What are your pet peeves as a host?

[Irina47]

At the risk of sounding high maintenance I would like to hear from other hosts about their teeny pet peeves that, in the grand spectrum of guests every month, turn into giant paint-in-the-you-know-what annoyances. I’m talking about a pattern of something guests do, maybe it’s weekly, or monthly, but you as a host come across it enough for it to drive you crazy.

Especially those hosts who deal with their guests and property personally. Those of us who don’t have cleaning people, those that selected and purchased every item in your space by hand and even to the smallest washing cloth, you really care about each item you place in the space you offer.

I have a simple room in my home that I Airbnb out. It’s been just under a year and I can’t complain as so far I’ve had pretty wonderful guests. However, every few weeks, I do get a guest that sleeps in their make-up. Once they checkout, the pillows and sheets have make-up residue such as mascara or foundation on them. These products are SO hard to wash out. The makeup issue extends to my towels also. I’ll leave specific small washcloths to be used but still I get guests who insist on removing their makeup into my fluffy hand towels and the stains are permanent. At this point I think I’m going to invest in some makeup removing towelettes and leave them in the room to encourage a clean face.

So what code of conduct do you wish to see in your guests? Maybe you’ve found a good way to combat a reoccurring peeve of your own? I would love to know.

[Ange2]

Slamming doors and being super loud !  

I don't even bother to ask them to quiet down, it appears to be an ingrained habit. But it's only a few days at most so no big deal just a pet peeve at the very worst.

[Kay48]

I hate when people don't read the complete listing, autobook and then show up with unrealistic expectations. Oh, you're a dog owner? My girlfriend is afraid of dogs! Yes! I only mentioned it 3 times in my listing. Oh, you don't offer breakfast? No, as shown in my "amenities" list... taking the "bnb" literally drives me bonkers.

[Rosemary12]

Kimberley

Amen!  Three times in my listing I indicate that my home is not close to shops or restaurants and they should let me know if they aren't bringing a car....do they read it?  Fortunately, I don't use instant book.

I took off the "pet friendly" option very early on after a couple wanted to bring a wolf...yes a wolf!   So far, no one else has tried to bring a pet and after reading some of the posted horror stories I get off lightly. Other than not reading the listing, my only peeve is guests with long, black hair that sticks to everything, even inside pillow cases. Not their fault but I live with a sticky roller in hand going over everything because it doesn't even come off in the wash and I would hate for a guest to find a hair on the sheets. I think I don't have major issues because I live in the home and most of my guests are international travellers and seem to be more appreciative (and I give them breakfast so maybe that helps!

[Vali1]

Haha. When ppl fold used sheets

[Tim-and-Holly0]

Arrival. We meet our guests when they arrive. We ask two to three days in advance for an estimated arrival time and then request a 1/2 hour or 15 minute heads up before arriving explaining that we are trying to plan our day/evening. This practice allows us to lead a semi normal life while providing great service. However, we've had guests show up hours early, hours late or not at all and never notify us.

I hate planning an evening with the family only to sit at home because we can't get a decent answer out of a guest. A few days ago we had a guest who said they were going to be here in an hour, showed up almost three hours later because they decided to stop for dinner and never even thought to let us know.

We are NOT a full-service hotel with a girl that sits at a desk 24 hours a day. We are a couple who rents out a home and would like to have a life too. PLEASE communicate arrival expectations so we can take the kids to a movie or go out to eat or whatever.

Ok, That's my soapbox.

Oh, as long as we're peeving. How about other hosts who book your place in the middle of the night knowing that you are going to get a text that you have to wake up to and answer within minutes when you are trying to sleep.

Ok, I'm done now.

[Irina47]

If possible, I would highly recommend getting a lockbox and making the check-in process automated and flexible. It will be a huge burden lifted for both yourself and your guests. Guests are traveling so for them usually their itinerary and schedule are up in the air. 

[Helen0]

I understand middle-of-the-night enquiries coming through from people in wildly different time zones; someone from China can't really be expected to work out when I'm trying to sleep in the UK, but one of my personal pet peeves is the Airbnb auto-reminder message that I haven't responded to someone yet, just a few hours later - because I have been asleep! Ditto the one that nags me to leave a review for a guest who's "just checked out" that arrives in the early morning before they have even had their last day's breakfast! These are not just pointless messages, but they wake me up too - with back-up email and text message pings...aaargh!

