High usage guest code

[Laura2592]

Any thoughts on how you would word a review for guests  to indicate much higher than average amenity usage? Otherwise good guests, just really cleaned out everything we offered and two loads of laundry,  two FULL dishwasher cycles from a 2 night/2 person stay? 

I only care because I have to plan to replace a lot more things for the next person and the cleaning crew can only stick around for the first cycles of laundry/dishes. As a host I would like to build in extra time for this sort of guest. What's some coded language that might help to convey this without blasting the guests? 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 

Do you have any clues to the circumstances? When guests do that many laundry loads they are usually coming off a long trip when they did not have a chance to do any. I know I am the same - a few weeks on the trail with an occasional stop with a real bed and shower before going back out again. They may have been hugely grateful for supplies to take back out with them. I've never heard of a hotel or motel  saying to not take/use amenities left for guests, and if they help themselves to what I've put out for them, that is the intention.  The dishwasher - well, I cannot comment on that, as I've never had one, but maybe they were cleaning up for you, after a couple days of Incredible meals? 

[Laura2592]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 it was an anniversary stay. They seem to have cooked quite a few meals and baked a cake. The laundry is more puzzling. They had a dog so maybe a dog accident? Or they used one set of sheets to cover furniture? I don't honestly know as load number 2 was just bedding and towels that looked normal.  They live about 1.5 hours away and it was one couple as evidenced by the Ring. Perfectly nice but the place was very well lived in after.  Followed all check out instructions except throwing out the old coffee and grounds in the pot.

ETA...we had old scented candles in the back of a closet waiting to be recycled.  Candles are burnt to nothing but the glass need to be recycled according to my husband.  They pulled those out in addition to using all the scented candles we have available.  When we walked in it smelled like a mall Hallmark.  Again not bad guests, just high usage. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592 

I think you have figured it out! As for the coffee grounds, I find them in place a lot. Phew on the scented candles! Anniversary and dog explain it al to me, and they seem to want to clean up everything for you. Actually, if it is in there, it is available and OK to use, per my feeling as a guest, and as a host, ditto. Maybe leave fewer items?

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 "It always makes us happy when guests such as so and so so clearly and thoroughly enjoy each and every aspect of our listing to the fullest, and we are glad they made full use of all amenities during their brief stay."

[Laura2592]

@Colleen253 love this! Not blaming but definitely putting it out there for others.

@Kitty-and-Creek0 we get guests now and again who go looking for things to use that I totally forgot we ever had! The candles are an example.  I honestly don't begrudge them, but I would love warning so I can build in extra time. 

I was always raised that you don't use ALL of anything offered as a guest, don't eat seconds before everyone is served, etc. I'm also not someone who takes a lot of hotel shampoos or steals  the slippers. So it's always eye opening the lengths some people will go to to fully immerse themselves in someone else's home and any goodies left. I was also surprised at the payout on these folks....they booked long ago at a lower rate. There's definitely a correlation between lower rates and high usage guests,  though these people were lovely and friendly otherwise. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Laura2592

"I was always raised that you don't use ALL of anything offered as a guest, don't eat seconds before everyone is served, etc. I'm also not someone who takes a lot of hotel shampoos or steals  the slippers." 

I was raised that way as well; however, I have learned that much of the world lives differently than I do. I'm learning to not judge them and just call it "culturally different." I'm glad you were able to share and vent this here. I know for sure I'm not judging you, just sharing that I'm dealing with it differently. My guests come from 2 - 3 hours away, for the most part. Since I list a lot of amenities, I'm sure they don't load up their cars with everything but the kitchen sink. Some guests leave a larger footprint than others. I just decide that they balance each other out. I totally get that it is not fun at all for you to have to clean up after a higher maintenance stay at a lower rate than you are currently getting.  May the next guests be so amazing that they have a near zero footprint for you!

[Laura2592]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 I definitely see where you are coming from and don't feel judged. I just had no idea this was such a sensitive topic.  You are right....some guests definitely leave a bigger footprint than others. I like that language. I will have to think about a way to incorporate it into my information.  I'm always trying to refine my listing,  rules, etc. 

[Lenore22]

This sounds like a review I would leave, but I would (and have) left this review as a compliment- that they really extracted the joy that our listing & location had to offer.  I love it when our guests pick fruit from our trees; use all of our local handmade soap samples and lipbalms we leave for them; eat the chocolate and ask where they can purchase more; play all the video & board games; catch-up on laundry if they need--- it's an amenity after all-- etc.

Maybe this wording is neutral enough that a host like me who wouldn't be rankled by these things would read it joyfully with eager anticipation; while a host like @Laura2592 would get the heads up to set aside extra time/resources to recover.

If the intention is, as @Anonymous said, "throw shade" -- that would be missed by me.  But maybe that's ok...

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  I'm just not seeing the need for any passive-aggressive language here. As far as I can tell, the guests used only the amenities that you made available to them, and completed all the checkout and cleaning tasks you asked them to.  If despite all of that, their usage fell above your unspoken expectations, that's your problem and yours alone.

What I'd like to be able to take for granted about other hosts - both as a reviewer and as a guest - is that they will only make available to guests what is perfectly OK for them to use, and clearly communicate any other expectations or restrictions they feel guests are obliged to respect. And anyway, if you're resorting to coded language to throw shade at your nice guests, you'll completely fail to get a useful point across, because nobody will have any reference point to know whether your notion of excess matches theirs. 

