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?

Yanbu. Why didn't she ring the bell instead of just walking in? I'm assuming there is a bell on the front gate.

I wouldn't be happy with someone just walking into my property unannounced, dog or not. While you are renting it, it is your property for all intents and purposes.

I fully sympathise, my dog is the same. He was a rescue that came to us quite late and training is a slow process.

Surely the day the cleaner arrives is predictable, just not the time.

we have a cat that has to be locked up for the cleaner to visit. We either make sure she is secured first thing in the morning or we keep her semi-contained and stay on high alert all day for the motion alarm we keep on the walkway to trigger so we know to get her locked up immediately.

This bread:

Can you just assure the owner that you will keep on top of the cleaning? Or offer to pay an extra deposit now and get it back when you move out if he’s not happy with the state of the property.

Does it really need a professional clean every week? Can you email them and say ‘apologies for the other day, I did emphasise we needed warning when the cleaner came’. You have my word that this won’t happen again. Can we compromise and have the cleaner come every other week and I will assure you I will be out of the house from 1pm-4pm every other Wednesday.’

If you are otherwise good tenants it seems such an inconvenience for you and the owner for you to move out.

I’m with the owner in this. Yes you made them aware about your dog and they were ok but an incident has happened and now they have every right to ask you to leave. The cleaner clearly felt threatened as would anyone. To you your dog is good as gold but to others he isn’t.

Its good you are working on the problem. Unfortunately being you can't control the dog the owner is in the right.

yes it is not perfect but we are not shit owners.

Also, OP, I think the issue here is that there’s been no planning for eventualities regarding the dog.
We have family friends who have four guard dogs, who’s job it is to guard their property/ business overnight.
If for whatever reason, they needed to leave the property and stay elsewhere- hell would freeze over before they took them to an Air BnB. Would not even cross their minds.

I appreciate things happen that are out of your control, but when you are managing a dog like yours, you must have contingency plans in place.

Whilst I don’t necessarily think you deserve to be chucked out as you put it after making it clear to the owner the dog situation, I think he’s within his rights to say he would rather you moved on after the incident with the cleaner, who was presumably scared. However I think you have a larger issue- the dog not tolerating people in the house and I think this needs sorting. Territory is normal but this level is extreme and you cannot live like this- even if you ‘choose’ not to to have anyone over what happens if you have an emergency, need paramedics, building work, anything. The dog would get stressed and may be spooked enough to lash out. Locking yourselves away with dog isn’t really practical or sensible long term

You'd be better off posting in The Doghouse OP.

Siblings often have the dog when we are away (fairly often) but we thought we’d give the air bnb a try if we could get an owner who understood the situation.

The Air BNB host doesn't give a shit about what your dog behaviourist and vet think.

Not having visitors is a solution that works for us.

I wouldn't go on holiday with an aggressive human/potential murderer so it's a moot point. I have never met a person that behaves as you describe. That's because dogs aren't people and some dog owners would do well to remind themselves of that fact once in a while. If one of my party threatened an employee of the owner then I'd expect to be asked to leave and would do so with good grace. I don't associate with reactive/aggressive humans and I avoid dangerous dogs like the plague.

We’re not on holiday

How much notice has air bnb given you? Has he offered a partial refund?

@Pilloh

your dog sounds like a nuisance.

Generally people can’t be arsed with that kind of thing

Some people are just being dicks for the sake of it OP. Dog or not I would not be happy for any stranger to enter somewhere I was renting unannounced. You made a deal with the owner and they broke it- you were being a responsible owner by trying to mitigate danger. Also a dog barking is not dangerous, it just barking.

@Moveoverdarlin - I understand why OP views the situation from a completely emotional stance. But looking at it objectively, if the owner agreed for OP to self clean or reduce cleans though, they could lose the cleaner (or the cleaner may lose wages).

It can be really tough getting reliable high standard cleaners. Why would the owner inconvenience themselves and risk losing the cleaner over a guest that likely will be much easier to replace?

Not the nicest way to view it, but it's a business at the end of the day and housing a reactive dog isn't the AirBNB owner's problem.

If you have a dog that reacts to strangers you can't have them in an Airbnb that is being serviced by a cleaner, just like you wouldn't leave your dog in a hotel room and the cleaner comes in. It's perfectly possible to train dogs not to approach strangers

OP Mumsnet is really not the place to ask this question. Most people will either hate dogs, have reading comprehension so low that they ask repetitive questions or just like to stick the boot in. You say you have struggled with your mental health - I'd really not be posting on Mumsnet. It sounds like the airbnb owner has reconsidered and whilst it's annoying there isn't much you can do.

You have an untrained, uncontrollable dog. I don't blame the cleaner.

Glad you blacked out Fido/Rover/Satan or it would have been very identifying

So the cleaner loses her job or at least some of her income because she can't do her job due to the very real danger of being savaged by a massive, out of control predator at her work place. Seems fair 🤔.

Well I guess that's lucky for you that you don't have anyone in your life with autism and/ or learning difficulties that find unexpected situations scary; for instance an unannounced person invading a private space.

Just in case this was aimed at OP - OP isn't on holiday; they needed temporary accommodation as their house was uninhabitable.