Advice pls -Stoned Spouse, bad kids

[M199]

Hi Community,

I have an uncomfortable situation with my today guests.  Here's the scenario.  I'm wondering if I am missing anything...

Situation

We meet, greet and tour guests around to make them comfortable and feel welcome.

The booking lady is absolutely fine.  That's were it ends.  The 2 kids, between about ages 7 to 14, approximately, didn't ask, where in the first 20 minutes, they are disrespectful terrors. Yelling, screaming, tresspassing on  2 neighbours properties.  (Had to tell booking guest, strongly, that they were trepassing), they threw gravel on my husband's new truck, attacked each other with campfire sticks.

As well, my husband was chatting with the spouse, who confirmed that he had taken THC cannabis.  I didn't know this until we left, but I could not figure out why he said he didn't know where he was.  Made sense later.

Action Taken,

Within an hour I has a conversation with an excellent Airbnb CS rep who documented everything.  As well, we plan on doing drive bys daily.

Sorry for thd long winded thread.

Is there anything else that we should or could do?

[Brian2036]

@M199 

This is another good example of why we no longer accept children.

 The behavior you describe is not at all uncommon in our experience.

 The parents are unconscious or think such behavior is normal or even endearing.

I’m afraid that you can expect a lot of damage and I hope you are able to get over there as soon as they leave to document the destruction.

 You might approach the neighbors in advance, apologetically, and ask them to notify you if the guests do anything to offend them. I’m sure you don’t want to have problems with your neighbors.

 You don’t say how long the gang is planning to stay, but if it’s very long I would be looking for a good reason to shorten their stay.

[M199]

@Brian2036 

Thank you.  This guest is in for 3 nights.  As well, this is totally new to us and uncommon.  We are geared to families of 4 and have had numerous guests with children.  Never have we had any so hyper active or disrespectful.  In every other booking, it's been like trying "to pull teeth" because the kids were so well behaved.

We are well engaged with our neighbour, a single 85 gentleman.  He used to run hotels locally and will look out and call us at the least suggestion of a problem (at least that's  a bit of a relief).

 I'm lucky enough to live 1/2 hour away.  We will check twice daily and document.

Thanks so much for confirming my gut instincts.

[Brian2036]

@M199 

I have found that our remote wilderness chalet seems to be very appealing to people with “behaviorally challenged” children.

 The attitude is “how much damage could they possibly do in a place like yours?”

 The answer is, “a whole lot,” to the house, the grounds and to themselves.

 I have to wonder what the parent’s home looks like.

Anyway, I’m pleasantly surprised that you had a good experience with CS and I think you have covered yourself as well as you could.

[Laura2592]

@M199 having just cleaned from a stay with what appeared to be checked out parents and rambunctious kids I would decide now what your damage threshold is. We had some minor things broken and I'm still mulling whether or not collectively it's worth a claim.  Examine your space carefully after this group. Hopefully you have pics of what ot looked like directly before they arrived. 

Engage with your cleaning crew to tell them to be exta diligent.  We had so many weird issues with places that other guest don't normally touch. Heat turned up to 95 because obviously the kids were messing with it.  Fridge and microwave disgusting.Things shoved between sofa cushions.  Also be in the look out for any left behind edibles, holes dug in the yard, damage to furniture legs from being moved around too much. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 @M199 @Brian2036 

Definitely take the furniture apart and look for miscellaneous bits of food and sweets. Under, behind, inside...and as it seems these kids are like puppies, the yard for holes, rock, etc that could constitute hazards. 

[Brian2036]

@M199 @Laura2592 

Apparently the brats we hosted a year ago had a food fight, among other unforeseen activities.

We are STILL finding chunks of junk food in unexpected places.

 We don’t normally remove furniture cushions, mattresses, light fixtures, etc. or open recliners and turn them over but all that and more was necessary in this case.

If a subsequent guest finds a half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich jammed down into the mechanism of a reclining chair they are likely to be disgusted, and they have a right to be.

The management agency we were using didn’t believe that any of this was a problem and attempted to penalize us for violating their “family friendly” policy when I refused to accept children for future bookings.

We no longer utilize their questionable services.

[Anonymous]

@M199   Ask the stoned spouse to share his THC with those kids so they calm the hell down.

[Linda108]

Your post sounds like the beginning of an episode of "Nanny 911": misbehaving children, checked out parent and over compensating parent.  In swoops the nanny and saves the day by engaing parents with the reality of being parents.  Anyway, you did not mention having a discussion with the booking guest relating to respecting the property.  I would put the guest on notice that you are aware the children might cause damage.  Setting limits about tresspassing is a good start, but a conversation that is non confrontational with the booking guest that acknowleges the activity level of the children would be useful.  For example, comment how the children must be happy to be able to rough house after the long drive  but is there anything they need to help them calm down while in the house, board games perhaps?  You set expectations and partner with the parent as the same time.  Linda

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Linda108 

Not only that very real disrespect, trespassing and damage risk, but kids can get hurt being rowdy in an unfamiliar place. Parents really need to step up and shut down that inappropriate behavior. Organized jumping jacks or something to burn off that energy? 

[M199]

@Brian2036, @Kitty-and-Creek0 , @Linda108 , @Anonymous , @Laura2592 

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. Truly appreciated.  I will put into effect every suggestion. 

And  today, already "Mom" texted about a broken item.  I'll sleep after they leave!

[Colleen253]

@M199 Ugh! So sorry you got these stinkers for guests. Linda’s  Nanny 911 comparison was spot on. Funny, not funny. Good luck 😣

[Brian2036]

@M199 

That could be good news, unless Mom was complaining that your windows are so fragile that they couldn’t stand up to a perfectly normal assault with a fire poker.

Maybe one parent actually has a sense of responsibility.

[Linda108]

It appears so many of us have to learn from difficult guests and we gain more understanding of the general public.  I am not a fan of simply dismissing the guest issue, whatever it is, as a one-off bad guest, then leaving a negative review.  The review is for the host community.  I like to scrutinize if there is ANY modifications I can make to my hosting.  Do I need to clarify futher or vet guest better or add reasonable amenities?  In the hundred or so guest parties I have hosted, a few stand out, negatively unfortunately, and all resulted in some modification I made so that the problem was not repeated.  So far that has worked for me,  This is not always available to hosts, especially when there are multiple properties, but it is an aspect of hosting I rather enjoy.

[M199]

@Brian2036 

Considering the circumstances, I can't fault the mother, she's the booking guest, it's her responsibility

Going to be a very tough review😞😞