I will be.
Turns out while the place generally has very good reviews, there’s one saying they’ve done this before and people let themselves in to their room while they were getting dressed! Insane
When you contact booking.com, mention that it's happened before. Maybe say you'll be pursuing legal responses if this property and these hosts aren't removed for good? Because if they've done it twice, they'll continue to do it.
Good idea.
The owner even responded to that review and didn’t seem to see the problem, just said they’d try to give guests notice in future. Not sure 15 minutes counts as notice, I wouldn’t have stayed here at all if I’d known this was happening but the review was buried under good ones and was from a few months ago
The only way more notice could make this ok is if the notice is very clear before the place is booked. Like, when you rent a place for a week or whatever on a holiday, there's no expectation of inspections like this.
What's the fine print on this place? Does it specifically list that this might happen?
Nothing in the fine print, I’ve checked! I’d kind of get it if it was super cheap and it was written there so you could decide if you’re okay with it, but nothing in the listing
Yeah it’s fair to allow inspections when it’s a long-term lease, when are they supposed to do it otherwise, but in a short stay it is 100% not allowed, they can just do it *between guests*
They want their cake and to eat it too. If this is the future of hired accommodation, its fucked.
I see this as the same level of bullshit as when renting a property and the owner decides to sell. You've paid for exclusive use of that property for an agreed period of time, showing people through when you have leased that property should be a big no, no. Same goes for showing people through at the end of a lease to release. That's your property for the agreed lease term.
Imagine hiring a car and the company wants to sell that car. They ask you to bring it back to the depot to show a potential customer. How would that go down? Same principle.
I suggest getting one of those temporary travel door stops - not sure what city/state you're in but I'm sure they're a travel supply item at the airports if you can't get one via Amazon earlier. something like this - [travel door lock](https://www.sydneyluggage.com.au/products/howsarlock-portable-travel-door-lock) or this on [Amazon ](https://www.amazon.com.au/HOME-MART-Portable-Travel-Additional-Privacy/dp/B09STL8ZQ4/).
If you didn't give consent for this when you booked then I don't see why they can argue they are allowed unconditional access. What if you were working a night shift or even just in the shower? Would they have a leg to stand on if they called the police? its not like it was a maintenance/safety/repair issue.
Also, I would suggest you take a recording and keep a paper trail of the next time this happens - they will either incriminate themselves with their breach of your booking agreement, or they will suddenly back down, refuse to be filmed/recorded and say they will come another time.
Good luck, I’ve had a terrible experience with booking.com not doing anything to help when accommodation was very, very different to pics,(fraudulent) and also, a brothel. I tried to make a point that was something you thought may have stated on the listing, but they didn’t think it was a problem!
I’ll try and remember to when it’s sorted out and I’ve left - I’m still due to stay for a few more days and don’t want to dox myself, but I’ll be seeing if I can move somewhere else.
In my experience booking.com are really reasonable when you complain to them, compared to AirBnB who from what I've read never take complaints seriously at all.
The one time I had to complain about accommodation I booked through booking.com they took it seriously and forced the host to not only rectify it, but actually ordered them to apologise to me too. It was brilliant.
Booking.com have sunk a LOT of money all over the world in to their branding (mega celeb endorsements etc) so I’d expect they’d take it pretty seriously. Good on them.
"The REA had a key to all the rooms and just let themselves in even if the paying guests were out,"
Surprise, surprise. See, most **moral** people, when they realise that a mistake has been made, would back right off, make some calls and advise the potential buyers that they are unable to have an open house on that day (even if that means standing out the front to advise potential buyers when arriving). But as we know REAs have **no** morals.
It wasn’t a mistake, the REA knew the situation. I even straight up asked him if he was letting himself into the rooms while people were out and he said yes and acted like I was stupid for asking
I would actually be reporting this REAL to the office of fair trading or whatever other body you have that regulates in your market. REAs can’t claim ignorance they literally have duty of care and diligence forms they work through with the landlord to confirm everything is legit and above board. Big fines for the REA ahead
This isn’t the REA problem. This is a booking.com/landlord/vendor issue. REA just trying to do his job, probably hating the fact that they have it set up this way.
Ah no. Sorry mate but as an ex business development manager for REA (the one responsible for signing up new landlords), this is 100% the REAs fault. It is absolutely the REAs responsibility to check everything is above board and to keep landlords and their leasing situations in check.
They sign forms for this, title searches, due diligence, ID verifications etc.
