So I’m a new host and I’ve made super host pretty quickly. All 5 star reviews except one which I’ll explain further in. I made this post to put up a few observations I’ve made during my short tenure:
1: Most guests are good people, but some have sticky fingers. So far I’ve had a creme brûlée torch go missing - and I’m quite sure it was the young man who stayed for 5 nights, got caught taking the screen out of his room, then asked me a week after checkout if he could return because he got arrested “for some stupid crime” which I found out was drug related, and had to stay in the state until the disposition of his case, 60 out of a 72 pack of alka seltzer plus medicine I’d left under the cabinet in the guest bathroom (seems to be that things go missing from bathroom or kitchen) and numerous more-than- offered snacks from the kitchen.
2- People sometimes book for sex and sneak in a second person. I list a single person listing and charge a nominal fee. At least 3 times I’ve had a second person show up and the first time I was confused as to what to do since it was my first week hosting so I let it go. After that I started just telling people I could cancel and rebook or they could pay the difference in cash or we could add the charge.
3- some people don’t smell so good. It’s really just common courtesy but I have to make sure my place smells like unicorns and rainbows when the next guest arrives and I often have a short turnaround in order to accomplish this. I’ve had sports pros, people who perhaps just don’t have the best anti perspirabt or sweat a lot but most are ok it’s that one in 10 I need to Debrecen the heck out of everything for. Open the window, run the fan, and I did buy a gallon refill of the extra strength Debrecen at Home Depot.
4- snacks. I provide free snacks to my guests. However some of them take this to another level and sneak into my kitchen and eat more than a couple of snacks. I had a guy stay about a week and get up every night (when I inquired about the mess he claimed he sleep walked and apologized profusely) would help himself to literally, over the course of a few days half a container (a $15 4 lb ) of jelly belly from Costco and god knows what else. I put out for guests from that container a small little creme brûlée dish from which they could take the entire thing - maybe 1/2 ounce but this guy took the entire thing. I generally have to then decide whether to write off or charge a guest and in hope of a good review I wrote it off. He never left me a review.
I had another lady, a very sweet older woman show up, ask me to pick her up from the airport which I didn’t do because I wasn’t able to, then ask me what I was doing for dinner, then help herself to a half box of fig bars from Costco which I had left her a pack or two in her room. After I noticed them all missing I had to hide them. I did start making her a little sandwich or something every day out of kindness.
4- sometimes boundaries must be set. I have had a couple of instances where people have asked to stay over when other guests are coming and I do have a pull out sofa bed for that in a third bedroom but it isn’t as comfortable and there is some storage in there. However, I do allow it. I do need to be careful though I had one fella who was very nice but had the bad habit of smoking which o realize is addictive and the whole house smelled of it because he smoked just outside the house. I didn’t really want it on the property but he had already started and it was thought to get it under control.
5- video record what you need to. I use blink and there are no monthly fees. I self monitor and once I was nervous because I had a guest grab 2 amazon boxes but he only brought them in the house. When I got back home they were inside the living room safe and sound. I also have rules that if a guest enters a bedroom they’re not authorized to be in they’re stay in ended immediately.
6- don’t put up with a bad guest - this is where I’ll tell you about that one bad review I got. I had a woman inquire for a stay, I think it was 3 nights might have been 2. Said she had a small dog, which is against my policy, and kept saying “she’s a sweet baby”, or a sweet girl or something to that extent. I explained that since we have a French bulldog and a half Egyptian Mau cat we don’t accept animals even a service animal which she said she had. But that if she was willing to crate the dog while in the home and if the dog was fully house trained then I would make an exception. Also I had blocked off some of the days she wanted because I was having a 75” ultra HD installed in the living room and moving the 55” HDTV from the living room to the guest bedroom so both rooms were being upgraded. But it would be noisy. she implied she didn’t have much stuff and would take her things with her when she came and went, agreed to my terms and so I allowed her to book. Well she showed up on booking day with more luggage than I’ve ever seen a dozen guests bring collectively. Virtually all of it was large checked luggage size at least 7 if not more and also at least one box of assorted personal stuff for hair makeup and whatever else. How she was going to truck this stuff in and out of her car (and also she had stated she hardly was going to be here) I did not have a clue. But amongst it all no sign of a crate. What I did see was a hand filled with wee wee pads. I know what they are. Hanks isn’t my first dog and he has had surgeries. He’s been incontinent due to his disc issues. So I started asking about the crate. She kept looking at her car as if to imply it was there but never said it was there nor did it ever appear. The only story I got was the dog sometimes will pee inside which is opposite to being told she was house trained and the wee wee pads were for at night then she also said the dog sleeps in bed with her which is more concerning. Because now I’m thinking the dog may pee in the bed. So as I start calmly asking her these questions she gets loud and starts yelling at me, in my front yard. I was willing to work with her. I am an animal lover I just don’t want to be stuck with the animal stains on the bed My floors are tiled and we could have figured something out had she been reasonable but yelling at me in my front yard was crossing a line. So what she yelled was “ if you don’t want me and my dog here just give me a refund and I’ll be on my way” she didn’t want to agree to keep her dog off the bed (I know some dogs will spray strange areas and I wanted some ground rules set if there was no crate and this woman, rather than being reasonable just started yelling. So I just calmly asked her not to make a scene in my front yard and I said I would call AirBnB. I was informed that I’m not required to give her a refund. But really if she wasn’t going to stay and even though she broke the rules I did feel bad for her I told them to give her a full refund. She of course retaliated against my kindness with a 1 star review.
In summary I think that many people are good and some are a little bit shady. I still block off days when I’m not going to be home as I’m not comfortable booking when I won’t be home. I try to be kind to everyone but also not allow people to take advantage. I’m happy to give people a little bit more than they might get at another place but I do dislike when I find someone has stolen a half dozen full sized soaps especially when I offer them one full sized soap free of charge.
Ive had sports pros and multi millionaires stay with me and aspiring business moguls who then didn’t pay their bill and left it for air bNB. I’ve had couples come in and leave their soiled towels on my towel rack as if I would not find them that way rather than in a pile on the floor, or hidden wrapped in a sheet for the same reason. It just makes more intense cleaning. Lysol and Febreeze and plenty of tide are my friend. If you are a guest reading this and you are a hungry guest who really cannot afford to order Uber eats or postmares just ask nicely. - I’ll make you a sandwich or maybe even a meal. It is less costly for me than a half box of snacks which is meant to last for 20 guests. I buy these things in bulk to save money. And just because it is in the refrigerator it is not fair game because you are here. If my listing says help yourself to a drink that means 1-2 per day not per hour. In the end these are small things and I’m happy to provide them but within reason.
