To have turned away this airbnb guest?

[Hiptrip]

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?

I would say well done OP great news etc etc- but let's be honest, that was what the response was going to be anyway wasn't it based on the evidence!

Good on you though for leaving a poor review, at least it lets other Air bnb's know what she is like.

Draw a line under it now, and onwards and upwards as they say!

But I would be interested in knowing what the 'you should have given your home over' brigade think of it? Given that the majority of MN backed you up and now Air bnb.

I”ve heard from airbnb now, no refund for her

Thank goodness for that; it's nice to know they decide promptly and take the sensible approach with CFs, and hopefully your review will save someone else suffering her attitude

If babies are really that sodding fragile I'm not having one.

They aren’t. At about the same age, my “poor, innocent child” once vomited at the end of a 2 hour car journey, where we were going to visit relatives, (including an elderly man and a young baby). She’d been fine at the start of the journey, but a little off colour. Realised too late that she had a virus. We cleaned her up in the car, got her a drink, made her comfy and drove straight home again. There was no way I was going to bring her into the house to give anyone else her bug. I imagine the “poor, innocent child” in the op would have fallen asleep and not given a shiny shit about missing a wedding. At that age, it really wouldn’t mean a thing to the child ime, as long as he was fed, warm and comfortable.

Thanks for update OP. It is always good to know the final outcome of these AIBUs. AirBNB know what they are doing and it is great to know they support their hosts.

Good luck with your future bookings, you sound great as does your accommodation. I like childfree places and AirBNB so do PM me your details so if in your area I can book with you.

Cant believe the arguments about this!

Your home is a 'no child' b&b.
CF knew this and decided to try to blackmail you into letting her and her child stay.
You said no as per the terms of your booking. End of.

Your other guests stay there on the proviso its child free. Why should you risk them complaining that you let kids stay?
Why should you lose out 2 nights £ cos she tried her luck and lied to you? No bloody refund for CFery either, nowhere else would give her a refund after her behaviour.

Having a child doesnt give anyone the right to expect the rules dont apply to them cos of their precious 'mother and child' status.
There were plenty other places she could have gone to but she lied on her booking and then tried to blackmail op into letting her stay. Nope just fuck off. You tried it on and it failed, on your bike.

Haha, Daily - that's what I suspected, but I do sometimes get freaked out pre-child rearing about the attitude of some parents that babies are made of spun glass, and the merest temporary discomfort is something the world needs to grind to a halt for.

I mean, of course children should be kept fed, warm and comfortable as far as is possible, but if a child is SOMETIMES a BIT hungry, a BIT cold, or a BIT uncomfortable, they'll survive!

Lord knows I did. My parents were outdoorsy types, and they gave no quarter to the weather.

I think there is something suspicious in CF's behaviour.
If I receive a wedding invite for me and my DC, i first decide whether i would prefer to take DC or go without them. If i decide to take them, I line up appropriate accomodation which may involve trying a number of options. If i decide I would prefer to go without them, I try to line up childcare and book smaller accomodation. if that fails, I line up accomodation that will take them.

What I would not do is decide to take them and try to find accomodation that will take them but then suddently change my mind about taking them and try to a find a sitter on the basis of one place saying they could not accomodate everyone. The only way this makes sense is if in fact CF had exhausted all other accomodation options before trying OP or if OP has slightly shortened the description and CF orginally spoke to OP, then tried other places when OP said no but been unable to find somewhere so decided she would have to go without DC and called OP back.

Alternatively, if the scenario is that CF's budget meant that OP's accomodation was the only one in the area in CF's price bracket so that she had decided that she would only be able to take DC if OP said yes and would otherwise have had to find a sitter, then that does not stack up either because it is a very big risk to take if money is that tight, and presumably she could only have been considering free childcare, as a sitter for 36 hours including 2 overnights would cost subsntatially more than many accomodatin options that CF could have considered as an alternative to OP's.

Good update, glad Airbnb backed you up - to the "kind" posters - Airbnb will have heard BOTH sides of this conflict and even THEY think op is right - worth noting.

Good outcome.

