Shared apartment home office not wanted

[Marit0]

Hi! I have had a couple of guests during the years that have presented themselves either as students or coming for work, but they never leave the house and they work from home. I do not want that, since I share my small flat with guests. It creates an awkward presence, and it makes me feel uncomfortable being at home. Guests doing this also dirty down the flat and fill up the trash and never takes it out since they are at home all day. I do not want this. I have written in the house rules: Please do not use the apartment as home office or for study, there is a beautiful library nearby for study and work. Still, I have a guest now who works from home, although in the room he rented. How can I avoid this kind of situation again? Is the house rule not clear enough? What do I say in the review about this? 

[C197]

Hi, I think there is a fine line and you need to be careful. You've already allowed the guests to stay in your home.  You need to suck it up and be comfortable in your home and comfortable with having people around. Otherwise it's gonna lead to you feeling unhappy and awkwardness which already exits. Guests are going to pick up on this too and will start putting negative reviews. You can gently encourage people to use the library, but they have paid for a room and it's theirs to use. Just my 1 penny thought on this.

[Marit0]

I am a long term superhost who started hosting in 2015, so I am not exactly unexperienced. I have long term guests only, min. 30 days, so it is important to me to be happy at home also. My apartment is too small to "suck it up" too many times, I need to be comfortable in my own home as well. The text in my house rules is: Please do not use the apartment as an office space, there is a beautiful library nearby for study and work. Can I write this in a way that is clearer, so people with home office intention don't ask to stay? My long term guests usually come for work or study, and actually going somewhere to do that. 

[Helen3]

I'm a homeshare host too and would only take longer stay guests if we have discussions before I agree to their stay to see if it's a good fit @Marit0 

are they lying to you and saying they are working outside the home when they are home based ?  - if so you can ask Airbnb to cancel particularly as  it says In your house rules - not suitable for home working .

What did the person who's currently home working say when you pointed out your house rules about no home working? Say if  he can't abide by this rule you'll have to ask Airbnb to cancel.

in terms of trash again you can enforce any house rules you have around this.

@C197  it's so sad to see you telling another host that 'they have to suck it up'  when guests break her clearly laid down house rules

no she doesn't her ultimate sanction is to get Airbnb to cancel 

[Marit0]

There are other postings on this theme, 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help-with-your-business/Guests-who-work-from-home/m-p/1664805

so this is clearly an issue that bothers more hosts than me. To sit put at somebodies home weeks at end is very weird and makes the host feel uncomfortable. Once I had a guest for 4 weeks, and she sat by the kitchen table 13 hours a day. Another never went out of the room for a month, and gave me trash bags as "gifts" in the kitchen. Another guest laid in bed for 5 weeks with trash piling up next to her. Long term "stay at home all the time" or work from home guests often come with extra burdens on the host in a shared apartment. "Sucking it up" is not an option anymore, and since other hosts also struggles with this, it could be a discussion on how to find better solutions. I am an experienced superhost, so this is not just whining on my part.

[Helen3]

I think you just need to be stricter about enforcing your house rules . Why let a guest be at your dining ro 13 hours a day for four weeks when you could have stopped her after the first day.

why let someone be in their room all day for five weeks piling up rubbish when presumably she'd confirmed she was working /studying outside of the home ? 

@Marit0 

[Marit0]

I made those rules after she was there. She said she studied at the university, but was there for a class just a couple of times. This was a mentally ill person also, so not ok to discover that after she arrived. Now I have a guest I thought would go to work, but it is a digital nomad, who did not present as such. I will from now on never rely on people caring about house rules, but I will ask directly if they have something to show up to during their stay. The 13 hour a day girl was my first experience with this, and to me it was unbelievable.  I made rules for kitchen and shared spaces, but this don’t sort out sitting in the room for a month plus people. I think many more hosts than me would like to get som help with how to maintain healthy boundaries for use of space and cleanliness without being forced to have an uncomfortable chat with guest when it’s too late. I guess apartment size has a lot to do with how rules hav to be.

[C197]

If it's clearly laid down in the house rules, why are guests still doing it? This is very ambiguous....I'm sorry, I don't believe it's correct to accept a guest and then say, don't stay indoors , they have paid for that space? Even if the person wants to take some time to relax, they will always be thinking that the hist does not want them indoors ⁉️ What's the point? This is giving the guest bad energy and a bad experience! 

[Marit0]

In a small apartment it is not so nice to have a guest never going out. For weeks at a time. Many other hosts have had the same issue. I have been a good host to these people, and the worst of these cases asked to stay again. It is not a bad experience for them, it is a bad experience for me, and I guess for other hosts as well. Lots of trash accumulating also with people never going out, because they don’t take their trash out of the house.When you ask why they do it even if it is stated in the house rules, I think it is because I am very nice to my guests who usually are great people and I enjoy having them. But sometimes I feel my boundaries getting overstepped, and I would like some better advice for how to deal with this.

[Marit0]

If course it is not possible to say to someone “sorry, but your too much indoors” so after they have showed up it is too late. I would like to get help with how to present the listing or how to avoid this to start with. I understand you, C197 , as someone who has never experienced this situation before.

[C197]

I have always shared my home, even now, I have a permanent tenant. So YES, I have experienced this before and my opinion still stays the same...I'm out 😕

[Rebecca]

Hello @Marit0 👋

You've had some great suggestions and advice from @Helen3 and @C197. Perhaps the suggestion from Helen about stronger wording - "Not suitable for home working" - in your description might help, as well as enforcing the rule in messages to guests prior to arrival? 

Do you converse with your guests prior to accepting a booking?