Why i dont have roommates.

Zacharias0
Level 10
Las Vegas, NV

Why i dont have roommates.

Airbnb is a great option, well the best of the alternatives, when faced with having roommates. Lately, I've taken on month to week long guests and they have been a test in my patience.  I had the same issues with short term rentals, but thankfully they were in and out. Recently , my one male guest carries on lengthy morning conversations inside my house like my grandmother does on Sunday mornings. Conversations usually werent an issue but with an all tile house and the thinness of the walls everyone can hear the entire conversation. Its the worst thing to wake up to. I want to tell him to go and take his conversation outside. No one wants to hear him yammer on for an hour. 

 

Other guests in other room are rambunctious and leave a mess in their wake. Youd never think they were capable of such disaster but any room they enter they are like Tazmanian devils . I have to check the bathroom , living room and kitchen twice a day for the sake of the other house guests and they had the nerve to ask for a discount before booking. 

 

As I mentioned this is why I dont have roommates. These are the guests that are better suited to hotel living or a cheap apartment by themselves.   I couldn't imagine living under these conditions for anything longer than a month. 

9 Replies 9
Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

@Zacharias0

For all of Airbnb's problems, I hate long term tenants/roommates even more.

Worse are the terrible marketing methods to find roomies (Craigslist?)

In the low season, I am trying to find roommates. Very painful.

Flaky prospects, missed appointments and chronically underemployed are all that seems available.

Worse is the communist/socialist attitude: "You're the owner, but I'm paying rent so I get all rights of owning. I do what I want, when I want"  

 

 

 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

 I can live happily with only one person - my dog 🙂

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Zacharias0   My max booking stay is 2 weeks. I figure if a guest is problematic, I can probably stick it out for 2 weeks, but a month, no way. But so far, I've been lucky- haven't had any guests who were a horror show.

Helen56
Level 10
San Diego, CA

@Sarah977 @Zacharias0 Yes, my max booking is 15 days for the same reason.  However, if it was going well and they wanted another week, then ok

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Zacharias0

 

I did the whole room mate thing for years and have one by one switched my three spare bedrooms to Airbnb. I have had some fantastic housemates who are still good friends and some I hope will be lifelong friends. There were others that were okay.

 

Then there were those that were just truly awful. Believe me, I have experienced almost everything with that lot, from an infestation of mice due to bad hygeine, to prostitutes and drug dealers being invited into my home, to sexual harrassment.

 

As @Paul154 says, often they come with a sense of entitlement that they are paying rent and can do whatever they like, including throwing a massive party without my permission. Enough. I learnt to make it clear that this is MY property, furnished with MY things. You follow MY rules or you get out. I am a live-in landlord and therefore the law is on MY side, not yours.

 

Unlike many hosts who have posted here, I am actually all for long-term guests (anywhere between one month and six month stays) and have changed my settings to attract them. My rooms are booked back to back and I have very high standards of presentation so constantly turning over three rooms whilst managing my job is just not feasible in the long run.

 

Also, my experiences of long-term guests have been really positive to date. They are like the most respectful, considerate housemates ever, only they pay considerably more! The thing to do is be really extra choosy about your long-term guests. I need to know a lot about them beforehand and they need to agree to a long list of very detailed rules.

 

I think I'm lucky also that my rooms seem to attract quite decent long-termers. They're not overpriced, but they're not the cheapest accommodation for a long-term stay either. It's a big investment, but the people who come here are willing to pay a bit more because they really want a nice place to stay and therefore they respect me and the house way more than your average housemate who is paying less.

 

I mostly host long term...... anywhere from 1 month to about 4 months. 

 

Henry and I are picky about guests..... with a temporary roommate situation they are gone in 4 months so slightly bad behavior we can tolerate to a point and we don't want the hassle of someone new every couple days. Having strangers show up, stay a couple nights and leave.....then repeat. We'd always have to be on high alert..... so stressful!

 

Longer term hosting works for us. Less turnovers to worry about, less check ins/outs 🙂 And we've had mostly great~ if not great, still managable guests. At least we knew they'd be gone sooner or later so there was a limit to being on high alert for bad behavior.

 

Well you did put yourself through those risky situations, after all. You were kinda asking for it. Anyone with sense would know not to allow total strangers in their home. I always thought that people who would allow random people in their homes are either into wanting some passive income, are wierdos, or just plain lonely asf.

@Saint29  What a charming contribution.

I have had nothing but lovely guests, some of whom have ended up being friends. Hosting my spare room has been an enriching experience for both me and my guests.

 

And I am neither a weirdo nor lonely as f.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Saint29 

 

You should add that comment to your blank profile page so that no one with any sense will ever rent to you.