How do you manage your house rules?

Sybe
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
Terneuzen, Netherlands

How do you manage your house rules?

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Hey everyone!

 

It has been an unspoken rule for centuries that when you’re the guest in someone else’s house, you abide by their rules. Your neighbour might want you to take your shoes off when you come in, or the store in your local mall might prohibit you from entering with food or pets.

 

Whether you’re welcoming guests into your own home or you have a separate property, house rules allow you to set expectations with your guests. Though even with house rules in place, breaches can happen, leading to tricky situations. Knowing how to deal with them can be very beneficial for both your business and your peace of mind!

 

How do you manage your house rules? How do you make sure that your guests are aware of the rules? What do you do when a guest breaks the rules and how do you address them? 

 

Let us know in the comments below!

Sybe


P.S. If you’re unsure how to add house rules to your listing, check out this Help Center article.

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45 Replies 45

ABB "make rules simple" advise is driven by the same reason as "make price low" - rent more properties without hosts interest in mind. Just like Summer Update...not a single inquiry after that disaster of "improvement" 

hi

Sybe
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
Terneuzen, Netherlands

Hi @I-S197 , welcome to the community!

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Mina947
Level 2
Reading, United Kingdom

I am about to receive my first guests.  I started writing a Check out checklist for each room so for example:

kitchen: 

- all dishes in dishwasher and leave dishawer on 

- leave fridge as you found it 

- check chairs are clean (if you have children especially) 

- switch off cooker switch 

 

And so on for each big area...  hope it works! 

 

 

Sybe
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
Terneuzen, Netherlands

@Mina947 That's very exciting! Your house rules are like a living document and as time goes on, you'll find things you'd like to add or others that you might decide to leave out.

 

Good luck with your first guests, I hope they have a wonderful stay! 😃

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Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Sybe 

 

The house rules to me are one of the most important parts of the listing. They are not just there for my benefit but also for the guests'. They help the guest understand the boundaries so that they know what is expected and don't have to second guess about various things. It's a shame Airbnb chooses to try to hide the rules as much as possible, despite it being something that guests are apparently contractually agreeing to when they book.

 

Of course, like many other hosts, I quickly learnt that the majority of guests will not read/digest the house rules unless prompted. So, I started messaging guests when they booked/requested to book/enquired to please read the rules and let me know that they agreed to them.

 

This worked with some, but I discovered that many others would say they had read them when in fact they had not at all. Sometimes they would give this away in their correspondence. Other times, you would only find out once they arrived and it was too late. Unhappy host, unhappy guest or both.

 

So, I decided to include an Easter egg question in my house rules that guests need to answer if they want to book with me. This was a tip I read about here on the CC. At first it sounded heavy handed to me, but I found that it was really necessary. It doesn't filter out all the non-rule complying guests, but it has certainly helped and I have found that most guests do not mind being asked at all (helps if your Easter egg question is something fun/lighthearted). The ones that do mind are the type that I don't really want to host anyway.

What is your Easter egg question ?

 

@Steve3413 If you visit Huma’s profile and look at one of her listings and find the house-rules - then you will probably be able to find the Easter egg 🌿🌸

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Steve3413 

 

They need to name my cats. The names of the cats are right there in the house rules.

 

This makes most guests laugh because my cats are called Pinot, Grigio and Merlot... 🙂

"Easter Egg Question" is a broad definition of any question hidden in the main text that if unanswered indicates that reader cna't read good LOL

 

I have IB off and right afetr I get request I blast out "quick reply" containing copied and pasted House Rule in its entirety that I have in my listing.

No confirmation - no booking. That simple (Egg question as well)

Sybe
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
Terneuzen, Netherlands

@Huma0 @David8879 That's a good way to find out of your guests actually read the rules! Have you noticed a change since you started being proactive?

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Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Sybe 

 

It's actually less about getting guests to follow the rules than making sure the listing is a good fit for them. I started asking guests to confirm they had read the house rules years ago, when I realised that some people were booking without reading even some of the basic info on the listing, and it certainly helped. I stopped getting guests who would show up and be astonished that I have cats or that I live in the house.

 

I only added the Easter Egg question last year I think. It just takes away some of the uncertainty as I realised that a lot of guests say they've read the rules when they haven't. I've had a couple of problems with this when guests have complained about something and, when I mentioned that it was clearly stated on the listing which they said they had read, they then admit they didn't bother reading all of it/the house rules section. Once guest even told me she doesn't read the house rules because she's 'not a rule breaker', as if all hosts have the same rules!

 

It probably has helped, but I still sometimes have had guests who still mark me down for things very clearly stated on the listing. I am about to lose my Superhost status after a straight run of 5.5 years precisely because of this.

