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?

I'm sorry you're being asked to leave but I agree with others. You're making excuses for having an out of control dog and airbnb owner doesn't want that liability. We have an airbnb house and our ad states we only accept well-behaved dogs. This is also a huge insurance threat for the owners. If the dog had attacked / bit the cleaner, that could have been a huge claim.

If you’re living in an AirB&B long term while your house is being fixed, why aren’t you doing your own cleaning?

@mydogisthebest you seem to like the use of the word "idiot" or "idiotic" a lot. I'm sure you are able to get your point across without insulting people

I'm no dog apologist; I've recently been on here giving out about badly trained and managed mutts in my local parks etc.
But this is really simple: OP explained the issue, owner said no problem and made sure cleaner knew, then owner/cleaner suddenly disregarded the arrangement and moved the goalposts. They are being U.
People on here snitting about why don't you get a normal dog, why isn't it trained, etc, are presumably deliberately misunderstanding.

@Northernladdette

If you’re living in an AirB&B long term while your house is being fixed, why aren’t you doing your own cleaning?

It will be part of their contract. It benefits the landlord and they will be paying for it as part of their rent.

Covid ended a long time ago why haven't you restarted training? No excuse to have an untrained dog with dodgy recall and showing aggression

Then they shouldn't have accepted the booking

You don't know what the said in their booking request. We've had people tell us they have one small dog and show up with two huge German shepherd's.

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

From the OP.
It's quite clear

Bark and being aggressive are two VERY different things. Did they explain the size of the dog... a Yorkshire terrier barking at you us VERY different to a larger dog...

Sounds like it could be resolved by good communication and them actually telling you when the cleaner is coming, then the OP controlling the dog or taking him out for a walk while the cleaner is there.

My dad used to be a postman and got bitten by a dog twice - after each case they stop the post deliveries due to an uncontrolled dog. But this is not the same situation and the owner should give you notice of when the cleaner is coming. This is the OP's home, albeit a temporary one, and there needs to be some respect from the landlord about that even if it is through AirBnb.

Even as a holiday property you don't send cleaners around without notice. We've used AirBnb several times for holidays and have never had anyone turning up unannounced.

Many dogs are territorial and will bark when a stranger enters their property.
Mine definitely would , he’s not a guarding breed , doesn’t look scary ( he looks unbelievably cute ) but he will bark .
You gave the owner all the information and the need to be forewarned if the cleaner was going to show up , and yet this happened.
The cleaner was probably scared , complained to the airbnb owner and they don’t want the hassle 😔
I myself have issues with my dogs breed because he’s bred to think and act independently.
I can practice recall all I like , sit + stay all successful in a controlled environment .
But the hint of any rabbit , rat , any vermin and he will be gone 🤷🏻‍♀️
Any trades coming to our house are told he’s very friendly but please please under no circumstances can you leave front door and hallway doors open .
Well guess what ☹️a few have ignored that 😩 my recall training worked well the first couple of times with me waving treats .
The third time we got him about 3 miles away , a kind lady had him just as well he’s friendly and non threatening.

Sounds like it could be resolved by good communication and them actually telling you when the cleaner is coming, then the OP controlling the dog or taking him out for a walk while the cleaner is there.

Thats what the op specified she needed before the owner agreed to let to her. The owner agreed to this. The cleaner ignored it and just walked into the occupied property unnanounced, through the gate with a sign on that the op had placed there.

Now the cleaner is complaining and wanting/getting the op thrown out.

The cleaner is an entitled cunt imo.

Any trades coming to our house are told he’s very friendly but please please under no circumstances can you leave front door and hallway doors open .
Well guess what ☹️a few have ignored that 😩 my recall training worked well the first couple of times with me waving treats .
The third time we got him about 3 miles away , a kind lady had him just as well he’s friendly and non threatening.

Trades people don't even get to see our dog while they're in our house for this reason. He's soft as shit with people (bit wary of dogs as he's been bitten by off lead dogs 5 times) and very friendly but I worry about them casually leaving doors open, so I put him in another room or take him out while they're there. The last one that came asked me on his second day where "the devil dog was" (after we had said on his arrival to give us two minutes while we moved him to another room) and I got really annoyed by that!

How is the dog out of control when all they did was approach a stranger who appeared unannounced in their space and barked at them before being removed indoors by their owner without incident? That is in no way out of control, that is perfectly normal dog behaviour - whether the dog is trained or not.

There is so much hyperbole about the OPs dog being aggressive, out of control, dangerous etc when the worst thing they have done is bark at someone who was not supposed to be there and who knew that there was a dog on the premises.

