This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Has anyone else run into this? I get these requests all the time from people to purchase movies on my Amazon account (and then be charged for them) or add channels to the Roku (which requires a PIN number). Last night I got a message requesting this from my current guests at midnight! Does this happen to other people?
Everyone on this forum is so good with language - I’m looking for the best way to say no.
I just got an email that they disconnected my Roku account and logged in on their own.
I haven’t gotten that yet, but it may be that they’re just watching stuff and seeing if it’s set up to watch movies on your dime. That’s what the PIN is for, right? Now, if people are asking you to pay for stuff, then just say that it is not something you offer. And make sure in this most recent case you log out of their account and back into yours after they leave.
Isn’t that a good outcome?
If I had my own accounts, I would want to be able to use them when traveling. I think people would do this with Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
When I added a TV, I actually got a “smart” one so that people can do just that. I have no idea if they have or not. Not too much TV watching happens up there, well except for the soccer fans.
Just say NO! No explanation necessary – just NO.
Smart TVs are great because they do let guests log into their own accounts n Netflix, Amazon,Roku, etc. Just make sure you check those things after every guest set, so that someone down the road doesn’t find last week’s left behind viewing of Debbie Does Dallas or something worse…
Well the problem for me is that I don’t clean my own places so for example today I am out of town so now I have to figure out how to log back into my Roku account for the next guest arriving in a few hours without physically being able to be there. I guess maybe this is something I can ask the cleaners to do.
Yeah, they are asking me to give them the pin so they can buy a movie on my account and then want me to charge them for it via Airbnb. Like charge it to their tab or whatever lol
NO WAY? Don’t give them your PIN. I find it rude that they disconnected an account that you need to reset in person. They can use their tablets to log into their accounts. You could make that a house rule. People also travel with their own chrome casts. Let them use something like that. I would just have said no, sorry, I don’t provide PIN numbers to guests. You could say in your rules that guests are welcome to bring a chromechast device but may not disconnect the hosts’ Roku account to enable,their own.
Guests… just so rude!!!
This is addressing the issue where your guests logged out of your account and into their own. First, they didn’t log you out of your Roku, rather they logged you out of one of your accounts that is accessible through the Roku, such as Netflix, or Amazon.
We have a Roku in the guestroom. With regard to our Netflix account, we do not allow guests to log into their own accounts. Rather, we have a separate account set up just for guests. That way, they can watch what they want on Netflix and not mess with our account. We also have the Roku as locked down as possible, so that guests can’t be adding apps or channels as they wish. In order to make almost any changes like that, the PIN in required, which we under no circumstances would ever give out. Anyway, if you figure out how to lock down your Roku, you will have less worries about having to physically be at the rental to fix things like that.
We absolutely would never allow a guest to buy a movie under any of our accounts, and I’m amazed they ask. Geez.
As others have said though, a Smart TV is by far the best option. When we get enough money we will replace our current not so smart TV’s with smarter ones, LOL!
They literally did. In fact, they somehow reset my account with their own email address and now I am logged out of it, cannot reset the password, and don’t have any access to the account. I have to do a factory reset on all the TVs in all 3 of my Airbnb’s and call my credit card company since apparently they have access to my fucking account now. I have no idea how this could have happened. The Roku lady said they hacked my password?! I don’t know if that’s the true story but screw these people either way.
What you described is EXACTLY how I have mine set up. So good luck.
Wow I would mention that in a review! How dare they do that to you! Between the messy family and the TV hackers you have had a time of it lately!
Update your house rules immediately (1. Please don’t contact me outsidd of x time unless it’s an emergency 2. Do not change any settings on x devices). Ig they have hacked your account and used your credit card contact ABB and the police immediately.
The nerve of some people. They need more than a scathing review. They need to be off of airbnb.
I have the same problem. I don’t live anywhere near my rentals. So when somebody logs in and they forget to logout well every renter after them is using their account. If they do log out I make it really easy and use the same password as the Wi-Fi to log back in.
Hi everyone, here is an update. Sorry for losing it a bit yesterday - I was freaked out after talking to the Roku customer support and venting on the forum but it did seem like there must be more to the story. So I did report my credit card just to be safe, which is annoying, but I don’t think they were trying to hack it.
