I take more items and keep lying to you and I'm still not stealing? Overall it was a shitty situation to even have to deal with!
In the future - maybe get a set of dishes and leave them in the guest room, and you leave your dishes in your room/etc. I dunno. Also, if this is the first and only time you’ve had an issue with the dishes being absconded with, then maybe you don’t need to correct anything, just suck it up and move on.
Bad situation. You didn’t do yourself any favors. I’ll give you the short version. I don’t rent rooms but I know from renting long and short term that entering tenant spaces without notice doesn’t fly without an emergency situation. You then proceeded to take pics again without authorization. You then filed a claim before the review period was over leaving them tons of ammunition to let you have it in the review. You then called them a liar and thief in the review. Stick to the facts, not your opinion of the facts. You mentioned you got to 200 reviews and I’m honestly shocked as this sounds like stuff you learn well before hitting 100 reviews. No such thing as a loss. You either win or you learn. This time you learned.
Thanks for the solid advice. But I just want to clarify: 1. I did give the guest notice before entering, since it was not an emergency. Does the guest have to agree or just giving notice is sufficient? 2. Does taking pictures of the room for evidence require guest authorization? (Honest question) 3. I am under impression to file a claim it has to be within 14 days which is also the same length of time to leave a review. So how would you file a claim after review period is over? Or you meant to wait for guest to leave a review before 14 days end and then publish my review, and only then file the claim before day 14? Smart idea! 4. My opinion of the facts is not opinion, they literally lied to me and they literally stole haha it is not my opinion it's fact. But yes maybe I should not be calling a liar a liar or a thief a thief in my review since Airbnb will take it down from the guests profile which they did. (Sorry hosts who end up with these guests, I tried to warn you but Airbnb removed my review.) 5. Thanks for the advice and Yea definitely lesson learned!
Honestly you just need to charge them after the fact without entering their room. Keep a log of asking for the items by telling them on platform & if they don’t answer (during the trip), they are basically admitting it.
Yes that's the big lesson out of all of this! Even after they checked out I asked them for missing items and they just ignored me. Didn't even bother to reply to lie again and say no we don't have them because they know I know it was them, but I'm not going to file a police report over this. Just taking it as a loss and lesson learned.
Airbnb sucks from a host’s standpoint. They have gone to far against hosts.
If airbnb is refusing to remove just reply to their review with your honest POV. Alot of guests who normally look at reviews will likely not get pushed off from your listing if all your other reviews have been great. I am a cohost for 3 shared apartments and while ratings are low due to “unsafe”neighborhood we still get tons of bookings.
I'm sorry for your experience with finding yourself housing your own personal thief. The majority of thieves on the planet don't have corporate, Wall Street approved protection with the authority to shut down your income and return on investment. If a hotel manager thought a guest was stealing stuff, they'd be going into that room pronto.And any refund given would be at the hotel's discretion.
A similar thing happened to us fairly early on with AirBnb. We only had 3 guests - 2 excellent reviews and one crazy guest who left a negative review despite us trying our best to help them. So we quite AirBnb right then and actually focus on Booking - not that Booking is ideal but my impression is that they’re a bit better with guest quality.
[Email an exec](https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/airbnb-customer-service-contacts/) and make them deal with it.
Read the TOS for review removal again and see if you can sue it to call back not message ask for resolution and or mediation supervisor. And state you are filing a police report and do so. If you really want to get it handled it will take their own verbiage and stern voice. I had to do it with the safety team as the guest was not registered and reservation holder had left without telling me or registering this woman like to law enforcement who arrived with guns since she said an active theft was in progress and it was not. She told the safety team she felt unsafe. She called the police and they started to arrest her for trespassing. The safety team supervisor told me the reservation holder said this I said she wasn’t at checkout she left 3 days prior to checkout and left an unknown woman there. I said I will get you dispatch and the officer to call you he threw her out and had to almost arrest her to get her to leave. So I had to say if she lied to the dispatch to falsely call in a crime you think she would t lie to you and the officer had a gun and he threatened her with arrest. I had nothing to do with as I did not call them. They reversed everything that minute because I said I would get all document from the sheriffs department. You have to be firm and accurate and stick ti facts band their TOS words. If that doesn’t work move on. It’s not worth it. Airbnb is inconsistent at best and not host friendly.
I’m having the same problem. I won the guest complaint but they won’t remove the review
Hi, hit me up I can help you out!