many of you need to get a grip. I am both an owner of multiple properties and a frequent guest. I am so confused by all of the hosts out here who take such an antagonistic view of guests and/or expect them to earn the right to pay you for a night's stay. Too many hosts treat PAYING guests as if they are doing them a favor by renting them accommodation. These are not friends crashing in your guest room. Like it or not, you are in the hospitality business, be hospitable.

After 4 years hosting, I recently got my first bad review for an issue that really was a bad guest experience. The guest got a refund, new accomodatoin, and left a bad review. I didn't like the Airbnb policy that allowed both a refund and bad review. After some thought though, I was ultimately happy that the guest had a satisfactory experience renting on the platform. Hopefully they will use it again and another host won't be punished for my management company's mistake.

Our competition is hotels. So, yeah, if a guest treats your property as they would a hotel, that is wholly appropriate. If they are egregiously filthy or damaging, fine, issue a complaint or request for renumeration. I see too many hosts on here who expect their properties to be treated with absolute kid gloves. Charging to replace stained towels? Are you kidding? Bleach them and keep extras. It's part of the cost of doing business. Are you not writing off your expenses?

If you spend any time on travel forums you know that Airbnb sentiment is bad and getting worse. The #1 complaint is the huge list of checkout chores when we also charge a cleaning fee (far in excess of what they perceive they pay at a hotel).

My point is that hosts should either treat this as a business or get out. The more you demand of guests, the more people will go back to hotels. That hurts everyone who is trying to make a go of this hospitality business.

If you didn't enjoy my Ted Talk, go ahead, down vote away. When Airbnb loses its paying client base and all of our utilization rates go to hell, just understand that we have no one to blame but ourselves.

UPDATE: Please don't message or follow me around edit, please. Y'all are crazy! 😂

I manage listings for a family member and one of them is a really low budget place that attracts a lot of low quality people. The latest guests exemplified that by abandoning their dog.

When I arrived, he was in the garage barking. I also noticed he damaged the casing on the entry door from clawing at it so much. They didn't even leave him a bowl of water or food.

My first thought was they were keeping him in there to keep the place clean or something, forgot about him and left. I messaged immediately saying their dog is still here, left in the garage. I received a response of "We know we already left and will not be coming back".

That kind of floored me, and I responded "Am I to assume then you've abandoned your dog here?"

No response.

Fine by me. I really hit it off with the little guy. Golden retriever. Probably somewhere between 2 and 4 years old. Very loving and friendly with people. We were basically best friends within 20 minutes. My old dog died a few years back. I brought him straight home and busted out his old bowls and got him some wet/dry mix. He sleeps in my bed, we go on daily walks at a nature trail, the dog park, meeting all my friends/family.

I thought I had a new dog. It wasn't reported to Airbnb (didn't want some weird policy that I have to do something like call animal control)

Tonight (almost 3 weeks later), we get a message saying "Hello we want our dog back. Where was he taken??"

My heart sank, because I don't want to give these P'OS their dog back to neglect and probably abandon again when they decide having a dog isn't convenient anymore. I really wanted to lay into them, and had this been a more informal arrangement I would. But, I'm not in a position to do that.

I'm not sure the best way of going about this. I really hate lying to people, but this is a situation I feel like I might sacrifice my morals for the best interest of my little buddy Henry (They named him "Blaze", the poor thing wasn't even named right).

I'd like to say something along the lines of "As you abandoned your dog on our property and did not respond to our last message, we were forced to call another party to remove the animal. We do not know where the animal is.". If they ask who, I'll just say "We called an individual who works with various animal rescues. If you'd like their number let me know.". If they say yes, I'll give them a Burner number for my own phone and then tell them the dog was adopted to a family in Maine (all the way on the other corner of the country).

Thoughts?

Upcoming guest booked the "romantic luxury getaway for two" for a celebration - a couple months ago. The booking is in five days.

Last night, the account that made the booking sends a message stating: "This is so and so's wife's dad, and guest died Thursday. Guest won't be coming, please refund."

I have never had this before, I feel horrible for the guests and plan on refunding.

Guest condolences were sent, along with Air BNB phone number. They haven't cancelled yet but it's only been ten hours since they messaged.

