Host Entering Common Area in Private Room Listing

[Nikki4]

Hi all,

Looking for some clarification here:

I have an Airbnb property where each room is rented privately, on a long term basis.  I do not live at the property, but occasionally need to go over to deal with maintenance and repair issues.  

Yesterday, I had to go over to the house to meet and pay the dryer repair technician.  I notified the guests in advance that the tech would be there.  

However, I got a nasty message from one of the guests who claimed that my visit was against airbnb policy.   Now, I never entered her room at all, I was just there to supervise the dryer tech in the garage, and went into the kitchen briefly as we had an issue I needed to check on.

My question is:  What is the Airbnb policy on hosts going into the common areas of a house?  To clarify, this is NOT an entire house listing.  Guests rent a room only, with access to shared common space such as the kitchen, garage, livingroom etc.

Thanks!

[Helen3]

I believe airbnb says you shouldn't be in the listing during the guests stay @Nikki4 as it's not a homeshare .

Did you notify guests you were going into the kitchen in advance ? What issue did you need to check on?

how does it work with the cleaner that comes in to do the room changeovers and maintain communal areas? 

[Nikki4]

Hi Helen!  Thanks for your response. 

We had a leaky kitchen sink, and a few other issues for which we had sent our handyman-I needed to make sure the items were all fixed.  This particular guest has also been complaining that other people in the house are not cleaning up after they cook, so wanted to make sure the kitchen was in good shape.

The house cleaner is usually there once or twice a week (1x for cleaning the common areas plus doing the individual  bedrooms after check outs- the house has a 30 day min, so most people are there for a month to two) and also handles most of our small maintenance items on an as needed basis.  

There are 6 bedrooms total, so the common areas are by no means private. It's a big house with lots of maintenance needs, especially with so many guests. 

[Helen3]

As you don't live on the premises you need to notify the guests in advance should you need to bring a maintenance person to the property . @Nikki4 

for cleaners you need to tell guests what days cleaners are coming in whether for regular cleans or room changeovers .

the common areas are for the guests using the property at that time . 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Nikki4 when you set up the listing did you specify who the shared areas would be shared with? I would check this and change it, if needed, to 'other guests' AND 'the host'. I can't quite remember the choices but it will be obvious when you find it. Of course this only fixes the situation for future guests.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nikki4  Similar to you, I also rent rooms in the apartment where I don't live. I am renting it to students on 5 months basis. When some repairs or cleaning is scheduled I notify them in advance and tell them I will be there with a repairman so they can, but don't need to be present. I never had any issues about it, they were always happy I fixed whatever needed to be fixed.

But... I don't rent these rooms via Airbnb, my students have a rental contract that specifies that I keep the right to enter in such situations

It is unpredictable how Airbnb CS could react if your guest complains (many clueless reps work there) but, as you informed your guests about your arrival in advance and you had to fix something in the house then common sense tells us you did the right thing and your guest is wrong.

Make sure you put in your house rules something like " The host keeps the right to enter the premises in case of emergency or repairs."