Oddest things guests have done

[Michael5689]

Take a smoke detector down (to smoke in the room) and put it in between the mattress and box spring instead of in the garage that was steps away.  This led to multiple guests and rounds of the cleaners not being able to figure out where the beeping sound was coming every time the house cooled down and the battery started dying.  It really did sound like it was in the ceiling instead and this was the master bedroom even!

Try to clean up a carpet stain...with bleach.

Take a cue ball from a pool table...not an 8 ball, but...the...cue...ball.

Asked if a padlocked and marked for "owner's use" only freezer is available for their use.

Leave a garage door open overnight to wake up to a freezer broken open in the driveway (bear) and call complaining to me that they thought someone had broken into the house.

Renters are fun and you have to be able to laugh about it sometimes....

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592 's story about the pellet gun shells reminded me of the "street artists" who left my floors covered with hundreds of tiny orange airsoft pellets (I'm still finding them years later), painted something on my living room wall and crudely covered it back with white paint, and left huge blobs of indelible blue ink on the white bath towels. No evidence of alcohol or drugs - those guests made a terrible case for being sober in Berlin.

Then there was the girl who joined me for a beer at a nearby bar, and proceeded to throw the entirety of said beer in a man's face because she overheard him saying a dirty word.

Then there was the sleepwalking guy who wandered into my bedroom at 5 AM, apparently mistaking it for the toilet.  Had my partner not woken up in time to walk him back to the hall, we might have been left a terrible surprise.

And then there were the party girls who left me a nice little note as they left....written in black eyeliner, on a dinner plate.

[Gillian166]

omgeee, these are hilarious!!! 🤣

[Sharon683]

After having my house on snooze for one year due to Covid I decided to welcome guest into my home October 2021.  My first guest was a 25 year old young man from PA. He reserved the room  for 3 days.  I experienced no problems. I never saw or heard a peep out of him. The day before checkout he informed me he extended another day.  No problem more revenue for me.  The next day I get an airbnb message from him stating he extend his stay one more night. So 5 days instead of the original 3 days. No problem, so I thought. The morning of day 4 around 9am, I heard some unusual noise coming from his bedroom.  I eased dropped to hear what the noise was about. I thought maybe he was on his phone.  It appeared he was having a live conversation with someone.  There was cursing, banging on the walls, wolf sounds, etc.   I knocked on the door and to my surprise he appeared calm and pleasant.  I asked him was every alright.  Was there someone in the room? He stated all was fine and he had no guest in the room. I informed him the noise was very loud and disruptive and could he keep it down. He replied "Yes".  I left and went to work. Around 3pm my neighbor rings my RING doorbell.  Me not being home responded on the intercoms.  She wanted to know if I was okay.  She heard loud, strange noises coming from my house.  I was embarrassed and informed her I had a house guest and I will talk to him about the noise.  I called the guest immediately and told him the noise must stop because it is now disturbing my neighbors.  I apologies and then confesses he had Touretts Syndrome. I'm like what!!! Needless to say by the time I got home from work that evening if was a full on war going on in the room. I was livid. It was so bad, I asked him to step out of the room, because I was convinced the kid was  blerding with holes in my walls.  I need to inspect him and the room. I informed him nicely that if the disruption continues I'm going to ask him to leave. He pleaded and said "If I take my medication can I finish out the last night"? I nearly hit the floor. 😯 Why would you share space with some one knowing they have a disruptive diagnosis and NOT TAKE YOUR MEDICATION!? Needless to say I agreed but ONLY if the 💊 ASAP. He lied and said it should take 30 minutes to kick in.  That was at 830pm. Well that never happened.  By 230am he finally feel asleep.  That was one long uncomfortable night.  I could not wait for his 10am check-out, lord! I was exhausted! I'm in the health field so I have some knowledge of Tourettes syndrome, but come on. You have to take your medication or reserve an stand alone airbnb.  Really!

[Michael5689]

Can't say it was due to medication but I've definitely had guests that I was counting the hours until they were out of the house.  One group packed the house with 20+.  Our max was 10 people. Neighbors gave me a heads up. I called and they claimed it was friends visiting from another nearby house and of course I didn't believe them.  I have a disclosed camera on the front porch.  On check out they took a group photo RIGHT in front of the camera.  I think that group ended up paying double their original reservation cost.

