A guest checked out and left the place a mess

[Diane514]

I think that I know the answer but would love someone to contribute more ideas.  Background:  I was a tourism/hospitality professional for 32 years before retiring and starting an AirBNB for our winter home.

My listing is new.  I installed new flooring, and all of the furniture is new with designer accessories.  It is in Florida so I invested in Tommy Bahama finishes and paintings. (I have to live there over the winter).   My first guest left the place a mess.  My cleaning lady provided me with pictures as evidence.  My guest left stains on the new furniture, left frying oil in my pans and did not do the dishes.  She did not strip the bed and left her garbage in the driveway which was attacked by birds and other wildlife.  The stains left on the sheets cannot be remediated.  A complete set of towels in different colors were left for each quest so that they could tell them apart.  They were there for a week.

Obviously I gave them a bad review.  Their rebuttal said that disposing of garbage was tedious and too much to ask. Yes it is a 1/8 of a mile walk to the community dumpster.  She did not have a car.   She said that I left no broom for cleaning and not enough garbage bags for the week.)These were in the utility closet along with extra garbage bags, noodles for the pool, etc)   The sheets were left on the bed because the floor was too dirty (their doing) to leave them on the floor (a laundry bin was provided)  She also said that we should leave at least two sets of towels for guests who are there for a week. 

There was a four page book of house rules and check out instructions that she admits she did not read because they were too busy on vacation to meet that expectation.  I personally her defence is outrageous.  She simply did not care for the place that I planned so carefully for my guests.

Please, what do you think?  When I go there in a couple of months,I will label the closets and developed a template for instructions that will go into my check in memo.  Too bad this was my first guest as it left an awful taste in my mouth.   What more can I do, or should I just write this person off as an outlier?  My placce is fully booked for the rest of summer and fall. 

Diane (Disney Vacation Cottage)

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Diane514:
So sorry you had a bad experience right off the bat. Some guests look for new hosts knowing that their price may be lower, they lack experience and there is less chance of safe-guards to be in place. As you get more experienced each of these will fall into place for you and will be able to weed out the bad guests. We've hosted nearly 3,000 people and can say that less than 1% are this type of guest.

As for the house rules, four pages seems like a lot. We, too, started out with many rules, but very quickly realized people neither read nor followed them anyway, so we narrowed it down to about 4 main ones and start off the home manual with those items. We also placed the WiFi password in the book a couple pages back among the how-to's (like how to use the TV remotes, door lock, etc.) so the guest has to look for it forcing them to see the rules.

Good luck with your future guests. If you continue to have problems then revisit your price and look over your listing and stated house rules to see were you can tweak them to get the type of guests you deserve. Also, remove the second sentence that tells guests that this is a winter home. This screams that you are not present and thus will not be able to stop bad behavior until too late.

[Diane514]

Thank you Holly and Tim,

A few months have gone by and things are much better.  I should have further explained that the four page rules are perhaps one page of garbage management,  community security gate entrance, etc.  The rest is lists of pharmacys, places of worship, favorite restaurants, and passwords.  We leave the check out details to our check out note.    Thank you for the suggestion about it being a winter home.  That will be changed.  

[Mark116]

@Diane514 

The guest's suggestion for a garbage can with wheels seems like a good one if the dumpster area is a walk.  You might want to invest in this. 

It's pretty funny that her excuse for not washing the remaining dishes is that the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes.  But, in almost 3 years we've only had 1 group who left the kitchen a total mess with dirty pots everywhere, however, our place only takes a max of 4 and we don't host families with toddlers or infants, so this reduces the chance for big messes or parties.

We message all of our guests with check out info the day before they leave.  What to do with garbage, wet towels, where to leave keys,  etc. and I would recommend this as a pretty easy way to ensure the guests will see the basic 'must do' items.  We don't ask people to strip the beds so we can determine if the sheets are soiled. We also ask all guests at either inquiry or acceptance to make sure they have reviewed the listing and house rules, as another chance to motivate them to pay attention to this stuff.

[Diane514]

Thank you mark.

Fortunately she is the only guest who left us with this kind of mess.  We do leave complete check out instructions with a thank you note, but I am not sure if they are read.  We are also going to be translating our messages our Spanish and Portugese speaking guests.  We are 10 minutes away from Disney and we attract many tired folks who have not desire to manage cleaning.  Our cleaning lady is providing each of her listings with a trash container and will offer a trash service for $10 per week to our guests.  I think that is fair, especially for guests who use taxis to get around.  The little cart was not successful.  Guests thought that it made them look homeless.  That was pretty funny. 

[Linda108]

A couple of rookie mistakes, @Diane514   One is to believe that guests are like you and have the same values as you do.  The other is to expect a guest to read a lot of rules.  After a while, you will find that you are dealing with a public that has different ways of living and you will need to streamline the rules along with your expectations.  

Most important is the protection of your property and since you are in a community, adhering to the community rules.  If you have a cleaning person, perhaps you charge a larger cleaning fee and expect more from the cleaner.  Also, you might consider checking in with the guest by phone and welcoming them to your home.  Establish a rapport so the guest really experiences that this is your home and they are your guests.  

[Ute42]

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@Diane514 

Not a nice first experience in hosting of course. But to be real honest: If this is the worst thing that ever happens to You with airbnb guests,  thank god.

[Sarah977]

@Diane514  Unfortunately, although most guests are fine, expecting other people to treat your beautiful home just like you would will lead to disappointment, I'm afraid. We all want to have nice listings, but the general rule of thumb is the more bulletproof you can make an Airbnb, the better. Upholstered furniture should have removable, washable covers, put felt pads or other protective things on the feet of furniture, as guests will sometimes rearrange things, scratching up floors in the process. I work as an upholsterer in a touristy beach town and most of my clients do rentals of their vacation homes. Many have one set of couch covers, throw pillow covers, dishes, pots and pans, rugs, etc, to use for guests, having their own stuff packed up and locked up, and change it out when using the place themselves.