A Host Claimed Compensation from an Airbnb Guest—and Faced Doxxing and Threats!

Hello, and welcome to Snowball Rentals’ WeChat account, where you can read about recent developments in the US short-term rental market.

Anyone who has hosted vacation rentals knows that among all kinds of guests, there will always be some who are difficult to accommodate, especially when you live in the United States, where public safety is worsening.

Today, with a heavy heart, I want to share a true incident:

A host requested compensation from an Airbnb guest, only to face doxxing and threats!

Early one morning in July this year, the Snowball Rentals team was working as usual.

Suddenly, a text message arrived. The cleaning team sent photos from a short-term rental, saying that when they entered, the entire house smelled of marijuana: the guest had smoked marijuana indoors.

The house was also extremely dirty and messy. The guest had stayed only two nights, but it looked as dirty as if they had lived there for two months.

That afternoon, we urgently hired a deodorizing cleaning company, hoping to restore the house before the next guest arrived. We also told the guest that because they had violated the house rules, we would seek compensation for all damage and additional cleaning costs.

Then something outrageous happened.

The guest was clearly a repeat offender and began searching online for personal information about Snowball Rentals' founder, Alan. The guest found Alan's home address and threatened: withdraw the claim immediately, or we will come to your house.

We immediately replied that we would contact the police.

The guest was completely unfazed and replied: “If you do not cancel the claim, we will do something to your children...” My goodness—do you see this? Public safety in the United States has become so bad it is almost unimaginable.

Homeowners, do you think this guest was merely joking? Even former president Trump was shot. As a property manager or homeowner, would you dare risk assuming this guest would not arrive with a gun?

This is the current public safety situation in the United States, and the predicament facing hosts and short-term rental managers. Criminals can brazenly shoplift while store employees neither dare nor are allowed to stop them.

Middle-class families work hard every day to pay all kinds of bills, save ten years of income for a down payment and become homeowners.

Then, with long-term rentals, we fear tenants who refuse to pay or leave. With short-term rentals, guests smoke inside, and when we seek compensation, we get doxxed and receive death threats.

With public safety like this in the United States, what are middle-class families supposed to do? Some homeowners rent out part of their own home, so guests already know where they live and need not even search for that information.

What happened afterward was even more absurd.

The Snowball Rentals team immediately called Airbnb's emergency support line for advice. Airbnb replied: if you feel your home is unsafe, we recommend leaving immediately and contacting the police.

Did you hear that? Airbnb treated us as guests and read us a script. We explained repeatedly that we were hosts—Superhosts, in fact—not guests, and that a guest was threatening our lives.

The support representative then smoothly read another script: if you feel your lives are in danger, we recommend contacting the police. We replied that we only had the user's account nickname. If we reported this to police, could Airbnb help provide the guest's real identity?

The representative replied that someone more experienced on the team would call us back.

After hanging up, we waited almost a week without receiving a call. When we called support again, it was essentially the same standard response repeated.

Homeowners, Snowball Rentals has no advice to offer about this incident.

Have you experienced something similar as a host? Do you have a good solution? Should we report it to police and confront the guest, or swallow our frustration and let it go? Please share your suggestions!

As a homeowner, you may now be wondering: my home is quite good, but how much could it earn on Airbnb? Would it earn more than a long-term rental? Would it involve a lot of trouble?

Contact us right away! We will evaluate it for you free of charge.

If you:

Hope to increase rental income through short-term rentals;

Cannot spare a great deal of time to handle the small details;

Occasionally need to use the home yourself, making it unsuitable to empty out the furniture for a long-term rental;

Then:

Snowball Rentals’ management team is your best choice.

From pre-launch vacation-rental styling, big-data analysis and online marketing to tenant screening, dynamic pricing, customer service and sales, cleaning and repairs, Snowball Rentals provides everything as one complete service for your home.

This Week’s Booking Results

Through long-standing relationships with insurers, assignment companies and technology companies, Snowball Rentals rents homes for medium- and long-term durations at short-term rates, then gives owners a rebate of 5% in management fees to maximize their income.

Winter is the low season for Seattle’s short-term rental market, especially in 2023. Some recent large bookings, however, have been like a ray of sunshine, giving us high hopes for Airbnb’s performance this summer!

On Redfin, we can find an estimated average long-term monthly rent of approximately $4483 for this detached house on Mercer Island.

