Guest's privacy vs house needs

[Gail600]

I'm a newish host, enjoying it so far, and need some guidance from experienced hosts please.  From the outside of my house, I observed that my guests, who had left for the evening, had turned on the air conditioning in their room and left the windows open at the same time. 

I knocked and announced myself in case only one of the guests had gone out, and went in to turn off the air conditioner (the temperature outside was already below 70 and dropping).  Afterward I wondered if I should have just left and be and spoken to them in the morning.   What is the standard in this situation?

Also, the guest had booked only for himself.  He texted me and said "we'll be arriving" -- should I have asked for the second party's name at that point.  What do you find effective in getting people to book everyone in their party at the original booking time?

Thank you very much for any advice you can give me!

[Sarah977]

@Gail600  It isn't at all acceptable to enter the guest space without their permission- it's an invasion of privacy and can result in a bad review or even the guest accusing you of theft. The only exception would be if there was an emergency- something is on fire or you see water pouring out from under the door. Leaving the AC on doesn't constitute any sort of emergency.

I once went into the guest room to close the windows, as it had started pouring rain and I noticed she'd left her window open- I felt that was better than her coming home to a wet bed. But I texted her first to make sure she was okay with that.

If you're going to try to micro-manage every aspect of a guest's stay, that won't go well for you. You need to have house rules about turning the AC down when guests go out and even then, some guests will ignore it. There are electronic means of controlling the setting of the AC from outside the guest space- you might want to research this. A reminder notice on the inside of their door-"Please turn down AC and lights if you are going out for awhile, thank you" can't hurt.

You should charge enough so that what you consider excessive use of utilities won't eat up the nightly fee if a guest is a utility-waster. And just because you consider something to be a comfortable temperature doesn't mean the guests have the same internal thermostat.

As far as bringing guests who aren't accounted for on the reservation- always ask a guest in a message when they book if they have entered the correct number of guests, letting them know that no one not listed on the reservation will be admitted. And certainly if they mention "we" but have only entered one guest. Make sure you state in your listing that no unauthorized guests are permitted on the property.  Even if you charge the same for up to 2 guests as for 1, the second guest still has to be on the reservation.

[Gail600]

Thank you, Sarah!

[Helen350]

I disagree @Sarah977 & @Gail600 !

Here in the UK we don't have air con, but we do have central heating. If I have guests during winter, autumn, late Spring, I turn off radiators in guest bedrooms EVERY day, after the guest has left in the morning, & turn it on again at an appropriate time of night. Similarly, I shut any open windows. At £20 for a single person, & £30 for a couple, I can't afford to waste fuel.

In the UK, the law allows home owners access into guest space in the owner's own house. Obviously I knock first, in case they are still there.

This subject is frequently discussed here in the CC.  I have the impression that Americans have a great sense of entitlement that no one should enter 'their' room during their stay.... In the UK, I think there's more of a feeling that it's the landlady's HOME, so she can go in if need be...... But then I wouldn't be so unreasonable as to waste heating & make the house freezing in cold weather, nor waste aircon ...

The booking for one, then messaging "We'll ..." is more of a problem if you charge less for one & more for two.... When this happens to me, I ask if there are two of them & request they amend the booking to two people, for which they get charged the second person fee.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350  Is right. Airbnb are not hotels. They're house guests.

I state in our House Rules that leaving lights on whilst not in attendance will have me turning them off. I tell guests the same when they check-in. Its in the House Rules and the guests have agreed to it.

@Gail600 

He texted me and said "we'll be arriving"

You say.. Oh, theres only you on the booking. Never mind, I'll add the extra guest for you, you do know theres an additional charge?

If you have additional guest fees, you should be able to make a change to reservation, otherwise a payment request. I've never needed to do this as we rent 'for 8' so that issue hasn't arisen. I'm sure some other host will chip in and give you the best charging option.

[Sarah977]

@Helen350  If I lived where heat or AC was needed (many would argue that AC is, but I get along just fine with good fans and my guests have never complained) I would certainly not want guests to be running up huge utility bills by going out all day and leaving things turned up high. No way I could afford that, and I hate that sort of waste. So I would make it clear to guests that I expected them to turn those things off or down when out and that while I wouldn't normally enter the guest's space, if they ignored or forgot to comply with that, I would indeed go in and turn it down. I just wouldn't enter the guest space without ever letting guests know the expectations.

I wouldn't turn heat off completely, though- I'm someone who is always colder than most people and hate entering a frigid room- also it doesn't really use more heat to turn it down quite low when not at home, than to turn it off completely and then have to turn it way up again to warm the room to a comfortable temp. But I know you Brits are quite stoic and used to walking around in bulky sweaters in the winter to save on heating bills.  That's why I'd never consider a visit to Britain in the winter 🙂

Things like fans and lights, I'm not fussed about guests leaving on- lights use very little electricity and I have power-saving LEDs and it's so humid in the summer here that fans actually have to be kept on, at least on low, all the time in those months in order for things not to get funky/moldy almost right away. 

