Airbnb guests are disrespectful slobs.

[Corinne508]

We have been renting our house out for 5 years this has been the worst year yet. Guests are damaging our house and leaving it an absolute mess with no regard. They treat it like a cheap hotel to trash for the weekend then leave.

Worst of all Airbnb does not take a damage deposit so there is virtually no way to get payment for damages if the guest doesn't feel like paying. The quality of guest has decreased with the increase in popularity of the site. 

Gone are the days where people would leave the house in the same condition they received it.

Change my mind.

[Katarina18]

Hey @Corinne508 Corinne, I'm totally your opinion. Doing Airbnb hosting for 3 years and the quality of the guests is decreasing rapidly. Sometimes I just want to stop hosting. It's so sad when they leave and the house is total trash... What I do is to take guests personal information on the first day of arrival (anyway it is law here in Austria) but this seems to have a little bit more influence on the guests to behave better and also I let them open house rules on the table that they can not even go around without seeing it... Anyway there are some of those making damages because just ignoring everything and thinking that that's nobody's belonging. 

[Corinne508]

This past weekends guest was the final straw. They left the house in the absolute worst condition we have ever seen and they took no accountability for it. assuming they could leave the place trashed because there is a modest cleaning fee.  Due to the fact that this has happened multiple times this year will most likely not be renting anymore. Its very disappointing because we would never leave someone else's house like that they should be embarrassed. 

[Dream-Casa-Properties0]

Corinne,

Have you thought about making rules for the house within the booking and a hard copy they sign on entry? 

I have many ideas and tips for you as I own a property management company where I have put a stop to tenants like this with a mutual agreement before entering any of our properties.

[Emily145]

I have house rules on the listing online and in hard copy, and guests still violate them. AirBnB only lets you recover actual documented costs of damages, won't allow you to charge for your own labor, and has a poor track record of letting hosts recover lost income when a guest left the unit in such bad shape that they could not host for the next few nights.

I rent a basement unit and it's in my listing's online house rules, the "things to know about this listing" when booking, and the 1-page information sheet in the unit which has the WiFi details, that use of the air conditioner (summer) or the dehumidifer (winter) is mandatory because it's a basement with limited ventilation and we live in a wet climate with a high water table so moisture is basically constantly trying to infiltrate the room (not to mention humidity coming from the shower that only escapes if they open the bathroom window which I notice many are not comfortable with).

My last guest was here for 3 weeks, evidently ignored this rule, and the room stank of mildew when he checked out. The relative humidity in the room had gotten so high that the non-adhesive privacy film that clings to the windows, which had been in place a good year+, had completely peeled off. I could not completely get rid of the damp odor before my next guest arrived the next day, and had to offer him a refund or substantially discounted stay. There is no recourse through AirBnB to recover that loss despite the fact that he directly violated a house rule that I know he saw because he managed to find the WiFi details. They always find the WiFi details yet don't see the rules... and I have always taken care to make sure my rules sheet is only 1 page with lots of white space and short sentences in large font so it doesn't look like it's going to be a novel and off-putting to read.

The other rule that is routinely ignored is my request to leave the coffee maker's lid open when it's not in use and to dump coffee grounds promptly. I can't tell you how often I come into the room and open the coffee maker lid to find a wet or even moldly filter full of wet coffee grounds left inside.

[Cross-Cultural0]

Corinne - would you be willing to share your house rules that you have them sign?

[Ange2]

@Corinne508     True, some people use the cleaning fee as an excuse to trash the apartment and behave like slobs, there are a ton of posts about that attitude/entitlement on here from guests defending their behavior. A suggestion,  include the cleaning fee in nightly rate and up your rates.  That may attract more respectful guests.  Seems to me the lower the price the more people feel entitled to trash the place (not everyone of course, many are grateful and respectful) and your area  is a summer favorite  for out-of-control bacchanalian fests so that doesn't help either.

[Kaylee18]

@Corinne508   I agree with @Ange2 . I don't charge a cleaning fee because I have added it into my nightly price instead. And since I've upped my nightly price I am not getting as many young guests/students. 

Another suggestion would be to add outdoor cameras. I find having them and making it known in your listing will deter those type of people (most of the time). 

[Corinne508]

We removed our listing yesterday but if we ever put it back up i do like the idea of removing the cleaning fee and upping the nightly. 

We actually do have outdoor cameras, and they have been helpful in proving that some of our guests were breaking house rules. 

[Solveig0]

I did the same thing - I removed the cleaning fee and upped my prices. I've never had people trashing the place (I had two longer term rentals that left it incredibly messy, but not trashed, which is why I've stopped long term rental...). Not everybody leaves the house as I ask (take of linens, wipe surfaces etc), but its relatively minor compared to the mess people left when I *did* charge a cleaning fee. So it helped me. 

[Paul154]

Charging a cleaning fee has nothing to do with a guest trashing one's house.

It's a criminal's type logic. Users use the excuse of "you charged me a cleaning fee, therefore I can trash your house". Akin to "You made me do it".

The truth is they trashed the place and just did not want to clean up. Thus they grasp the cleaning fee as a way out. It's a good ploy , because even some hosts believe this faulty logic.

Users will trash a house without a cleaning fee also. They'd also find some excuse to muddy the waters.

It's what users do.

[Yosef3]

"Gone are the days where people would leave the house in the same condition they received it."

Hits too close to home :'(

[Donald28]

I guess we are lucky because our guests seem about the same since 3/2017.  We have had a few a-holes that broke things, peed on mattresses, puked on the rug etc etc. but they have either paid themselves or airbnb (eventually & mostly) paid after going through the claim process.  

I had a 12 yro boy throw a football into a $3000 neon light. It cost $930 to repair.  Airbnb paid $720. I was stuck eating the rest. It could have been worse.  

Use the claim process. It will pay off eventually.

[Alex-And-Rhea0]

Thank you  Donald28 I had no idea there was a claim process. However the story seems to repeat itself that AirBnb does not do enough o honour us who put money into their pockets.

[Petra327]

@Donald28  I would personally remove a $3000 light.  I have a $950 piece of art in one of my properties but i don't allow children there and I am seriously considering selling it and replacing it with a $75 piece of art.