When you ask/require your guests to remove their shoes...

[Kimberly54]

Hi all,

Lizzie asked us about carpet vs hard-flooring, and a number of you commented that you either expected or required a guest to remove their shoes when entering your home.

I understand the feeling, AND... have a perspective?

When I lived in Japan, it was (of COURSE) required that you remove your street shoes.  HOWEVER, there were slippers available for you to wear in the house. Not exactly fashionable, but I do understand the purpose.

* many women wear extremely thin 'hosiery'

* some shoes do not require socks, and walking bare-foot seems a bit strange (?)

* this custom sort of precudes taking a walk out into someone's 'back yard' right?  What do you do?  Rush to the front, get your shoes, then take them out back?

In my home, I have mats outside and inside of every entry.  This is where you 'wipe' your shoes (on both sides of the entry) before/as you enter the house. 

I also do not have carpet, so clean-up is easy.

Of course, if there is mud (?) or rain, well... this is San Diego, so I suppose we'd just deal with it in whatever way.  (Almost never happens here!)

What are your thoughts?

Best

[Alexandra316]

@Marzena4 For sure, and I feel like they probably hold onto less dirt and germs than a fabric slipper would.

[Dee9]

i love this post!

Going barefoot in someones home is just as unsanitary as not wiping ones feet!!

[Claire478]

Ok so here's a question for you all! I'm new to airbnb, my first guests arrived yesterday, after hours of cleaning ( it was raining out ), 4 guys arrived, ok it's hard tile downstairs but they then walked upstairs with their shoes on...within 2 minutes of arriving already have mud all up the stairs ( brand new carpet )I specified no shoes on my house rules. Of course I asked them to take their shoes off then but the damage is already done! Is airbnb just not for me? I'm so dissapointed!

[Sarah977]

Who raised these guys, you have to wonder. How can anyone think it's okay to walk on someone's brand new carpets with muddy shoes? There are a lot of unconscious people out there, @Claire478. You need a big sign at the bottom of the stairs- SHOE-FREE ZONE.

Haven't read your listing, but it's an art to word your listing to get the kind of guests you'd like.

[Sarah977]

Okay, @Claire478 I just read your listing. Place looks great. But your listing information is just factual, like an impersonal ad to rent a house that you'd find in the newspaper. If I were you, I'd go back and put yourself into the listing description-how the host comes across when they write the listing can have a lot to do with the guests who book with you. Try to let your personality come through to try to attract the kind of guests you want, which are not 4 guys who traipse over your new carpets with muddy shoes.

[Jennifer865]

I have a guest now I have told umpteenth times to remove her shoes and it does not seem to register. She still waltzes around with them on as if I won't notice. It is just disgusting. I have been breaking out Lysol and spraying the floor because I can't clean it every day. As Sarah said, there are a myriad of nasty things that can make their way into a household. In my dog loving neighbourhood it is dog poo. It is a Canadian custom that to me is so ingrained that I did not even think that I would have had to write it into the house rules anymore than I have to think about breathing. Regarding the slipper situation for guests, that is gross. Bacteria is carried on those things. Anyone suggesting I add them to the large load of Airbnb induced laundry I already have to do can think again. When I worked in Korea there were no outside shoes permitted in people's homes or in my school. People brought their own slippers that were only for the school, or wore their socks.  

[Alex939]

What a discission!

I don't have in House rules "shoes off" but 95% of guests wear no shoes in the apartment, incl. Americans branded here as always shoes on people. I think this is a natural way of home behaviour for everybody. In a hotel is different, even a 5* one.

[John1080]

One of our rules is to remove shoes before entering the house. My other half is Korean and I lived in Korea for five years myself, so it is something that is important to us. We have it posted in our rules we send to guests before they are approved, again in my pre-check in message and it is in the house manual as well as posted next to the door.

However, I think very few actually follow through, as it is so foreing to many Americans/Westerners to remove their shoes before entering a home.  We have an exterior camera showing the door and I don't sit and watch it or anything - in fact, we rarely look at any of the footage at all now, but the few times we had looked at it, none of the guests had removed their shoes. Perhaps they are removing them after they get in and sit down, but we do not know.  I have also noticed that the few times I've been there when housekeeping were there, they didn't remove their shoes, nor did they make any gesture or comment or anything. I think this, again, shows how foreign it is so many westerners to do so. 

Our next project is to build a bench to put next to the door, where perhaps people can sit down to slip off their shoes before entering. 

[Genoveva2]

I will break this down from my business view point and personal view point.

As a Superhost: 

First as a Superhost, cleaner and designer of all of my Airbnb’s wearing shoes in all my units is a NO NO. Not only is it disgusting but it makes it way harder to clean when there is a guest checking out (12pm) and another checking in (3pm) in just 3 hours. 

I once had a horrid couple completely ignore the no shoes rule in my home and when they left the place was wrecked. The hard wood floors were so scuffed up and filthy that I had to hire a maid. 

After the maid left I had to RE-CLEAN the entire unit AGAIN because it was STILL dirty and I had a family with a infant checking in. 

As Personal Experience: 

I strongly believe weating shoes in a home is tacky and disrespectful to the home.

I would rather have bare feet then shoes on my couch or even walking to my couch with shoes on. Wearing shoes in a home was NEVER allowed in my upbringing and I could remember the dirty nasty carpets and “bad” energy from the filth of a home when I visited friends and distant family members that wore shoes in their “homes.”

Needless to say it stuck with me.

When I come home I want to leave the drama of the day AT THE DOOR. Not track all my footsteps from outside into my home. Think about it: Do you REALLY know what you are stepping on!???!!! You have for sure stepped on one or more of these.....

spit,urine, dried up vomit,etc.) 

The streets are NASTYYYYYY. Especially if you are taking the metro or walking downtown. (Any downtown, still nasty: more people/more traffic/more filth under your soles)

I honestly don’t understand people who walk right into their homes after stepping on who knows what from the outside. Eek!

I also enjoy a good smelling home and I have noticed in various different cases homes that appear clean but the odor is a tinge of “shoe street smelling” because they walk in their homes with their shoes on. Not to mention the horrid dirt stains on the carpet. I mean GROSS. 

Anyway this is my opinion. 

End Rant*

[Murad7]

It's really just a culture issue where rational arguments may hardly hold. Being from a Muslim and still rather conservative country, I find it very surprising that so many people in the West (especially US) have issues with bare feet which are absolutely natural back here, everywhere at home, in the backyard or private garden- and it goes without saying not to wear "outside" shoes inside someone's house. I guess this attitude really has something to do with Victorian puritanic culture.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Kimberly54 

We have a no street shoes rule in our shared home. Indoor only house shoes are fine. I travel with them a nd so do many of our guests. We have a rack by the door with some of our own shoes on it, a sign on the door and  we mention in house rules. We also provide "hotel slippers" the same ones found in Asia. For the folks who can not or will not remove street shoes we have surgical shoe covers available. They remain unused. Here in Northern California removing shoes is noncontroversial and quite customary.