Air bnb owner ott or do we deserve to be chucked out?

[Pilloh]

We were forced out of our house due to a water leak in the house. The insurance company said we had to move out due to the severity of the work.

A bit of a nightmare for us as we have a large dog. He’s been called a wonderfully mannered dog by a qualified behaviourist outside the house who really doesn’t care about people/other dogs. But he is a breed used for guarding and therefore very barky at home (we have a command that gets him to be quiet but it doesn’t stop the impulse to bark initially). Not to make excuses, we were working on this with the behaviourist pre-pandemic but our progress stalled so we just manage the situation. Ie we have gates all around our house/garden, don’t allow strangers and the dog to meet inside the house (he’s totally fine with people when they are not on “his” property). Our house is basically Fort Knox and only DH and I are here so it’s all pretty easy to manage.

We told the air bnb owner that please tell the cleaner not to enter house or garden without telling us as dog will run up and bark at strangers. He agreed. We explained the situation and he said he understood.

Yesterday pm, cleaner comes into the garden when I was playing footy - she was fetching something from shed. Dog ran towards her and barked. I gave the recall command which worked initially but then my dog ran back to cleaner and barked. It’s no doubt intimidating. After 20 ish secs dog was in the house and I apologised. Recall is not full proof hence why we never rely on it. We would never have found an Airbnb where we were not assured we would be informed of any person entering the property.

Owner has messaged now saying the cleaner won’t return whilst we are here and that means we have to leave as the owner is not ok with the house not being maintenanced.

Cleaner has visited 4 times without incident as the right procedures were followed.

Who is being unreasonable?

It isn't their garden, it's a holiday rental. It wasn't a burglar (specific exemption in law) but an employee of the homeowner. I love dogs, and I own a reactive rescue who has to be muzzled as bites people — but the OP is being massively unreasonable by having an untrained dog in a holiday rental and expecting other people to manage their life around her dog,

She’s expecting a service provider to abide by the terms of a contract, not to ‘manage their life around her dog’.

Having looked at the law, though, I actually agree that the cleaner wouldn’t fall within the exemption (not because she isn’t a burglar, but the exemption does not cover gardens - even if it were a burglar).

That’s exactly my point, you knocked on the door and was brought inside, the body language and commands of the owners set the tone of how the dogs act in those circumstances, those same dogs when confronted by a stranger entering the back garden, wouldn’t necessarily respond the same way to you at all. It’s silly to say the cleaner doesn’t pose a threat.. YOU know that and I know that but the dog doesn’t know that does it! how could it? They’ve never met before and it’s a stranger trespassing on its territory, if it’s a cleaner and they’re carrying equipment even more reason for it to be fearful.

there are lots of idiot dog owners, with badly trained dogs, I’m not disputing that, but labelling a dog ‘aggressive’ just for running up to and barking at an ‘intruder’ is just ignorance, it didn’t attack her, it did what a lot of dogs would do in those circumstances, it warned her off while alerting its owner that someone was there.

If it WAS aggressive it would have no doubt attacked her without any warning, IMO there’s no place for dogs like that in a residential setting, and there are lots of them about unfortunately, it’s always an accident waiting to happen.

Can see both sides. You where very clear about not having unexpected visitors so the cleaner was at fault to just turn up and it sounds like you handled it all as well as possible. Dogs bark and this one was only doing what it was bred to do as far as he is concerned (not that that is an excuse to misbehave) But I can understand why the owner doesn't want to take the risk. If your dog did bite his employee and he know the dog had the potential to guard and be aggressive he could also get into trouble. It's frustrating, but I think it's probably best to move on and hopefully you will be home soon

Agreed some of these comments are venomous! Especially to someone who has clearly stated their mental health issues.

You had a verbal agreement, both parties agreed. YANBU

Bit condescending - just because the OP has mental health struggles doesn't mean she is incapable of deciding whether or not she wants to delete the thread. Her thread, her choice. It's not up to you to inform a mod and have her post deleted against her wishes.

Glad you’ve been able to secure other accommodation and been partially refunded. Guardian breeds will guard. Your dog is doing a job, barks and doesn’t bite. It’s his territory, you are his people, end of.
My MIL’s bichon barks at everything, he also bites- but bitey bastard is small so he gets a free pass. People are scared of my dog because he’s big- soft as hell, never bitten.

voting is 50/50 and mn is notorious for dog hating, take it with a pinch of salt op.

Glad you've got new accommodation OP and hope you have a better experience. Best of luck with your dog and health issues. Hope you're back in your home soon.

voting is 50/50 and mn is notorious for dog hating, take it with a pinch of salt op.
Yup, when half of Mumsnet sides with an OP in an incident involving a large, barking dog (that clearly needs additional training) you know that OP is in the right!

Sorry to say it but this is on you. You need to get your dog under control. Pre Pandemic was a long while ago now. The air b&b owner has right to decide how he wants his property maintained.

The owner can decide whatever they like but if they, or their employees, enter the property when it is being let without explicit permission from the guest they are breaking the AirBnB terms of use and can be banned/removed from the site for violating the guests privacy.

