Help! Inconsiderate guests

[Arlete4]

Hi there. My current guests are driving me crazy. I never had a bad experience until now but the couple that is visiting us this week is giving us some trouble and we need your expert advice. They spend the day arguing with eachother which is not pleasant at all. But worse than that they are not considered with the house in the sense that they have long (hour long) shower each, they take over the kitchen around 7 pm and are not finished with their cooking/ dining and washing until (and I swear this is true!) MIDNIGHT! They take over all the space leaving us with no dinner time, today I counted the time and to wash 2 pans  and their dinnerware it took them 45minutes of runnin water. Is the first time we found ourselves in this situation and we don’t really know how to proceed or approach them as of course we do our utmost to give all our guests the best we can and their positive review is important to us. I do have a guest book which asks guests to be considerate to the house and the people in it, giving the shower time example specifically but they just don’t care about how high our utilities going to be or the fact they’re insulting eachother with complete disregard for us. What advice would you give. They’re still here and we don’t really know how to manage it in a non-hurting and delicate way. Thank you. 

[Letti0]

@Arlete4  I would probably call AirBnB and ask them to cancel penalty free. Tell them the constant arguing is upsetting you and your partner making you both very uncomfortable with these guests in your home. They never stop the arguing with each other you are concerned and worried it may escalate into something very bad and unsafe for you. You want them relocated ASAP. Do not take no for an answer. Unfortunately you do not have limit's in you listing on the kitchen use and they are clearly abusing it. You need to put light kitchen use and state a timeframe for use in the future. You will not get paid for the balance of their stay, but it sounds like your not making any money by their abuse of the ultilities anyway. 

AirBnB  United Kingdom +44 203 318 1111

[Kath9]

Hi @Arlete4 this doesn't sound good - how much longer are they staying for? Some people simply have no common sense or courtesy. You are well within your rights to ask them to have shorter showers and to not wash their dishes under running water. I state on my profile and in my guest booklet that showers are to be no more than 5 minutes long, plus I have water-wise stickers everywhere and a timer in the shower (we do have water shortages and water is very expensive here). People breach this all the time, but at least it plants the seed so that they hopefully don't stay in there too long.

I have also had issues with kitchen use in the past - I used to allow use of the kitchen for quick meals and light meal preparation. However, after months of putting up with exactly what you have described, people taking over the kitchen for the entire evening so I can't even get in there myself (not to mention using all my oils and condiments, burning my pots, leaving burn marks on my wooden bench tops, etc. etc.). Unfortunately, because of these people, I have now stopped the use of the stove and oven altogether - guests can still use the kettle, toaster and microwave. Interestingly, I now get a completely different type of guest (i.e. ones that are happy to go out for dinner!).

Regarding your current guests, remember that they are staying in your home and you need to clearly state your boundaries. Explain that you are unable to get into the kitchen to cook your own dinner and  ask them to cook simpler meals. Ask them to have shorter showers and to fill the sink to wash dishes. Probably not a lot you can do about the arguing.

Above all, DO NOT LEAVE THEM A GOOD REVIEW. We hosts need to look out for each other because Airbnb doesn't - we are all we have.