[Kellie132]

Thank goodness I found this thread!  I started hosting in July 2021. A long term rental house that I was tired of renovating after each time tenants moved out.  95% of the time hosting has been super wonderful.  But the 5% who use and abuse my house and furnishings drives me crazy! I am type A to boot!  I have been doing the cleaning myself  with recent help from my 13 y/o grandson.  Adding another house to Airbnb this Spring so I need help cleaning.  Both houses are around 1,000 sq ft.  It takes me 2 hours to clean not including washing linens. I provide a hamper in the bathroom to put all towels and prefer sheets, blankets snd pillow cases remain on the beds.  Dish’s are to be done and put away by guests. 
My question for you all who read this is what are the expectations of the condition of the house when you get it back. 
I have found peanut butter smeared over 3/4 of the TV, food smeared into furniture, coffee spilled on the carpet (no attempts to clean), vomit on a rug thrown in the garage, all wall decor and home goods put in a closet and furniture rearranged,  guests took all kitchen towels x9 and all large bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash etc with them. 

Do you charge extra for additional cleaning, putting home decor back up, rearranging furniture back, etc? 

For the most part when I clean I strip bedding and start laundry ASAP.  Wipe down rooms and vacuum, clean kitchen and frig and bathroom last.  

any additional advice helps and if I’m overreacting please tell me!  But 5-6 hours to clean a house seems over the top to me. 

[Laura2592]

@Kellie132 It takes a good two, two and a half hours to clean our 2 bed/2 bath 1450 square foot house between each guest and and that does not fully account for laundry or additional dishwasher cycles. That's just what it takes. If we have a guest who cooks a lot add another half hour to hour for the kitchen alone. We have cleaners who start the process but we frankly can't pay them enough to do the deep clean many guests need, so we go after the cleaners on each stay and finish or re-clean certain areas. Sometimes we get lucky and all we have to do is put out a welcome sign and treats. Other times we clean another 2 hours or more behind the 2 hours we have paid someone else to clean. My record is 8 hours of cleaning after a family of 2 adults and 2 kids. 

We have in our welcome email not  to move furnishings and we leave check out instructions on how to exit the space. We do ask guests to strip beds but about 10-15% do not listen. That's about the percentage that require extra cleaning too- 15%. It used to be closer to 5% but its really been more since 2020. We do not allow more than 4 living beings-- pets and people. Limiting the number of occupants helps with clean up sometimes. We also do not allow kids under 2. 

I have never claimed additional cleaning only damage to items. I have found in my years of hosting that many people think they are Martha Stewart when it comes to their household presentation, when in reality they are closer to someone auditioning for Hoarders. There is a disconnect about basic hygiene and cleanliness standards that is a true blind spot for some. I just don't bother having that argument. Instead I leave a review that says "clean up took extra time" or "clean up took significant extra time especially in the kitchen." Just something factual that warns other hosts. I leave low stars and "would not host again" which requires them to send inquiries in the future. At least that way I can hope my fellow hosts read my review and make decisions accordingly.

[Michael5689]

I think 5% rough guests isn't too bad and it sounds like limited real unrecoverable damage so it doesn't seem to bad to me. People are on vacation in new homes and not paying as much attention to their kids and family. Things happen

[Michael5689]

5-6 for a 1000' square foot house does seem a bit long but that may be more of a function of you wanting to get things just right. Our cleaning lady can do a very good job on our single level 3000 sq ft in 6 hours.  If you need help and want it done well then pay well.  It enables me to get the house turned in 5 hours too usually

[Michael5689]

Extra charges are only for the extreme cases except for going over your max occupancy

[Sarah977]

@Kellie132  I'm kind of amazed that you can clean a 1000 sq.ft. house in 2 hours. It takes me an  hour and a half to thoroughly clean my private guest room and their bathroom. And it's a small room. And I'm fast. It would take me at least 5 hrs to clean a 1000 ft. place to what I consider hosting standards. (My own room and the house when I don't have guests isn't nearly so fastidious- I'm not an OCD freak or anything)

It's never pleasant to find the guests have left the place a dirty mess. Some of the things you describe are not normal or okay and guests should be charged for extra cleaning and/or damages, like the rug with vomit thrown in the garage. Some is just disrespectful, like moving things and not putting them back, and some is theft, like making off with the kitchen towels- they should be charged for that, or if the dollar value isn't worth risking a bad review by filing a claim, slam them in the review.

Taking the large bottles of shampoo, etc is theft, but it's tricky- some guests assume that any consumables are there for them. You shouldn't leave large bottles of those things- get refillable pump containers and refill between bookings. Same with leaving 24 packs of t.p. and such- don't. Leave enough with a bit extra for the number of guests and the length of stay.

