First time hosting and guest yelling at you or invasive host? How would you have reacted?

Chris12001
Level 2
Brussels, Belgium

First time hosting and guest yelling at you or invasive host? How would you have reacted?

Dear Community,

 

I have listed 5 different private rooms with a private or shared bathroom and the rest of the house is a shared area between the guest in fully renovated house (so everything is brand new).

 

It's the first time that I am hosting guest, so I don't have any experience in hospitality business.

 

My first guest (1 couple with 2 children of 2 and 3 years old) rented a private room with private shower for 49 days so they had 55% discount (very low pricing after all the discount) because they rented the room for more than 30 days and because I am new host.

 

The guest arrived on the 12th April. I had to go to the house 4 times in one week.

 

First time I had to go to the house on the 15th April to meet the expert that certified the conformity of the gaz and electricity because he asked the week before the guest arrived to change one gaz tube before he could certify the gaz installation. He needed to come back and check that the tube was properly installed guest after he left. I told the guest we would come. The main door was locked with the key inside so I had to ring the doorbell and ask the guest to open door. I told him not leave the key inside because other new potential guest or I would not be able to enter if he did. We only stayed in the main entrance hall, garage and basement. He controlled the tube and we stayed in the house for 15 minutes or so.

 

On the 17th April, I asked the worker to remove from the garage and the basement all the tools and construction left over of the renovation. I told the guest in advance. I went to the house to check if they did it the job right. I stayed there for 15-20 minutes in the main entrance hall, garage and basement. I realized that the main door was a bit hard to close and open. The two kids were very very noisy and jumping all around the house.

 

On the 18th April, I went back to try to unsuccessfully fix the door and adjust the door hinge for two hours. The husband was not home that day. I did not warned them I would come. There was only his wife and noisy kids at home. Again the kids were jumping all around and specifically in the stairs. I was wondering in which state I would find the house after 49 days. I stayed mainly in front of the main entrance door for two hours. And I went to the kitchen to wash my hands and and two or three small plastic caps in the sink.

 

On the 19th April, I went back to fix the door with the right tools and after watching a tutorial on YouTube. The door was closed with the key inside. So I had the ring the door again. I told him straight never leave the key on the door as any guest can checkin anytime. I told him that I already told him that the other day. He said straight yelling at me he rented the whole house and I have no right to be there. I told him that he only rented one private room and he has access the rest of the common area and there might be other guest. I tried to talk but he continued yelling at me. He yelled at me that I already came the day before when he was not present. That's not normal. That I was there to spy on them. That I was coming everyday. That I must warned him before I come. That he was scared for his family (really? The only danger in the house are those two kids jumping everywhere and yelling all the time), that I had no right be in the house, etc. I waited until he finished to "talk". I yelled back at him he only rented a private room. The rest of the house is a common space and free for access to everyone (me included). I told him that he did not had a rental lease agreement for the whole house where the landlord has not right entering the premise without consent of the tenant. I told him he could compare the room he paid as if he had paid a room in a guest house, bed and breakfast or hotel room. I told him that other guest might be coming anytime. He told me they other guest can come but not me (really ? He is scared of me for his familly but not complete strangers living in the same house). I told him that I have every right to be there for the maintenance, cleaning, repair, ... (very difficult time to find people /staff during covid-19). I told him I did not needed his permission to go the common area. I only need his permission for the access to his private room (which I don't want to go anyway). His wife came and she explained calmly her point of view and I explained calmly my point of view (without telling what I thought about the kids and their parenting). I told them I will respond the same way I am addressed to. If you yell I will yell as well. I will talk normally if you speak normally (like his wife did).

 

Well, I guess I can put my five star review in my A..

 

What do you think? How would you have reacted? Am I really too intrusive?

 

Fell free to comment and share your experience. 

11 Replies 11
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Chris12001  For starters, it sounds like you advertised your place before it was really ready to be rented out. The gas situation, the door that required fixing, the tools and constuction materials left behind, those are all things you should have made sure were in good shape before you accepted guests. This isn't to say that things can't go wrong at any time, even if you start out with all ship-shape, of course they can. But that doesn't mean you don't check that everything is in good working order, all clean and tidy,  before guests arrive.

Secondly, hosts don't normally "tell" a guest that you are coming over- it's polite to let them know you need to come for xx reason and ask when is a convenient time.

However, the nature of your listing is such that because you rent private rooms to multiple unrelated guests which share common areas, you should be able to go over and do what you need to without getting their "permission", although you still should let them know when you are coming. It sounds like these guests didn't understand the nature of what they were renting and seem to think the whole place is theirs. Do you make it clear in your listing what the living situation is? Do you make it clear that you may come by occasionally to do maintenance tasks? If not, you need to make this clear in your listing wording and also when guests book. Also, showing up 4 times in one week is quite a lot- I would probably also feel spied upon if a host did that.

Are you saying there is only one key to the house? That all guests share and that you don't have your own key to let yourself in without disturbing your guests? That's crazy- all hosts have keys to their own property. What I would suggest is that you have a key safe for each guest, each one progrmmed with a different code. If you expect that 5 separate guests are going to remember to put the one key back, you are going to have no end of problems.

Never get into a yelling match with guests. That is highly unprofessional. If a guest acts like yours did, you say something calmly like "I'm sorry that you are disturbed that I would come to do some maintainance on the house in the common areas. It seems that you aren't happy with the situation here and I suggest that you look for another place to stay as soon as possible, as this doesn't seem to be a good host/guest fit."  Then you leave. If you feel that just because someone is yelling at you, that you have to yell back, maybe hosting isn't a good job for you.

