untidy, messy guests...

[Harriet142]

How do you handle messy untidy guests...? I have a guest that has booked for 3 months, we are one month in.....and they are so messy, untidy and don’t clean up after themselves despite several attempts and discussions and text messages. Literally leaving clothes on the floor, leaving the toilet with sh*** in it after they have used it. Don’t clean up after themselves, etc etc.

I deep clean the property every week and do daily light clean ups...It’s very clear in my handbook that guests are to tidy up/ clean up after themselves. 

Where do i stand to cancel the rest of the booking? I can’t share my home with such an untidy, messy person. 

[Anonymous]

@Harriet142  Assuming that your direct communications with the guest have been totally clear about your expectations, the next step would be telling the guest that the stay is not working out, and offering a refund for the remainder of the stay if they accept a modification request to advance their checkout date and move out. Bear in mind, finding affordable housing for 2 months at the last minute isn't easy, so a reasonable amount of notice would be essential. You'll also have to prepare for a scathing review, which hurts when you only have 5 under your belt.

However this works out, I strongly suggest setting a shorter maximum stay. Ask yourself what is the longest amount of time you can imagine living with a messy person  with whom you don't get along, and don't do any more bookings longer than that.

[Harriet142]

@Anonymous  thank you.

I have been very open and honest and despite several reminders it just doesn't seem to be getting through.

I don't have an issue with the length of stay, I had a guest before them that stayed for just over two months and didn't have any issues what so ever.

Just this particular guest is extremely messy, it's like living with a child that you have to constantly clean up after all the time!

Appreciate the advice, good to know that I have options.

[Clara116]

@Harriet142 so you have a great opportunity to learn much about hosting....I would read carefully what @Anonymous  suggest and go for that. Sounds like this guest is not going to change behavior and so either you deal with it or learn to deal with it (yuck). Also, you defended longer term but as you see you will have to do some work on this much more than you perhaps would be doing with short stays and more people. good luck, happy hosting

[Helen3]

Hopefully each time you have reminded the guest of house rules they have broken in terms of keeping the place tidy you have followed this up with a message on Airbnb's messaging system and taken photos.

I think Andrew's advice is spot on and worth listening to. Just because you had one decent longer term guest doesn't mean that long term bookings are without risk for homeshare hosts where there may be personality clashes.

Anyway call Airbnb to tell them about the situation - they will be able to see the log of messages you have left and photographic evidence. Tell them you are going to ask the guest to accept early termination. If the guest doesn't accept ask Airbnb to cancel. Give them a few days notice to find somewhere.

[Harriet142]

@Clara116 @Helen3  thank you for the feedback, will defo take this on board, definitely a learning curve.

[Sarah977]

@Harriet142  I'm glad you got a good long termer before, but as others have pointed out, if you are home-sharing, a month or more can be a long time to put up with an objectionable guest. 

Guests can be messy and dirty, they can be loud and disrespectful, they may have poor personal hygiene, they may be insensitive to personal boundaries, their daily schedule may be at odds with yours in an inconvenient or disturbing way.

As a fellow home-share host, when I first listed, I considered how long I figured I could put up with a guest I didn't particularly like, and decided on 2 weeks. That has worked out fine.

Long term "guests" are not guests- they are roommates. The reason to list on Airbnb is really to get short term bookings. If you don't mind having a roommate, there are better places to advertise for that, and you would have an opportunity to first meet and interview them, find out their normal daily schedule, get references from past landlords or roommates, etc.

Also, I don't know whether you allow guests to use the entire house apart from your room, but just because you home-share doesn't mean guests need access to all the spaces. For instance, you might want to designate the living room as private. There's nothing more annoying than having some couch potato guest who lays about on the sofa all day watching TV, or leaving their stuff all over the coffee table and sofa. 

If you lower your max stay length and you get a guest you get along with just great and enjoy having around, you can always allow them to extend their  booking if they want, as long as you don't already have those dates booked. 

[Linda356]

Did you know long term guests can refuse to leave and you or Airbnb can do nothing about it. There is information on Airbnb about this you should look it up.