Need advise on how to prevent Guests from using my mailing address, violating House Rules

[Gina136]

Dear Community:

The issue of use of the Host postal address by AirBnB guests has been discussed extensively, but I have not found yet suggestions on how to dissuade Guests from violating a House Rule prohibiting the use of the Host postal address.

I am a SuperHost with many years of experience offering rooms in my home, located in a city with lots of higher education institutions and many visitors, from out of State and international.

Increasingly, I'm finding that AirBnB Guests are less and less respectful of homes, and ignore House Rules as they see fit, pretending they don't know them or have "forgotten". That, despite that I currently use 3 mechanisms to make Guests aware of the Rules in addition to the requirement to agree to them prior to booking, built into the system:

1) Sending them before arrival and asking to send back the "passcode" word that I include at the end (if they don't send it, chances are they have nto read it, so I  ask them to go back and review them, until they send the "passcode"

2) Including them in the Description section of my listings.

3) Leaving a copy displayed in the guestrooms

Still, about one quarter of my Guests will end up using my mailing address, despite knowing it is not allowed.

I have seen my address used for a range of purposes, from online purchases (which often results in my home being inundated with catalogs and promotional mail), to openning bank accounts (which I am very concerned about.)

 I have now discovered that one of my current guests used it to register to a local graduate school. When I inquired how come he had ignored my Rule, he said he "had to",  as providing the school with an address in our State came with a discounted tuition.

This crosses the line.

Any suggestion on how to prevent Guests from doing  what they like and utilizing Hosts' addresses without consent?

Thanks!

Gina

[Alexandra316]

@Gina136What about updating your rule to something like: 

THE USE OF MY MAILING ADDRESS IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

Any mail or parcels sent to my address will be immediately returned to sender.

Do not provide it under any circumstance or for any purpose. The address of this listing is ONLY to allow guests to identify its location. It is not to be provided to anyone, including schools, banks, insurance companies, shops, online retailers, or vendors. 

I can recommend a local mailbox service if you need an address for receiving mail. 

Is there any option for having your mail delivered to a secured mail box, rather than leave it unsecured at your home?

Another way to stop this from happening would be to stop accepting longer stays. If guests are only staying a few days, it probably wouldn't happen. That many not be feasible for you. 

[Cindy403]

I would also include the addresses to the closest UPS store, FedEx store and Amazon locker for packages. All of those can accept packages for people. Seems over the top, but that will provide them a local address for packages should they need to receive something during their stay. I don’t currently spell this out, but I haven’t been faced with this yet. 

The use of your your address for a grad school residency requirement is so above and beyond I don’t even know what to say.  I feel this should be escalated to AirBnB and the university. 

[Gina136]

Thanks for these suggestions. I am very torn about the incident with the graduate school having been provided my address as that of the guest "residence". I have been advised that escalating with the school might open myself to being sued by the Guest for interference in his school affairs. Another Community member points out that not offering long-term stays might prevent this. While many AirBnB guests in our area come for stays of several weeks at our academic institutions, it may be a reality that long term stays are too problematic in practice and are poorly regulated 😞

[Alexandra316]

@Gina136Yes, long-term stays are really problematic. I made the decsion to not accept stays of any more than 21 days, mostly to stop anyone trying to claim tenancy rights. 

[Gina136]

I am reaching out to AirBnB about the issue of using mailing address without consent and against Rules. I don't know how sensible they are to measures to prevent violation of rules with possible implications.

As you mention the issue of tenancy rights, I realize that I should ressearch this. It is very hard to find the specifics for any given State. It seems California and NY have 30 days of consecutive stay as the magic number for acquisition of tenancy. I have read in the Community that for FL it is 14 days. I can't find any specific for my State, Massachusetts. I feel AirBnB could do more (provide more resources) that advise Hosts to check their local regulations.

While I don't envision my typical AirBnB guest to want to stay longer claiming tenant rights, it is the case that many long-term Guests come with expectations that would be more typical of an apartment share -- bring visitors, receive mail, come with tons of luggage, store boxes or belongings, use my driveway if they need to, etc.

Thanks.

[Cindy403]

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@Gina136 wrote:

Another Community member points out that not offering long-term stays might prevent this. 

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Because I host a room within my primary residence, I decided to limit my stays from 1-14 nights. I live close to world-class universities and hospitals and an Ivy League univeristy in Philadelphia but I don’t want long-term guests. My guests have tended to be in town for a specific reason. Limiting to two weeks max is a good limit for me. My longest guest so far has been eight nights (international guest visiting a child and grandchildren).  

Your timeframe is dependent on your target guest. If you want the longer-term university affiliated people, you might have to go longer and set expectations with the package delivery. If you’d rather have vacationers or business travelers, I would recommend reducing your booking settings to a shorter term. 

To be proactive since you’ve had issues, I would include package delivery addresses just in case. Get ahead of the issue. 

[Letti0]

@Gina136  First off ANY mail or packages you get do not give it to any guest. Period. Mark on the front: 'Not known at this address, return to sender. I use a black sharpie, but make sure you cross out your address and leave the name only. Drop them in a postbox, if it's FedX or UPS I refuse delivery if I'm around other wise I drop them into a Kinko's or UPS store next time I am out and about. 

Also about the jerk who used your address for residency. Call the college and tell them the truth. This is more common then one would think at the schools for students to do this.