Bad experience with guest using the kitchen

[Jessie100]

I would avoid allowing the use of the kitchen to all guests. I have a negative experience recently to the point where I want to quit Airbnb.

I'm writing about my experience here just so that other hosts could be aware of. I am also taking down all my Airbnb listings because of this incident. (I included kitchen use in the ads to attract more viewers but luckily I never had any guests cooking in my kitchen other than the microwave until now)

WARNING FOR POTENTIAL HOST OF THIS GUEST:

Keyword: consume your food without consent, does smoke, ask the host for reimbursement otherwise threaten to leave a bad review, tell you he travels all the time with Airbnb so he is right, you are wrong. 

He used my condiments and my tenant's condiments WITHOUT asking! When I talked to him about this. He said he travels all the time with Airbnb and these are usually provided. He is a musician and a businessman so this is not how I should run my Airbnb. 

I told him the next day, cooking is not allowed. If you want to cancel your reservation and find other accommodation, I am completely happy with it. He said he already bought groceries thinking that he can cook. He asked me if he can cook himself the LAST meal, he will put the food in a Tupperware container so he can have it for the rest of his stay. I said fine, you can use the microwave and the toaster oven. I remember I specifically told him that he is done cooking if he wants to continue his stay. 

The next day, my family member found food missing from our fridge. He denies it was him but eggs and butter would disappear by themselves.  

The last night, I found him cooking with a toaster oven using my grass-fed butter and he denies he said that was his last meal. He thought he can use the kitchen despite the fact that WE TALKED ABOUT THE USE OF KITCHEN FOR 2 DAYS ALREADY. Then, I showed him proof of our conversation where he said he will be cooking the last meal. 

Then, he complains to me that the cleaning fee of $50 was too much. He was asking me for A REIMBURSEMENT of any amount. I said to him, the nightly rate is around $30-40 per night. You cannot find anywhere else for that cheap. (In this neighborhood, houses averaged $3-5 MILLION.) IF I DON'T AGREE, HE WILL LEAVE A BAD REVIEW!  I regretted so much that I did not cancel his reservation earlier. LAST WORDS, BE AWARE AND STAY AWAY!

- host in shock

[Helen3]

I have had guests shared my kitchen for three years and never had a problem with hundreds of guests.

This guys sounds awful. It's irrelevant what other hosts do, he booked with you.

In your situation I would have asked Airbnb to cancel the booking when he stole food from you and your tenants and smoked in your property (I presume against your house rules).

Tell Airbnb he has threatened you with a bad review if you don't give him a refund.

Leave him an honest review with three stars so he can't IB with other hosts.

[Md-Mizanur0]

Dear Jessie

I have read your guest story. The all people are not same. There are some people they do whatever they think in their mind. We need to face it & can be friendly disscuss with them and inform your opinion. If they accept you welcome them or if they deny you have rights to cancel their reservation and inform to Airbnb about the guest.

Thank you

Regards

Mizanur

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jessie100

I host a private room in my home and allow kitchen access - I also haven't had any issues like you mention during my 2 yrs of hosting. It sounds like you had a "guest from hell". You should report him and contact ABB about the threats he made about leaving a bad review if he doesn't get a refund. 

[Huma0]

@Jessie100 

I am sorry you had this experience, but if your other guests have been fine, please don't let one bad one put you off hosting.

However, you really can't include kitchen useage in your listing to attract more views and then deny your guests the use of the kitchen after they arrive. Your guest is totally right that this is 'false advertising' and I can understand why he is not willing to accept this and wants some sort of refund. Do not overpromise and underdeliver! I think you have been very lucky not to have problems with this before.

If your kitchen useage is restricted to the use of the microwave and toaster oven then specifiy this very clearly on your listing and make sure that guests have understood all of this before/when they book. Likewise if it is a non-smoking property, did you specify this on the listing? If not, make sure you do in future. Don't ever assume that a guest can read your mind or just that what is obvious to you is obvious to everyone.

Now, it is not cool that your guest has been eating other people's food. I've only had one pair of guests do this early on in 2.5 years of hosting, but I have had other guests who have asked me what food is included. So, I make it clear on my listing that I only supply tea, coffee and sugar (although I do give them a few extras which aren't advertised) and I show them what is there for their use when they arrive.

If there's anything else they need, they usually ask, but it's just stuff like salt and pepper, oil etc. which I'm happy for them to use. I also don't mind them using my condiments and things like butter, as long as they don't use other guests' stuff. Your guest should have asked first, but there are really bigger things to get upset about than condiments or a bit of butter if it's only the occasional guest using them. It' not fillet steak and champagne!

Now your guest should not be threatening you with a negative review, so you could report this to Airbnb as it's against their rules, but you would probably need to have this in writing from him on the Airbnb messaging system, rather than just verbally. If you don't have that, then send him a message on the system explaining that it is against Airbnb policy to use the threat of a bad review to get a refund.

I tried to include a link for you to the policy but the site is being a bit glitchy right now. So, if you can't find it yourself, you could paste this in the message:

What is Airbnb's Extortion Policy?

Reviews are a way for Airbnb guests and hosts to share their experiences with the community. Any attempt to use reviews or review responses to force a user to do something they aren’t obligated to do is a misuse of reviews, and we don’t allow it.

This policy applies to situations including, but not limited to:

• Guests threatening to use reviews or ratings in an attempt to force a host to provide refunds, additional compensation, or a reciprocal positive review.

My advice to you, if you want it, is to chalk this up to experience, carry on hosting, but make your listing crystal clear and make a point of doing a welcome tour where you show them what is and isn't included.

[Portia15]

We are new to hosting and are only on our third guest. We also rent a private room with kitchen access. Our current guest is here just short of 3 weeks.  He leaves my stove top and counters a mess. I have to wipe the refrigerator door handles after every time he is in there. His shelf on the refrigerator is disgusting. He puts dirty dishes in my cupboards instead of the dishwasher. He has left a plate with food under his bed (he leaves the door open and we have dogs).

Twelve more days and we can move on.  He's also left windows open and it's February in Denver.  I dread going into my own kitchen because I know how much work it will take before I can cook. 

[Tara111]

We've stopped allowing full-on cooking with our room, as our kitchen is small and if guests are using the kitchen, it often sends us out to eat. Not a good business model. We offer a microwave, dorm fridge and summer grill, but the kitchen is otherwise off limits. We do offer coffee, tea and cook hot breakfast. In the past we noticed that our kitchen users were also the ones who asked for early check in, late check out, not great about arrival times...

[Sarah977]

I've been hosting a private room/bath with full kitchen access for 2 and a half years. Some guests do some cooking and some don't, but I have never had one guest who abused the priviledge of kitchen access. All clean up after themselves, quite thoroughly and don't take over the space for any undue amount of time.

It really depends on what kind of guests you tend to get (responsible, respectful adults rather than the young and/or the clueless), what your expectations are, how clearly you voice them, and how you handle it if guests don't comply.

[Christine615]

I’m curious why you advertise kitchen use to attract more views then complain when it is used. Just take it offf your listing and say kitchen use not included.

Otherwise it’s bait and switch.