Guests who work from home

[Michelle2145]

Hello,

I just had my first guest after COVID, and my first guest works from home.  He booked a room for 2 weeks, my maximum, and told me when he arrived that that he would be working from home.  It is very hot in my area and air conditioning is required, and he never leaves the room.  I'm going to look at the bills after leaves, but I imagine it will be hefty since he is in there 24 hours a day (he has his meals delivered).  I wondered how others handle working from home, or if it is possible.  He also found a hole in the system in that he booked an additional 2 weeks in a new booking, which escaped the 2-week limit.  I'm talking to Airbnb about this now as I think they should have alerted me to see if I wanted to extend his stay past my maximum.  I definitely would have because the guy is a great guest, but I would have increased the rate slightly.   

This was not an issue for me pre-COVID because most of my guests were here on vacation and the few that were here for work went out to work during the day, the peak hours for electricity.  Now, everyone, including me, is working from home.

Thanks for any tips, Michelle

[Sybe]

@Huma0 We used to have chairs like these and I always sat on the foot section, though the weight of a child differs quite a bit from that of a grown human. I never knew how to fold these though it looks quite simple now!

[Huma0]

@Sybe 

For sure, there is a big difference from a small child sitting on the foot of the lounger for a bit and a six foot tall man sitting on it all day to work from. Each to their own, I guess. If he found that more comfortable than the chairs provided to him (it was also a super weird height to sit on if you are working from a table), then fine, but when that causes damage, the guest should pay for it. After all, I am not advertising the foot of the sun lounger as an office chair...

[Sybe]

@Huma0 It's a bit strange indeed to prefer that over a chair, I remember you could feel the slats very well after a while.

[Huma0]

@Sybe 

Yes, it's really uncomfortable actually to sit like that for any length of time. There was not even a cushion. Normally, the lounger would have a cushion covering the whole surface, but one guest destroyed it with cigarette burns, so I had literally just thrown it away and was about to order another one... Then this guest broke the lounger, so no point ordering a new cushion!

[Gordon0]

These digital nomad souls are a force to be reckoned with, and I've had a spate of them in the last few months. Without wishing to generalise (even though I'm doing it), they've all been north Americans and very, very direct. The 'hello I've booked your place' message normally comes with a "I'll be working, so will be counting on your fast wifi". This, naturally, has me racing round doing speed tests to make sure I don't fail their test.

And the time difference (and longer working day) often means they're on calls (and speaking very loudly) as I'm toddling off to bed.

Give me an Australian on their first trip here any day of the week; they're out from 8am-10pm! 

[Huma0]

@Gordon0 

This is exactly what I have experienced. The digital nomads have been American, so it seems that maybe it's a much more rapidly growing trend there.

And the directness, yes. One of the recent ones told me she would be coming to London for work. She asks if my home would be suitable for that. I respond to her RE the desk set up and Wifi. She then wants to check in at 1am. I say that won't be possible. She ignores my questions completely and goes ahead and instant books, even though I said please confirm X, Y, Z before you book. I then tell her to please answer my questions or cancel her booking. Claims that she wrote the answers but they didn't send.

It's only then that she tells me about all the computer equipment she will bringing. I am not comfortable about this. I explain that the desk (as shown in the listing photos) is vintage and small, i.e. suitable for a laptop, but not this full on set up. She responds, " I really don’t see this as an issue... I am honestly not that worried about it." Mmm, red flag, red flag. SHE may not see it as an issue, but I just told her I did. I so should have cancelled this guest...

I then have trouble getting a specific check in time from her. She doesn't seem to think it is that necessary to tell me. Asked her at least to give me a heads up when she is on the way. She doesn't. She just messages to tell me she's here and can I come and help with her bags. She has ignored the parking instructions. 

When I check her in, she immediately has lots of extra demands that other guests don't normally ask for. Then she complains about the WiFi... and on it goes.

As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy hosting this guest. She was actually the reason I finally turned off IB.

[Ted307]

@Michelle2145 @Huma0 @Anonymous 

We have had only 3 guests who worked from home. I chalk this up to our 2 week max time. As a former Californian, I would not allow a renter to occupy our bunkhouse for 28 days or longer because it would give them tenant's rights. If they did not pay, or violated your rules, you would be required to go through a formal eviction. The rules are easier for a room in your house, but would still give your renter a free month or 2 while you went through filing and serving them with the papers. I have never come across the request for 2 back-to-back bookings giving the guest the status of tenant. I would decline on the basis of the request making me "uncomfortable" with the violation of my stated occupancy time limit. (My acceptance rate has gone down to 85% or so sometimes). Having never used instant book, I am not sure how this would work, but I believe you get 3 "free" cancellations.

One of the work from home guests brought her 2 girls, who watched TV and played in the yard while mom worked on her computer in the bedroom. It worked out fine, but I could see it not working for very long without us turning into a free/included child care service. A couple of hours of honorary grand-kids was fine with us. She only worked from home for one day of the stay.

Our dedicated work space is big enough for my large laptop, and nothing else, it is a drop down little cute thing with a school chair guaranteed to get you up out of it after ~ 45 minutes! The chair was surplus from the local college, if it is good enough for a college, it is good enough for us. Vintage & 50's looking stuff is what we do. The kitchen chairs are much more comfortable, and the counter space is very good for spreading out with your work stuff, I have used it myself to check it out. Since that is where the coffee is, that is where most work, from the amount of crumbs I clean up there! I do not have a real good photo of that area, and I do not think I will take one now, after reading your comments. Thanks!

