How would review the guest?

[Dora31]

hello guys

i have been hosting people for over 3 years. I have a 2 bedroom flat and I advertise the other room. the bathroom is shared.

my current guests booked the room for over 2 weeks and I feel a bit uncomfrotable in my own flat. It might be me overreacting things and I know that some people would smile at my issues 🙂 but we are all different. 

1. it is a shared bathroom and since their time is flexible, I asked them to use the bathroom from 8-8.30 each day to get on time to work but it appears that they like to use the bathroom in that period as well.

I stayed home sick for a couple of says and there have been several occasions where the i could not use the toilet as one guest stayed in the toilet for half an hour and the other one spent there another half an hour while I was sick and was in need to use the toilet. I understand that people spend as much time as they can in their own home but surely should not they respect/consider others?

2. I never use the dryer fucntion on my washing machine but a dryer rack. my guests used the washing machine and without any notice, they removed some of clotches from the rack and moved some. I felt really uncomfrotable people I dont know touching my clothes/underwears. Should not they have asked if they can remove my clothes first? I dropped them a message since they were not home that i feel very uncomfortable but no answer. 

3. Smoking is allowed on the balcony only but i felt really strong cigaratte smell in the living room where the balcony is. i asked the guests to close the balcony door while smoking but it did not seem to happen so i locked the balcony so they dont have access to it anymore. 

They are quite and clean but they are not flatmates but even if they were, i would not allow this sort of things so i dont know what review to leave. 

suggestions?

[Farah1]

Hi @Dora31 ,

Sometimes, what we think is common sense is not a common sense for others. So, this is my input for your issues. You definitely have the rights to write whatever review you want, but I think it is a bit unfair to *blame* them on some of these things UNLESS you already set the right expectations/have it in your house rules/tell them during their stay. We cannot assume that everyone will do what they *should* do. This works both ways... I personally don't like to receive a bad/negative review from my guests if the issue was not communicated to me during the stay.

Also, this kind of possible risk is one of the reasons why I limit the max. days/do not take long-term guests.

1. I used to block the access to the bathroom between 6-6:30am in the morning to ensure I can get ready for work on time. I put this in my house rules (old listings) and also remind each guest during the check-in tour. IF there are guests who are using it for taking a shower without prior notice, I would talk to them and remind them and emphasize that getting to work on time is very important for me. Did you remind them again/say something when they did not follow the bathroom hours?

I have this in my house rules as I have a shared bathroom > The bathroom is shared - please be respectful by keeping it clean, clean after yourself, the time spent in the bathroom, and don't leave towels behind. Please put toiletries caddy (that is provided) in the tub as instructed during the check-in tour.

Though there are still some people who spend a long time in the bathroom and do not care that others might need to use the bathroom too.

2. This is one of the reasons why I do not give laundry access to my guests. I don't know what is the set-up for your laundry room, if you can lock it, I would definitely consider locking it.

I personally would definitely say something in the review about this "X used my laundry room without my permission"

You can always use the "sandwich" strategy for the review.

"X and friend stayed for # days. They were quiet and clean. However, they accessed my laundry room without my permission, did not follow the smoking instruction, and was not very courteous with the shared bathroom situation. X and friend would be good guests for an entire place listing/private rooms with private bathroom. Everything else was good."