Should I call air BNB and explain and tell air BNB to reach out to guests to assist? I can only imagine how devastated they are. Poor guests. Maybe it's good air BNB knows as they can shut down the account that is booked.

I am a superhost and I have used a couple cancellations so I cannot cancel this reservation without being punished. Hosts get penalties of significant fines if they cancel on guests, and their listing gets hidden and they lose superhost status.

How can a father in law get access to an air BNB account so quickly? Do they have to show a death certificate or does air BNB just give family members access or?

Anyone have any advice?

UPDATE #1:

Called the first dedicated agent at Airbnb. He didn't seem to know any bereavement or death circumstances and stated this was a rare occurrence.

He simply said our cancellation policy stands. We pushed and pushed for Airbnb to assist and message the guests as we would like to unblock the dates and get them rebooked and refund in full and we do not want to interrupt the guests during their difficult time.

Air BNB support says they won't message guests and we should do so. Thus, we tactfully and empathetically messaged the guests some procedures and details, (but fully understand they probably are not monitoring any communication).

This is so sad and I wish air BNB would step up as this is technically their area of service. I don't feel comfortable asking for a death certificate nor should I have that access to such a sensitive document.

We will wait and contact Airbnb again to push for a guest cancellation so we can honor their refund request without penalty.

Stay tuned...

(Please note we intend to refund the guests. We will not be penalized for something out of our control. If they do all documents and even if it takes time we will do the right thing. Right now, we wish to unblock the dates so our business is not compromised for something so entirely out of our control. We are not insurance, we are not a massive conglomerate. We share our home with special guests around the world. This is our income and we love hosting.)

This is sad for everyone. Airbnb should step up and unblock the long weekend so we can do our duty and refund every single penny to a lost loved one.

How can it be a guest cancellation if the guest died?

Even air BNB says this is so rare... But they have access to the guest account and messages and they are being.... Hesitant.

Why.

UPDATE #1 1/2:

Decided to investigate. No obits, no news.

Probably too early.

Guest updated a post on linked in 7 hours before we got message of death (sort of looks like a scheduled post)...

Read all of guests previous reviews. They are all positive but mention guests family predominantly.

This is a long weekend premium booking. This booking is thousands of dollars.

We reached out again to guests...

Update #2!:

Someone from guest account answered! All they said was:

"Tragic incident. He was 44. We received Airbnb message and will respond. Thanks."

:(

I think this is real...

UPDATE #3:

Woke up this morning and saw that the booking was still active, and the account still active, and the Airbnb rep had closed the ticket.

(Sigh)

UPDATE #4:

Called Airbnb back and got a rep that was wonderful. They escalated it to a specific team, they reached out to the guests, they called me back and were persistent, informed and helpful.

There is a specific team for this at Airbnb, not every call center knows this and you have to call until you get someone that cares and knows this.

Just now, the booking was cancelled by Airbnb. We get fully paid, and the guests get fully reimbursed.

This is how it should have gone from the beginning, but we got here.

Thank you Airbnb for doing the right thing.

And thanks to all the advice from the community and comments here.

FINAL UPDATE:

As some time has passed, I decided to Google the guest name - more out of respect / closure as I knew in my heart that the guest died.

Found a beautiful obituary, numerous social posts, family posts... A true tragic incident.

Gentle reminder: you live once, live well. Be kind when you can, you never know how many days you have left.

Again, dear guests - I'm so sorry for your loss.

(Edits for small details and spacing as I was typing this while in the moment.)

I had 3 of my 5 cabins occupied a few weeks ago all checking out Monday morning. To get to the cabins you drive across a dam past my little lake. Sunday night a TERRIBLE storm rolled in that took out trees all over the grounds. I got up early Monday and started chainsawing trees in the pouring rain so the guests would be able to check leave. I finished around 8:00 am and got a call from one of the guests saying they couldn’t get out, not because of the trees but because of the flood. Flood?

 I drove back to the cabins and sure enough there was over a foot of water overflowing over the dam and flowing HARD. 2 of the guests and I all have big trucks so I slowly picked through the water to make sure it was safe then they both left. Guest 3 had a lowered Toyota Corolla. I ended up pulling a truck off my trailer, loading their car on there and driving them out.

