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?

Gosh - 923 messages

To be fair its more about those that have had experience of working for themselves providing a service to the public and those that have always received a salary.

A year or so of working for yourself dealing with randoms and you learn quickly - but some have never had cause to so can merrily imagine they would remain "kind" in these situations, situations they have no experience or understanding of.

I can't help but feel for someone in the situation of not being able to find a sitter.

But YANBU. She could surely have found somewhere else. Good for Airbnb.

I read to slow - 930 messages- soon this thread will be closed

OP - glad it's sorted and AIR BNB shared your view and endorsed your course of action

@Pengggwn aren’t you back teaching today after the holidays? Amazing how much time you’ve got to reply to this thread!

Can’t wait for this thread to close. It’s going nowhere.

The OP would have been doubly out of pocket according to some of you - firstly by losing the booking and secondly by giving the woman £80 which she wasn't going to get back from AirB&B.

I sincerely hope you don't run businesses or have any responsibility for budgets

Be that as it may, that's what I would have done here

Faced with a woman on your doorstep proclaiming that she wasn't going to leave till you returned money you hadn't received and she wasn't entitled to, you would have invited her into the house? Seriously,, Pengggwn?

penggg
What I felt - and still feel - is that the decision (if the OP chose to do this) to take payment was less understandable to me

You have clearly never used Airbnb.
It was not up to the host whether the guest gets a refund.
That is entirely down to Airbnb.

When a booking is made, the guest pays money to Airbnb
who then hold the money until the booking is complete
at which stage
Airbnb pay the host

If the booking is not completed, Airbnb check their policies and decide on refunds
THE HOST NEVER HAS THE GUESTS MONEY UP FRONT
How hard is that to understand ?

Either way, I'm done

Do you mean you're leaving the thread?

These people are usually salaried and cannot comprehend that it is similar to them, in this case as a teacher, only getting half their salary if half their class is struck down by gastro / taken out of class on holiday one week before the school hols begin, or whatever.

Ah, but Margaret, teachers are SO important, how can you possibly compare them to a mere small business owner? They go above and beyond for their children everyday. OF COURSE they should be paid their full salary, but a small business owner is just playing for some pocket money, their income is totally dispensable.

It was 9.30pm, they were going to a wedding in the morning - would it really have hurt to let him stay? He would have been asleep for most of it!

It was for two nights.
The house is not set up or safe for toddlers.
You really cannot know he would sleep for the night. Suppose he was awake all night and noisy, keeping awake OP and the other guest who had paid for child-free accommodation - who would have been entitled to ask for their money back.
OP doesn't want to let to people with children, the guest knew that perfectly well, but didn't bother to phone when she her babysitting arrangements supposedly fell through.
And RTFT.

YANBU here... the woman chanced it and it didn't work. She should've come up with a Plan B, the safety and accommodation of her child isn't your issue as you made it explicitly clear in your email to her.

DrMarthaJones

You've been here too long. Just my statement of opinion.

What an odd insult. You must have been here as long as expat to think she's been her too long?

You're either not reading my words it you're in a wind up. Either way, i'm done.

You keep saying that to avoid answering. You have repeated again just now that you would have let this woman in for her child to go to the loo. I'm just a tad sceptical that you would have done that when she was saying she wouldn't leave till she had her cash refund. If you would, the politest wording would probably be that you're incredibly rash, rather than "kind".

Pengggwn

If the OP had said this was an essential part of her income I wouldn't have suggested she refund. She said this is a way to make a little extra and meet people.

A little extra that she possibly needs to live.

So many 'ifs' in your posts

If OP had said the money was essential
If the CF had been calm
If my home was child safe
If the child was wet and hungry
If I had known OP didn't have the money.

All of the above could have been solved by asking OP. Instead of making moral judgements and acting superior.

All you would have differently to the OP is to let the child eat bread. Which it probably wouldn't want.

Op 1
Cf 0

Yeh!

Air bnb is a bit like eBay for short term room/house rental except that all transactions are made electronically. Idk why this has been so difficult to comprehend.

Pengggwn

if I am wrong then this becomes irrelevant

No there isn't any 'if's' about it, you are wrong.

So why not say 'I was wrong'! despite being told by hundreds of posters that you were wrong, you are still saying 'if' lol