Harassment of airbnb host in spain because of asking guests to fill paperwork/provide ID card

[Alex1769]

I have recommended my friend, Spain / Cataluña based, to become a host on airbnb.

She became a host, applied for the appropriate permit with local authorities and has been doing the paperwork and paying her taxes and the tourist taxes of her guests.

After a bit more than one year of hosting, 80+ guests and superhost standing she now has a grave issue with Airbnb.

Her last guest reserved a room for two days. That client is an experience "airbnb-er" and is a host herself. One day prior to arriving the guest gave off a bad vibe by starting to be difficult - showing all signs of wanting to cancel the reservation and basically provoking my friend by making demands. 

Initially about the way how the property access instructions to be communicating, and then escalating to the request for the host to cancel the reservation and to return the money, because she learned that she would be required to fill the paperwork and provide an ID document.

Upon receiving the instructions, the guest was also invited to communicate a copy of an ID document so that the appropriate Spanish paperwork could be filed with local police / tourist office. This is something my friend does as a courtesy, alternative being guests have to fill the form themselves.

This obligation to report guests is according to the Spanish Catalan law - Real Decreto (R.D.) 113/2015, may 22nd - Cap. II - Art.8, that instructs all licensed hosts to fill the legal paperwork that requires a valid ID document.

The guest did not show up and opened the case asking for all the money from my friend. Airbnb sided with the guest faulting my friend for not indicating on the listing details that ID card would be required. Airbnb was unable to point relevant section of any user or host agreement that such requirement exists. And they continue bullying my friend.

I find this appalling and would like to warn fellow hosts about such behavior. Airbnb has a lot of problems with authorities in Spain, who are not happy about hosts not paying tourist tax or not reporting that extra income from renting rooms. And it certainly looks like Airbnb is penalizing the users following the law.

[Anonymous]

@Alex1769  I don't understand why your friend didn't disclose the requirement for an ID card in her House Rules. 

While it may be true that Spanish law requires accommodation providers to register guest ID, it's still the host's responsibility to disclose any pre-conditions that would affect the guest's access to the property. If the requirement is specified in the listing's House Rules, then the guest will have made a binding agreement to it at the time of booking. But if it's even implicit that the host will deny the guest fulfillment of the booking if they don't meet requirements that they didn't agree to, the host doesn't have a good case for upholding her cancellation policy.

Fortunately this is a very easy problem for your friend to solve for future bookings. 

[Alex1769]

@Anonymous - "  I don't understand why your friend didn't disclose the requirement for an ID card in her House Rules. " - because there is no legal obligation on the part of the host to do so.

Could you please pinpoint the relative section of the Airbnb user agreement or any other legal document that gives the obligation to the host to report the ID document as an optional and/or  supplemental requirement to be disclosed under House Rules? You can not extrapolate any consequences or penalties for something that is not explicitly detailed.

The reporting requirement Law is State level law and does not grant any exceptions. In fact, all Airbnb hosts are legally required to gather guests' ID document details and make sure they fill the relevant form to be submitted to local police. This is not optional on the territory of Spain and any device to circomvene this Law would be illegal.

As you say, this is implicit, and in fact is the burden on Airbnb to collect and communicate ID details to local authorities. This is the very obligation Airbnb transfers to hosts by requiring them to file the paperwork with local tax office themselves. By transferring such obligation but not the copy of the ID document Airbnb tacitly agrees for the host to collect documents themselves.

"But if it's even implicit that the host will deny the guest fulfillment of the booking if they don't meet requirements that they didn't agree to, the host doesn't have a good case for upholding her cancellation policy." - please clarify - this makes no sense at all.

[Anonymous]

@Alex1769  The host was doing her due diligence in obeying the local law. Had she exercised the same diligence in stating the ID requirement in her listing, Airbnb may well have sided with her in the payment dispute. Now presumably she's learned her lesson and updated her profile accordingly.