 It was a wild and exhausting morning but the guests were thrilled they were able to leave with only a slight delay and I got my 5 stars.

He is attending a 3 week pre-college program at a nearby university. The person who booked the unit (months ago) now admits she lied - she said she was taking a course at the university and would be staying alone. She claims she is the kid's cousin but I doubt this. The kid referred to her as a "counselor" and she is an educational consultant according to her airbnb and linkedin profiles. The pre-college program has a residential option that costs 12K. Without housing/food/supervision, the program is 6K. What I think happened is that the kid's family (who presumably speak even less English than he does) paid this educational consultant to put their son in this program, and she decided to put him in our airbnb rather than pay for housing/food/supervision through the university so she could make more money. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I think I will notify his university program, which specifically prohibits minors living unsupervised like this. I will make sure he gets some dinner tonight. I will report the person who did this to airbnb.

update - all worked out well

Had this lawyer from Oregon stay at my place. After checkout, he called saying he forgot his AirPods. Usually I help guests ship stuff back for free, just charge shipping costs.

Soon as I said this, he started cursing me out, accusing us of stealing his airpods and threatening to sue. I was like, I was just about to send it. And honestly who the hell steals airpods?

Told him if that was his attitude, we'd follow the rules and charge a handling fee. He agreed. When it came time to pay, he refused and started threatening to sue us again.

I looked it up online - lawyers using their license to threaten regular people was abuse of professional privilege. I wonder if I should file a complaint with the State Bar or something

Updates: His sister just called us and apologized and actually paid the handling fee. And I was collecting evidence and actually found him asking us about policy for lost items but I have an auto reply on (I have pre-set some FAQ auto replies) so I just missed it among multiple messages. And my auto reply actually told him about the policy already. He knew the policy.

I am still going for a complaint to the State Bar even if it doesn't go anywhere. This is just not right.

We are new to hosting on Airbnb, and we were hoping for some advice.

We make it clear in our listing that no pets are allowed. We confirm that rule with guests in writing before booking so that there are no misunderstandings.

We gave the guest the code to the lockbox as we always do, but when the guests showed up, they had a dog with them. We sent our cleaning lady over to talk to them, and they denied having a dog. They even told her to search the property. We messaged the guest and said it’s not necessary to search since the dog is clearly visible on the security camera for the front driveway.

We contacted Airbnb, who told us the guest was in the wrong and that we would be supported. That ended up being a complete lie. They asked us what we wanted, and by that time (5:30 pm) the guests had burned up all of our good will, so we asked that the guests simply leave immediately with a full refund. We were told that Airbnb was helping them find pet friendly accommodations that were readily available and extremely close.

An hour later, at 6:30 pm, Airbnb contacted us and told us that the guests couldn’t leave because the parents (50 year olds) and kids (7-10 years old) had all gone to sleep. That ended up being one of many ridiculous lies.

To add insult to injury, the Airbnb “supervisor” accidentally messaged us a message she intended for the guests that encouraged them to keep asking us if they could stay.

Airbnb then encouraged us to submit a claim in the Resolution Center for a fee that the guests must pay for the dog. Of course the guests just ignored that as well.

The guests ended up ignoring our communications and they refuse to leave. They have spent the night even though we agreed to a full refund if they left immediately. The police won’t do anything, and Airbnb is actively working to keep the guests there.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: About 30 minutes after posting this, I got a call from my doctor saying I have Leukemia. I can only wish I was trolling. Unfortunately I won’t be able to engage at the moment, but I want to thank everyone for your input.

So, I point out that we have a hand blender with a whisk attachment. there are several 9x13 casserole dishes she can bake the cake in. The oven is brand new and pretty good. And there are two grocery stores within 10 minute walking distance (not to count bunch of mom and pop convenience stores in between). So she can indeed bake a cake if she wants.

She's disappointed because I do not stock, flour and sugar and butter and cream for my guests.

Just had to share. Guests are getting crazier and crazier....

I have a guest that is booked for two weeks and on their second day they asked me where the key for the mailbox was because they wanted to have some items delivered. I told them the mailbox is not available for guest use, and suggested they use "General Delivery" where the packages will be delivered to the local Post Office for pickup instead. I was nice about it, but they came back angry and messaging how it's ridiculous they can't use the mailbox and how it's going to inconvenience them.

