How much is too much laundry?

[Christine4079]

Hello fellow hosts,

My husband and I rent out our 2 bed, 1 bath apartment in the US Virgin Islands. The apartment is below our main house, in which we live, and its entry is on the opposite side of ours. We share a laundry room, with guests. Today we had our second incident, in which we feel, a guest was taking advantage of us by over using the washer and dryer.
I first must explain, to anyone not familiar with living on a Caribbean island, that water and electricity is at a premium here. We literally rely on rain to fill our cisterns for all our water needs. If we run out of water, we need to order water, which takes about a day and comes by truck for about $425. The price of electricity is ridiculous as well. When we have guests staying in our apartment for even one week, our electric bill can increase as much as $100 for the month. (Yes, that means, if we had our place rented for a whole month, we are looking at a $400 increase to our monthly electric bill. We’ve had bills in excess of $800.) While the price on our rental is affordable, we feel that we still charge enough to cover the added expenses for water and electricity. 

We have it noted in our information sheet to guests and with a few signs in the apartment strategically placed to conserve water and electricity.  Most have been very considerate. However, in May we had 2 sweet ladies traveling together in their  mid to late seventies, and they did at least one, if not two, loads of laundry every night. That was definitely above and beyond what is the norm. We were shocked at our electricity bill and embarrassed when we ran out of water when our next guests were staying with us. (Luckily, they were good friends and not clients!)

But what took the cake was what happened today! Two guest (who we believe grew up on island, and were here visiting family and friends,) placed 4 large, black, trash bags of dirty clothes on the laundry room floor. The guests are only staying for 5 days, (cancelled the 6th night the day before arrival). It was obvious from the overflowing garbage bags, that they had brought with them other people’s laundry, who are not staying at the apartment. When I introduce myself to them, I asked about the laundry, and they admitted it wasn’t all theirs. Even after I explained how expensive water and electricity is and that our laundry facilities are not for outside laundry, they continued to use our machines to wash clothes that were not their own. 
What option do you suggest to help alleviate this unnecessary expense?

Thank you for your suggestions,

Fabio & Christine 

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

I have a house rule of one laundry bag a week @Christine4079 for those staying five days or more.

You should just have confirmed to the latest guests that they could not do other people's laundry at your listing but you would be happy to do one/two loads of their personal laundry.

[Christine4079]

Thanks Helen! When I saw what she was doing, I let her know that it wasn’t okay. She ignored me and did it anyway. I like your wording and will add it to ourbhouse rules. ( I updated my house rules, but you put it in a succinct and clear way.) If it happens again I can lock the laundry room. 

This guest was our first problem guest. We went down to check the apartment after the appointed checkout time, and she was not there. But her bags were, along with 2 young men who were friends who had spent the night in the apartment. She had not returned from the night before. (She booked for 2 adults and arrived with one other women.) The young men were stranded with no car to get home. I texted her a half hour after checkout, and she asked for an extended checkout of 12:30. I agreed, but said no later than 12:30.  At 1:00, we moved the gentlemen and all her stuff outside of the gate. 
There were so many other things as well. We were a bit discouraged by her behavior, and started to doubt that AirBnB was for us. But then we just have to remember all the other kind, considerate, and wonderful guests we’ve had. So we will keep plugging along and hope for better guests in the future. 

Thank you for your response!

[Helen3]

She sounds like a horrible guest.  Personally I would charge her for the additional two guests not on the booking for the last night and definitely not allowed her to have two visitors not on the booking stay past the check out time.

She put your property at risk by allowing those not on the booking to stay at the property when she was not at the listing.

Please leave an honest review to warn your future hosts. @Christine4079 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Christine4079 my only addition to @Helen3 's advice is that you review the guest ASAP, hope they review you and then send them a bill for extra people. Doing it this way around should reduce the chance of you getting a bad review.

[Ana36266]

@Christine4079 This is where we have to put our foot down. The situation you described is just beyond belief. So they brought someone’s clothes to wash and after you told them they can’t do this they still kept doing it ? 😂 I would kick them out in a second . 
my advice based on long experience to not let anyone use your laundry . Ever never . Your life will become

much easier . 
I rent out 5 rooms on pool house we have as our second property . We don’t live there . 5 people . 4 of them are normal but 5th has laundry fetish . He came home after work and did his laundry every single day . Sometimes it was just a pair of pants . Other guests started to complain . 
When confronted he was denying everything and lying . We ended up putting locks and now no one can use laundry . The funny part is that other 4 guests are happy . They say it’s better like this than hear sounds of laundry machines alll

night every day . Laundry guest wanted to put up a fight and I showed him the door . 

[Paula]

What an interesting experience, @Ana36266! Thank you so much for sharing. The importance of communication with your other four guests was essential in making the best decision for everyone.

Thank you again for sharing 🌟