Guests taking advantage/imposing

[Lisa367]

Been hosting for about 3 years - while my husband and I are in school.   Looking for advice on guests who really impose or take advantage.  Our room is VERY cheap and we offer a lot of things at no extra charge:  umbrellas, slippers, towels, beach supplies, body products, shower products, blow dryer, etc etc.  We had to ban cooking about 18 months ago because guests were destroying the kitchen.  Now we only offer the kitchen for making coffee/tea (in the listing rules).  However, we always seem to have guests who take advantage or think they own the house and I have no idea how to handle it.  You'd think it's common sense, but its not.  Here's what I mean - just in the last month I had a guest who went into my bathroom closet and used my brand new charcoal powder to brush his teeth.  Current guests made salads today and use all my spices including olive oil that was gifted to my italian husband by a friend who works on an olive farm.  And time and time again they are CONSTANTLY using the washing machine without asking me  - and they never use it correctly because the settings are all in Italian and they have no idea what they are doing.  I just now went outside and heard water dripping from the upstairs terrace guest bedroom, meaning they put a load in (without asking) and didn't set it correctly and now there is soaking clothes dripping down onto the neighbors terrace, which I will get screamed at for tomorrow.   Also, today they took it upon themselves to use the terrace that I'm currently gardening on (they have their own private terrace in their room).  They took all my gardening supplies inside and put them on my marble floors - pots full of dirt, so they could eat outside on that terrace.  I understand they might want to use it, but if its not available, sorry, it's not available!!  How do I deal with these situations??  I mean, you would think asking the host if you could use the washing machine, or use food products in the kitchen, would be common sense - but apparently its not.  And no, I do NOT have a washing machine listed as an included amenity on the listing.  How do you all deal with these guests who just think renting a room in your house means they get access to everything?

[Nancy115]

Hi Lisa, Your place looks amazing!

Some guests do take advantage regardless of what you do. You do not have to share all of your personal space with them. I suggest changing your listing to be very specific about the guest spaces, indicating that your balcony, bathroom closet, the washer and any other areas are off limits. You could also remove the kitchen access all together, possibly adding a hotwater maker to the room. Clearly label the items guests are allowed to use. Its unfortunate guests are not always considerate. Good luck.

[Robin4]

@Lisa367

Hi Lisa, nice to see you back here again! Gee with 130 reviews under your belt and Superhost I thought you would be able to tell the rest of us how to fix these problems :-))

Shared spaces are very hard to control!  God, I have enough issues and they in another building in the back yard Lisa, not in my house.

I had one guest who cooked up some sausages to eat while on his travels on our barbeque before he left at 8.30 in the morning. At 10pm that night I just happen to come down the garden past the barbeque and noticed it was still running, chewing through our precious bottle gas......What th!

The rule of thumb is, if a guest can abuse your hospitality they will. They will go out for the day and leave the airconditioning running....they will take those 5 cakes of boxed Dove soap they found in the restock cupboard....they will turn that tea cup around so you won't see the handle they broke off and threw out in the garbage.

Guest figure they are paying you good money, they have an entitlement!

Try to allocate a guest cupboard and tell them the rest of the kitchen cupboards are your personal space....like your undies drawer and not to be rifled threw, out of bounds.

Is the washing machine in a laundry with a lockable door? If not then there is  a powerpoint lock available on the market! You simply pull the power cord out of the power point and put a lock on the plug and that then stops them from using your washer. All you need to say is you don't let guests use it because too much damage has resulted in the past...you aren't being nasty, just preventing problems.

Same with your terrace, does that have locked door access? 

Try to look on guests as paying clients Lisa, not friends, don't expect that they will treat you and your possessions as a friend........ they won't!

And if you do find the magic formula on how to deal with them.....will you let the rest of us know!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Lisa367]

Omg, I don't have a lock on the laundry room door, but I will definitely put one on.  That is really really a great idea, thank you!!!

[Letti0]

@Lisa367 As @Nancy115 says. Spell it out in your listing and rules. Put a sign on the washer "May not be used by guests". Also I think you need to raise your rates, you are attracting the bottom feeders with such a low price. 

[Lisa367]

Hi Letitia, I really wish I could raise my prices, but the competition around me already has lower prices.  I'm surrounded by Sicilians who are willing to lower themselves to renting out their beautiful apartments for 20 Euros per night.  I have to compete with that, which is insane.  Our room is already priced as high as I'm able to price it while still getting reservations.  In the last 3 years, there have been nearly 350 MORE hosts who have put up apartments in the area.  It's caused my prices to be reduced by half.   Had I been able to keep my prices up to where they were, I'd overlook a LOT of things, for sure.

[Letti0]

@Lisa367 I was in Catania, Venezia, Firenze, Roma and other places  in September and October of 2016 and was paying 400-1,200 euros a night for hotels. How can people rent so cheap for rooms when a good to excellent hotel costs so much more? It's got to be a losing deal for all these hosts. Such a sad thing. 

[Lisa367]

its because the cost of living here is so low.  most of these places are owned by family, therefore rent-free.  meaning, they can make a bundle even if they are renting for pennies.

[Fred13]

@Lisa367 Double your price and see what happens? Even if you only rent 50% you will be way,way ahead: less stress, less need to be on constant 'preventive' mode and you will in all likelihood get a much better lot of guests.  

[Pete28]

I would put small fridge, microwave and kettle in guest room and lock kitchen, or polite no entry sign. Provide what is needed in the guests room, then they don't need to use your stuff. 

Also lock washing machine, terrace and anything else they may try to get into. We in theory could share washing machine, but i don't want to,spend $1k on a new one when they destroy it.

[Fred13]

Aye @Pete28, limit their area of influence.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Lisa367

Put locks on doors & cabinets, put up "Do not disturb" signs up as reminders, reiterate during check-in tour, make sure dos and don'ts are covered very clearly in the house rules. Do not allow kitchen entry at all (coffee/tea/fridge in or right outside of the the room) and "Host Private Space - Please do not enter" signs where needed.

Idiot-proof your house and prepare for the worst (guest immaginable) but hope for the best. And NEVER assume anything about guests except that they will take advantage of you if they can.

[Lisa367]

Thanks so much for all your input, everyone!  Unfortunately, the house has a very open floor plan, so I don't really have the ability to lock people out of rooms.  However, I am going to install a lock on the laundry room door tomorrow and I'm very excited about that.  That will make me feel 100% better regarding the washing machine use.   However, I'm definitely not going to give the guests a hot plate in their room.  With the type of guests we have, they'd burn the entire building down in about 4 minutes.

[Fred13]

Hahaha; solution - do not allow pyrotechnies.

Seriously, perhaps raise price to say $49 and see what happens. You do offer a lot of amenities which is so kind of you,  just perhaps be more 'fun' if they weren't so costly.

[Suzanne302]

I have two areas off-limits to guests. I put a sign on the door to an extra bedroom that says, "PRIVATE. No guest access. Thank you." I also put up a curtain in the small hallway that contains my washer/dryer and leads to my master bedroom with the same sign. I think that makes it pretty clear.

I think it comes down to setting expectations from the very beginning. Good luck!