After my husband went by the house to look at the TV it appears to us they tried to buy a movie using Fandango which is built into the Roku movie store, and linked their Fandango account to mine which somehow overwrote my email and locked me out of the account. (So warning to other Roku TV users - this can happen!) So it will be a big pain in the ass to fix on all the TVs and I have effectively lost my Roku account and have to make a new one (and this guest now owns my Roku account, though I doubt they understand or know how to use it). I’m actually super pissed at Roku now because it seems crazy that this is possible! And this guest left herself in a bad position because now anyone can buy movies at my Airbnb on her account and she would be charged.
The challenge with the guest is English is not her first language. I contacted her and asked what happened to the TV and relayed what Roku had said and asked if she could help me fix it. She expressed basically that she didn’t understand what happened, that she just wanted to buy a movie on Fandango, and just kept repeating that. So she wasn’t really apologetic and she didn’t offer to help fix it despite my asking repeatedly, but I think that is more about the language barrier because she was very nice and friendly in her other interactions. I still think it is not ok to login to someone else’s TV or other account without permission and try to buy things on the TV, even if you are using your own account.
So yeah, most likely just a huge misunderstanding and I was feeling stressed because I was supposed to be having a little vacation with my daughter out of town yesterday and ended up being on the phone for hours trying to figure it all out and cancel my credit cards and my poor husband had to take off work to go try to fix it. Definitely a good example of ways that distance hosting can be stressful that you can’t predict! But at the end of the day it’s just the cost of being in this business I guess. Somebody has to be on call 24/7 and that someone is me.
This is what happened to me during the New Year’s holidays. I was on the other side of the world in Prague. It was New Year’s Eve and instead of being out in one of the world’s great cities toasting to 2017, helping my son set off skyrockets outside in the snow or popping champagne corks, I was trying to respond to Airbnb, to my guests who were freaking out over a couple of harmless bugs and to my brother/cohost who gave up his New Years Eve Day to try to appease them with a second cleaning of the apartment and new sheets. Nothing mattered. In the end, they left a TERRIBLE review, EVEN after getting refunded by me and hinted that they should have had more off because of a couple of bugs. They left my apartment in the worst shape. Trash everywhere, wet towels wadded up, fridge full of rotten food, bacon grease left out and their damn trash strewn all over my carport. I think they were lying about the bugs to get more off. So even with a co-host there I could not have averted that disaster. I will never leave my place open with guests ever again and I will never rent to someone under 25. Total nightmare! And yes, there was a portion of my trip that was ruined due to nasty guests who didn’t appreciate a single thing I did to try to remedy their concerns from halfway around the world. Not to mention feeling worried and concerned and guilty that my poor co host/brother had to deal with crap guests in my absence. (And yes, these guests were informed I’d be gone during their stay and assured me before booking that they would be easy, self sufficient and respectful. Oh and follow house rules and instructions. Even though one of them was under 25.) (NOT.) Luckily I was able to leave them the bad review they deserved.
Seriously, STAY the heck home on the Mainland if you can’t deal with bugs in the tropics! It’s Hawaii people!
Barefoot, you should make a laminated sign and hang it by the TV asking guests not to log out of the TV accounts. You might even need to get tough. Please do not change the Roku account settings! Guests who do this will incur a $35 Roku reconnection fee.
Hey @konacoconutz, you and I have had our differences, but I’m saying this to try and be helpful: your statement that you won’t rent to someone under 25 is in violation of Air’s nondiscrimination policy, which states:
“Age and Familial Status. Airbnb hosts may not: Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.”
And considering Air’s age requirement is 18, then that gap means denying to those under 25 is in violation (unless one lives in housing with bylaws specific to senior citizens). Given their flurry of bad press about its discrimination problem, I’d not want to tempt the fates on this one. They give hosts the boot for far more innocuous things, so I’d be careful.
Oh I would never say it to the guest. I would just decline them. And I don’t need to be schooled by YOU on anything.
I know what I am doing.
I’m kinda surprised, because if you know what you’re doing, you know what a real risk that is–Air also makes it clear that they review hosts who decline guests too often and if they find a pattern (like declining guests who are underage), then they can kick them off. Maybe you think your previous strategy of always clicking “waiting for a better reservation” negates that, but it’s still risky.
I just figure that you’re a moderator. That comes with responsibility of passing along sound advice to hosts. New ones here listen to your words about not renting to those under 25 and may think it’s perfectly acceptable when it’s actually in violation of Air’s TOS.