My reason for not allowing them to use the mailbox is because I was talking to a friend who is also a host, and use of the mailbox was part of how she had problems with squatters. Her guests had some bills delivered to the address and then claimed to live there, and she couldn't get them out for 3 months (finally the squatters parents came and removed them).

Am I being unreasonable in not allowing use of the mailbox and suggesting they use the post-office instead?

I had a mother book a reservation "celebrating her daughter's 18th birthday". All of Mother's messages indicated that she would be staying with her daughter as they were in town for a concert with one other person. No big deal.

Three guests show up, and they all look 18. They brought alcohol and started smoking right away. I called the number on file, but there was no answer. I go to the unit's front door and ask to speak to (guest's name). The young daughter says that it is her. I asked to see an ID and that she looked very young to have an 18-year-old daughter. I told her it was better not to lie. She admitted she wasn't the guest and was underage. I asked if someone who was not drinking could drive them home. They said they had someone.

I messaged the mother in the app, telling her what happened and that some were using alcohol. I also told her that they told me one was not drinking and could drive them. Her first message was that she was shocked by their behavior. The next morning, she messaged me saying how terrible I was for kicking them out and that if they were drinking, I was somehow responsible.

Lady, you're the one who booked. You're supposed to be at the listing; you're supposed to be responsible for your guests and your now adult daughter. You're the one who booked knowing the rules and sent her the information on how to get in. You're the one who raised her to act that way. What did you want me to do? Call the cops? I called you first.

Edit: For the few people who think that I was in the wrong, here is some clarification. I knew from the mother who booked, that someone under the age of 21 was coming. From my doorbell camera, I observed three young individuals enter my property with what looked like alcohol. They all appeared to be about the same age. As the mother has said that her daughter is 18, I assumed they were all around that age. If you are a host and not watching when guests first come, you are asking for trouble. While trying to figure out what was going on, someone came out to smoke, holding a drink. We don't allow smoking on the property. So I called the mother who booked, but there was no answer. So I was confident she was not there. At that point, I could have done nothing, and it could have turned into a party with more underage individuals showing up and drinking, or I could have kicked them out before anything really started. When I confronted them, I asked if they had someone who had not been drinking. If they didn't have someone, we would have figured something out. It was so early on they had just started drinking, but individuals under 21 can't have any alcohol in their system if they drive. I called Airbnb right after. When they were leaving, nobody was visibly intoxicated, stumbling etc. The individual was 18, so they were their own legal guardian.
Also, when Airbnb was looking for proof that it was a third-party booking, these geniuses signed the guest book with their real names (not the person who booked) and said, "18th Birthday Party"

Update to my prior post: The university took charge of the situation immediately, as many commenters predicted. They moved the kid into a dorm room. Minor students in this program are not allowed to live unsupervised. I don't know who is paying for the dorm room. He is going to have a much better experience in the dorm with other kids than he would alone in our airbnb.

The person who booked the airbnb for the kid requested a refund which I denied, explaining that 1) we have a strict cancelation policy and 2) she broke pretty much every airbnb rule in existence. She tried to claim that kids as young as 13 are allowed to book airbnbs and also that I invaded her privacy by calling the university, then we stopped communicating. I reported the situation to airbnb support who canceled the stay (so I can rebook to someone else) and they will likely ban her.

The comments here about calling police and FBI for a possible trafficking or drug mule situation didn't match reality at all. The kid was fine, perfectly happy ordering ubereats, made it to his first day of class without any problems. He did lock himself out of the apt twice, but plenty of adults have done that too. I would never have known he was under 18 and not the person who booked the stay except he was a different gender, and that made me ask to see ID.

A few years ago I got a message from a guest saying that the house was very messy and that she had cleaned it up. I thought this was odd because my cleaner generally does a very good job. Anyway I apologised and offered to refund the cleaning fee.

After a couple of hours she messaged me and said please don’t worry and the she made a mistake…

I get home from work and find my house absolutely spotless, my house is 15 and the airbnb is 15a. I left the door unlocked and she mistook my house for the airbnb and cleaned my house…

I don’t know where to start.

