Hi Everyone,
We have just hosted our first guest for 27 days and let's just say it has been the most bizarre experience ever!
We had an enquiry just about the day after the house was posted. It was originally for 18 days as they were building a house that wasn't completed yet. I was there to meet them when they arrived. They were very happy with the house and wanted to stay longer - so we agreed on an extra 9 days. They came back asking if we would host them for several months as their house now wasn't finished. We said no for all of the reasons the original post did here.
The last day they were meant to be out by 11 however they slept in and asked for longer time and offered to pay. I told them that was fine, and tooing and froing meant they eventually left at 8pm. No big deal, we didn't have another booking until the following weekend. Here's where it gets bizarre!
First of all in a communication about whether they needed me to pick up washing, the guest told me that she had bought us a coffee table, assuring me that it matched our current furniture. I thought that was nice of her and said so, as she told me it was a gift.
Eventually, when I went there on the Monday, I hardly recognised the place - not in a bad way! She had bought all this stuff, including artwork on the walls, extra cushions, the coffee table as well as a nest of tables, a draught stopper, curtains HUNG over the sliding door and windows (very nice stuff complete with tiebacks), a computer screen on the desk, and numerous decorative pieces. Lots of things that we were planning on doing as we went along. I was walking around in shock! At least she had very nice taste!
All well and good, even though there were a few little things missing, I'm like oh well we've got far more than we've lost. Except that as I went I found more things missing and today hubby said to me "the Fire TV dongle has been taken out of the back of the TV and the remote has gone." Now I am concerned. I wasn't worried about the one set of towels, a doona, a little electric handheld mixer, the 20 wooden coathangers, the comforter that was ruined with candlewax, or the fact she had rearranged all the cupboards and I still haven't worked out completely what else might be gone. But the Fire TV is a subscription service for which we are paying a monthly fee! She did leave a DVD player lol.... oh and I forgot she still has the set of keys her partner forgot to leave behind.
I have been going back and forth with her today, asked her to return the keys and the fire stick and because I think she is a little off centre, we are going to change the locks and put in a keypad entry. What is worse is that we have just gone into a 7 day lockdown (I live in Melbourne Australia) and so this will be her excuse now not to return anything.
Now tonight I have had an enquiry from someone with no profile and only a verified email address, saying they have purchased a house but settlement won't be until mid December (normally a long settlement here is 90 days not 120) and it is just him and a child. Ironically that is the same amount of time the previous guest requested. I did decline the request because I thought just answering his enquiry would not work (lesson learnt).
I thought I would share this experience because I have a couple of friends who have airbnb's here and they have just thought it was the most weird experience they had heard of.
What concerns me is that she has a key and although my hubby is working there during the day, I'm a little apprehensive that she might come there when she sees there is no one there tonight. I did say to her I was happy to pack up all the things she had purchased and have them ready for her, but she said they were all gifts. There was a brand new vacuum cleaner sitting next to mine! When I said she had left it she said "oh you can have that if you like". I said to her it was fine I didn't need it!
So that was my baptism of fire into airbnb lol...
I'll be divorcing my husband if anything goes wrong as we currently only have landlord insurance not the one for short term rentals, because he hasn't done the paperwork. However as it is his birthday tomorrow so he may get to live for another day lol....