Airbnb let a guest stay in my unit for free by filing a fake smoke complaint. I’m a Superhost and feel so let down
A guest booked my Airbnb for one night, requested early check-in, used the suite, showered, and stained a towel. Then he filed a smoke complaint with Airbnb to get a refund and walked out.
Here’s the thing: my bedroom is right next to the unit. I catch guests smoking in there all the time and have to send gentle reminders not to “smoke near the windows”. (I try to avoid a bad review by not accusing them directly but it’s obvious when they smoke in the suite.) And tonight, I did smell smoke but it was coming from the guest unit!
I now have to clean the suite and get nothing. The guest got a free stay in the city.
This is a known scam and Airbnb’s policy makes it easy. I had no recourse or time to react.
I am a Superhost and I will be leaving the platform when my current reservations are done at the end of the month. Has anyone successfully disputed something like this? What actually worked? Or should I just be happy he didn’t submit a 1 star rating?