Hello fellow hosts,
I am asking for your collective advice here on how to approach the following situation. I have had wonderful guests, but this latest guest has really challenged my ability to give her the benefit of the doubt. I have been extremely accommodating, but I feel her demands are borderline abusive towards me as an Airbnb host renting my second home. I'm not a big business. I recognize that I may need to make some adjustments, but this is really testing the limits of my customer service abilities.
1) After booking, she asked several questions of which I was happy to answer. When I stated the number of chaise lounges I offered on the proper (which was visible in the listing), I received my first strongly worded response that a home of my size she would "expect more lounging chairs considering this is a desert house." I went ahead and secured 4 additional chairs that I assembled myself ahead of her stay. She mentioned she would have elderly family members staying with her, so I naturally felt bad and wanted to ensure they had a good experience especially it being COVID. [So far, there has been no evidence of 'elderly' staying at the house given Ring exterior camera footage to date.]
2) When she checks in, I get the following message: "Why am I only finding 3 bedrooms? 2 upstairs and the en-suite downstairs. Where’s the 4th?" The tone of this message was a red flag to me, as in somehow my listing misrepresented the house (it does not). She did correct herself later with "Nevermind found it, sorry!"
3) House rules being broken within the first weekend of her month-long stay. Ring security shows a party of 8-10 people at the house being loud and smoking. I send the following message to document it immediately "Hi [guest]- I hope you are enjoying your stay. Please ensure your guests do not smoke on the property and respect noise levels in the neighborhood. Thank you." I did not report her and hoped that this would signal a warning.
4) After these same guests, the hot tub was not properly secured and left open all night to which I sent the following message: "If you could please, close the cover of the hot tub when not in use. It makes heating the hot tub more difficult and dust from desert winds can easily get in. There is a latch that locks in that can help prevent the wind from opening it up. Thank you." I provide clear instructions in the house binder, and ask guests to read it upon check-in. She complied with this request.
5) A/C at the home: The home is in the desert (summer has multiple >100 F days). We have a schedule set for the thermostat appropriate for desert weather. In all transparency, we set the schedule and can and will accommodate for comfort. We do have it locked as past guests have abused the temperature settings, and our AC broke last summer. It was a very unpleasant several days for that guest at that time, but they were extremely understanding. After that, we set controls on the thermostat. Fast-forward to this guest, she immediately asks for the code to unlock it. Instead, we agreed to set the temperature down two degrees (from 76 to 74).
6) Outdoor spa: On occasion it needs a reset. We have troubleshooting instructions in our home binder and this largely hasn't been an issue with any other guest. Now this guest comes and claims it was tripping up constantly unable to heat the water. I also got the confident message from her that "It’s definitely worth having someone look at it, I’ve tried it all. I’m in the electrical world." My spa service person came by, looked at it and said it was working fine but did recommend a new panel that could help. So that's what we did, ordered a new panel and repaired it. My spa service person also learned she was trying to fix it from the breaker, which he reassured her was not the issue.
7) Pool & Garden Maintenance: I have a set of services scheduled that come regularly to the house. This guest asked us to change the schedule around, even asking to cancel gardening service while they were there. We accommodated that too. However, now I really started to feel like this was getting to be a bit too much in terms of demands. This is ultimately my home to take care of.
😎 Buying the house: The most interesting request was to ask to buy the house. I'm flattered, but no thank you.
9) AC again: This time, holding at 74F in the desert I did push back on another request to lower it further. I reiterated that this was most efficient for the desert climate to keep the AC running smoothly, to leverage fans, close blinds & curtains. I asked if she would be willing to pay for a lower temperature to help offset the costs, and the response I got was the following: "I’m not sure what it means to run efficiently. I have a house and it can go fairly low.", "I’m pretty sure I’m in a long term rental also. This isn’t a weekend hangout." (Note: she is renting for 32 days, this not a long term rental.) Additionally, I got "I don’t understand how this is legal even", and "It’s a basic necessity for the desert", and the kicker, "You are good with inhumane practices and it’s well noted." Is 74F in the desert considered inhumane?
There was more, but I've chosen not to list it here as I would normally consider them innocuous requests.
I would love perspectives from the community here on:
1) What's your take on the situation? How would you feel?
2) Is there anything that can be done about this guest while they are still on the reservation considering they broke house rules?
3) I sense she will provide a poor review, despite all of the accommodations I have been making. What would you do?
Thank you to all you wonderful hosts for your thoughts in advance!