If the OP had not even mentioned the dog's presence and had instead asked whether the cleaner had BU to let themselves into the property without notice then people would be on the OPs side - as that behaviour is unacceptable - but because there is a dog involved apparently that overrides the fact that the cleaner was 100% in the wrong and caused the whole situation because they did not abide by both Airbnb rules and common courtesy by knocking first to allow the OP to remove the dog from the garden.

Lockdown was in 2020, its now 2023? So you've not done anything to fix the dogs behaviour in 3 years?

I'm sorry but your dog is a spoiled brat and you are poor pack leaders / bad owners, who probably shouldnt be in charge of a potentially dangerous animal. Why would you take on a large energetic working breed if you dont have the skills to manage one and cant be bothered to stick to training and socialisation?

You might think your dog is just being playful or friendly and trust it not to bite, but you are blinkered by love, you dont see how terrifying it is for others having a big strange dog barking and charging at them. Especially a huge strong working breed. That poor cleaner must have shit a brick.

I've had dogs my whole life, including working breeds and breeds alot of people regard as "dangerous". If you havent managed to get on top of the dogs behavior by now, after several years, then it'll never happen. The dog is grown now. You've already taught it that this behaviour is ok. Probably only a trained professional can undo it at this stage.

So yes, YABU. Imagine letting an animal rule the roost to the point of people having to faff around on your behalf and book appointments just to do their jobs!

And of course it must be the cleaner who messed up here mustn't it?! No chance at all that it could have been the Air BnB owner who maybe didn't pass a message on!
Honestly even though I actually agree that the cleaner shouldn't have entered without notice, dog or not, there's nothing to say it wasn't the owner that screwed up, cleaner may well have informed the owner they needed to go and the message didn't get passed on and so cleaner turns up as she's given the notice required and dog is there because the message hasn't been passed on.
The cleaner is not being an 'entitled cunt' to not want to be put in that situation again. But obviously being the bottom of the pile to some people as they're in a service job, the cleaner automatically gets the blame and called names.

So yes, YABU. Imagine letting an animal rule the roost to the point of people having to faff around on your behalf and book appointments just to do their jobs!

But the person wasn't there doing their job!

The cleaner was not there to clean, they appeared on a random day/time with no warning and let themselves into the property to collect something from the shed in violation of the rental agreement that the OP had with AirBnB that any visit by the host or their representatives would only occur with prior notice.

It would be like if you were staying in a hotel and housekeeping just let themselves into your room whilst you were in there to borrow the extra blanket from your wardrobe without warning - you would not expect them to just waltz in without at least knocking first; the OP should have been given the same courtesy of the cleaner knocking to let them know she was there before just appearing in the property.

My dogs aren’t aggressive and they are trained but they would still bark at a stranger entering the back garden unannounced. They wouldn’t attack them but they would definitely bark, I think most dogs would to be fair, it’s part of their nature to protect their ‘people’ and part of that protection is warning when something isn’t right.

And of course it mustbe the cleaner who messed up here mustn't it?! No chance at all that it could have been the Air BnB owner who maybe didn't pass a message on!

The message had been passed on successfully for every visit for the previous month, so it's not like the cleaner was unaware of the need for any visit to be OKed.

Not only that the OP has notes posted at every entrance, including the one the cleaner used to access the property, so there are no excuses for them not knowing that there was a dog on the property and if they turned up unannounced that it may approach them.

Honestly even though I actually agree that the cleaner shouldn't have entered without notice, dog or not, there's nothing to say it wasn't the owner that screwed up, cleaner may well have informed the owner they needed to go and the message didn't get passed on and so cleaner turns up as she's given the notice required and dog is there because the message hasn't been passed on.

But that is not how it works. It's not a case of the host/cleaner giving notice and the guest just has to not object, AirBNBs rules are very clear that the host/their representative cannot access the property during a guests stay without explicit permission for every single visit. So if the cleaner hadn't received confirmation from the owner that they were OK to go to the property then they should not have been entering at all as they have not received permission to enter from the guest.

It is the guest who gets to say "Yes you can come in" or "No it is not convenient" to the hosts request for access during their stay, it is not the host who gets to say "We will be accessing the property at X time" unless there is an active emergency

I think more people would be on OPs side in this had they, after the cleaner entered and the dog barked/reacted the first time, grabbed the dog, apologised and said this is why we ask for notice, he's reactive. As it was, OP told the dog to stop then did nothing else so the dog started again. That's why people are saying the dog was out of control. Because OP failed to get him under control.

