@Joey208
I can't answer all of your questions as I rent out individual rooms in my own home, where I live, and have never rented out the property as a whole unit. I can see how issues like this can come up if you are listing both the whole property and individual rooms though.
I can't seem to see your listings on your profile, so I don't know if you have snoozed them or something?
Anyway, the reason I was looking was to check what you have in your house rules etc. I personally find it really important to spell stuff out to guests, even if you think it should be obvious.
Here are a few suggestions:
- If you haven't done so already, please make it very clear on your listings which areas the guests have access to, e.g. for the individual room listing, specify that they do not have access to the other bedrooms. If a guest asked me for use of an additional bedroom, they would have to pay something for it, even if they're just using it for storage.
- I also mention energy efficiency in my house rules.
- I insist that every guest confirms they have read the full listing and house rules either before they book, or as soon as they book if they use Instant Booking.
- I also do a pretty thorough welcome tour, which includes reminding them of some of these, e.g. turning off lights when they go out, how not to flood showers etc. (I also had problems early on with guests thinking a tiled bathroom was the same as a wetroom). If you have explained this, then you have every right to ask for compensation if the guest then ignores your instructions and causes a flood or leak.
- Because these things have been mentioned to them before, it's much easier to bring it up if again when they ignore it, e.g. send them a gentle reminder to turn off the lights.
- I don't know if you can charge extra for electricity but perhaps other hosts have advice on this. I certainly don't think you can charge it after the fact, i.e. if this was not mentioned on your listing. Instead, you would have to have something written there about excessive usage resulting in additional charges and set a limit in Kilowatt hours for what that excessive usage is so that it's clear cut. Adding a smart meter would encourage guests to keep an eye on their consumption, but also, you could get a system that allows you to switch off lights from your phone if you 100% know the guests are out of the house. Again, you need to specify this on your listing so there is no dispute about you doing this. On the other hand, this could encourage guests to become lazy about doing it if they think you are the one responsible for turning off the lights!
- As you are not living at the property, I would also consider locking areas like the linen cupboard that you don't want guests to access.
- Ignore Airbnb suggestions about discounts and pricing tips. They are nonsense. For example, they were recently telling me to discount my most popular room by over 40%, even though I know it's already very good value. Base your prices and discounts on what you feel the listing is worth and what similar listings may be charging in your area. Never discount a listing to the point that it's not financially worth it for you.
- Try to keep all conversations on the Airbnb messaging system so you have a paper trail if anything goes wrong, like a guest causing damage. If you end up having a verbal communication with the guest about any issue (rather than just casual conversation), send them a follow up message via Airbnb to summarise what you discussed. Airbnb will need to see this if there is any dispute with the guest in future.
-