r/airbnb_hosts

Hi fellow hosts,

We have an Airbnb, been operating for a bit over a year, with 5 start ratings and being superhost. I've figure out the hard way short term rental is not for me, revenue was less than expected and work was more than what I expected. We never become profitable. So decided to stop our Airbnb. So may start at some point in the future again (you never know I guess).

We have a couple of reservations in July that we can fulfill, but the issue is we have 2 reservations in 2nd half of Aug (about 45 days from now) that we have to cancel. What is your suggestions for how to best approach it?
I am thinking to ask the guest (it's actually the same guest with 2 bookings) nicely to cancel.
1- should I contact them via Airbnb or email?
2- should I offer them inventive (5%-10%) as a gesture of goodwill or apology or whatever you call it?
3- what happens if they contact Airbnb and complain? I don't want to lose my July reservations.

If the guest doesn't cancel, I'll have to cancel myself and since it's more than 30 days, I need to pay 10% penalty I believe. Not sure if Airbnb gives that to the guests or not. Don't care about superhost status much, I didn't feel it made any difference and it'll probably go away after some time of inactivity anyway.

Thanks a lot for your insights.

I had a couple cleans today and ran into one of our guests on their way out. The kids were so polite and held the door open for me, and I helped them carry things to their car while we chatted a bit. Mom was equally as nice and raved about what a wonderful time they had and how much they loved our place.

Fast forward to me walking in and it was a disaster. They used 6 sets of bedding (for 2 adults and 2 children for 2 nights- but only used 3 towels 😬), there were chips all over the floor, that were visible from the second I walked in. They completely destroyed the rug in the living room, while I was able to get all but one of the stains out, they also somehow managed to warp it, so it no longer stays flat. Every single piece of fabric we left had stains all over them. There are gouges in the wood on the coffee table that we just put in this season- thankfully it was thrifted and inexpensive. The trashcan lid was completely covered in what I’m assuming was soda. Toothpaste smeared on the toilet seat. The hair trap was pulled out of the tub so I had to fish their wad of hair out of the drain. The longer I was in there the worse it got. I spent over 3 hours cleaning a 2 bedroom apartment.

I feel like this is the case with every overly nice guest we have which makes it hard to dock stars or give negative feedback but hot diggity dog is it frustrating to feel deceived. Especially when the guest has stellar past reviews.

Hi fellow hostesses/hosts. I just had my first “scammers.” They checked in at 3:00 pm with no issues. At 2:00 am they sent a message saying there was a “strange odor “ coming from all the beds (I have 3 beds). And right after that message they sent another message asking for “some sort of refund for this issue.” I messaged them back saying that I would give them a full refund but that they would need to leave first thing in the morning so we could take care of this problem (their stay was for 2 nights). They immediately messaged back saying “I think it is just an issue with the sheets not being dried right” and “we can continue with the stay, no worries about the refund.” I know that the sheets did not have any “odor,” since I personally check the unit and make sure everything is very clean. After they left I went in with a couple of friends to see if we could smell anything strange, which we didn’t. I do want to leave a review for the booker, but don’t know what to say. I also want to warn other hosts/hostesses about these potential scammers. I will leave the review only after they have left a review for me or at the last minute to review. Please help me with wording my review. Thank you for your help.

We just had our first guest who left our home in shambles. It was a younger woman who was visiting on the 4th of July holiday. She said it was her and her sister but there is so much food everywhere and they did not clean up anything and left things everywhere. We ask guests to remove trash, leftover food and do dishes. They did none but it’s more than that bc it feels like there was a party. I also see that the door wasnt locked over night which I thought they were maybe spacey but now it seems people were coming and going?! I can’t be sure but now wondering what to do when it comes to a review. I’ve left only positive reviews for my guests so far and I don’t really know how to handle this. Should I leave a bad review or just not mention anything? I will also have to pay my cleaner extra money for today’s work.

- Guest checked in x4 nights
- Our suite takes 4 guest and can take an additional person assuming they sleep on the sofa bed, but we have it advertised as a x4 bed suite.
- Two nights into their stay, an additional guest came in and spent two nights making it 5 guest in total
- We’re a new Airbnb super-host with 5 reviews so far.
- Guest checked out today and left it okish
- smell of smoke everywhere

Violation
- outdoor camera evidence of the extra guest checking in
- outdoor camera of one of the guest smoking quickly outside

What would you do?

just a vent.

