New Host Woes

[Michael2325]

Hi all - I’m looking for some feedback as a new host.

Long story short: My wife and I recently listed our newly remodeled guesthouse on Airbnb. We had a bad experience with our first guests and have since pulled the listing. 

Our guesthouse is 1 bedroom, 1-bath, 900 sq ft and was torn down to the studs for the remodel. The design is very modern and it’s full of amenities - too many to list. All our friends say the place is gorgeous. The neighborhood is also in my opinion one of the best in our city (Phoenix, AZ USA). I truly believe we have a great space. The house does have a 1-queen bed in the bedroom and a queen sleeper sectional.  It can sleep 4 adults, but we thought we’d get single travelers, couples, or couples with one child. 

Anyway, we were excited to rent and got 3 bookings right away. I think the introductory 20% off promo helped a lot. I personally have no reviews on this service. I have used other services and hotels for personal travels in the past so I’m admittedly new to this community. I knew it would be a process to build a reputation. 

Our first guests reserved for two 20-something girls. The guest who booked said she was local, had a friend coming in from out of town, and  wanted a place to hang out away from her roommate. So I’m thinking they want a girls’ weekend getaway. Fine by me. 

Being new to this community with a new listing and knowing I have to build a reputation, I tried being a good host and left the girls a Thank You card thanking them for being our first guests, telling them to enjoy their stay, and I left them a nice bottle of local wine. 

However, this was just a bad experience:

• Two girls arrive when they said they’d arrive, but neither of them matched the name on the reservation. My wife and I were confused but let it go. 
• We notice the two girls left not long after check in and left numerous lights on in an empty guesthouse. 
• We noticed on our security cameras 5 or 6  girls total entered the guesthouse around 4 am that first night and spent the night. So we immediately have an extra guest issue and I have no idea where they all slept. 
• We see the girls exit around 1pm the next day. I say hello and introduced myself. I finally meet the girl who made the reservation. Only thing she says to me is, “Hi, I’m -“. She and her group just keep walking out. No thanks for the wine, comments about the place, or other small talk. They didn’t seem too interested in chatting. That’s fine. I tried. I figured they wanted some privacy. Being new hosts, my wife and I kept our concerns about the extra guests to ourselves.  We had no written policy about it on our listing other than no parties.  We told ourselves just get through the reservation and try to be good hosts. 
• We don’t see them all day and again notice on our security cameras a group of 5 more girls came back around 3am. To their credit, they were quiet, although my wife said one left looking very upset around 4 am. 
• We notice cigarette butts on our paver patio outside the guesthouse.  We are listed as a no smoking property. We assume they’re only smoking outside but wonder about where they’re putting the rest of their cigarette butts. 
• We wake up the next day, and a different car is in our driveway. It’s parked poorly and nearly blocking our exit. We ask them to move it. They comply and seem nice about it. Later that day there is a second car in our driveway and it’s blocking part of a walkway. We again have to ask them to move the cars.  We were originally only expecting 1-car in the driveway for 2 guests, but again had nothing written about more than 1-car in the listing. My wife and I are frustrated, but if our guests can park where we showed them to park without our personal cars being obstructed, we can live with it.  
• We see them leave later that day. It’s raining. They leave windows open, lights on, and the door unlocked. I message them that I see a window is open and have to enter to close it. No response. 
• A group of 5 again come back around 2 am. Again, we are thankful we don’t hear any this activity, although we do see it on our security cameras when reviewing footage. 
• The next day my wife and I are off to work. When we get home that afternoon and one guest car is in the driveway. The guesthouse is vacant.  The car is parked poorly and blocking a pathway near the front of the house. I had specific instructions to leave this pathway clear in the listing and even demonstrated to them where to park the day before.  I send a message to the booking guest about the extra car and blocked path and asked them to move it upon their return.  The guest messages me back and apologizes for the car and extra guests. She says they love the house and that we’ve been “awesome” hosts.  She offers to pay for the extra guests.  I said I appreciate the offer, but since we did not have an extra guest policy written at the time of booking, I would honor the original agreement and no extra fee would be necessary.  Please just move the car when she got back.  She agrees and says thanks. 
• About 10-11pm that night, the girls come back and now there are 3 cars in my driveway.  The one I asked them to move is still in place. One of their cars is now blocking my access in and out of the driveway.  I waited about 30 minutes to see if they’d move. They did not.  I then knocked on their door and asked them nicely to move the cars, which they did. I sent a thank you message to the booking guest via Airbnb saying I had to run a late errand and I was able to get my car in and out and that I appreciated her group taking the time to move the cars.  No response. My wife and I at this point are very frustrated and are eagerly anticipating their departure the next day.
• We wake up the next morning (check out day!) to go to work.  We see on our security cameras a man who appears to be in his mid 50’s walk into our backyard and into our guesthouse around 5:40 am.  It’s been a group of 20-something girls all weekend so we are confused. 
• Checkout time is 11am. The girls (a total of 4 of them) trickle out at different hours that morning.  By 10:45 am, we see the mid 50’s man walk out of the guesthouse. He then pulls his car into our driveway, and in a spot that blocks our exit to the street. The remaining two girls and mid 50’s man exit just before 11am.  On the way out, the mid 50’s man runs over and breaks one of our landscape lights. 
• My wife and I are eager to see the condition of the guesthouse. We check it out. It’s messy, but nothing broken.  However, they followed none of our checkout procedures (which were pretty simple - check for your things, leave linens on bed, towels on racks, turn off lights and AC, start dishwasher, and message us you’ve left.)  We do find cigarette butts in the garbage and there is an associated smoke smell from the butts.  Later we find blood stains on the sheets and a number of our white bath towels are very heavily stained with make-up. We had even provided ample make-up remover pads. Our cleaning service charged some extra fees due to the smoke smell and because the place was just very messy with all those guests. 
• I sent a payment request later than evening for the broken landscape light, extra cleaning fee, sheets, and towels.  I was very nice about it, even saying I wish they had asked about smoking on the outdoor patio. I told her being a cigar smoker myself, I could have provided ashtrays and directed them where to dispose ot their cigarette butts outside.  I got a response 2 days later saying she apologized for the broken light, but asked for lower total amount due. We thought the sheets and towels were ruined at first, but my wife is really good at cleaning things and with some time and extra effort, she was able to get all stains out. So we did, indeed, lower the total requested and the guest did pay for the broken landscape light and extra cleaning fee. 