[Helen350]

Oh I DO make sure guest rooms are WARM for when guests arrive/return after their day @Sarah977 ! I try not to skimp! I just avoid it being on longer than necessary... Agree about potential false economy of letting it get too cold.... I personally feel the cold more than most, so reason any room warm enough for me is OK for guests.... I'll be wearing 2 pairs of leggings under my jeans & 4-5 layers up top, & I'll pass guests in a tee shirt!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

Those lights being left on tend to be the outside lights, which get turned on around 5.00pm then not turned off when they go to bed, still on in the morning, and they walk straight past them before they go out at 12.00.  3 on the front, 3 around the back and just for good measure all the bedroom lights too. 

[Debra300]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0,

I've purchased from Costco an LED external lantern that automatically turns on at dusk and turns off at dawn.  This ensures that there is light in front of the entrance door whenever the guest arrives, and the light is not burning when they walk past it during the day, as you've mentioned.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Debra300 

We live where no street lights shine, and because the house was built by a photographer it has all sorts of lighting to suit whatever mood or purpose you need. We do have hard wired external lighting and at whatever opportunity we 'chuck-in' some 'spare' cables in ground trunking or - even from day 1 - extra light switch cables terminating in roof space for that unexpected addition. They have been the best bit of forward thinking ever. When we rewired the Annexe and needed a 2-way switch and power supply in a particular place - there they were!

I think part of our problem is "One on, All on".

One on, all on !

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 Haha. Luckily, my guest room has one outside light o the balcony just outside their room. I'm a night owl,so guests are usually in bed by the time I go up to my room. If they left the outside light on, I flip it off as I walk by. I had a friend stay for a month who regularly wakes up at 4AM and reads for awhile til she falls back asleep, which she always did with the light on. In the morning, she never noticed it was on and would go out all day. I did keep going in and turning it off. 

If I had a place where guests were constantly leaving lots of outside lights on, I think I'd go for solar lights, although I realize there are many places where there isn't enough sun to charge them up.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

We are definitely one of those 'no sun' places. But of late its been really good weather and plenty of sun. Solar lighting in the winter simply would not work 😞

[Debra300]

@Gail600,

This is how I've handled managing the in a guestroom while the guest is away:

1. During check-in remind them of general guidelines regarding AC usage that were in the house rules: keep windows and doors closed, turn off the unit when leaving the premises.  We may go in their rooms to off the AC if they are gone for longer than an hour.
2. Send them a message letting them know that they have the window open and tell them to close it while running the AC.  If they are away, ask them if we can go inside to turn off the AC unit.  

After doing this a few times, I decided to look for alternative method to handle when a guests "forgets" when using the AC.  I purchased the Cielo Breez Plus smart AC/heater controller to remotely control the unit (https://www.cielowigle.com/cielo-breez-plus/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImqiuwM7a6QIVBYTICh3XQgDXEAAYASAAEgJdi...).  I can turn it on a short while before the guest is scheduled to arrive so the temperature is warm or cool, depending upon the outside temperature.  Usually, guests fail to turn off the unit when checking out, and I am able to turn it off soon after they leave.

There are other brands, but I chose this model, because it has a wall controller that the guest can use while in the space.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Debra300 

I also host a private guest bedroom in my home, and I state in my listing description and house rules (and reiterate to guests during initial communication prior to booking and during the check in tour) that as hosts and homeowners, we may enter the guestroom to turn lights or the electronic fan (no AC in room) off or close/open windows, empty the trash bin, vacuum floors when we are cleaning or change sheets - as needed, but we don't enter unnecessarily and we don't disturb or touch guest personal items. We tell them that if they find something we do uncomfortable, to please tell us, and we can find a way to work around it. 

One thing to note is, we host a lot of younger guests, mostly exchange students. So they don't seem to mind us entering to do a little extra *room maintenance* while they are out - most have been perfectly happy that we vacuum up their hair and dust from the floors once a week. Or *air* the bedding (between changes) once or twice between sheet/cover changes. If they have personal items on the floor or bed, we don't touch them at all. 

I think managing expectations is most important. Hope this helps~

[Debra300]

@Jessica-and-Henry0,

I must have been on your mind from another post :-).  I think meant to address your response to @Gail600.

BTW, another reason why I chose the remote controller is that we are not always onsite during guest stays, and my neighbor/property manager may not be readily available to go to the apartment to turn off the AC/heater.