Hello Youtube this is Richard founder of
Short Term Rental Secrets .com I've seen
all sorts of creating horrific images
and some nails with blood and party
scenes and disaster scenarios all over
YouTube talking about nightmares on
Airbnb I don't know how true they are
but I can tell you that the thumbnail
filled with graphic images and blood and
all that sure captivates people's
interest I just don't know if it's real
what I do want to share with you today
is my worst experience that I've had in
the years that I've been a host it just
happened to me so let me explain to you
sort of what happened and how you can
prevent something like this. The person
made an inquiry it was for a late check
in on the same day which instantly got
me a little bit concerned or nervous
like who really needs to travel and
doesn't have a hotel or a place to stay
and it's coming to do something that's
normal unless there was a backstory to
it like you know my house flooded or the
hotel cancelled or something like that
which there was none so I was instantly
a little suspect I was about to turn
down the reservation or at least ask
more information when the instant
booking came in and at that point I kind
of thought well let me suspend my gut
feel and just go with the flow I've had
really great success over the years with
Airbnb and I've never had any problems
with it but I did have this little
inkling that something was weird when it
was a late night check-in on the same
day and I just you know had a ? around
it. When I came back two days later and
my maid was down cleaning I asked her
you know how does everything look and
she said oh boy you haven't seen it and
i said no i haven't seen it and she said
well it's a real mess you need to come
down and take a look at it and so I went
down and I took a look at it it was
clearly evident that all of my house
rules had been broken all over the place
as I wrote in the and the best practices
in the air B&B in these videos he want
to be really clear about who you want to
invite who you want to not allow his
guests I say no events no parties no
loud noise no music no smoking etc and
suffice it to say every one of those
rules was broken and i really wish i was
home this weekend because i would have
put an end to it as i said instant book
I was away I had
no knowledge I had no contact like there
was nothing I could do about it this was
after the fact but it was clear and
evidence that there was a party that was
there I was really not happy I felt
completely violated and taken advantage
of and it was just a really bad feeling
and granted there was nothing terrible
everything is fine everyone is fine the
police weren't called the neighbors
weren't disrupted I can't express to you
though the disappointment and the
feeling of a violation here i am opening
my home in my community and myself to
you know good people to come and enjoy
my flat in my neighborhood in my
community and they're taking advantage
and that's one entirely disrespectful
and so not cool and so I just contacted
Airbnb and I'm going to be really candid
here Airbnb has greatly disappointed me
too it's been eight nine days and I've
called multiple times and I've escalated
and I've asked for their help and I
filed a security deposit claim and so on
and so forth and their trust Department
is reviewing and contacting me I would
really hope that Airbnb you know I'm a
super host would be standing behind me
better and supporting me better and
supporting all of you better and I will
be contacting them again and sharing
with them this video and so on and so
forth so the point is I'm fighting for
all of us hosts because this is just
wrong and this instant book thing where
somebody can have you know verified ID
but not be a quality citizen in the
community that's a problem and Airbnb
should really address that so what did I
learn there's two lessons I want to
leave you with one my gut feel was
concern about this reservation as i dial
down on it why late night check-in same
day check-in somebody from within my
community doesn't really make a lot of
sense and I didn't quantify it in
advance but thinking through it now I
can tell you that those were the flags
and there was no real good explanation
like my house burned down or there's no
water to my apartment there's no heat
something that I could understand or
verify it just sort of seemed to me like
somebody wanted to do something and not
in their own home well they don't want
to do in their own home I don't really
want it done in my home either and
either should you so that was the first
flag same day late night check-in no
reason and from the community I
encourage you to avoid that the second
thing I learned and I'm a huge fan of
instant booking on Airbnb gets you
higher search rankings it gets you more
job revenue in your pocket so I'm going
to keep mine on and I encourage you to
do the same but what I learned what I
did call air B&B is that they have a
policy that allows you three penalty
free cancellations such that you can
cancel without any questions asked and
it doesn't affect your account or your
super host status I encourage you to know
that there's three strikes and use all
three you'd rather be safe than sorry I
hope you found this helpful and just to
be really clear I'm all about Airbnb I'm
a super host I've got multiple
properties this doesn't affect my
outlook at all it's just a little hiccup
and a bump in the road and really a way
to for me to learn from it so I view
this as a positive thing an unpleasant
yet positive thing and I hope you do too
this is all about transparency and
honesty you've heard me criticize Airbnb
on this video this is legitimate and
transparent there's no nonsense here no
BS but in order for you to learn and
grow use my experiences please go ahead
and subscribe to the channel we're going
to continue to make a lot of content
about my daily experiences and how you
can optimize your growth in your revenue
and I hope you found this helpful go
ahead and subscribe happy hosting and
I'll see you soon thank you very much.
Have a great day!