I’ve been absolutely at the level of misunderstanding and misinformation repeated on this thread.

The thing about Airbnb is that it's your own home you are letting strangers stay in. It's imperative that you feel comfortable with them. The behaviour of this woman destroyed any confidence the OP had and therefore if she had let her in she would have felt extremely uncomfortable.
Personally I have rarely had bad guests but the couple of times people have rung my weirdo alarm I have been extremely vigilant, barely got any sleep and felt very uncomfortable until they leave.

@Hiptrip
Good.
I'm glad Airbnb did the right thing.
Hopefully your future guests will be more sensible.

That's the right result!

That great, OP.

Common sense ‘1’
Cheeky Fuckers ‘0’

I don't think CF woman will be able to leave a review on OP accommodation as she didn't actually stay there.
I think the algorithms are set that any such review gets blanked out. Similarly I don't think the OP's review of CF woman will get posted either.

Hurray for you, OP! So glad AirB&B is reasonable.

'Examples include a thread where a rude git turned up at ops door and yelled at op about some volunteering her dh did. The saintly brigade berated op for not inviting the loony in and offering her counselling, a hot dinner, her car keys. Similar when op had been shouted at in a public loo. The op was remiss for not taking the shouter out for a cup of tea in cafe, or bought her flowers, as the saintly ones would have done. Too funny grin'

Oh, there have been loads of these, you just have to laugh because they really are bollocks. There was one from a poster whose elderly mother (who suffered from anxiety disorder) discovered someone was camping in her garden shed. Cue loads of posters who said the woman should take him in, or take him a flask of soup and bedding, a 'welfare pack'/rucksack with food, soup, a flask of tea, blah blah blah, it would be the kind thing to do and they would do it 'in a heartbeat' if they discovered some random had broken into their garden shed and was using it as accommodation.

Another time a raging woman came to a door looking for the OP's husband, a Scout leader, who was not there and she and the kids were having dinner. The lady got quite aggressive, so the OP didn't let her in. Cue one particular poster who banged on and on and on about how she would have let the woman in, got her a cup of tea, counselled her, served her a plate of dinner yadda yadda yadda.

Maybe I'm a soft touch but you don't know the circumstances behind why this woman turned up and had her child.

Because she’s a CF who knew she hadn’t even tried to find somewhere that would take her kid and thought she’d try her luck anyway.

Glad she isn’t getting a refund OP.

All the talk about “kindness” is ridiculous. It’s pretty “unkind” to make someone feel uncomfortable in their own home in the presence of your young child when you know you’re taking the piss.

Bloody hell. I missed those threads!

There must be a name for this extreme virtue signalling? Is it a condition?

Because I doubt that these posters would do these virtuous acts in real life, but they really get off on pretending online that this is what they would do.

I do sometimes get freaked out pre-child rearing about the attitude of some parents that babies are made of spun glass, and the merest temporary discomfort is something the world needs to grind to a halt for

Don't let it worry you; in many of these cases it's not about what the children needs but what the parents want ... and like this CF, some of them use the child almost as a "prop" to get their way

Happily, the majority of parents are sensible enough to appreciate the world doesn't revolve around them and their ickle preshus (and I'm sure you'll be the same )

Good result OP. This was definitely a scam. The nasty bitch probably does it quite regularly - possibly with stolen/cloned cards (and the kid might not even be hers). There will always be some reason why she can't stay - if she gets let in she'll claim the place is unsafe or unsatisfactory. The point is always to force the host to hand over cash and then claim a refund via Air B&B as well.

And the number of dozy virtue-signally twats on this thread demonstrates quite clearly why this sort of thing goes on.

Glad airbnb supported you op.

I don't bother with being polite to stupid people - it does them no good.

'There must be a name for this extreme virtue signalling? Is it a condition?'

There is, it's called Bullshit Syndrome.

Expat...in real life no one would have done any differently to what the ops did. I remember time i asked about advice re someone smoking under my bedroom window and was adviced to take her a bottle of wine! I dealt with it as an adult and spoke to her politely and she dealt with as an adult and moved to end of path so away from my window. No wine was exchanged!