[Helen0]

Arrival times are the single most annoying thing! I have tried everything: making the listing clearer, restricting the time-window, trying to pin them down before they arrive, chasing them up before they arrive, reminding them the night before, sometimes reminding them again on the day - explaining what I have to do that day, e.g. that I might have to drive across town to meet them in the middle of a busy schedule, asking them to let me know when they're 30 minutes away, everything I can think of. But like most guest behaviours, these tactics work with the 90% of people who are considerate human beings, and has absolutely no impact on the... erm, less considerate ones! The worst time was having to wait in an empty house for over 5 hours while one lot kept telling me they were 'nearly there', but I've had every situation possible - including a major tantrum because after 2 hours I had to leave one property in order to do a check-in at another one and they had to wait for me for a whole 15 minutes! I've lost count of the number of social occasions I've been late for or had to cancel altogether because my Airbnb guests decided to show up hours late. I've even had people turn up several hours early without warning while last night's guests are still in the room - and memorably once, I was sending worried messages to a late guest to ask if they were ok/lost (and making myself late for something as well), only to finally get a reply that since the event they were coming for had been cancelled several days previously, they had simply decided not to come - but it hadn't crossed their mind to let me know!

[Zack-and-Jennifer0]

@Helen0 Oh my goodness! That sounds like a nightmare to be running around everywhere like that!  Are your properties situated in a way where you could replace the door locks with keypads? That's what we did. We preprogram the locks with a unique code for each guest - we just use the last 7 digits of their booking phone number.  The locks hold up to 30 numbers, but we only program the next guest's code and no more than 24 hours in advance. They're battery operated and it's really easy swap them out. These locks are about $100 each.

[Helen0]

The worst instances of this happened at properties that  I don't own but was managing bookings on behalf of their owners. One was an appartment in a block where I couldn't put a keysafe on the outside of the building, one was a house but the owner was only away travelling for a year and didn't want me to do that. I don't manage either of these properties any more - and the one that I do look after for a friend now has a keysafe installed. It has made all the difference, as I can just send the guest details of how to access the property themselves if they are seriously late and I can't wait there - although I still think that a personal check-in is a) more how Airbnb should work and b) makes for better experiences overall as I can deal with queries and misunderstandings before they become an issue. Guests haven't become any better at confirming their arrival time, but I can deal with it more easily.

[Carol194]

haha - the ones who arrive at 7AM and cannot believe the room is not yet ready?? No, really the other guys are still asleep you know.... and uhm your check in is actually at 7PM - that means in the evening... not in the morning. so nice I'm not the only one having this 🙂

[Rosemary12]

Carol,

LOL!

I had a guest who tried to book to arrive while another guest was still in residence. I don't take same day guests so that I have time to clean and get ready for the next guest but somehow the website allowed this guest to book. When I explained the situation, she wanted me to contact the guests who had booked months before and ask them if they would consider changing their booking! She didn't like my explanation and cancelled the booking....thank goodness!

[Cormac0]

@Irina47

My pet peeve is guests, who feel obliged to empty the coffee canister and use the 2kg of muesli for a three day stay apart from that nothing much more in the normal range of behaviour.

Regards

Cormac

The Explorer's Club Krakow III

The Explorer's Club Krakow VIII

[Irina47]

@Cormac0

YES! I forgot about this one! I too have had guests treat the little things I leave for them like it's a "who can use the most" contest.

[Nancy67]

Sorry-- this is sideways, tried rotating it all ways-- no avail.....We dont use cotton towels and bed linens on the property-- they break down and become dingy to quickly. We use all flax linen, including wash mitts (above) rather than expensive, fluffy, or cheap, flimsy white wash clothes that either way, have to be tossed the first time someone washes the makeup off thier face.

I started providing individually wrapped makeup remover pads on the sink in the bathroom-- no makeup on the pillowcases or towels since (fingers crossed.) The money to provide the bath amenities (bar soap, shampoo, shower gel, mouthwash & MU remover pads)is less  money than the constant purchase of towels and pillowcases, plus its seen as, and can be listed as, an amenity-- (a positive) rather than risking a comment about dingy linens (a negitive) ----We think in a world where all things would be equal, this is better money spent, and solves this problem in our spaces. Hope that was helpful. Happy Hosting! PS: I get this stuff at Pinapple Amenities online.