For the most part, hosts who accept 2-night bookings from couples who live within a short drive away already know that their property will be used for playing house, not as a base for sightseeing. If anything, these two can be commended for whatever they did to hide what all that laundry was really used for .

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous I'm going to have to disagree on this one. Most of my guests are couples from 2 hours or less away. Many do sightseeing. And most don't use as much as this pair did. There are norms and these folks are on the extreme end of the bell curve.

Guests give fuzzy ratings for things that aren't covered in the general categories they can rate us on. Hosts have even fewer. We do ask guests to let us know what ran out so that we can resupply. These guests said  "sandwich bags." They used a brand new box. They used all the Nespresso pods, half a bag of coffee, a dozen eggs and various and sundry other things that didn't warrant a mention and made for two additional trips to the store.  Yes if you leave it it may be used but 90% of the time it's not. 

So though otherwise nice, these guests aren't 5 stars for me overall. They were not spotless but clean enough,  followed the rules and pleasant when communicating. These are a gray area guest type...don't want to punish them, would have them back,  but wish I'd known what I was getting into.  Some guests are harder on your property than others. Some are pickier than others. Some are messier. Some are more wasteful.  I would prefer to have some kind of heads up as a host I'd I'm getting a guest who will require me to spend energy I don't normally need to spend.  

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592   What you were "getting into" was that people who might happen to have different social norms from you took your generosity and kind hospitality at face value. But by your accounting, this is more than made up for with all the guests who underuse the resources they've paid for. So what is really your problem?

You are, of course, free to penalize these guests in your rating for not being totally psychic about your invisible borders. But unless you are painfully explicit in your written review about what exactly these supposedly nice people did to rankle you, I just don't think it's going to register as helpful information to someone who doesn't know you from Adam.

"So though otherwise nice, these guests aren't 5 stars for me overall."

Can I quote you on that the next time you get upset because you were denied a perfect rating by a guest who had a problem they failed to tell you about?  We always say we'd prefer that guests communicate their expectations and report their problems, rather than surprise us with their disappointment in reviews. But now the turntables....

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous I would say sure, if the stakes were the same for guests and hosts. If I say "this guest used all available amenities and we were not expecting to have so much to resupply,  but otherwise they were nice."  The guest can book again no problem. If enough guests give me low ratings for something they expected but didn't make clear, I can no longer list here. So while I see your point its a false equivalency.

Maybe you would not say anything about this guest in the review.  I might not. I might use Colleen's language.  I could just let the time lapse and not leave a review at all.  But if I look at this in terms of cost, this was a more expensive guest than others. Not emotionally perhaps,  but in real dollars and time. So not only do I think that's worth a warning to other hosts who are running businesses,  I also have to figure out how to best walk the line between appearing stingy with my sandwich bags and building in enough cushion to ensure that these types of people actually can be absorbed over time. This was a low value booking for us. An unvarnished truth review would be "though these guests were very pleasant,  we can't afford people like this. They used more items in a 2 night stay than 98% of the guests we have hosted.  We would have to double our nightly price if all guests were as high usage. Turnover took twice the amount of time that it normally does between laundry,  dishes and trips to purchase resupply items.  We encourage other hosts to book with these guests but be careful that you make your expectations clear."

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  So, after these guests choose to book your home for their special occasion, you embarrass them by publicly chiding them for using up the stuff that they had every reason to believe was there for them to use. But you'll still accept their money if they want to book again! How very nice of you. Get that audition tape ready, season 2 of White Lotus is casting.

It's true, there's no equivalency between guest and host reviews/ratings, because it would be ludicrous to expect symmetry in that situation. But it's not up to your paying customers to care about where you get to list. You believe you're entitled to perfect marks when you deliver everything exactly as advertised; if you think it's fair to throw dirt on people who fell short of your totally uncommunicated expectations, you do not get to throw a hissy fit when they do the same to you.

Even if your "warning" totally came through loud and clear to other hosts, how would you expect them to use it practically? Decline the request? Demand more money? Block off an extra cleaning day at their own expense? All of these seem like really bad solutions to a non-problem that might have more to do with your own choices in what you offer and communicate to your guests. 

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous geez Louise, lets take it down a notch. I'm not going to leave that review,  but that's the truth.  If I was 100% honest  thats what I would say. 

This is a business.  There are behavioral trends, observed over time. These guests are outliers. Expensive outliers. That's the issue.  We use our cottage ourselves and are generous with what we leave.  We do not have guests who tend to dig through the closets to use old candles. Is that possible? Obviously.  Probable? Nope. 

The only thing this exchange is convincing me of is that maybe they aren't guests I want back. Maybe being "nice" is such  a refreshing change of pace after some of my summer experiences with guests,  I'm willing to forgive too much. Could I stay in business at my current rate if all my guests were this way? Heck no. 

I tend to rate my emotional labor costs higher than the actual cost costs sometimes.  These guests were low emotional labor/high cost. Not ideal.  So do I really want them again? I need to think about that. 

And I don't have a perfect rating nor have I ever said I'm entitled to one. I have said over and over that I honestly don't think my space, beloved as it is, is a 5 star accommodation on par with what one expects when they hear that phrase. But I do work hard on it, and I do spend a lot of time dealing with issues surrounding stays. I'm learning this particular type of guest may not be one I want to attract.  And maybe all roads lead to raised prices.