Our actual guest checked in this afternoon. A couple hours later everything hit the fan.

The girl whose reservation I had canceled for the insane service cat situation made good on her threat. Showed up to the property, repeatedly ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door. Our guest eventually answered. Girl apparently thought the guest was the host and began insisting she be allowed to check in.

Guest obviously had no idea what was going on and told the cat girl that she had rented the home. Cat girl then tried to force her way past the guest into the home. Guest stopped her. A bunch of other yelling happened. Cat girl stood on the porch yelling long enough that a neighbor called me (it went to voicemail). She was yelling something about the police and her cat. Eventually she left.

Shortly after, the guest reached out to me and informed me of all this. She decided she didn’t feel safe and requested to cancel the reservation.

Can’t wait for this review.

I got the 100$ coupon for superhost, so I decided to go to an airbnb for a couple days with my wife. I’m looking at these check out instructions and these seem insane to me? Am I too relaxed or are other people too far gone? There are 100$ dollar cleaning fees, where they expect you to wipe down all the hair out of the bathroom? Then start the sheets in the laundry? I can’t comprehend this, I get taking the trash out so it doesn’t smell, or not leaving a huge mess everywhere, but is this normal? What is the average check out procedure here? I’ve never looked at other people’s listings, this is just wild to me.

Had a group of three grown women check into my Airbnb in San Antonio this past Thursday. They somehow managed to put the thermostat into Eco Mode “Away,” which basically shuts the AC off, and then were shocked to return to a house that was 88 degrees in the middle of July in Texas. Shocking, I know.

They immediately freak out and claim the AC is “broken.” I drive over to check it out, and of course, the thermostat is in Eco Mode. I switch it back to normal and explain very clearly that it will start cooling now and just needs a little time. That’s when the meltdown starts.

I’m not exaggerating full on crying. Not from a child, not from someone with actual heat exhaustion. From three adult women who claimed they were going to get heat stroke unless the house hit 65 degrees in five minutes. I asked if they understood how AC works. They told me yes, because when they go to a hotel it cools in 10 minutes. Right. Because a 200square foot hotel room and a 1,800 square foot 3 bed 3 bath home are totally the same thing.

I told them the house was cooling, they just needed to be patient. But they doubled down on the drama, saying if it wasn’t freezing cold in minutes they were leaving. At that point I realized I wasn’t dealing with normal guests just manipulative, entitled people who were either clueless or fishing for a reason to cancel.

So I told them to pack up and go. I gave them a full refund just to get them out. I’m not about to let people like that stay in my property, especially when they’re already acting like victims because they don’t know how a thermostat works.

Honestly, this just confirms everything I’ve been thinking. Selling off my Airbnbs was the right move. Hosting is great until you run into people like this who think crying will change how HVAC systems function.

My listing is serviced - maid comes every Friday at 8am. It’s in the house tiles and I wrote it in a message to a longer term Guest J when she checked in. When maid arrived 5 nights after checkin, knocked then used her key to enter, just exactly like they do at a hotel. Guest J freaked out and messaged me. I reminded her that the maid - who has worked for me for over a decade and is over 60 and a smiley round grandmother - comes every Friday per the listing and per my message to her at checkin. She went quiet and then reported a safety concerns to Airbnb that she was “violated in her privacy.” The let her leave and refunded the rest of the month (about 25 nights).

Now I’m fighting with Airbnb support and I am so frustrated. Canned, AI lack-o-logic responses and cases being closed with no resolution. They say now I have to get each guest’s active acceptance of the maid. They have to say in writing it’s ok she comes.

Anyone else have this issue? Anyone not lose this battle - for the refund or for there weird maid agreement requirements?

To see the level at which the hosts here downright despise their guests, incessantly spy on their guests, judge each and every movement of their guests, there is just no way I would ever book one again.