And these types of contentious situations shoud not be done in person face-to-face. Walk away from a battle and when you get home, use the Airbnb messaging to communicate with guests firmly, politely and professioally, so there is a clear record of the exchanges.

The main reason I can see that you got into this situation in the first place is that you accepted guests before the place was all in order. 

Thank you @Sarah977 for your feedback. I advertised one room for testing as soon as the house was ready. I added all the other rooms after the first booking.  The gas pipe was replaced the same day the expert came (before my guest even booked the room) but he had to come back to verify it has been done properly (after the guest arrived). I did not realized I would have a booking so quickly during covid19 confinement. There was only little leftover from renovation work mostly in the basement which is not really part of the rental as most has already been removed before the guest booked the room. And there was a few drill, power plug and a few tools left in the garage. I really don’t know why did not picked up everything two days before the guest arrived and left behind a few things. As for the door, I did not realized the door was a bit hard to fully lock or open because I was using the digital keypad to enter the house. I fix it once I found out the problem and to make more comfortable for the guest. So it really thought everything was ready for the guest  once I accepted the booking. Probably a beginner mistake to trust that everything will go according to plan. 

The guest knew that they booked a house with shared area since it was their first question when they contacted me before the booking. 

The listing mentions that there are shared areas in four different place / tab in the listing : about this accommodation, more about accommodation, access to travelers, house Rules and photo description (directly translated from French into English, I don’t know if those are the exact since I am using the French version of the app). So I think it’s clear enough for people checking the listing. 

I did not made it clear that I would come for maintenance, cleaning, ... that’s my bad I guess. After confinement, I plan to hire people to do this but right now very few people are working so I have to do it myself.

 

No, I do have several sets of keys. But if the guest locks the door and leave the keys on the door. No one can enter even with the keys or digipad. I told him not to do that the first time I went to the house. He did it again on purpose not to allow me to enter. That’s what he told me. I told him for the second that I am should be able to come anytime as guest can checkin at any time of the day or night and I (or cleaning crew) feel like I should be able to enter for the maintenance at anytime during the day time in shared living space. Otherwise, how do you clean the common area in the coming weeks with the guest inside everyday ? You are definitely right about never yelling back but it feels so frustrating that people feels entitled to yell at you because they paid for service. Thank you again for your feedback and tips.

@Chris12001 Of course it's outrageous that the guest yelled at you and also that they thought they could demand that you not come over to attend to things. I'm sorry this was your first hosting experience. Once the Covid crisis resolves, I'm sure it will be smoother going forward.

Along with making the shared house situation clearer in your isting, also write something like  "I'm always available to answer your questions or assist you, and I come and go from the house on a regular basis for cleaning and maintenance."

One thing all hosts will tell you is that a lot of guests don't read through everything, so it's important to reiterate important things in a few places. They'll arrive with armloads of groceries to cook, when it says clearly in the ad that there is no kitchen usage, they'll be outraged that there's no Wifi in a rural, rustic place that states that there isn't Wifi, or think they are getting a whole house to themselves when it's clearly a private room. It can be frustrating.

I'm thinking that since there aren't any other guests at the house right now, that this current guest has developed the false feeling that the whole house is his, even though he knows it's not. He does sound like a jerk.

Thank for your suggestion, I will add the comment in the automated message after a guest makes a booking.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Chris12001  P.S. I just looked at your listing. You definitely need to make it more clear in your listing description what the nature of the rental is. You need to say something like, "Please note- this is a hostel-type situation with private rooms and baths rented to multiple guests. All the house guests share common spaces- kitchen, living room, and laundry facilities (and whatever else there is). If you require more privacy than this, please do not book this listing."

It's much better for you, and for guests, if things are quite clear, and if they don''t book if it will create a situation where guests are upset because they didn't realize exactly what they were booking. 

@Sarah977 @I will probably do that to make sure that futur guest are made aware of this. But the current guest was fully aware it was a shared house and there might be others guests coming even though it’s unlike due to Covid19. Thank you for sharing your experience here. 

Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Chris12001 your guests are being completely unreasonable. Unfortunately you will find that often with guests who rent places without reviews or at a discounted price. You can ask them to leave if they are not happy. That might shut them up.
You should change the door lock. If you had this issue once, you will have it all the time. And next time other guests will be asleep or not want to come to the door and you will have a guest out on the street. The best thing to have is a coded lock.

As @Sarah977 don’t even get in the habit of asking for a permission to enter. All your guests will not be telling each other all the time if they are coming or going. I think your listing makes it very clear that it is a private room but perhaps explain in more detail that it will be shared with many other guests, not host. 

@Inna22 Yes, you are totally right. I saw that they were new Airbnb members without any previous review coming from Djibouti according to their phone number international code when I accepted the booking. They are stuck in Belgium due to Covid19. I would love to do what you suggest and ask to leave if they are not happy but I do not feel confortable to do it during confinement period. 

 

Yes,  I do plan to install a self checkin device like Nuki on top of the current digipad to allow a personal temporary code for each guest linked to Airbnb auto sync calendar.

 

 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Chris12001 Remember, your details & instructions should be geared so that ALL can understand them, including the stupid & hustlers (aka con artists). Always think of 'the least common denominators'. It does take a bit of time to make them that tight.

 

A host must always keep their cool in any & all situations, if anything to think clearer on what to do best when encountering a confrontation.

 

Good luck.

 

@Fred13 I already prepared a draft of a guide book with instructions. I love the KISS principle. 

Good show Chris. It gets easier with time, you start to detect a pattern in human behavior and pick up quicker on the potential problem children; that is one of the things that makes this business very interesting.