New problems arising from multiple guest rooms in a shared home

[Ken28]

I've been hosting for about a year now. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had a single room listed in my house (which I lived in). Everything went very well, for the most part. Occasionally I'd get a guest that was less than stellar, but I managed to make them all feel comfortable and satisfied with the experience, regardless of how I felt the experience went.

I've now moved into a new house, and I decided to list two guest rooms independently.

I'm afraid I may have set myself up for disaster.

My first pair of guests booked the same week-long stay. Both were in town to attend the same event. Guest A failed to mention that he didn't have a vehicle - he was relying on Uber for transportation. They ended up carpooling and Guest B offered to loan his rental car as needed. Guest A then used the rental car. At the same time, my septic backed up with Guest B home, and we determined that the geusts should be relocated until the problem was fixed. The problem now was that Guest A had B's car, and had decided to stay overnight at a hotel with a friend he had met at a bar that evening. So Guest B was stranded at my place until the next morning when A returned to pick him up again.

Individually, I think both of these guests were not an issue, but Guest B expressed resentment privately to me about Guest A and his lack of care for the undue strain he was putting on Guest B and myself. In the long run, both guests appeared to be appreciative of my efforts to help relocate them and seemed as though they would have given me positive reviews if Airbnb had let them. (Airbnb cancelled their stays, and I was unable to get any reviews from them or leave them any reviews).

When I only had one room, I was able to simply review and approve or reject based on my own needs, but now that I have another guest, I am trying to be selective about who else I allow to book, because I want all my guests to be happy.

Now, I have another guest. She's here long-term - a month or more. I'll call her by a pseudonym, "Susan".

While Susan's been here, I've had three guests request to use the other room. So far Susan has been very understanding and easy to work with. Susan and I expressed mutual concern about a pair of guests (We'll call them Rob and Mark) that wanted to make a 3 month booking, and so we turned them down. Rob and Mark are unrelated aquiantances from the same college that want to share a single room with a single bed. That makes me uncomfortable, and Susan shared in my discomfort. But she's not put up a fuss about the other two guests that have booked the room opposite hers.

With all this said, did I make a mistake listing two rooms independently?  Have I set myself up for failure?

How do you (or would you) handle this situation? Guests are made aware upfront that there may be other guests in the house, but do I simply tell each guest when they book that they don't have any say in the guests that share the house with them? Should I ask them what type of guests they would be okay with, and try to only accept guests that aren't uncomfortable with pretty much anyone?

Do I try to make everybody happy (which is likely impossible, and reduces my bookings significantly) by running each guest by the other guest and getting their approval (like I've been doing)?

[Allison2]

It does add some complexity to hosting - you have unknowns in terms of how personalities and cleanliness levels will mesh between two groups. Of course you can't control what arrangements people will make with each other, like sharing a rental car, and it would have been stepping outside your role as host to discourage such a thing.

All you can really do is set up house rules to limit the impact one guest has on anothers' stay. The one I hear most often from multi-room hosts is around cleanliness of shared bathrooms.

I wouldn't imply that a guest gets any say in who might be in the other room. Make it very clear that you rent more than one room in the house and the only way to guarantee control is to book both rooms. Your own selection criteria will reduce issues (that sounds like a good call on the two guys booking a single bed), but I wouldn't bring the guest into that decision making.

As a final thought, one of the active hosts on the old boards rented several rooms in her house and preferred to book only single guests because it reduced "triads" where two guests who know each other would make a third (sometimes her, the host) uncomfortable. You might consider that if you have those sorts of issues pop up.

[Ken28]

I have seriously considered your point about "triads" in the past. In that case, it might be as simple as reducing the capacity of each room to 1, instead of two.

[Vanessa-and-Kurt0]

We rent 2 separate bedrooms (sharing 1 bath) for over a year now. We only accept guests: 1.with previous positive reviews 2.who list all occupants names 3.share the reason for their stay. When the guests arrive we tell them that "Jan and Paul are across the hall, they are experienced Airbnbers who are staying until Sunday for a wedding". That's all we share and it has been good enough for everyone so far. Once we had a young lesbian couple in one room and an older couple volunteering at a Mormon church in the other-so we were a little concerned-but we went through our 3 touchpoints with a very positive tone and they responded in kind.

I think to avoid a situation, be particular with who you accept and then be short and positive with your greeting.

Good luck

[Linda108]

@Ken28  I have two rooms in my house, but I decided I would not rent to more than one party.  It might be an arrangement you would consider depending on your target market.  I live in a resort town and do not accept long term guests.  Take a look at my listing and see if it would make sense to you.  

I started with a single room and my guests were singles or couples.  When I expanded my listing to up two rooms and up to four guests, I found I could accommodate different configurations of guests from single, couple, parent and teenager, two unrelated co-workers and two couples.  My nightly rate is based on 2 people in the same primary bedroom.  If the 2 guests use the second room, there is an additional fee.  If there are more than 2 guests, there is a charge per person over 2.  I avoid conflict between guests as the guests are of the same group.

This has worked for me both financially and has allowed for some very pleasant and interesting guest groups.  See what you think.

[Ken28]

@Linda108

I appreciate you bringing your personal experience to the table. Sadly, I don't know that a 2-bedroom listing would be practical in my scenario. Unlike you, I don't reside in a tourist-y location. I've only been doing Airbnb for a year, but I'd say 8 in 10 of my bookings are for single guests, coming to town for work. I've had back-to-back students in internships (each 3+ months), and several guests moving for a new job (2 weeks to 2+ months, while looking for housing). Rarely do I get a request for a couple.

I feel like 75% of my guests would get along great together if they were sharing the house, but there's always that one person (1 in 5) that could make anyone's stay miserable.

This again leads back to a suggestion I've made in the past that guests should be able to cross-review each other, and all guests that are staying should be included in a reservation, so I can see and each individual's reviews and leave individual feedback.

For the time being, I am the one that has to play the "matching game" at the expense of my ratings, and my guests comfort. Sometimes I win that game, but some day I'm not going to get so lucky... 

[Reno0]

@Ken28 @Allison2,

Have to say, I was taken aback by you both thinking that two guys sharing a bed is somehow shady.  "(that sounds like a good call on the two guys booking a single bed)" .  

[Ken28]

@Reno0

I guess it stems from my theory that people looking for the absolute cheapest option tend to be more difficult guests.

They're not picking my place because of its reviews, nor the characteristics of the host or space. Instead, they've simply found the cheapest room available in the area and now they want to low-ball be to splitting that cost for two guests, in the hopes to divide an already low room price in half. That tells me they're not in this for the experience, and they're very unlikely to have read the rules, and equally unlikely to follow them.

Also, it just creeps me out a little (and my other long-term guest). For those reasons, I declined.