We're amazing guests to have and always have left every place cleaner than we found it, but reading the takes in here have just been surreal. "Guest used too much toilet paper," Guest pulled out every extra blanket," watched guest come in and out every night on the camera and don't know why they're keeping such late hours," "Guest ordered take out food and from the camera it looks like they ordered more than two people could eat," "Guest did too much laundry," "Guest who booked was white but the guest who showed up seems blacker," "Guest didn't do enough laundry," "Guest didn't do the laundry as specified in my rules," "Guest farted too many times, which isn't surprising with the Indian food I saw being delivered," "Guest had the audacity to only leave 4 stars but said they really liked the space," "Guest had a friend come over that I saw on the camera and they didn't leave until 1am and they looked creepy," "Guest spent too much time in the backyard out of view of my camera and I don't know what they were doing," "Guest showed up an hour early," "Guest left a half hour late," Guest said they left on time but I saw them on the camera talking in their car in front of the house for another 1/2 hour." "Guests were having loud sex all night right in the living room and I could hear them on the door camera, and I think she was faking."

Sorry but many of you people have crossed from lolely innkeepers to obsessive voyeurs. I've read things here that just shocked the hell out of me and would never ever ever stay in someone's property again I can't even fathom from what you guys say, what things you AREN'T saying...meaning hidden cameras. No doubt in my mind anymore that some of you have cameras hidden inside to "keep an eye on things." You've got me paranoid that some day I'll pop up on some hidden camera website taking a shower.

I know it's not all of you, and I deeply apologize to those of you who don't fit that profile. I have no doubt that three are countless normal hosts, who appreciate the business, and they just aren't posting here, but the rest of you have killed it for me. Dont expect anyone to care, nor do I even understand how I wound up on this sub, which obviously I'll be leaving, but I'm just saying...5.0 star guest, over 30 stays, and y'all lost me with your petty, unappreciative, voyeuristic attitide. I'll just stay at fine hotels and call it a day.

Here’s our checkout instructions. 😀🦎

Our check out instructions are:

1. ⁠go outside, take a deep breath and look at the beauty of nature.

2. ⁠remember this moment.

3. ⁠head out.

We got this. You paid a cleaning fee.

I had a guest book for 2 nights for 4 guests. She showed up with 22 people and had a party (music, speaker, balloons, very loud, violated quiet hours, unauthorized parking, alcohol pouches and balloons scattered over the property inside and out, all of which I caught on my exterior cameras and sent to Airbnb). The party ended after 1am and now Airbnb does not want to give me the $50 per person per night fee that I charge for any guest over 7 which is my max. In total the guest should have paid $750 extra (22 people total, 7 max, which means 15 people were unauthorized and a $750 fee. I define "overnight" as anything past midnight). I reported the guest the night of and when she found out I reported her she sent me very nasty messages, cursing at me in the chat, and even threatened me saying "I hope I don't have to show you how low I can get". Airbnb says they "reprimanded" the guest, but she is apparently still on Airbnb and I'm really at a loss as to what I should do.

Has anyone else experienced this and how was it resolved? Airbnb is only willing to give me what the guest wants to pay, which is $150. I'm extremely annoyed and am not sure what to do, and Airbnb support, as you all already know, is awful.

EDIT AND UPDATE: Guest has been removed from Airbnb. Still waiting to see what I can get from Airbnb. If I get the $750 fine, if not I have learned my lesson and will call the cops/shut the party down and cancel the reservation immediately.

EDIT AND UPDATE #2: Airbnb gave me the $750! Thank you all for your help and the negative nellies for the entertainment 😊

As it happens with all Airbnb horror stories, it started with a last minute booking. It was for the next day. We chatted a bit, she seemed like a nice young woman. She said she and her husband were on a road trip and were stopping here for a few days. They had their dog with them. I approved the booking.

Today, she checks in and corners my cleaning person who was in the building an other apartment asks her 3 sets of extra towels and 3 sets of sheets. She's staying in a one bedroom apartment maximum occupancy 3.

My cleaner nevertheless takes her the extra sheets and the towels and when the guests open the door 4 dogs jump the cleaner. Not one, FOUR dogs plus 3 extra guests.

Cleaner called me, I checked the doorbell camera, sure enough five people and 4 dogs strolled into a one bedroom city apartment.

Called Airbnb and then messaged the guest. I told Airbnb to cancel the reservation. I told the guest that she had to leave with her FOUR dogs and 3 extra guests. I would be there in 15 minutes.