 

What that has taught me is to be even more strict when it comes to accepting guests. Of the problem guests I've had in the past year (and it's been probably the highest proportion of problem guests in any year since I started hosting), almost all of them needed to be chased to answer the Easter Egg question or for some other important piece of information. I have turned off IB as a result.

 

We can make excuses for people. They are busy, they don't have their notifications turned on, etc. etc. but I have found that people who can't be bothered A.) to read the listing and B.) to respond to the host's questions, are more likely to be entitled and less likely to get the concept of a home share, i.e. that it is not only about their needs. They don't understand or they don't care that the host needs to feel comfortable with the people staying in his/her home. They don't care if you clearly stated something in the listing. If it's something they don't like or that doesn't suit them, they are are going to mark you down for it.

 

Guests who are happy to respond and provide you with some information, or who are proactive and send you the answer to the Easter Egg without having to be prompted are almost always great guests.

 

 

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Sybe   Much like @Huma0  and @Laura2592 we started out with minimal rules and as we hosted and saw how guests treated things we added rules like no furniture moving when guests moved velvet dining chairs into the kitchen and when dragging around who knows what scratched the wood floors.  We added 'no visitors without permission' after a guest snuck in a 5th person. 

 

Now we ask guests to confirm via the platform that they have read and agree to the rules before we accept the booking.  They probably don't read the rules, but at least they are on record as claiming they did so they can't say at a later date they had no idea. 

 

We also send an 'apartment basics' long message that tries to troubleshoot the things we've had most problems with...how to use the stove, how to use the bathtub, using the washclothes to prevent staining of towels and sheets, etc....to recycle.

 

Quite frankly, there isn't much you can do when guests break the rules because Airbnb is not supportive.  The last guests who left a pot size burn/scorch mark on the kitchen table and never said a word about it...if Airbnb were a different company we would have asked for $$ for such a large damage, they also damaged a few other minor items like crunching a wicker waste basket behind the door [after they moved it] and making it unsusable....but since Airbnb makes getting payment for damages difficult and since asking for payment will almost always trigger a negative review, we live with it.  Even minor corrections, or as with these guests, when we told them we didn't use whatsapp and only communicated on Airbnb, they gave us a low star rating for communication--despite that we actually typed up several notes/instructions, translated them into their language and printed them out and left for them after they told us they couldn't access Airbnb during their stay.  

 

Lastly, we send a check-out message that reiterates the few things guests need to do before check-out and thanking them for staying. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom


@Mark116 wrote:

 

 

Now we ask guests to confirm via the platform that they have read and agree to the rules before we accept the booking.  They probably don't read the rules, but at least they are on record as claiming they did so they can't say at a later date they had no idea. 

 

Yes, this is important. As others have mentioned, the first step in getting CS to help with breaking of rules (no guarantee, but you need to have your ducks in a row) is to have those rules stated. Otherwise, there is no requirement for Airbnb to do anything. 

 

I learnt this early on with some misbehaving guests. So, I called CS. I told the agent that the guests were making a lot of noise at 3/4 am, including loud arguments and, although they apologised every time I brought it up, would just go on and do the same again. The first thing she did was check my house rules. She even said, "I know it should be obvious that it's unreasonable to have loud arguments or blast out music at 4am, and I would personally find it objectionable, but I first need to check that's against your rules... Oh, okay. I see you have quiet hours after 12pm. Right, let me call them and tell them to behave." 

 

That's not to say that Airbnb will always back you up with the stuff that is in your house rules, but if you don't state it, they can use that as an excuse to do nothing.

 

In less extreme cases, where it's not necessary to call CS, you ave the recourse of telling the guests, "As stated in the house rules you agreed to, please no loud noise after 12pm." Most guests find it difficult to back chat when it's something they explicitly said they agreed to.

 

@Mark116 

 

Sorry about your table. So infuriating. Is it possible to sand and refinish it? I know it's massive hassle, but hopefully it can be saved. I find with these kind of damages, guests will never admit to it/agree to pay.

@Huma0  Yes we already sanded the burn mark out and put a new coat of polyurethane on it, the new coat isn't as smooth as the original but it's fine. 

 

There is no way the guest could deny they did it, since our video walk through shows the table with no burn mark prior to their check-in,  and the photos we took of the burn were taken about 1-2 hours after they left and before any other guest.

 

But, if we had tried to claim for damages, how would it have gone?  The table retails for $300, but we got it new for free, so no receipt.  We could point to the same table still being sold for the cost, but that might not work.  We've also had it for probably 6 years, so Airbnb depreciation, what would they value a six year old $300 table at?  Our choices would have been to buy a new table and hope for the best, or, we could find some carpenter who would charge almost the price of the table to sand it down, and hope Airbnb would have paid for that. 

 

We are lucky in that we're pretty handy so we could fix the damage but not everyone has those skills.