My wife and I were really unhappy with this whole experience.  I tightened up House Rules and told my other two reservations about the updated rules. I also said they are free to cancel without penalty if the house no longer met their expectations.  Both ended canceling.  I must have overreacted and made overly strict house rules, but I felt like it was necessary.  

We have since pulled the listing and found a traveling nurse month to month renter.  I felt much more comfortable because i was able to do a background check, credit report, and even a FaceTime chat to give a tour of the space before offering a lease. I also like renting to a working professional with a good job. 

So, my question for the community is what can we do differently if we return as hosts? I imagine we will consider re-listing between nurse bookings.  Any suggestions on how to set firm rules without coming across as too strict? The things that bothered us most were the extra guests on our property without our knowledge.  We felt 5-6 people in there was close to party, and we clearly listed no parties.  The extra cleaning of the towels and linens was also much more work than we anticipated. The smoking and parking were also very irritating to us. We felt like we lost control of our own house.   

I know people have had great experiences and success as hosts, so we’re not quite ready to give-up completely, but after our initial experience, we were clearly unprepared.  What can we do better next time? 

[Clara116]

@Michael2325 Well you two had your first experience and you have received lots of good advice.

About Security deposit - the guests are NOT charged this and it doesn't impact them staying I'm pretty sure. And it is a good idea to have one in case of a claim for damage. And that is another story - because you might want to claim $200 or think it is owed BUT ABB will depreciate the items, need evidence, photos, and receipts of purchase, etc. It is not a fun thing when you much use resolution center for damages. So it is best to consider all this and try to take charge of stuff yourself. Best to avoid as much of all this as possible. 

Michael one thing I noticed in reading your first post - we are NOT slave to the guests. You saw lots going on and let it go on - when guests do something that doesn't work - TELL THEM - when they do the parking wrong - TELL THEM NOW- in person if you can!!!  we don't have to be on eggshells with each guests. when you see a house rule is disregarded or broken - YOU can end the reservation then by calling ABB. Sure we all want those stars but don't bend any rules - cause I've read on here so often - when you bend rules or allow stuff that you hate to allow or lower prices, or do all that it will often backfire and go wrong.  

this is a big learning journey with hosting and the more you can read esp. on CC here the better and more comfortable it can be. The pros have great advice and they help me continually. happy hosting and I was hoping to see your listing - too bad its off. take care and best to you both, Clara