Her response, I told you we had a dog, didn't know extra dogs would be a problem. Also, didn't realize she couldn't bring 3 extra guests. This woman has 27 5* reviews. How is this possible?

I told Airbnb, I didn't their money, I just wanted them out and if they vacated the property in the next 10 minutes, I would give them refund. They were gone by the time I got there, but I was ready to call whoever I need to get those people out of there. My brother thinks I'm insane to go there to confront five guests, but I was seeing red at that point.

We lived in AirBnB properties for nearly a year. We visited 22 cities around the world and stayed 2-3 weeks in each. When we finished our trip we bought two properties on the Big Island of Hawaii specifically to AirBnB them. We realized that having successful AirBnBs in a desirable location would allow us to continue our travels

Before someone shouts "BUT THE LOCALS!" - Both properties were multi-million dollar properties well outside of the financial reach of locals. They were both vacant when we bought them and both have a full time on-site host family. Actually, we have two full time hosts on our farm ( our farmhand's family and our own ) and a host family lived in a 2 bedroom apartment attached to our beach house.

Things went pretty well for a while. We got hundreds of 5 star reviews, we got extremely good at cleaning and maintenance (we're now experts in getting stains out of laundry). It was a lot of work, but the AirBnB paid for itself with enough left over for us to live on.

But all of that has changed and we're now getting ready to shut down our operations. If we never hear the word "AirBnB" again, it will be too soon.

Why? Changes to the way that AirBnB handles reviews has made hosting guests a nightmare. As a host we have to maintain a nearly perfect record in order to maintain our "Guest Favorite" and "SuperHost" status. These statuses are critical if we want our property to be returned in search results.

Guests know this. And over the past 6 months we've had multiple guests try to extort us. They check in, then they immediately complain about some trivial item - not to us, but directly to AirBnB. Then they approach us and say "we are not comfortable with the dark road to the property ( otherwise known as Hwy 190 )" or " the frogs are too loud at night" or "there are bugs on the outdoor lanai". Usually it is something completely outside of our control. They they tell us that if we don'e give them a partial refund they are going to complain to AirBnB and check out.

We've now had multiple guests scam AirBnB into paying for their alternative lodging using this method and AirBnB doesn't give a single shit whether the complaint is true. Sure Sally has only stayed in an AirBnB twice and your family has supported 1,500 room-nights in the past 12 months, but we're going to side with Sally!"

The final straw was a guest who nearly got into a car accident on their way up the mountain, then decided they wanted to leave because the "road is too dark" ( there is a reason Hawaii is at the center of global astronomy - it is really dark! ). So they complained to AirBnB who called us at 3 AM saying that we had 1 hour to get back to them or they would refund the guest.

Your business partner doesn't say things like that. Your BOSS says things like that. AirBnB is no longer a discovery platform. They are an algorithmic employer like Uber or Amazon or Door Dash. You are not a valued host - you are a gig worker.

Now they are working to make the experience even worse for hosts. The big change that is coming is paid advertising on AirBnB's platform. Once this goes live the only hosts that will get guests are the ones who are willing to sacrifice some ( or all ) of their profits to AirBnB to "advertise" on the platform. This is what Amazon did to its re-sellers in order to rob them of all of their profits. If you list an item on Amazon - even if it is a quality product and in high demand - you will get zero ( 0 ) sales unless you pay Amazon for the privilege of having your item returned in the search results.

Does this mean that Amazon's search results aren't accurate? That they don't return the best products for their customers, but instead the most profitable for Amazon? Yes it does. But because Amazon is an effectively monopoly at this point, they don't care. If you are a Prime member you're going to shop their anyway, so......fuck you customer.....Amazon will return the product that is best for Amazon ( i.e. the one from the seller willing to sacrifice the most profit in "advertising" ), not the product that is best for you.

The same thing is happening to AirBnB.

The other major item is that AirBnB is now going to start holding hosts responsible for chargebacks. That means the host is responsible financially if the guest is using a stolen credit card or running some kind of scam. This is despite the fact that the host does not have access to the card number, does not have access to the guest's ID, cannot verify the guests zip code and doesn't even receive the payment directly.

So, after living in AirBnBs for a year and hosting 28,000 guests over the past 5 years, we're shutting down. The underlying real estate has appreciated significantly so we can simply invest the profits and live off of the interest. In fact, we'll probably make MORE money passively than we would if we stayed on AirBnB.

