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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have turned away this airbnb guest?

999 replies

Hiptrip · 07/01/2018 09:05

I have been doing airbnb for a while and have found it a great way to meet new people, and earn a little extra. That is until last Friday night.

Despite my house rule of no children, a woman wrote to me and asked if I could make an exception, promising that her two-year old son would be very well behaved. My house is not set up for children, and I simply don’t want toddlers here so I replied and said no.

She said that was okay and booked anyway, saying she had to come to my town for a wedding, and that she’d find someone to look after him.

Then she turned up with her child at 9.30pm saying she couldn’t find a sitter, and had hysterics as she pleaded with me on the doorstep, to allow him to stay. I refused and in the end called the police because she said she wouldn’t leave until I gave her, her money back in cash because she needed it to stay elsewhere. As she was starting to cause a nuisance, they got rid of her.

She’s taken this to airbnb. My argument is that she was told she couldn’t bring her child, and did anyway, so she should lose her money. Not unreasonable?

OP posts:
NewYearsEveEve · 07/01/2018 13:47

YANBU

Pengggwn · 07/01/2018 13:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MaggieFS · 07/01/2018 13:49

OP YANBU. She was a CF. I'm not sure it was a scam as much as much CF behaviour. I suspect you don't get a Premier Inn anywhere on a Friday & Saturday for £40 per night and def. not including breakfast so she chanced it and it backfired.

BashStreetKid · 07/01/2018 13:49

Pengggwyn, I fear you flatter yourself. The issue is not that you hold an unusual opinion, it's that you accuse the OP of not being kind just because she has a different opinion.

Pengggwn · 07/01/2018 13:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

perfectstorm · 07/01/2018 13:51

Can I just point out that while I clearly don't agree with Pengggwn, she has every right to her view? It's not a nasty or stupid one, just because we don't share it.

For the record, she's a teacher. So neither naive nor stupid. Just very focused on the wellbeing of children and young people, and as a parent, I appreciate that.

I may add that I know that because we had a fierce disagreement on a thread about education - my own child is home educated after school did not work for him, so I am hardly someone with a brief for teachers - and I have never had any PM or personal contact with her at all. I am not doing that MN thing of 'having someone's back'. I just feel that this place was a more constructive and educative one when you could, you know - actually listen to one another instead of yelling across a chasm.

CherryMaDeara · 07/01/2018 13:52

Pengggwn

Nothing wrong with unusual opinions. But your sense of superiority comes through in your posts.

OP says the woman had a meltdown when she refused to let her in to use te bathroom. But you say that wouldn't have happened if it had been you. You think the woman would have calmly used your loo and left quietly. So you're implying OP is the problem, yet OP hasn't given any indication that she was rude to the woman.

You're making an unfounded judgement about the OP and yet at the same time don't like it when people judge you.

It's very easy to be generous with other people's money, Pengggwn.

pollythedolly · 07/01/2018 13:52

She wasn't unkind, she was professional and stuck to the business rules. She had her other paying guest in mind who was abiding by the rules. That person counts too.

SuburbanRhonda · 07/01/2018 13:53

I hate this trend for asking everyone just to “be kind” when someone is trampling all over them.

You see it a lot on certain other threads.

Pengggwn · 07/01/2018 13:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

perfectstorm · 07/01/2018 13:55

Welcome. I mean, I still think you're completely wrong. Grin But play the ball and not the player, and all that.

Pengggwn · 07/01/2018 13:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pollythedolly · 07/01/2018 13:56

I think you're wrong too but appreciate the excellent debate coming from it 👍

TheVanguardSix · 07/01/2018 13:57

YANBU

Not at all. This has become increasingly normal behaviour in our society. People bully their way into getting what they want. It's all so passive-aggressive and wrong.

aaaaargghhhhelpme · 07/01/2018 13:57

do many two year olds eat at 9.30?!

Also if a cf turned up having ignored all my rules I would be sceptical about allowing them in. Doesn't bode well does it.

Doesn't make the op a heartless person. Makes them extremely sensible and wary.

BakedBeans47 · 07/01/2018 14:00

YANBU in the slightest and I wouldn’t have given her her money back either. She breached the terms of the booking, she loses her money, simple IMO

AdalindSchade · 07/01/2018 14:03

But it is a stupid opinion. Because once the woman and child are in the house, she is not covered for any damages incurred by the toddler. Arguably she wouldn't be if it was any other guest either but this woman and child are completely unknown to her, they aren't friends and she has no way of knowing how the woman or child will behave.
Allowing the woman to come in to the house even for a short while would be a stupid thing to do. Ergo it's a stupid opinion.

Pengggwn · 07/01/2018 14:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CherryMaDeara · 07/01/2018 14:06

Perfectstorm

Welcome. I mean, I still think you're completely wrong. grin But play the ball and not the player, and all that.

You could direct to Pengggwn too. She has said OP doesn't sound very nice and not kind.

How is that any better than someone upthread who called Pengggwn naive and daft?

ShellyBoobs · 07/01/2018 14:06

YANBU OP.

What a fucking cheeky fucker!

According to half the people on this thread, though, you turned Mary away from the only inn in the city.

Cheeky fuckers seem to permeate every corner of MN, too.

AdalindSchade · 07/01/2018 14:08

If the kid starts rampaging around the house and the mother ignores him, he grabs an expensive ornament and chucks it on the floor...that's potentially a very expensive risk. Not small at all.

BashStreetKid · 07/01/2018 14:08

Perfectstorm, when did I or anyone else say Pengggwyn didn't have a right to her view? Does that mean we have no right to question it and point out why we don't have the same view? Particularly bearing in mind that, despite her disclaimer, she is making a moral judgment about OP.

Idontdowindows · 07/01/2018 14:11

@pengggwn, for someone who was happy to call the OP a cow I find it quite amusing that you're complaining about people getting personal.

PurpleCrowbar · 07/01/2018 14:12

I would have done exactly what OP did.

Don't think this was a scam, though. If you were doing that (fair bit of bother for £80) you would presumably have factored in the good chance that you'd be turned away & refused a cash refund. In fact, I would imagine that the sort of person who'd stand their ground rather than grumpily admitting you & your toddler, is the sort of reasonably assertive, 'stick to the rules' person who'd insist that you pursued any refund via AirBnB, as per their!

So if it's a scam - & you've realised that you might well a) not get a result & b) be out your initial card payment if AirBnB refused to refund - which they should - then surely when you were told to leave you'd bluster a bit then bugger off! Not kick off to the extent the police were called - that's the last thing you'd want...

Standard issue CF I reckon.

PurpleCrowbar · 07/01/2018 14:13

'As per their rules'. Ffs phone!

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