Guest Breaking of House Rules - UK Host experience
I had a Guest that booked solely for himself, yet on the second day, invited several friends around and partied and smoked and drank all night, along with loud music,
They broke the rules on the number of guests, smoking, and being also noisy and playing loud music throughout the whole night, let alone during quiet hours. This is on Day 2 out of a 7 day booking.
I spoke to Booking.com support, the first representative initially said that he could contact the guest via email...well that wasn't going to work as the guest had been up all night and went to sleep in the early hours of the morning. After placing me on hold, he went to speak to a supervisor, who asked for evidence, which I duly sent of the cctv footage I had at the entrance to the property. After going over the footage, he agreed that the booking could be cancelled, but the call disconnected shortly afterwards.
After ringing back, I unfortunately spoke to a very rude and abrupt call handler, who said that her colleague was mistaken, and that 'nothing' could be done, other than 'IF' there was any damage, for me to submit pictures and they would 'SEE' what 'MIGHT' be able to be done after the full booking had been completed.
As I understand it from the Booking.com portal, the House Rules have to be agreed by the Guest upon making the reservation, however, the reality is that should any guest flout those rules, Booking.com WILL NOT cancel the booking, nor do anything to assist the Host.
After I had finished speaking to the abrupt / unhelpful call handler, the first call handler called back after 30 minutes and apologised profusely, He said he had seen the footage, he agreed that it was totally unacceptable but said with a heavy heart, that he was mistaken earlier, and that there was nothing he could do by way of cancelling the Booking.
I think it is therefore really important for Hosts in the UK to be fully aware, that if any rules that we set as Hosts, are flouted in any way, that you will have absolutely zero assistance / support by Booking.com & you will NOT be assisted in any way. The situation may well be different in 'other' countries, and I can categorically say, that the Police will not involve themselves, unless there is some sort of criminal activity, such as a broken window etc. The Police will 100% not get involved and will see it as a civil matter.
Sorry to hear. I would use the report guest feature and block them.
Adding a damage deposit may reduce chance
Sure BrookAve, I can do that but that still makes a mockery of the B.com House Rules, which are worthless!