The OP explained the dog situation, the owner agreed they would give notice for the regular cleaning so the property could be maintained to their standard and the OP had no objection to that. What the OP has objected to is the cleaner turning up unannounced, letting herself in without even so much as knocking (despite it being against the terms of the AirBnB rules to do so) and then complaining to the owner that she was approached by a barking dog (which they knew was in the property).

Sorry OP - you've got used to not having people in your house??? That's just crazy. Who would want to live like that? Sort out further training for your dog pronto!

Eh????

Nobody is expecting anyone to "manage their life around their dog" they are just expecting rules and courtesy to be upheld.

Regardless of whether it's their garden or the garden of a property they are staying at for one night, for the duration of the stay the OP has paid for the property is classed as for their private use and, as per the AirBnB terms of use, the host and/or their employees cannot enter without prior permission unless there is an active emergency on the property.

The OP had an expectation of privacy which means they allowed their dog to roam free within the confines of the property. When an employee of the host let themselves in they not only violated AirBnBs policy but put themselves in the situation of being faced with a barking dog that they knew was on the property.

The fault and responsibility lies 100% with the cleaner - they should not have been there in the first place and if they had even had the basic courtesy of knocking (to allow the OP some prior warning to put the dog safely out of the way or introduce them to the cleaner in a controlled way) then the whole situation could have been avoided.

Also my lovely Dsis is a cleaner & cleans tons of holiday properties & you wouldn't believe the amount of crap she has to put up with on a day to day basis from unreasonable clients. She is also a bit scared of dogs and she would have been v upset & angry if this had happened to her at ONE of the many, many properties she cleans. I'm sorry you're having mental health problems OP but you need to get on top of this situation or someone could report you for having an out of control dog tbh.

As an aside,what happens if you have a medical emergency and paramedics need to come and attend to you? At home or elsewhere? I would advise you definitely pick up on training again.

Presumably your sister doesn’t access these properties in breach of contract, though?

This cleaner was not allowed, under Air BnB’s policies, to access the property without first giving notice.

That this rule must be followed was specifically impressed upon her in the case of this particular booking.

She was also explicitly told that the reason she needed to follow this rule was because there was a reactive dog in the property.

It doesn’t matter how much shit she or other cleaners have to put up with, that doesn’t give them a blank cheque to disregard rules, contracts or common sense, then whinge because what you were told would happen does, in fact, happen.

What exactly has the OP done that is unreasonable?

If your DSis was the cleaner in this scenario then the fact she was scared by the dog would 100% be her own fault for going into a property where she knew there was a dog in residence without any warning or giving the guest an opportunity to remove the dog from the area your DSis needed to access.

AirBnB set out explicit rules that state that during a booking neither the host nor their employees are allowed to enter the property without the express permission of the guest.

The OP was upfront about their dogs reactivity to strangers in their space and was very clear about the need for prior notice before the cleaner (or any employee/representative of the host) accessed the property. The host agreed to this in line with both the Airbnb guidelines and basic courtesy to everyone involved. For a month things went fine when both sides stuck to the agreement that the OP would get a heads up when the cleaner was coming so they could vacate the property to ensure no incidence of the dog reacting to the cleaner being in their space.

The hosts employee then ignored AirBnBs rule about accessing the property without permission, ignored the written notices the OP had posted on all entrances to warn people of the dog's presence, let themselves into the property without so much as a courtesy knock to alert the OP that she was there and then was surprised when the reactive dog reacted (but was not aggressive or attacked) and barked at the stranger in their space

This situation was entirely caused by the unreasonable behaviour of the cleaner, not the OP.

This ^

Owning a scary, dangerous dog is unreasonable. Why should the rest of us be fearful of a dog? The increase in dog bites and maulings means we are justified in being concerned. I don't think dogs capable of doing serious damage to humans should be allowed in civilised society.

It's ridiculous to live with such severe conditions. What if OP needs emergency care in the home? No medic should risk their life tending to a patient because the patient chose a high risk dog.

Not read the whole thread as it’s quite long but I’d try to compromise by promising to remove the dog from the property during the time that the cleaner is there and ask that the cleaner has your mobile number so they can call you while on the way to the property so you can take the dog out before they arrive.

Not sure if there is a big demand for Air B&Bs in the area you’re in in November but if not surely the owner would rather compromise like that than have a void period?

The dog is not scary or dangerous - the dog is reactive to strangers and only under certain circumstances.

Nobody has any need to be fearful of the dog as long as you respect the rules of both the rental agreement and the OPs explicit requests that have been made very clear to the host

Like I said, if the cleaner had not let themselves into the property unannounced - which contravenes both the AirBnB rules and common courtesy - then there would not have been any issue.

Presumably in the case of emergency care then the OP would either be able to secure the dog within the property, someone else would be there to take control of the dog or they would be able to warn the emergency services that the dog was present and advise them of the best way to approach the property. I have attended emergency situations where there were unsecured animals and an incapacitated owner - I followed the owners lead with how to safely secure the animal away from the situation so we could then treat the owner's injury and I'm no paramedic/fire fighter/police officer, who I am sure are given some training on how to deal with less than ideal situations that they may come across when responding to an emergency, including reactive, barking dogs.

Then they shouldn’t have agreed to those conditions in the first place. The OP was very clear and the cleaner messed up