We arrived late on Friday after a four-hour drive. The host arrived an hour after check-in and presented a rental and waiver agreement I had to sign. The host said, and I quote: “My son is a lawyer and you have to sign this so we can sue you directly if you damage our place.”
I had two options: sign, or leave without a refund. The host called the police to evict us because I was not prepared to sign the ridiculous agreement. Airbnb refused to refund me and I had no choice than to close my account after three years as a host, Superhost, and guest.
A rental agreement is a common practice of hosts that list their properties on multiple platforms (VRBO, FlipKey, booking.com, etc.) and it generally has to do with insurance. However, as an Airbnb guest, you are not required to sign it unless the host has disclosed it in their listing details. It’s hard to believe a host wouldn’t know this and I also believe you are leaving out some critical details.
No, this doesn’t add up. As a super host you have a special support phone number, and you should know how the booking works. Police won’t make you sign anything. What did you do wrong? Plus, your agreement to stay is through Airbnb, not directly with a host, whom you should also never pay, but only through the app. I would have demanded that they communicate through the app with you about the agreement so that Airbnb had a record of it. You don’t have any proof otherwise.
Maybe its me, but what I would have done is take pics of the state of the place at that moment and the moment I was leaving. With date and time stamp. Or make a video with same. If I know I am not going to trash the place I would not mind signing. The only problem I would have is if that is a requirement to stay there it should be noted in the listing up front. Then I would know what to expect and book or not accordingly.
This was becoming an interesting tale until you slipped with the part about police being called in. Hosts call police for a reason. Additionally, what were you so afraid of by signing a waiver? We’ll never know.