You can kick and scream and whine about it on your friend's behalf all you want, but the fact is that when hosts choose to list on Airbnb, they grant the company final say in matters of refunds and compensation.  That's why hosts go above and beyond in their listings to disclose anything that might come up as an issue and obtain guest's agreement to it in the booking process  (this also includes stuff like potential for noise, pets on property, surveillance equipment, and stairs).

Whatever the host's legal obligations are in Spain,  I highly doubt that they confer upon her a legal "right" to withhold money from a guest who didn't actually stay at her property.  So with that in mind, please tell me one good reason that she shouldn't add the requirement to present ID upon arrival to her House Rules and get on with it?

[Alex1769]

@Anonymous You might want to revise your tone down a notch or keep on trolling as is.

"Had she exercised the same diligence in stating the ID requirement in her listing" - there has to be an obligation listed in the Airbnb agreement with the host that mentions the ID requirement as being something to be reported under the House Rules. Only then you can claim that due dilligence towards he guest was not exercised.

I gather to the best of your knowledge, there is no contract clause specifically adressing ID document requirements in the User Agreement between Airbnb and Hosts.

While your opinion is welcome, let's keep it simple and friendly. You postulate that Public Law should be mentioned and be incorporated into the House Rules - which would form a contract between the host, the guest and Airbnb. Unfortunately Public Law superseeds contract Law. And in this specific case, it could be argued that absence of reference to the appropriate public law does not grant grounds to null and void the other portion of the contract relating to terms of payments and reimbursements.

"Airbnb may well have sided with her" - to the best of my knowledge the process is ongoing, and my post referres to unnecesary, in my view, harassment Airbnb does towards the host, my friend, in order to bully through a resolution that infridges her rights.

"You can kick and scream and whine about it on your friend's behalf all you want, but the fact is that when hosts choose to list on Airbnb, they grant the company final say in matters of refunds and compensation." - this is never final and is subject to either arbitration or higher court. I would recommend any user in such situation to petition European Small Claims court conditional if Airbnb takes away the hosts' money. Should it happen in this case, it would certainly be an option.

"That's why hosts go above and beyond in their listings to disclose anything that might come up as an issue and obtain guest's agreement to it in the booking process  (this also includes stuff like potential for noise, pets on property, surveillance equipment, and stairs)." - public safety - the reason why authorities require ID document details in hosts' filing can not be made subordinate to particularities attributable to a property. I think the core of our disagreement is this point. I am sure in Germany as well,  Public Law relating to safety can not be listed among particularities of a property that might impede the guest to enjoy the stay, such as pets.

"Whatever the host's legal obligations are in Spain,  I highly doubt that they confer upon her a legal "right" to withhold money from a guest who didn't actually stay at her property. " - in this specific case the guest had booked the property and never showed up. Subject to terms of payments and reimbursement policy the money is due, as it would be the case with any cancelled booking or a case where a guest did not show up. Surely, being the host yourself, you know this very well.

"So with that in mind, please tell me one good reason that she shouldn't add the requirement to present ID upon arrival to her House Rules and get on with it?" - this is the question you can anwer perfectly yourself.

Should there be a clause in contract documents between Airbnb and Hosts pertaining to the ID Card requirement being part of the components that form a rental contract, then surely such requirement should be listed. I count on your help to pinpoint such clause. To my knowledge there is none. Otherwise obligation to do it, beyond mentioning the official registration number of the host/property - which Airbnb requires and my friend did, simply does not exist and in fact may be illegal in Spain.

[Anonymous]

@Alex1769  Perhaps your friend would be better off seeking advice directly, rather than letting someone else dubiously troll on her behalf on the internet. It's clear that you're only here looking for an argument, since you're in no position to use whatever advice you might receive.

To everyone else who encounters this thread: if ID is required at check-in, whether due to local laws or personal choice, you should disclose this in the Policies tab of your listing, along with any other requirements that would impede the guest's access to your property if not met.  That is your most useful filter against guests who don't want to comply, and it will spare you a tedious dispute - even one that your tedious friend might feel invested in more than you are.

