The guest booked the Sea Captains Cottage between Jan 9th and Feb 28th. He had sent an enquiry to say that he was staying in the Travel Lodge hotel and was looking to move. He was visiting his sons in Ramsgate where they had relocated with their mother. Although he booked for one he said that his boys might want to stay for a few nights and that they would bring sleeping bags. Being a father myself I offered not to charge him extra. He told me he was a chef to the Royal family and he offered to make me dinner at the end of the booking. I showed him around the house pointing out its charms and quirks and he appeared very happy. I told him to make himself at home, to help himself to any food, to replace like for like where he had used anything and to take care with any of the antiques. I said ‘most importantly ‘please be green’ and I said the thing I most like to avoid is leaving the heating on when the house was unoccupied. I said it wasn’t just the money but so bad for the planet. He agreed and said ‘I hate that’ He seemed like an intelligent and capable guy. I explained the heating and I showed him how to increase or reduce the temperature on the thermostat pointing out it was a portable device and could be located in any room in the house, it being a few degrees hotter in the bedrooms than in the living rooms. The thermostat was on my normal timer settings (for winter) 16c at 8am, 18c at 1600, 20c at 2000 and14c at 2300. The settings are just a guide, you will either have to turn it up or turn it down depending on weather conditions and when you are in the house. The guest asked me what should he do ‘if he went away for a couple of days’ and I told him to override the thermostat timings by turning down the temperature on the boiler and I showed him where that was. I also pointed out the water pressure gauge and how to top it up. I told him to call me if he had any queries or problems. As it was such a long booking before I left I took pictures of the gas and electricity meters.
After The booking
The guest messaged me a couple of days before check out to tell me he would be leaving at 11am. I told him I could get there by 11.30 but when he messaged me back he said he couldn’t wait. When I arrived at the house I found the oven on full and the fridge turned up to max. The recycling was overflowing with wine and beer bottles. The boiler was flashing indicating it needed to be topped up with water. The lock to the French doors had seized. I noticed cracks on the wall panelling in the dining room and the family photographs were dry and curled up, an obvious sign of excessive heat. Later that day when I was speaking to the gas company I gave them the meter readings and they told confirmed the usage for the period was abnormally high.
I phoned Airbnb customer support for advice and they told me to send a resolution request. I first sent the guest a friendly message explaining the problem but heard nothing back and so I then sent the resolution request. I had set a deposit of £200 on the listing so I thought it would be more than fair to ask the guest for £100 towards the abnormally high bills. In his reply the guest was entirely unsympathetic and denied any responsibility.
I later had a call from customer support telling me they had spoken to the guest. They informed me that all extra charges should be stated in the house rules. I pointed out that this was not an extra charge but misuse of the facilities, that there was heat damage to walls and furniture and that I had the conversation about ‘being green’ with the guest before he took occupation and he had agreed.
At this juncture I had not realised the extent of the damage. I went through the house I saw that the cracks in the panelling were literally everywhere. The bedroom door, which is the original from the 18th century, now has two large cracks and is warped. It had shrunk so much it will no longer close. It’s virtually impossible to fix a door once it is warped. The bedroom mirror frame had developed cracks. The dining room table, one I had acquired from Exeter Museum was also damaged. There are cracks in the legs and the groove down the middle had developed into a split over an inch wide and there is a similar split in the kitchen bench, also an antique. The kitchen cupboard door was warped. Even the wooden chopping board had developed a split and turning it over I found burn marks (though I cant be certain during which booking this occurred). The plaster had dried out in the dining room and the black paint on the skirting below the panelling, only recently painted, is now flaking off the walls. One of the dining room chairs had become started to fall apart and the chair in the bathroom had developed a split.
I cannot know what temperature the guest had the heating on at the house at any given time but I do know that the thermostat settings when I left the house were the same as I routinely have them in the winter months and were exactly the same as the previous (two) guests who rented the house for Christmas just a couple of weeks earlier and the house didn’t sustain any damage and there was no significant increase in gas usage. It follows that the damage to the wooden wall panels and furniture resulted from the thermostat being turned up and exacerbated by the fact that the guest left the heating on when the house was unoccupied so the heat would have built up over time. I had showed the guest (on hand over) how to adjust the temperature on the thermostat (there is only 2 buttons, one up and one down) as well as how to turn the temperature down at the boiler, in the event he was unsure of when he would be in the house that day. I realise some people find reprogramming difficult or they can’t find the time but in fact all the instructions for setting the timings are clearly displayed on the thermostat and it is extremely easy to navigate.
The gas company provided before and after comparisons. For example for the period over Christmas and New Year, a busy period when there were two and three people in the house the figures showed the usage was 30% lower on average than for the period with this one guest. (see nPower letter)
Gas usage is primarily driven by weather conditions and the UK experienced some severe weather on the 27th and 2 February. Given the guest vacated on the 29th this should not have impacted the overall cost to any great extent.
An increased temperature on the thermostat from the set high of 20c to 26c -overall by 30%- ‘would have been enough to cause the resulting damage to the woodwork in the property’. Using the same comparison the electricity bill for the period is double the normal usage (see Bulb letter) possibly due to the oven.
It was obvious that the damage to the property was a much larger issue than the utility bills alone and I realised, given my guests refusal to contribute to the higher gas usage I would have to investigate either claiming on my home insurance, the Airbnb Host Guarantee or investigate legal action.