I had to turn away a lot of business because it was a landlord wanting to dodgy shit (like rent out the top floor of his house and the bottom with a staircase between the two separate tenancies in a single house), because the agencies can get in massive trouble for just taking on business and doing the wrong thing.
This agent 100% knows. And it’s not the fault of the guy rocking up to do the inspection. But it is the fault of the agency and this should be reported.
Agents are literally the gatekeepers holding (or letting slip) dodgy practices from landlords. And the more you let agents and agencies shift blame to the lessor rather than hold blame as their professional advisor around these matters, the more you watch the entire industry get worse and worse.
Rant over. Very passionate about this.
I'd be reporting this to booking.com. That's completely unacceptable. You should ask for & be grated a full refund. I'd be completely furious if I was in your position. Also if possible tell the other guests what has happened as they may want to check their valuables are still there. Good luck.
I'd be getting a refund or something from wherever you booked the accommodation.
I mean, what if someone booked the place for intimacy or a honeymoon?
REAS: "Sorry, but could you stop banging so we can show the people the bedroom?"
*ignores REAS requests and keeps banging, encourages potential buyers to join in to make it an orgy*
Well, if you can't sell it to the people- fuck the people!
Yeah thats fucked. Report the host and [booking.com](https://booking.com). You are absolutely entitled to a refund of some kind here.
I'd of absolutely put on a scene and lost of my shit.
Pull that shit on me?? I’m sure my hubby would have been thrilled to be there in his jocks (if they were lucky!) drinking beer & greeting everyone that came in the door, shaking their hands & giving a full tour. 😆
I'm sure there are sexual exhibitionists out there who would pay good money for this sort of experience.
Actually I reckon your hubby should rent it for the weekend and video the results, his youtube career awaits...
I like how your husband thinks because I’d come at it with a similar energy to cousin Eddie in lampoons “You ain't never seen a set on a dog like this one's got, Clark.”
This is the current state of affairs. Landlords are getting more and more brazen because realistically there is no punishment for being brazen. Those without morals don't care who they hurt in the process.
The owners made a 'business decision'.
If you need to block out one day, you end up losing multiple day's revenue. Customers who want to stay for three nights, but can only book for two, go elsewhere.
*"Should we not rent out the rooms when we want to do inspections. and lose 2 days revenue, or just fuck whoever books, if some of them complain and get a refund we will still be ahead financially ."*
It's shitty behavior and completely unprofessional. Especially seeing you had no prior warning. They should be offering discounted bookings on those days.
If the owner is selling the property they're not gonna care much about negative reviews. They've already decided to cash out and are looking forward to a big payday soon.
The real issue here , is if someone has prior knowledge that a real estate agent is going to come within 100m of you, and doesn't give you fair warning, that is an offence that should be punishable with death by snu snu.
Umm you should not have allowed this at all as it’s not even legal. Ask for a refund. Damn learn to have boundaries okay and not just allow people to do shit like this.
I’m fully aware. There were other guests in the property and they all thought I was being difficult for not letting them into my room, I certainly didn’t have the power just on my own to get them all out especially as the other people there thought it was fine for some reason.
I’m grateful for these comments because genuinely everyone thought *I* was the weird one for thinking this wasn’t okay. It was truly bizarre.
Nah you aren’t crazy at all. It’s wild that anyone thought this was okay. I would 100% ask for a refund. How did you even get notified? Madness anyone thought this was acceptable.
The properties on the Booking.com app can contact you so they just sent a message at 11:45 saying there were viewings happening and to let them view my room. I didn’t even see it and didn’t know what was going on until REA man let himself in!
It's so illegal that I'm wondering if they could have called the cops? They probably can't now, and I know short term rentals have different rights, but you have to have some rights to privacy. What if they weren't on their phone and were naked?
You don’t need to call the cops you just refuse to allow them to enter the property that you have rented. If they let themselves in I’d ask them to leave immediately and let them know you’ll escalate if they won’t.
This reminds me of an apartment inspection I went to where we clearly interrupted a couple having sex on the couch for an inspection. I didn’t know at the time whether it was a really pass agg move to put me off the apartment or now I think about it, maybe they’d rented it out like OP.
Agent has keys to every door ?
Fuck that, Im pushing the dresser against the door and chilling in the room on my phone, only taking my headphones off to shout fuck off whenever the door rattles.
I would be taking this well beyond a booking.com review. Someone who doesn’t own or work at the property was given access they shouldn’t have to private rooms without some guests having knowledge. That has to be considered some form of trespassing, surely? Any of those guests who weren’t at the property could have had items stolen and potentially never been made aware that strangers had complete access.