We had a severe thunderstorm in our area last night and our property has been without power for almost 24 hours, with no fix in sight. There are fallen trees on all the surrounding roads.

We have guests scheduled to arrive tomorrow and I suggested they cancel because we cannot guarantee that the property will be in order for their arrival.

I obviously want them to get a full refund but AirBNB just took two hours of my time in order to get some high level supervisor to approve this, seeing as I have no "legal documentation" of the power outage, which, what?? My husband, who is currently on the property, does have a screenshot of the text from the power company but has been unable to send due to aforementioned outage. I sent them screenshots of the power company's outage maps but apparently it's not good enough. After being told that a manager would have the same response as the first support person (no), they FINALLY just told me it was fine and they would cancel.

AirBNB also tried to tell me they can't tell me about the reservation because I am not a "co-host of the reservation", despite having FULL CO-HOST ACCESS. ARGH.

I may have told the support person off and I feel badly about it but not that badly.

I want to set up an AirBnB, but I am not living locally and need someone to do everything from making small repairs to furnishing, creating photos and listing. I would also like their support for the first couple of months with managing the AirBnb, then I would like to switch to managing it with a local family member plus cleaning team. Any ideas on how to find someone to help with this?

I had a couple come in on Thursday evening at about 5:00. They had booked until Sunday. I live on the same property so I greeted them and they had a kayak on their vehicle. They told me their goal was to explore, to find different lakes to paddle into, to find some cool beaches and a couple of hikes. I live in a small isolated community and this is my jam. We spoke enthusiastically and I texted him several dropped pins of my favorite swim holes and paddle areas, then I left them alone.

I can see on the logs from the door lock that between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. there was several instances where they went out to their vehicle and back locking themselves in afterwards. 8:30 p.m. they unlocked, locked from the outside using the keypad, then presumably drove away. I thought nothing of it the next morning when I didn't see their car I didn't care to check the logs, but by late afternoon I had this gut feeling so I looked at the locks logs and I saw that they never came back. I don't know that actually, maybe one of them left and the other one is still there. It's none of my business. But I'm always paranoid when I go out into the woods so I usually tell someone where I'm going in case I find myself in trouble that somebody knows I'm missing and where I've been to. By Friday evening they hadn't returned and I was starting to become really worried. I sent him a message and decided if I didn't hear from him by dark I would report this to the RCMP.

Fortunately he responded back and said that they had to cut their trip short unexpectedly. No further explanation. Problem solved, case dismissed, crisis averted.

My guess is that they had a family emergency, or maybe they had a fight. They didn't request any sort of refund, but I did refund them cleaning fee because everything was untouched.

I was a bit torn on Friday night though as to what to do in this circumstance. They rented the suite from me what they do with it they're coming and goings completely up to them. It is absolutely none of my business and should not even be on my radar. But it was on my radar, enough for me to be concerned and consider going to the local police.

I just wanted to share this unusual situation and maybe get some validation that I did the right thing. That in this case concern about a guests well-being and whereabouts supersedes the guests assumption of privacy.

Edit: Thanks for all the feedback! I just ordered one. I didn’t realise they were foldaway!

I’ve never used one in my life and 99% of stays in our 1 bed suite are 1 night. Just got a 4 star rating from our last guests who recommended “one or two luggage stands” (they gave 5 stars in every category but left us with an overall 4 star 😬).
I don’t see where I’d have space to put one, but I wanna know….do you provide them? I’m usually pretty receptive to recommendations and will add things people suggest if they are helpful, but not sure about this one.

I am just looking for advice. We have a small city apartment 1 bedroom and guests are staying for 3 nights. (2 adults) they have just arrived and asked for 7 Extra! Towels. So 9 towels in total for a 3 night stay. I offered to provide them at a nominal charge.

Guest then asked how many extra towels could they have for free. Not wanting a poor review (though I’m still expecting one). I’ve offered 2 more towels. In the collective wisdom of Reddit did I do the right thing.

