I tend to see the best in people and I think the same is true with other Airbnb hosts. I mean who else could open up their homes to total strangers?
I currently have a first time guest who is very very nice! But so many problems. She's not trashing the place or anything like that but just super high maintenance. The problem with first time airbnb guests is they forget I am not a 24/7 concierge and unless it's an emergency, anything they have questions about or need help with should be communicated with the host with advance notice whenever possible. I'm not talking about questions about the house either because I always try to respond to messages asap. I've had to drive from far away late at night twice to help her. I've had to remind her of my house rules when she brought an outside overnight guest. She's been very cooperative and understanding, always being agreeable to resolution charges and being apologetic but I think she is maybe inconsiderate and this type of understanding comes with more airbnb use. I've had to recommend to her that for future bookings, she should make sure her host is close by and can easily come help her.
I don't know, maybe it could also be my own naivety. It's been a learning curve for me and I've realized I need to stop accepting reservations for first time airbnb users. My hosting style is pretty hands off. My house is self check in, semi smart, I always respond to messages right away and I have tips placed all around the house and you really don't even need me there. I've had plenty of great first time guests but the rest are not worth the headache. Anyways I think it's important to recognize if a guest's livestyle and manners fits with your hosting style or not. It's not to be discriminatory but just to ensure a good experience for both parties.
Also a side note for hosts in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia limited lodging laws does not allow guests to have visitors outside of 8am-12am (I even told the airbnb rep this and they couldn't find it, but I found it doing a quick google search and attached it in their email follow up with me. Serious eyeroll man. It pays to be read up and you really cannot rely on Airbnb for legal adivce).For this reason I had to charge my guest a one time other issue fee for her overnight guest and have a airbnb rep call her to collect her extra guest information. I could not change the exisiting reservation to include her extra guest. Why doesn't Airbnb allow an option to update the guest occupany for a select number of nights if the extra guest is not staying the entire reservation? I've had to do this before and refund my guest the difference of nights her other friends were not staying. This has become a bit of me ranting but I wish Airbnb had more employees who were host themselves! It's so frustrating to have to finesse the platform they provide us for better use.
