I’m still new to hosting on Airbnb, but have quickly garnered about 20 good reviews so far in the last 6 wks. I need help with what to write in my review of the difficult couple that just checked out today. In a nutshell: they are high maintenance and demanding.
The wife was very needy from the minute they first arrived… “I need a snack or I’ll get a headache” was proclaimed dramatically 3x in the first 20 min as I was showing them around. (Well then, why didn’t you stop on your 2 hour drive here???) At breakfast yesterday (which I provide), when I said I was making omelets to order for breakfast (which they had ok’ed the night before), she demands (in front of 3 other guests) that she wants French Toast! When I said I was only making eggs, and would gladly make her any style EGGS she desired, she proceeded to tell me “oh, it’s okay, it’s really not a lot of trouble for you… you already have the eggs out, just add milk and make me French Toast!” The husband didn’t even try to talk her out of it, he just shrugged when I looked at him.
They also set off the smoke alarm in their room at 7 am this morning, waking all the other guests. Not sure how – I have no proof, but I suspect someone was smoking.
The husband I think is a pretty nice guy, but his wife is very high maintenance/needy and demanding, and he just enables her. They were in fact clean, and seemed to love my place. However, they also took their sweet time getting out of their room, which they had promised to be out of hours earlier… as they knew I had someone coming in same day. I don’t promise a room to be ready til the afternoon, but this couple was 45 min late for breakfast (they chose the time) and then lollygagged over the meal. I kept mentioning that check out is 11, but they waved me off. They finally got their stuff out of their room at noon! Meanwhile, my incoming guests arrived at 11 to avoid traffic (I told them it was okay, they could drop their bags and then hit the beach while I was cleaning their room). But these outgoing people wouldn’t even let me in their room to at least pull the linens/trash at 11am – I had to wait until noon when they left.
Unfortunately, their stay was not without other problems. The first night with me, the wife fell ill (turns out she had a kidney stone- ouch!), but the husband was quite poor at communicating to me when I kept asking what her symptoms were/how could I help/ etc. I offered to call the ambulance, turn on lights, etc. but he said no, not needed. 3 minutes later he asks me to turn outside lights on because the ambulance can't find the front door! The wife wouldn’t even let the paramedics into the bathroom to help her. (She kept demanding they get her the stretcher … but when they finally got into her bathroom, they quickly sized her up and told her “oh, you can walk. You don't need a stretcher. You’re fine really, you can walk out to the street!”) After midnight, he texts me that their bathroom shower needs immediate cleaning before their inevitable return home from the hospital (3am) because she had vomited her crab dinner all over the shower floor. Why couldn’t he have told me hours earlier when she was feeling bad? Or even when they went off to the hospital? or even just earlier before I likely had gone to bed? Or just MAYBE they should have been responsible for their own mess and not even bothered me!!! I realize it was an emergency situation, and I do feel badly she was in distress. But honestly, I'm not their maid or mother, and was not happy at being summoned from my sleep to scoop up chunks of dried up crab vomit so it didn’t clog my bathroom drain.
They actually have 3 other reviews, all good – but those are reviews of their whole family (2 kids included) and were all places that were “entire place” – not shared accommodations like I have. Should I just say something like they are better suited to having a place to themselves, or a hotel where they can get things "their way"? Or is there some way to intimate that they are very high maintenance and demanding (which is likely regardless of what type of accommodation)? I certainly don’t want to host them again, and I feel it’s my duty to let other hosts know.
LOL, as they were leaving, the wife said she wanted to come back in September for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday… :0