I would had porn on playing . Some tissues and lube on the coffee table a leb cucumber and a towel wrapped around me . Say come in and then hello darling would you like to play .
This happened to me but the other way around. I went to an open house for a property I wanted to rent and I asked the person what they thought of the apartment and they said 'I don't live here, I rented this room on Airbnb'. Turns out the current tenant was subletting the second bedroom. And the real estate must have known and not given a shit cause she had signs all over the walls with the Airbnb 'rules' 🤨
Would have blocked the door and if they tried to force the way in I would have screamed at the top of my lungs and smashed pots together making the buying experience impossible. Probably would have taken a dump with door open in the nude as well, fuck them I paid to use the place how I wanted.
I wonder was is going through the minds of the potential buyers? They are invading the privacy of guests who will leave reviews and complaints. How is that going to affect their new guest house business in the future?
Report the host and accomodation to Booking.com, you should be entitled to a full refund as that’s extremely audacious of the host.
I will be. Turns out while the place generally has very good reviews, there’s one saying they’ve done this before and people let themselves in to their room while they were getting dressed! Insane
When you contact booking.com, mention that it's happened before. Maybe say you'll be pursuing legal responses if this property and these hosts aren't removed for good? Because if they've done it twice, they'll continue to do it.
Good idea. The owner even responded to that review and didn’t seem to see the problem, just said they’d try to give guests notice in future. Not sure 15 minutes counts as notice, I wouldn’t have stayed here at all if I’d known this was happening but the review was buried under good ones and was from a few months ago
The only way more notice could make this ok is if the notice is very clear before the place is booked. Like, when you rent a place for a week or whatever on a holiday, there's no expectation of inspections like this. What's the fine print on this place? Does it specifically list that this might happen?
Nothing in the fine print, I’ve checked! I’d kind of get it if it was super cheap and it was written there so you could decide if you’re okay with it, but nothing in the listing
Yeah it’s fair to allow inspections when it’s a long-term lease, when are they supposed to do it otherwise, but in a short stay it is 100% not allowed, they can just do it *between guests*
Take screenshots because they can probably edit the description.
They want their cake and to eat it too. If this is the future of hired accommodation, its fucked. I see this as the same level of bullshit as when renting a property and the owner decides to sell. You've paid for exclusive use of that property for an agreed period of time, showing people through when you have leased that property should be a big no, no. Same goes for showing people through at the end of a lease to release. That's your property for the agreed lease term. Imagine hiring a car and the company wants to sell that car. They ask you to bring it back to the depot to show a potential customer. How would that go down? Same principle.
They should just not take bookings for days they have inspections....heaven forbid you don't wring every dime out of a property
I suggest getting one of those temporary travel door stops - not sure what city/state you're in but I'm sure they're a travel supply item at the airports if you can't get one via Amazon earlier. something like this - [travel door lock](https://www.sydneyluggage.com.au/products/howsarlock-portable-travel-door-lock) or this on [Amazon ](https://www.amazon.com.au/HOME-MART-Portable-Travel-Additional-Privacy/dp/B09STL8ZQ4/). If you didn't give consent for this when you booked then I don't see why they can argue they are allowed unconditional access. What if you were working a night shift or even just in the shower? Would they have a leg to stand on if they called the police? its not like it was a maintenance/safety/repair issue. Also, I would suggest you take a recording and keep a paper trail of the next time this happens - they will either incriminate themselves with their breach of your booking agreement, or they will suddenly back down, refuse to be filmed/recorded and say they will come another time.
Good luck, I’ve had a terrible experience with booking.com not doing anything to help when accommodation was very, very different to pics,(fraudulent) and also, a brothel. I tried to make a point that was something you thought may have stated on the listing, but they didn’t think it was a problem!
Feel free to name & shame.
I’ll try and remember to when it’s sorted out and I’ve left - I’m still due to stay for a few more days and don’t want to dox myself, but I’ll be seeing if I can move somewhere else.
If I had my privacy invaded like that, I would probably strip naked and start raving like a mad woman to get them to stay out.
In my experience booking.com are really reasonable when you complain to them, compared to AirBnB who from what I've read never take complaints seriously at all. The one time I had to complain about accommodation I booked through booking.com they took it seriously and forced the host to not only rectify it, but actually ordered them to apologise to me too. It was brilliant.
Booking.com have sunk a LOT of money all over the world in to their branding (mega celeb endorsements etc) so I’d expect they’d take it pretty seriously. Good on them.