Had the dog been restrained after the first reaction to someone entering their (albeit temporary) home, everyone else would be saying, yep, you asked for notice, it's in the terms, you're in the right. It's the lack of responsibility taken after the incident occurred initially that mean people think the dog is not under control.

So if the cleaner hadn't received confirmation from the owner that they were OK to go to the property then they should not have been entering at all as they have not received permission to enter from the guest.

That's my whole point, just as likely as the cleaner just walking in is the option that the cleaner had been given the go ahead by the owner who actually failed to do that. But everyone is just assuming the cleaner just didn't bother, even though no one actually knows. Yes, it was wrong for the cleaner to enter without permission but it is as likely to be the owner not doing their bit as the cleaner being an 'entitled cunt'.
And they assume that because there's zero respect for anyone doing these jobs by many other people. They're always the ones to blame despite the actual facts and in lack of those facts the default to blame.

I think more people would be on OPs side in this had they, after the cleaner entered and the dog barked/reacted the first time, grabbed the dog, apologised and said this is why we ask for notice, he's reactive

But that's essentially what the OP did -

Dog ran towards her and barked. I gave the recall command which worked initially but then my dog ran back to cleaner and barked ... After 20 ish secs dog was in the house and I apologised

The OP immediately recalled the dog who started to respond but then went back before gaining control and putting the dog in the house, all within 20/30 seconds. For all we know the recall "failure" was because as the dog was being recalled, instead of giving the OP a few moments to get the dog out of the way the cleaner saw the dog moving away from them and started moving towards the shed again, which made the dog return to bark at them because they were still "protecting" their property from a stranger who hadn't been deterred by the first warning.

You don't get to walk into a property and then be surprised that the occupant doesn't immediately react perfectly when given zero notice, the OP could have been startled themselves and needed a few seconds to register what was happening before they recalled the dog, which was enough time for the dog to reach the cleaner to bark at them. Equally if the OP was on the far side of the garden it may have taken a few seconds for them to get to a position where they could physically remove the dog as they were not within touching distance initially, but if the cleaner hadn't given the OP any reaction time to deal with the dog then of course the situation is going to continue.

My parents have a dog, she barks when people come to the door because she's a dog and it's what they do to alert their owners of someone being at the property. If we know people will be coming, we keep the dog in a room away from the door so that people can come in without her immediately running up to bark and be fussed over on the doorstep which gives us time for the dog to sense the person is in the house but knows they are friendly because we introduce them in a controlled way. If someone turns up unannounced then because the dog reacts faster than us she will be at the door before we have time to recall her and if it is not someone she knows (friend/family) then she will do the instinctive thing and bark to "warn" us that there is an unknown person at the door.

But then that failing is the failing of the communication between host and their cleaner, yet the OP is the one being "punished" for that, which is 100% unfair.

Equally, even if the cleaner had received permission from the owner to go onto the property (and presumed the OP was aware they would be coming) it is still basic decency and courtesy to knock on the door of an occupied property where you don't know the occupant personally instead of just letting yourself in (especially when you know there is an animal on site, and there were signs on the gate they used so they can't pretend they weren't aware)

I live in a HA property, if the HA has made an appointment for an inspection, we both know the Housing Officer will be arriving at 10am but they still knock to announce their arrival and allow me to answer the door, they don't just waltz in even though "they have permission to enter". This is no different, even if the cleaner thought they were expected they should have knocked/called out, which would have then given the OP the opportunity to deal with the situation before they entered the property

@melj1213 or, the dogs recall isn't 100% as the OP also said, and he ran back to the cleaner looking out of control, and the cleaner was scared because OP told them the dog is a reactive biter and they had been given the go ahead to go to the property by the owner and were not expecting an aggressive dog running towards them?

There's fault on all sides here. But the biggest thing is that OP has a dog they know has issues, gave up training it, and took it outside of a place it was comfortable where they are unable to control the movements of other people in the same way they can in their own home and then got pissed that other people are not as accommodating of their reactive dog they haven't finished training as they think they should be.

My dog is one of my greatest sources of joy and comfort. She's very well behaved 90% of the time. Sometimes she turns of her ears and decides she NEEDS to run up to everyone. I put her on a lead and take her home. Or, if its one of those days and we're at home I shut her away from the places people might be. I don't ask other people to accommodate her one crazy thing. If this happened at a holiday let and the owner didn't like it, that's my problem not theirs and they can ask me to leave.

She's my dog, she's my responsibility.