[Laura2592]

@Sarah977 some of the cleaning time depends on how many people there are to do it. Our standard contract is for 2 and occasionally 3 cleaners for 2-2.5 hours in a 1450 square foot space. We typically clean for at least an hour behind them (2 additional people.) Often we are there for another 2 -2.5 hours behind the cleaning crew.  Having more people can really speed the task. It does depend on how the guests leave the space and how many people have used it. Extra loads of laundry and dishes definitely take up more time.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  For sure- cleaning time to me is the number of labor hours involved, not turn-around time.

If 2 people are cleaning for 2 hrs, that's 4 hours of cleaning.

[Angi646]

I agree. It takes me at least 2.5 hours to clean our cabin and that doesn't include dealing with the linen or stacking all the crockery and cutlery in the dishwasher.

I only leave enough towels, t.p. for the amount of time the guest is staying. I did however have a guest who took three refillable bottles of Faith In Nature products even though I made it clear in the listing that if the guest wanted to take them there would be a charge. When I mentioned it to her in an email, she initially shrugged it off, and when I told her (keeping it completely light and friendly) I would send her a money request she then tried to justify taking them by saying the cabin was too warm!!! So weird.

I have had to toughen up a lot with dealing with people. We had a family of three from Hong Kong, who was absolutely lovely and stayed for a couple of months but when they left I had to replace all of the pans etc, the electric hob, the mattress on the main bed, and the TV as there was a crack right across the screen. The studio was absolutely filthy. It was obvious they had never used a cleaning cloth the whole time they were staying. I even helped them move! Needless to say, I have become more direct with people about my own expectations when they stay. I found it difficult when we first started with Airbnb as I like to treat everyone who comes to stay as I would my friends and family, hospitable, friendly, and welcoming. But I've learned there are people who will take advantage so it's better to be upfront.

[Gillian166]

i'm not sure how big 1000sqft is as we don't describe our homes like that in Australia, but i have a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom small cottage, and it takes 2 of us about 2 hours to do turnover (washing time extra of course). Your place looks a bit bigger than mine. If guests left a mess and actually cooked in the kitchen it would take MUCH longer. We don't pay for cleaners b/c 1) we are in a remote area so finding good people is challenging 2) couldn't afford to pay cleaners the rates they charge here in Australia 3) they don't have the same care as i do, nor do they notice all the little things that need fixing, etc. 4) I'm a tight-arse and like to save money wherever I can. I am trying to recruit a high school student to help during the busier season, at least that will be cheaper and probably just as effective as a "professional". 

We don't have much home decor, if guests are moving things around, just remove it, not worth the extra work IMHO, plus it's nervewracking as a guest to be worried about damaging decor and as a host it's just an expense that might not be adding much value. Put in a pile of nice books and a candle (you can get great luxury looking candles at places like tkmaxx for low prices), it's funny how so far this year, no one has lit the nice candles, they just use the tea lights instead. Looking at your listing it's clutter free (looks great btw!), perhaps you've added more things since the photos were taken?

Yes, guests always move the sofa/chairs around a bit. Not a big deal in a small house. 

I can't believe they stole towels! My dad used to manage country motels when I was a kid and they had ugly orange and brown towels back then, and he said it was to stop theft. You could leave a cleaning + inventory list in your guest manual, and sign off on it after each clean. not sure that will deter thieves but it's another layer of protection.  We also buy large bottles of shampoo/conditioner and as yet no guest has felt entitled to steal them. Same for the toilet paper, we have a tp subscription via Who Gives a Crap and all the rolls are individually wrapped in cute colourful printed wrappers, i'm surprised guests haven't taken those home (even though I only leave 1 spare out per trip)

I have a joke that all little kids have peanut butter on their hands. Seriously no idea how they manage to smear stuff around! Perhaps keep an  extra face-washer in the kitchen, labelled, so mums know to wipe their kids hands after meals and snacks? Hard to do this without looking snarky, and I don't want to have signs all over the house telling people what to do (haven't we all had enough of that these past 2 years). 

 

[Sarah977]

@Gillian166  I raised 3 kids and I have never understood parents who let their kids walk around with food. The rule at our house was you eat at the table or you don't eat. When they were too young to wash their own hands, I did it before they left the table. We had a built in pull out step under the kitchen sink so they could reach the sink for themselves by the time they were 4.