The owner placed great trust in Snowball Rentals, and the property went straight into short-term rental operation after furnishing.

With an excellent location and highly practical layout, this detached house has always rented easily. This time, it secured another large booking!

As shown in the booking screenshot below, a guest rented this house through Airbnb for a total of 75 nights. Without deliberately planning it, a short-term rental became a mid-term rental.

The rental income plus cleaning fee for this booking reached $17555.05!

Using Redfin's monthly estimate of $4483, the long-term rent for 75 nights would be approximately $11200.

In summary, with Snowball Rentals operating this detached house, what the source calls “monthly rental revenue” rose from $11200 for the long-term comparison to

$17555.05, an increase of nearly 57%.

Some owners may ask: compared with earlier large bookings that often doubled the rent, this one only added 57%. Is that really impressive?

But look carefully: this booking's 75 days run from September to November this year. The hardest short-term rental off-season usually runs from October through the following March, so October and November are already included.

This is both the booking's biggest highlight and the new strategy Snowball Rentals has repeatedly emphasized and tried this year: short-term rentals in peak season, mid-term rentals in the off-season.

For homeowners, combining short- and mid-term rentals in this way can earn more in peak season and help them get through low season smoothly. Even if the low-season rental figures look less dramatic, they still outperform long-term rentals and give homeowners a strong sense of financial security.

More importantly, the owner does not have to worry about maintenance or cleaning. When something needs to be discussed with guests, we also help with communication and oversight.

Here, we again thank the owner for placing trust in the Snowball Rentals team!

After Airbnb’s downturn in 2023, we at Snowball Rentals hope to help owners regain ground in summer 2024!

Once again, heartfelt thanks to our homeowners for their trust and support. Whether the market is strong or weak, Snowball Rentals will stand with you and look for ways to increase your income!

Some homeowners will surely ask the hard question: was a large booking like this just a stroke of luck? What if the home does not rent? A long-term rental is more stable—even earning less is better than earning nothing!

Our answer is: the outcome depends on what we do.

Vacation-Rental Styling

Competition on Airbnb is becoming increasingly intense. The days of piecing together secondhand furniture, taking phone photos and earning easy money on Airbnb are over. Airbnb hosts have moved toward professional operations.

Careful design and furnishing before launch, followed by professional short-term rental operations, will be the only choice for a rental that continues to generate high income.

Here is another of Snowball Rentals’ core services: vacation-rental styling!

Let us enjoy this excellent detached house!

When choosing a short-term rental on Airbnb, would this home’s appearance attract you?

If you would also like to make your home more attractive and earn more rent, please contact us at any time!

This Week’s Short Videos

We regularly update short videos every week.

The content you need is all here.

👇🏻 Homeowners are welcome to follow us 👇🏻

Snowball Rentals

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We also share practical vacation-rental styling plans and creative ideas to help you achieve more with less spending!

Keep rental income growing!

Xiao An’s Vacation-Rental Styling

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Referral Rewards

If you are already a Snowball Rentals homeowner, you receive a US$500 referral fee for each referral.

If you are not yet a Snowball Rentals homeowner, you receive a US$250 shopping voucher for each referral.

Snowball Rentals Management

1. Full service — We provide pre-launch rental design, furniture procurement, furnishing, professional photography, online marketing, copywriting, tenant service and sales, cleaning, supply purchasing and property repairs. You only need to be a hands-off owner; we handle the rest.

2. Multi-platform promotion — We promote the home on Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway and other mainstream platforms for maximum exposure.

3. Dynamic pricing — Using big data, we adjust prices every day according to seasonal demand, holidays, last-minute vacancy offers, weekends and local activities, maximizing the owner’s income.

4. Income-improvement SOP — We follow 44 secrets for maximizing short-term rental income, optimizing each property’s online marketing, on-site operations and other aspects to work toward maximum income.

5. Flexible owner stays — Owners can flexibly choose when to stay themselves. This is especially suitable for owners with multiple residences around the world.

6. Terminate at any time — Management does not require an annual commitment. The owner can end the agreement with one month’s advance notice.

7. Corporate housing — In addition to nightly rentals, we work with insurers and assignment companies to provide executives with hotel-style managed accommodation for stays longer than 30 days.

8. Transparent fees — For rentals longer than 30 days, we charge 15% of accommodation revenue. For nightly rentals under 30 days, we charge 20% of accommodation revenue.

Author’s tip: Personal views, for reference only.