Other damage
This is a listed property, which in the UK means it is a property of significant historic interest that is over 300 years old. It is furnished in the most part with antiques. The redecoration of the walls I am advised will take the best part of a week and there is also the damage to furniture and the doors. The renovation of this property has taken over 12 months and was only just completed before Christmas. My regret is that I have not been a good custodian of this historic property in letting it to someone who was not sympathetic. That is my responsibility. Staying in someone’s home is not the same experience as staying in a room in a hotel chain. The guest at no time said ‘I’m sorry to hear that’ or ‘that’s the temperature I usually have at my house’. The guest left the house tidy but it certainly wasn’t clean. When there is no cleaning fee on a listing it’s expected the guest leaves the house as they found it.
Staying at The Sea Captains Cottage is a far cry from the local Travel Lodge. It is not for everyone, it is not only very old but it’s quirky or Bohemian even which is how it was described by one of the guests friends. There is a vintage competition motorcycle in the house. I don’t ride it often but it makes a nice ornament, in my view at least and adds to the character and appeal of my Airbnb. I asked him if he was ok with the bike being there, there is no petrol in it and it stands in a massive old fireplace in the house. I told him I did have a cover but that it wasn’t waterproof and that the bike was worth around £5000. The guest asked me if he could put it outside if it was in the way ‘when the boys came to visit’ and thinking they might want to sit on it and damage it or possibly themselves I looked a bit puzzled and then the guest said ‘it will not be for very long’. I thought he meant like an hour but when on my return I found the motorcycle in the garden it wasn’t properly covered, it was snowing and had sustained frost damage on the front mud –guard. (see pic) It was so rusty my son spent a day polishing it. It had clearly been outside for weeks.
I could tell which one of the dining chairs the guest had used to sit on because it had become wobbly, a problem that I am unlikely to ever be able to fix.
The guest caused a leak under the bath by moving a chair that is located beside the bath, placed there to put soap and shampoo on. The guest said he moved the bath because it was not draining but there is no such issue. It is extremely heavy. I have no problem with that other than the fact it caused a leak from the trap and just put a cloth under it and over time this would have penetrated the ceiling below. When I returned I simply reset the seal and stopped the leak. It took about 30 seconds.
Before departure the guest had laundered his bed linen, something that is normally included in the booking. He even changed the bed linen on a bed that he said wasn’t used. When I later changed this bed I noticed what looked like a faint make up stain on the bottom sheet.
The guest left with all of the new wooden clothes hangers that were in the wardrobe in the bedroom he occupied.
On changing the bed in the room occupied by the guest I discovered a large tea or coffee stain on the bed cover. It is a heavy white and blue embroidered cotton cover from France.
In conclusion
I believe that the guest did not even attempt ‘to be green’. I believe he told himself the gas and electric were all included and he didn’t care how much he used. I believe that in renting someone’s home through Airbnb you become responsible for it. I doubt the guest treats his own utilities with such abandon. It would be impossible to list every eventuality on your Airbnb listing. Over a long booking the cost of heat and water can be enormous if they are not used responsibly. It is not viable to treat house rules like an official tenancy agreement where there would be pages of terms and terminology that would have to be signed and witnessed by a lawyer. Airbnb is sold on a relationship of community, trust and responsibility and in the rare cases where this goes wrong then that responsibility naturally would be shared by Airbnb as well as the guest and host. Under the circumstances I think it would be fair to ask the guest to contribute at least his deposit of just £200 and given the level of costs I have sustained I have to ask Airbnb to consider implementing the Host Guarantee and I will have to consider taking legal advise on the likelihood of reclaiming all of my out of pocket expenses in the courts.
I’m not interested in putting all the blame on the guest, he may have little experience of Airbnb and has possibly never been a host. In his reply to the resolution request he conceded nothing, he admitted nothing and said all the fault was mine. That was hurtful. After all when he left he said he had no problems and gave the house a five star review.
As an Airbnb host since 2010 I have had good reviews with all my three listings. Croftdown road London 2011-2013. Colleton Hill Exeter 2014-2016 and Paradise Ramsgate 2016-2018. The financial cost of this particular booking is unwelcome to say the least and I am naturally experiencing some anxiety about my future reservations. Airbnb is a massive business now but I remember it was founded on an ethos of trust and forming a good relationship between guest and host. I have really enjoyed welcoming my guests into my homes over the years and I in turn have stayed in Airbnbs around the world. I’ve made many friends. I have a guest from Arizona staying currently who is also hosting guests in her home. She is polite, she is respectful, she gets it. As a host it is very upsetting when it goes wrong. It’s personal. I have no doubt that my guest will not even recognise himself in this, whilst I have to deal with the damage to my home, the substantial costs and the anxiety it has caused.
This guest had convinced me that he was a sensible person who would enjoy staying in the house and look after it but in his reply he has revealed that he considered the house and its contents not good enough for him, that he doesn’t like antique furniture. Most of my guests book because they are looking for something different and characterful whilst this guest was looking for something convenient and cheap. Out of the possibly hundreds of guest I have hosted in the last few years I have never come across such selfishness and inability to take responsibility. This guest stayed at another Airbnb in Ramsgate and the host tells me he left the central heating on at 36c and as a consequence cracks appeared in the doors. This was after only two days. He stayed in my house for over seven weeks.
