Guests are abusing our agreement

[Janeth0]

Hello everyone, 
So I am rather new to being a  host and before these guests it was great! Every one was so friendly and courteous I loved it! I had never had a long term guest in the past but I thought I would give it a try, after these guests I don't think that I will ever host for a long period of time again.  I am renting my room to a guest and his wife. Well my listing clearly states that guests will stay in one room and have acess to a shared bathroom. Within a week of arriving guests requested a TV and cable, well to be nice (even though it was not included in the agreement) I bought a smart TV and made it clear that there was no cable but logged them into my netflix account and youtube. We wanted them to feel comfortable and so offered to share our office. And now the husband is sleeping in my office! He says that his wife can't sleep because he snores too loud and so he sleeps in the office, without our permission! I am really upset as I have now lost all access to my very own office. I actually had an interview today and had my portfolio in there and when I opened the door the guest was asleep in my office floor, and had to leave without it.  I also dislike the abuse on our furnace, for example: There have been times when the heat is turned up high and no one is home. The guests asked if they could bring their own heater so they don't have to use the central heat but they still abuse ours. My gas bill with previous guests in the past has been $68 and now with these guests my gas bill alone is more than $200. I dont know what to do I feel that the guests are abusing our agreement. I am afterall renting out one room not my office. 

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

It sounds like you need to have a conversation with your guests about what is acceptable and what is not.  It's hard sometimes, but it's necessary so you don't feel like a prisoner in your own home. 

[Janeth0]

Thank you!

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

You have to set boundaries and tell the guests no.  You are the host and do not need to be held hostage to every guest request and demand.  They can choose to go elsewhere if they can't sleep in the same room - that is not your problem, it's theirs!  Your listing says they can have access to the common areas: "Guests will have access the common rooms with in the house. They are able to use the living room, kitchen, and dining room areas. Guests will also have access to the front and back yard." Tell them your office is off limits and he cannot sleep in there any more.  PERIOD. You offer an airmattress in a common area on your listing - that's where he should sleep if he cannot sleep in the bed with his wife.   Why you would buy a TV is beyond me, but you bought it now, and are letting them use it illegally (they cannot use your Netflix account if they are not a part of your household, which they are not, they are renters - read your terms of service at Netflix!)  Tell them no to touching the thermostat - it's not theirs to control.  Tell them no to bringing in a space heater. They are not "abusing" the agreement, they are testing the boundaries of where the agreement ends and you keep giving in.  You must be the ones who say no. 

[Janeth0]

Thank you! I needed to hear that. I have been so accommodating to them but they really are pushing the boundaries.  I will have a conversation with them tonight.

[Daniel127]

@Janeth0 How did it go after you talked with them?

[Andrea9]

@Janeth0

Be aware that you are letting your guests use you as doormat. Learn to develope your host muscle and pull up your accommodating draw bridge as soon as a guests oversteps a boundary. Don't wait for days. Learn how to address such issues quickly, clearly in a friendly way.

Long-term rentals are a completely different ball game from short stays. Especially if it's a room in one's primary home. It's very reminiscent of the old student roommate thing, and gets progressively worse the longer it goes and multiplies in force when it's more than one guest!

Short-term rentals are usually great because they're short Nice guests stay nice because they don't start nesting, and bad guests are out quickly.

And yes, please let us know how it goes, because it's a great help to us too when giving support to other hosts.

[Sharon64]

I had two guests who shared a room; father and son from India. They abused their privieges during their 14 day visit. The fathe was downstairs on my big screen day and night while the son studied upstairs. He took over the remote; adjusted the fans how he liked them; ate and drank any and all they wanted of my products; had appliances plugged in all over the house. Althoug their rental agreement was for their room and kitchen privileges (which they also abused by being slobs), the father continuously used the downstairs guest restroom and left the seat up. So even though I made it the 14 days I wish I would have contacted Airbnb (which you can do) from the beginning to arrange for another place for them to stay. They day before they were to leave they trashed my kitchen thinking I would not be home until 7pm; I got home at 3pm and there was food all over the walls and floor; uneaten food on the table; food left in a pot on the stove that had congealed, etc. Wehn they walked in the door the father immediately started apologizing and wanting to clean up the mess...I let him have it and told him to clean up the mess and go up to the room and stay there untll they lef the next morrning; replace or pay me for the food they ate and the water they drank. The son tried to apologize and I told him the same thing. They father kept coming downstairs and I just glared at him. He tried to take the remote but I withheld it from him; he tried to make conversation  other than telling him to stay out of the guest bathroom and not to plug in any more of his phones, computers, etc. My boyfriend came over the next morning to see them out as I had to go to work to make sure they didn't steal or break anything. I wish I would have called Airbnb from the beginning to arrange another place for them...it was a very trying 14 days and in the end they stole all of my measuring cups and spoons for which Airbnb refunded me. IF I HAD IT TO DO AGAIN I WOULD HAVE HAD THEM REMOVED ONCE I NOTED THEY WERE ABUSING THE AGREEMENT. They removed their profile before they left.

[Janeth0]

After a lot of discussion with my fiancé on how we should approach the guests we did, we made sure that we talked to them together as we were starting to have arguments since our guest would only approach my fiancé and completely ignore me. We started off very calm and polite just wanted to talk to the guest about a couple of things that were concerning us and we wanted to address. 

We told the guest that we have noticed that he was sleeping in our office and that we were not comfortable with that since that was not the agreement that we had via AirBnB. He quickly reacted to this and started to say that he was embarrassed with his wife since he snored. He also said that he just assumed it was fine since we were so generous to share the office with him. After some back and forth we had to make it clear that it was NOT OK for him to sleep in the office like he had been, it seemed like in his mind there was no problem with this. I had to mention several times that our AirBnB agreement clearly stated ONE room with a SHARED bath. We could tell he didn’t like this very much.

We then talked about the outrageous utility bills. Keep in mind that I am only referring to the gas portion of the bill, we usually only pay around $70 for gas alone. I understand that it’s winter and it’s cold but even taking this into account I still find it hard to understand how the gas portion of my bill ALONE was +$200! Anyhow we needed to bring this up. I started off my asking our guest to please be considerate of the use of our furnace as our gas bill alone has more than doubled. He quickly replied, “Well there are two more people in the house.” With a that’s too bad look on his face. I responded by saying that it didn’t matter, that we had had more than two people in our home in the past and the bill was nowhere near this. I specifically asked him not to increase the heat in our home above 64 degree as anything more than this really begins to feel uncomfortable for us. He started to say it was too cold and I expressed a little frustration since he asked to bring his own portable heater two weeks into staying with us so that he wouldn’t have to heat the whole house. I made sure to reiterate that to him. I also explained how we have come home after long days at work to find the home in the 80’s with no one home, and that that was not ok.

After this the guest asked if he could pay cash to extend his stay for a couple more weeks. I told him that he would need to book through AirBnB and that I would no longer offer him a discount. He asked to block a few weeks for him but I refused since he has no idea on how many more days he would need to stay. In all honesty I would just like them to leave. I know that not being friendly is not a crime but I just don’t feel comfortable in my own home now.

[Sharon64]

Do yourself a favor and just tell the guests you have people coming and just block the next few days. When he leaves open the room again. Good luck with this character. Looks like you are fighting a losing battle so just cut your losses and hopefully your next guest will be very delightful.