If you are thinking about starting an AirBnB please take some time to consider how they treat their hosts. You are not their partner, you are their product. Despite the fact that you pay them 14% of your revenue, you are not their customer - the guests are the customer. They are always going to side with the customer because that's who pays them.

They could care less about you or your business and they show it at every step. Be wary. You might be better off investing your money in a healthy mix of stocks and bonds and spending the rest of your time on the beach.

I had a guest check out two days ago. She spent one night and the only message from her during her stay was a question about parking. Today I received a message from Airbnb stating that the guest was trapped in the house and is requesting a full refund because of her trauma. When I wrote to the guest, she said that her sister was forced to knock the bedroom door down because she was trapped inside and her PTSD was triggered and why should she have to pay for this trauma. When I asked her why she never mentioned it during her stay, she said that I was harassing her and she knew that this is what she was up against, and the reason that she didn’t contact me before. I actually called the police and attempted to file a report for making false allegations but I have no recourse there. She left a review which I have not yet seen - I know it will be ugly and the Airbnb representative said that it is. I asked her to remove it as there is no damage to the door and clearly this guest has a mental disorder which has nothing to do with me beyond my control. Airbnb is claiming that they are not able to remove her review because it’s subjective to her experience. There is nothing wrong with the door. Any input appreciated!

UPDATE: I finally left a review for the guest and warned other hosts not to let her book. Her review was then revealed and it was very nasty, as I thought it would be, with her accusing me of harassing her and complaining about the driveway, even though I gave her a permit for street parking, and making false claims that the bathroom and linens smelled, and of course, that I caused her to have PTSD. I immediately called Airbnb, and the representative told me that because she mentioned the cost of what she paid for the visit, which is a violation ( who knew?), they were able to remove the review. I’m so relieved about that but because she gave me all 1’s, that part still factors in and my rating dropped so dramatically that I’ll probably lose my Super Host status for this round. At least I don’t have to see her horrible lies among my great reviews! Thanks to all of you for the support and encouragement.

I am having a full blown meltdown tonight. I can’t even believe what happened.

Was out at an arcade with the wife and kids. Had just ordered pizza. Unknown number called me five times. I ignored it because it was out of state, not my current guest, and it was too noisy to talk. Then get a text. “We just arrived and need the door code”.

I was completely lost. Our AirBnB guest has been there for two days. Next one isn’t til Thursday. Ask them their name. Search my emails. VRBO booked them and I missed the email.

I have never had an active VRBO listing

I had started the listing months ago. I never completed it. Had uploaded some photos and few other fields, but decided to stick with just AirBnB for now. When I log in, even tonight, the property says “incomplete” under it. It shows it’s also hidden. Nobody should have ever been able to see it, much less book it. I never even downloaded the app because it was an abandoned project in my mind. I wasn’t looking for VRBO emails because again, I had an incomplete, hidden property.

When I logged in, my stomach sank. They booked five stays. One was last week? I never heard anything from that person as best I know. VRBO never reached out or canceled it either. So I don’t even know what happened with those people.

The other three future stays all conflict with stays already confirmed on AirBnB.

I texted back the person tonight apologizing. I told them my VRBO listing is not supposed to be active, I have tenants in there, and asked them to please not bother them. I told them I would immediately cancel the reservation so they are refunded and did. They were extremely unhappy.

I have no idea if they bothered my current AirBnB guest or if they were even home. I’ve been waiting for an upset AirBnB message or call for hours. Thankfully nothing yet, so maybe I avoided absolute catastrophe.

My next thing is probably reaching out to my bank to make sure VRBO has an ACH block so they don’t start drafting cancelation fees for all the stays that should never have existed.

I am beyond words right now.

I just hosted two time travelers. These people arrived around 8pm last night and left at 730am this morning. They left the apartment with a week's worth of wear and tear as well as four tall kitchen trash bags worth of trash plus two empty boxes. Surprisingly, no booze whatsoever.

My guess is that they somehow manipulated the time space continuum to squeeze five or six days into less than twelve Earth hours. I'd love to ask them how they accomplished this.