Easy way to find out the guest experience.

We live in NC. It is currently appx. 14,287,000 degrees across the entire state, and the AC in our house went tits up on Thursday. New system can't be installed until Monday. We spent two days/nights holed up in our bedroom with the portable AC from my metals studio, and once our guest left this morning, we started moving into our AirBnB apartment.

Our place is about 440ft2, sleeps 4, and it's attached to our house, having previously been my pottery studio (originally built as the garage on our house). OF COURSE we check it personally after every guest, scanning to be sure there's no damage, the flatware is still here, dishes clean, and food not left in the fridge - that type thing. Cleaner does a basic scan, as well, while cleaning.

We've only been in here about 6 hours, but have already made a list with (so far) six or seven things on it. Frex, the large salad bowls? Gone. All but 3 of the salad forks? Poofed. Not a single slotted spoon remains - and I just bought this set of flatware last year! I did have two cutting boards out here, but now? Zero. And the knives? DULLER than dishwater. Also ....who ran off with a 3/4 cup measuring cup, WTF?

Have also determined that we need coasters, as well as a small lamp between the chairs in the living room, and I'mma get one of those side table things with the feet that slide up under the bed. The bedroom also needs blackout curtains like the living room has.

If our AC hadn't died and we didn't need to stay out here, we wouldn't know these things were needed. I recommend y'all go stay in your own places and see what's missing/needed - or even NOT needed!

Someone reached out to me with an idea and I’m curious what other hosts think.

Basically, they’d put a small local guide in the Airbnb with restaurant recommendations, things to do, coffee shops, etc. Local businesses would pay to be included, and I’d get paid a monthly amount for having it in the rental.

I kind of like the idea if it actually adds value for guests, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something. Would you do it, or would it be a hard no? Why?

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to hosting (about two months) and would love some advice on how you would have handled this situation.

We had guests staying over the 4th of July weekend (checking out this coming Monday). On the day of check-in, we were hit with a record-breaking heatwave, and about 15 minutes before check-in, our window AC units started overworking and tripping a breaker. We've never had this happen before, but we've also never experienced 100°+ temperatures.

We immediately messaged the guests to let them know what was happening and that we were actively working on it. We mainly wanted to avoid them arriving while we were in the house and thinking we were intruding. Thankfully, we got everything working before they arrived and simply asked that they avoid running every AC unit at maximum, at the same time, throughout the heatwave.

A few hours later, they messaged saying the house was too warm and asked if we could provide another AC unit. We shared that we were concerned about overloading the electrical system even more, given what happened earlier, but that we'd try adding a smaller unit if we safely could. We immediately went out and bought a lower-amperage unit (which wasn't inexpensive), along with a few other supplies.

We returned to the house, rearranged which circuits the AC units were on, installed the new unit, and after a bit of troubleshooting got everything working. We did let them know that, because of the extreme temperatures, there was still a chance a breaker could trip again. We showed them where the breaker panel was and told them we'd be on standby if they needed us. Fortunately, we haven't heard of any additional issues since.

Here's the part that's been bothering me. While we were in the house making these repairs, we noticed they had significantly more people than were listed on the reservation. Our maximum occupancy is 8 guests, but we counted at least 14 people - and that's only in the rooms we entered. Naturally, a house with nearly double its intended occupancy during a record-breaking heatwave is going to generate a lot more heat and put additional strain on the AC units.

Our house rules specifically state that onsite parties or group events are strictly prohibited. Looking back, I wish we had addressed it in the moment or at least documented it. But as new hosts, we were worried about creating conflict or receiving a poor review. It was also incredibly hot, we were exhausted, and our only focus was resolving things as quickly as possible.

It just left a bad taste in my mouth that we were bending over backwards - buying another AC unit, making an extra trip, and spending time troubleshooting - while they were openly violating our occupancy rules.

If you were in this situation, how would you have handled it? Would you have addressed the extra guests immediately? Contacted Airbnb? Or waited until after checkout? They still have two nights left, and so far there haven't been any other issues, but I'm curious how more experienced hosts would approach this.