[Alex1769]

@Anonymous "Perhaps your friend would be better off seeking advice directly, rather than letting someone else dubiously troll on her behalf on the internet" - thats a harsh judgement

"It's clear that you're only here looking for an argument, since you're in no position to use whatever advice you might receive." - I am Airbnb fellow host and Airbnb user as a guest thank you very much.

"To everyone else who encounters this thread: if ID is required at check-in, whether due to local laws or personal choice, you should disclose this in the Policies tab of your listing" - this is your own opinion which in this case is hurried and legally questionable.

This is a community forum and as I understand it ment to be a safe place to disclose and share problems encountered by both hosts and guests.

Guests looking for a loophole to cancel a booking because of ID document or tourist tax payment requirements, that might not be listed under House Rules, might be dissapointed to find out that Airbnb hosts do not have the obligation to report what at least amounts to common sense. I would update this posting with details about how this case was resolved. In any case I would recommend a legal opinion, which neither me or @Anonymous can give.

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

@Alex1769 

here in Croatia all guests have to be registered at the police immigration office. Hosts and hotels CAN do that for their guests or the guest HAS to do it by himself.

If the guest doesn't want to show his ID then we are not obligated to host him.

So, I would tell my guests to go to the police station during working hours, register there and when they are done then they can check-in.

here is the official informative notice in 4 languages, given by our tourist board and we all have it printed in our units for guests to read:

https://www.klub-iznajmljivaca.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/gdpr-obavijest-na-hr-eng-de-it-1-1.pdf

[Alex1769]

@Branka0 & Silvia1 Thank you very much for your reply and information. This is the same here in Spain.

"If the guest doesn't want to show his ID then we are not obligated to host him." - it seems that Airbnb here in Spain disagrees with this statement, and uses the fact that there is no specific mentioning of ID card requirement in the listing / House Manual to insist on reimbursing the guest. 

The guest did not show up once learning about the requirement, raised the dispute to seek reimbursement - which is still ongoing as per original post. This is the first time either me or my friend had an issue with this, and we are amazed how can Airbnb try to blame this on host.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Alex1769 we have it written in our house manual, feel free to copy text

[Rita662]

Hello everyone,

Here in Portugal there is also a law saying that all accommodations must report the presence and identification of non-Portuguese guests to the Foreigners and Borders Service.

I got this information in the Home Rules, adding that "during check in we will ask for identification details". This way there is no surprise to the guests.

I also remind them these information in the message I send them a week before check-in.

[Luana130]

Hi,

Sorry, but if your friend did not disclose that, I can see why airbnb would allow the cancellation. Just ask her to add that, it is not a big deal to make such a small observation on her property page.

And to use your own words "You can not extrapolate any consequences or penalties for something that is not explicitly detailed." You cannot penalise the guest by not allowing her to check-in because your friend did not explicitly provided that information. That is why they made the refund.

[Alex1769]

Luana, to be clear, this is a public law - all people renting from a state-registered shelter provider are required to submit their details to the host, who in turn has to notify the police via relevant forms.

There is no legal obligation on the host, neither within Airbnb user agreement or elsewhere that obliges the host to "notify" the guest of the public law particulars. Particulars or explicit information is the one pertaining to the property and not to the particulars of the laws of the country.

There is absolutely no case where a host in Spain should not be asking for documents and submitting them to the police. It is illegal to do so and by pretending the law does not apply Airbnb is encouraging hosts not to register and pay taxes.

I suggest people mistreated by airbnb along the lines described in this case to seek legal help.

Airbnb can and should be challenged - they do not have the absolute discretion  and their decisoins can be contested either in court or in arbitration. And because claim amounts are small - in EU, there is a small claims procedure that is inexpensive and straight forward - something Airbnb rather not tell you.

Airbnb had been very pushy and got what it wanted with the recent shooting event. It can not write its own rules where public safety laws already written.