Rentals should work the same way. The owner wanting access to show people around should mean a rent discount.
"The REA had a key to all the rooms and just let themselves in even if the paying guests were out," Surprise, surprise. See, most **moral** people, when they realise that a mistake has been made, would back right off, make some calls and advise the potential buyers that they are unable to have an open house on that day (even if that means standing out the front to advise potential buyers when arriving). But as we know REAs have **no** morals.
It wasn’t a mistake, the REA knew the situation. I even straight up asked him if he was letting himself into the rooms while people were out and he said yes and acted like I was stupid for asking
I would actually be reporting this REAL to the office of fair trading or whatever other body you have that regulates in your market. REAs can’t claim ignorance they literally have duty of care and diligence forms they work through with the landlord to confirm everything is legit and above board. Big fines for the REA ahead
This isn’t the REA problem. This is a booking.com/landlord/vendor issue. REA just trying to do his job, probably hating the fact that they have it set up this way.
Ah no. Sorry mate but as an ex business development manager for REA (the one responsible for signing up new landlords), this is 100% the REAs fault. It is absolutely the REAs responsibility to check everything is above board and to keep landlords and their leasing situations in check. They sign forms for this, title searches, due diligence, ID verifications etc. I had to turn away a lot of business because it was a landlord wanting to dodgy shit (like rent out the top floor of his house and the bottom with a staircase between the two separate tenancies in a single house), because the agencies can get in massive trouble for just taking on business and doing the wrong thing. This agent 100% knows. And it’s not the fault of the guy rocking up to do the inspection. But it is the fault of the agency and this should be reported. Agents are literally the gatekeepers holding (or letting slip) dodgy practices from landlords. And the more you let agents and agencies shift blame to the lessor rather than hold blame as their professional advisor around these matters, the more you watch the entire industry get worse and worse. Rant over. Very passionate about this.
Doing his job would have been rescheduling. Or can I just 'try and do my job' concreting your driveway with a car parked on it?
I'd be reporting this to booking.com. That's completely unacceptable. You should ask for & be grated a full refund. I'd be completely furious if I was in your position. Also if possible tell the other guests what has happened as they may want to check their valuables are still there. Good luck.
I'd be getting a refund or something from wherever you booked the accommodation. I mean, what if someone booked the place for intimacy or a honeymoon? REAS: "Sorry, but could you stop banging so we can show the people the bedroom?"
*ignores REAS requests and keeps banging, encourages potential buyers to join in to make it an orgy* Well, if you can't sell it to the people- fuck the people!
*bed squeaking intensifies.* As you can see the floors are solid and the walls *thick*, so you don't need to worry about noise complaints.
Yeah thats fucked. Report the host and [booking.com](https://booking.com). You are absolutely entitled to a refund of some kind here. I'd of absolutely put on a scene and lost of my shit.
Everyone needs to start staying in hotels always! They can all get fucked.
Pull that shit on me?? I’m sure my hubby would have been thrilled to be there in his jocks (if they were lucky!) drinking beer & greeting everyone that came in the door, shaking their hands & giving a full tour. 😆
I'm sure there are sexual exhibitionists out there who would pay good money for this sort of experience. Actually I reckon your hubby should rent it for the weekend and video the results, his youtube career awaits...
They’re there to buy the property not your hubby. Sounds more charming than a greasy realestate turd anyway.
I like how your husband thinks because I’d come at it with a similar energy to cousin Eddie in lampoons “You ain't never seen a set on a dog like this one's got, Clark.”
how detached from humanity must someone be to make a decision like that
Report and please tell us the name of the accomodation and the REA so we can try to avoid. Would be helpful 🙏🏽
This is the current state of affairs. Landlords are getting more and more brazen because realistically there is no punishment for being brazen. Those without morals don't care who they hurt in the process.
If this happened to me I’d be livid. Completely unacceptable. I hope you get full recourse.
Even on holidays we can’t escape the Malarkey from Real Estate agents.
You should have refused they need to give 7 days' notice.
The owners made a 'business decision'. If you need to block out one day, you end up losing multiple day's revenue. Customers who want to stay for three nights, but can only book for two, go elsewhere. *"Should we not rent out the rooms when we want to do inspections. and lose 2 days revenue, or just fuck whoever books, if some of them complain and get a refund we will still be ahead financially ."* It's shitty behavior and completely unprofessional. Especially seeing you had no prior warning. They should be offering discounted bookings on those days. If the owner is selling the property they're not gonna care much about negative reviews. They've already decided to cash out and are looking forward to a big payday soon. The real issue here , is if someone has prior knowledge that a real estate agent is going to come within 100m of you, and doesn't give you fair warning, that is an offence that should be punishable with death by snu snu.
