It’s 4:30am and I’ve been up since 1:00am — it’s those pesky AirBnB guests again!
AirBnB closed the last complaint we had about noise from our neighbouring apartment saying that the host had been unaware of any issues and that the host promised to inform their guests to prevent noise issues in future. In fact, what they said was:
We have taken the appropriate measures with the Airbnb host and guest in question and gave them some suggestions on how to address the issue in the future. This host was not aware of any issue like this, but was very willing to cooperate in order to prevent future incidents. We’ll continue to take note of any further complaints or issues raised against this listing.
Basically, it sounded as if they said to the host and the guest in question, “Don’t do this in future!” and that was considered to be enough. No further action needed. Despite me pointing out multiple instances of the guests disregarding COVID rules and regulations.
I asked them what would happen if this would continue to be an issue since we’ve had the same issue happen for four days over two weekends — whether they had some policy in place to deal with repeat offenders.
Their response was, of course, totally noncommittal and unhelpful:
IN this case, if there is another incident, we need you to please visit www.airbnb.com/neighbors to share your second complaint. The online form will route the issue to the correct team and help us track these concerns. We will take the previous incident int account in order to take proper actions.
I can tell you that this host was willing to cooperate and make all the future guests aware of the rules. IN case something else happen, you can contact us again.
And then last night after midnight, the noise starts again!
This time around, the noise was so loud that we could hear them screaming to each other through two locked doors — ours and theirs — and we could tell what language was being used (it wasn’t English) and what they were saying. And we were in our bedroom which was a good 20 to 30 feet away from the door! (The last few times we could hear the talking/yelling/screaming but couldn’t distinguish what was being said most of the time …)
We called the building security, they came and had to bang on the door for a while since there was no response. They just kept partying on inside.
I am not sure if they would have opened the door at all except that a new batch of guests arrived for the party while the security was there. There were at least six people in the new group of arrivals. Given that there definitely were more than four people inside, that meant that the guests were again breaking Toronto COVID ordinances on limiting indoor social gatherings to 10 people or less.
The first question they ask the security guard is — “Have there been complaints?” What do they think? Do they think the security is there knocking on their door because they just felt like it?
Security informs them there were complaints and to keep the noise level down. They apologize and say that they’ll keep things quiet. Security didn’t go away though. They move off a bit but stayed around. And what do you know? The noise level starts going up soon after again.
Security comes back, knocks on the door and tells them something that I didn’t know — they inform them that if there are three noise complaints, the building policy is to call the police. So security tells them to pipe down and this time the noise level remains at an acceptable level for the rest of the night.
However, as far as I was concerned, the damage was done ☹️ I fall asleep very quickly when I go to bed, but if I’m woken up in the middle, I find it really hard to go back to sleep. And this is what happened this time — try as I might, I could not go back to sleep for the rest of the night, and I finally gave up and got up for the day a little while ago.
It’s even worse for my poor wife. She has lots of trouble sleeping and it takes her forever to recover from one of these incidents. What has been happening the past few weeks is that the partying keeps her awake, it takes her at least 3 – 4 days to get over the disruption to sleep, and just as she’s getting back on track, it starts all over again the next weekend! 😡
I have complained to AirBnB again, but given the last resolution, I feel that nothing much will happen. Since it’s a holiday weekend, I probably won’t have much luck complaining to the city till later in the week, but I do intend to do so since there are multiple violations here on the part of both host and guests.
But I do have a new question — given that AirBnB was aware of the violations of city/provincial bylaws and regulations (since I told them of the violations last time) and they just disregarded it, are they culpable in some way?
I guess I’ll have to find out …
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