These guests were some of the first to ever book the vacation rental. The first year, we got a message saying the wife was pregnant and suffering from terrible morning sickness, so they couldn’t make their fall dates work. We accommodated their date change to this summer, in peak season (July) at our lake home, and we didn’t charge them the change in rate.

Today, we received a message stating that the wife’s father has passed away and they won’t be able to stay next weekend. They are requesting a date change again (not a cancellation), and they’d like to move their weekend stay to next summer.

We have a strict cancellation policy, and we have also changed our rates over time. Our rates are almost $200 per night higher than when they originally booked (which sounds crazy, but our house sleeps 14). We try to be very accommodating and understanding with our guests, but I fear we may be getting duped.

Thoughts? Advice? Thank you!

Mi consigliate di proseguire a mettere le case su airbnb perché ho paura che non mi portano tutto questo guadagno

I’m literally in shock right now. Guest booked for 1 night. Seemed legitimate by our communication; they stated they were coming in town with their kids to visit family which is typical for our area. (How disgusting to lie about having children)

I get a phone call from law enforcement at 2:30am saying an estimated 200 people were at my property and 2 were stabbed!! One with severe injuries.

I go back to check their profile and it’s brand new with no reviews. SMH. I can’t believe I let this one slip through the cracks when I’ve been hosting for 5 years, and know the red flags to look for. The way they were communicating seemed totally normal which is rare for these types of guests.

This is more of a venting session. I don’t have cameras at my properties but this is literally the second time in 1 week I’ve had a party thrown. (Out of 11 STR’s). Will be purchasing cameras immediately. My neighbors are reallyyyy going to hate me.

I really have bad anxiety. Like really bad and I can’t communicate with people or talk to them or even text I get really bad anxiety.

Moved abroad for a 3 week trip which was the worst decision since I have sever anxiety.

The host did specify they had a dog but didn’t think much of it.

Turns out the dog hates me and keeps barking at me everytime and the host has to come down to keep the dog quiet and I feel really bad. But recently it’s been affecting my stay I can barely leave the Airbnb and when I do and come back the dog scares the life out of me constantly barking and I have told the host I don’t like dogs.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to talk to the host without actually sounding mean. My anxiety is killing me and won’t let me communicate with the host what can I say in a nice way for them to know I don’t want to see the dog cause the dog scares me

Pardon bad grammar I don’t speak good english.

I beg of you mods pls don’t remove post I don’t know where else to ask I am begging you pls

Sorry if this has been asked before but I can’t find an answer to my specific question - can I cancel on a group that lied about the headcount without offering a refund?

I just got off with Airbnb support because my reservation for four people shows seven people sleeping at the house. We have 2 bedrooms and 2 queen beds so this is clearly too many people and our max number is 5 (with an a mattress).

I also sos the group bringing in extra blankets (and TVs?!)

We have disclosed outdoor cameras.

Airbnb support won’t let me ask them to leave with no refund until after contacting them and Support says they will ask the extra 3 people to vacate. Now I run the risk of them trashing my house and/or just lying to Support. They are supposed to be there for 6 more nights for a total of 7 and I am very concerned.

We have a perfect 5 star rating but I really don’t care about keeping that score if it means my house is damaged or destroyed.

Advice? Does anyone know if I escalate this with Support if they will back me up or do we truly have to give them, the guests, the opportunity to find another place for the extra 3 guests with no recourse on my end?

Like so many others I'm dealing with horrible customer service regarding the $750 for new World Cup hosts.

Being told I'm eligible and then now being told now I'm not after my first guest checked out, bait and switch. Trying to call support and the calls to supervisors get dropped and then I suspiciously get called in the middle of the night and then no one available during the day.

How do I talk to someone who can make a decision, an actual human being? Should I just go straight to filing a grievance in writing?

Have a booking today and would honestly just cancel and take down my listing if it I wouldn't be ruining someone's vacation...Seriously don't know how you hosts make money working with this dehumanizing company.

Had a guest leave clothes behind and my cleaning person donated them to goodwill. Guest messaged me asking for them back. I usually do the cleaning after a guest leaves but was unable to do it this last time so I had someone who has worked for me in the past. I spoke with my cleaner and she dropped them off without a word. I've had renters leave things behind and I message them right away. What can I do besides telling them sorry their stuff is gone?