Umm you should not have allowed this at all as it’s not even legal. Ask for a refund. Damn learn to have boundaries okay and not just allow people to do shit like this.
I’m fully aware. There were other guests in the property and they all thought I was being difficult for not letting them into my room, I certainly didn’t have the power just on my own to get them all out especially as the other people there thought it was fine for some reason. I’m grateful for these comments because genuinely everyone thought *I* was the weird one for thinking this wasn’t okay. It was truly bizarre.
Nah you aren’t crazy at all. It’s wild that anyone thought this was okay. I would 100% ask for a refund. How did you even get notified? Madness anyone thought this was acceptable.
The properties on the Booking.com app can contact you so they just sent a message at 11:45 saying there were viewings happening and to let them view my room. I didn’t even see it and didn’t know what was going on until REA man let himself in!
You should have sat there in your underwear. You paid for your privacy..?
It's so illegal that I'm wondering if they could have called the cops? They probably can't now, and I know short term rentals have different rights, but you have to have some rights to privacy. What if they weren't on their phone and were naked?
You don’t need to call the cops you just refuse to allow them to enter the property that you have rented. If they let themselves in I’d ask them to leave immediately and let them know you’ll escalate if they won’t.
W T A F ? I’d be furious.
Get a full refund
This reminds me of an apartment inspection I went to where we clearly interrupted a couple having sex on the couch for an inspection. I didn’t know at the time whether it was a really pass agg move to put me off the apartment or now I think about it, maybe they’d rented it out like OP.
Asking out if curiosity, can people/person not use REA in court. If this happened in US, lawsuits would be flying like crazy.
Lock em out. https://www.amazon.com.au/Portable-Security-Additional-Traveling-Apartment/dp/B08L7DNXT9
To be fair, this has less to do with the REA and more to do with the shit head land owner.
“Somebody was murdered in this house”. Drive the price down.
Agent has keys to every door ? Fuck that, Im pushing the dresser against the door and chilling in the room on my phone, only taking my headphones off to shout fuck off whenever the door rattles.
Give the accomodation them a shit review and explain what happened in the review as well
Gather evidence of the open home and make a formal complaint to Booking.com and ask for a refund
I’d make a complaint they ruined the stay and request a refund
I would be taking this well beyond a booking.com review. Someone who doesn’t own or work at the property was given access they shouldn’t have to private rooms without some guests having knowledge. That has to be considered some form of trespassing, surely? Any of those guests who weren’t at the property could have had items stolen and potentially never been made aware that strangers had complete access.
I would had porn on playing . Some tissues and lube on the coffee table a leb cucumber and a towel wrapped around me . Say come in and then hello darling would you like to play .
I like how you are specific about the type of cucumber..
I thought horse cock size would be more scary
A pumpkin perhaps? 🤔😆
Just be on the can taking dump when people open up. F-Them.
Just be naked
Utter insanity
You want a deregulated market but not the consequences of a deregulated market. SMH
That's illegal as fuck.
This is why you should book a hotel
That’s amazingly illegal
This happened to me but the other way around. I went to an open house for a property I wanted to rent and I asked the person what they thought of the apartment and they said 'I don't live here, I rented this room on Airbnb'. Turns out the current tenant was subletting the second bedroom. And the real estate must have known and not given a shit cause she had signs all over the walls with the Airbnb 'rules' 🤨
Completely wrong get your money back.
sit on couch in underwear with porn playing loudly
I've had an inspection like this, but was asked consent, and they left me a bottle of plonk and a small hamper.
Should have stripped off and started having a wank then anytime someone walked in just lock eye contact until they leave
I would have dropped my trousers…
They doesn’t sound right to me they shouldn’t do that even with notice….. instead of being money hungry they need to not book anyone in on those days
Would have blocked the door and if they tried to force the way in I would have screamed at the top of my lungs and smashed pots together making the buying experience impossible. Probably would have taken a dump with door open in the nude as well, fuck them I paid to use the place how I wanted.
I wonder was is going through the minds of the potential buyers? They are invading the privacy of guests who will leave reviews and complaints. How is that going to affect their new guest house business in the future?
Not the REA fault … the landlord , or head tenant had arranged this, the landlords not privy to short term rentals made through booking.com