Air BnB -- Tips for guests sharing a house
I've been hosting on Air BnB for about a year now and thought I would pass along some tips for guest who are sharing a house. This has been my experience and perhaps yours is different.
1. Arrival. First of all, as a courtesy, let your host know when you think you will be arriving. This allows your host to do some shopping or errands and not just sitting at home, not knowing when you will arrive. And please, don't show up at 9 am! Think in terms of hotels check-ins and try for 1 pm or so. Of course, you can always ask if being early is OK. And keep in mind that not everyone is a "night owl." I get really annoyed when people show up at 8 pm and then want to cook and chat at the table until 10 pm, shower and then to bed. Then, I have to get out of bed (where I am reading and relaxing and trying to stay awake) and check the kitchen and turn off the lights.
2. The kitchen. If you are sharing a kitchen, look around a bit to see how things work. Washing dishes, storing dishes and silverware and utensils, etc. Everyone has their own way of doing things and ask questions if you don't understand. If you need to use the refrigerator, ask. I don't automatically have space cleared for you to use and I will have to do that if you need refrigerator space. And yes, wash your dishes with soap! I have seen several guests who just rinse out their coffee cups and put them on the dish drainer. What? Basically, anything a guest uses, I always re-wash. And please, don't wash those breakfast dishes. It's nice if you want to clear the table, but otherwise -- don't help. I've had some relatively expensive plates chipped by careless guests who thought they were doing me a favor by washing dishes. If you use the pots for cooking, please wash or scrub them as necessary to get them just as clean as before you used them. And please, just because I am allowing you to use the kitchen, don't think that means you can also use my $15 a bottle olive oil.
3. Your room. It should be intuitive, but putting your wet towels on the bed will, guess what, make the bed wet! And the mattress will get wet which might take a long time to dry out. And please PLEASE go easy on the perfume or cologne. I can't tell you the numbers of pillow cases I have had to wash twice and sometimes three times just to get that smell out. Would you like to lie down for a relaxing sleep and put your head on a pillow that swims with someone else's cologne? Usually, I have to wash the pillowcases twice, wash the pillow covers twice and hang everything out in the sun - including the pillows - for a couple of hours to knock down the smell.
4. The rest of the house. If I have provided a sitting area on the back porch, don't drag the dining room chairs out to the front porch because you like it better. Please. If you want to wash your muddy shoes, I have a "utility sink" for doing that so not necessary to use the bathroom sink. And remember to pick up that bath mat after you use it. Otherwise, the next person who walks in the bathroom will probably get it dirty from their shoes. Conversely, please use that bath mat so the bathroom floor isn't one large puddle.
Last but not least -- if I tell you it takes 1.5 hours to get from my house to some other place, believe it, no matter what the guidebook says. I live here. They don't.
I have enjoyed meeting so many people during the last year and they have been great guests. But with a few "tweaks" some of them could be "the best guests ever!"