We have a regular guest who works all night at the local hospital and sleeps all day, I could not ask for a better guest than Tobin. Super quiet, he is asleep. Super clean, he is a traveling ER nurse. No computer that I have seen, he never logs into the WiFi network. Always leaves us a 5 star review. I wish we could fill our place with more of his kind of renter. I had more cards made, and am planing to make some rounds of the local hospital and the VA hospital and maybe the local nursing school at the community college.

[Huma0]

@Ted307 

I think my set up is not that dissimilar to yours. I have desks and chairs in the bedrooms, but mostly they are vintage furniture and, while perfectly comfortable to work from for a couple of hours here or there, are maybe not compatible to proper, ergonomically designed office furniture. But then I never set out to rent my space as an office!

I am glad your guest is working out well. I have generally really enjoyed hosting travelling nurses and doctors. They are in London for work, but don't treat my place like a work place. Quite the opposite. They go to the hospital, clinic or whatever to do their work and then come back to mine to relax, sleep, shower, have something to eat. It's 'home' not 'work'.

[Michelle2145]

Hi Huma,

Do the traveling nurses/doctors through Airbnb?  I like renting to them and find through a site dedicated to traveling nurses.  

Thanks.

[Michelle2145]

Hello Ted & Chris,  I had a 2-week max time, but this guy booked a new reservation and was able to extend it.  Luckily, I was only free 11 days, but he took it all.  I turned of Instant Book (and reduced the max to 7 days) so this won't happen again and so I can have more control over the reservation.  I don't mind people who are working and have had them in the past.  I just will not accept any more who work from home.    I also rent out to traveling nurses, and they work out great.  I'd love to find a regular, but that has not worked out for me.

Could you tell me more about the cards you made to distribute at hospitals?  I am perfect for that because I am between 3 major hospitals.  I've been using a site dedicated to nurses for referrals.    

[Ted307]

@Michelle2145 

I just had some inexpensive cards made at Vista Print with a photo of our place on it. Our phone number and the link to AirBnb is also on it. It took us 2 years to give out 250 last order, this order I took a recent photo, and ordered 500. I have a goal to give them all out by the end of the year!

I have seen a site for travel nurses, but they want a longer rental for full time temps. This guy lives out in the boonies and works 4 12 hour shifts every other week. We are glad to have him --  since the "Summer Update" he is our only booking for August, when we were booked every weekend last year. We like that better than having a permanent tenant in our back yard.

I would have been OK with your strange guy that does not leave his bedroom, with our set up, a separate little house in the back yard. I have had a few who stayed the max 2 weeks, and cleaning the kitchen was a little more work. I like to take a few days off between guests, to not have to rush the cleaning and laundry. I wish that the people who stayed 2 weeks would take me up on the offer of clean sheets and towels, but they have all slept on the bedding for 2 weeks. I am thinking of putting in a once a week free & mandatory cleaning for the longer stay guests.

[Michelle2145]

Thank you for the info about your hospital advertising to see if I can get medical guests through Airbnb.  It looks like you don't allow the guests to do laundry, is that right?  

[Ted307]

@Michelle2145 Our little bunkhouse doesn't have room for a clothes washer & dryer. I give directions to the nearby laundromat in our book, but most people do not do laundry here, they take it home with them. I give them enough towels and a change of sheets in the dresser, but no one has ever changed their own sheets! If I had one of those never-leaves-the-house workers, I suppose I would have to send them a message that "tomorrow is laundry day here, when do you want me to come in and change your bedding"? Sheets get too funky to ever come clean again if you let the laundry go for too long! Those guys might be OK with unwashed sheets for a month, but I am not. I just very rarely get anyone longer than a weekend, so it does not come up much.

@Huma0, how do you manage the laundry for your long term renters? With a room in your house, I imagine you might enter your guest room to get the laundry? Or do you ask them to give you the laundry?

[Huma0]

@Ted307 

I give the guests the option of either:

- I will clean their room for them for a small fee (and it is small, it's not really making money for me in any way), which includes changing and washing sheets and towels.

or:

- They can do it themselves. I supply cleaning equipment, materials etc. and there is always extra bedlinen and towels in the bedroom cupboard so they can do it when it's convenient for them.

However, with the latter, you do have to make sure that you remind the guests to do it (some will be proactive, but most need prompting) as plenty of people seem happy not to change sheets for a month, even in hot summer weather. Plenty seem happy to not clean the room even for months and let the dust bunnies pile up. 

Personally, I prefer to do it myself so that I can at least keep things in good condition, as you mentioned and make sure that nothing too weird is happening in the room (recently a guest forgot to put away his weed so my suspicions of him smoking in the bedroom were confirmed!).

Of course, I don't barge in without warning. I ask the guest when would be a convenient time for them. That also gives them the opportunity to tidy up a bit so that I can clean more effectively. 

There was one guest who was here for six months (my maximum) who did just hand me her sheets and towels to wash and I didn't charge her for that as I just did it when I was doing the rest of the laundry. She did this often enough that I thought she was a clean person (also because she made no mess in communal areas). I was wrong. She was one of those dust bunny people. She never cleaned that room once in six months and it took me days to get it ready for the next guest.

[David8879]

There is something deeply wrong with people flying to a different beautiful country to sit home all day long and work. They think they are "free". I pity them