Unacceptable guests

[Kristi1364]

I am grateful for the income Airbnb provides my girls and me, but I feel like guests leave my home sub par. I’ve tried being very specific with checking out instructions, but I’m off-site. My neighbors help, but there are so many little things that I find unsettling and speak to a lack of character. Using personal items, trashing little things like a cutting board or throw pillows, leaving small items of trash in the yard, and the list goes on. What do y’all do? 

[Lisa723]

@Kristi1364  (1) don’t leave personal items accessible and (2) expect a certain amount of breakage, clean-up, and wear and tear. It’s part of the business.

[Sarah977]

@Kristi1364  If you are bothered by "·little things", perhaps you shouldn't be hosting. Very few guests will treat your home as respectfully as you would like them to. Remember, these aren't your friends, who you choose to associate with because they have good characters. They are just strangers. Some will be great, some won't.

Make your expectations clear as far as cleaning up, but you have to be realistic- not everyone will leave a place like you would.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kristi1364 Have you considered raising your prices? Yours may already be high but I have always believed that very low prices attract very low people

[Dot99]

I don’t leave any items in the property that I would hate to lose. Over several years I have had very good experience of hosting guests from a long weekend break to several months of people hoping to move into this very pleasant rural area of South Wales.

However from my last experience I am learning to check out individuals before accepting a booking. Previously I had trusted AIRBNB to check before me.

on this last occasion in the month of May I accepted a booking from a man who called himself ‘Radislav’. He didn’t actually stay at my place himself but used it to accommodate his gang of building workers from Eastern Europe. They managed to turn my home into a ‘Doss house’ - fitting in as many workers as he could for the lowest price. They had mattresses in other rooms besides the 4 bedrooms. I won’t go into further details of the effect of this overcrowding !. Unfortunately AIRBNB haven’t been much help.

[Huma0]

@Dot99 

At what point did you find out what was going on? If the person who booked was not staying himself, that is a third party booking and against Airbnb policy unless that person is a registered business booker. Airbnb could have cancelled the rest of the booking penalty free to you on those grounds, but I am not sure what they could do after if the stay was already completed when you contacted them, unless you were trying to claim for damages?

[Dot99]

I discovered the ‘doss house’ situation in the second week of their stay. I complained to both Radislav and Airbnb. Airbnb could only suggest that the fee could be returned if they moved out. Radislav arranged to have photos taken showing the place wasn’t that bad. The guys had tidied up putting away the extra mattresses etc. After several attempts to talk to AIRBNB …..in the US, the Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka …….at no point did they point out that this ‘third party booking’ was against AIRBNB policy, which I would have expected. I felt like I was being pushed from ‘pillow to post’ as each adviser promised to ‘escalate’ my case. I have suggested that I should be compensated by being reimbursed the 50% discount that I allowed for the month’s stay. So far there has been no resolution.