Bets on if this will be a party....

[Laura2592]

Had a booking a few months ago for a local guest, "girl's weekend", 4 people, 2 nights.  Not totally unusual, nothing alarming about the message. Instant book, one 5 star review. It was before I did the Easter egg in my house rules to show they read them. Pretty darn sure they didn't.

They check in on Friday. I messaged today with my usual:

" Hi Guest- We are doing some shopping for your stay. Any allergies or restrictions for your group in terms of snacks? Any preferences? Are you wine drinkers? Any types that you like/don't like?

Confirming again that this is 4 adults, no pets. Let me know if plans have changed. Thanks and we look forward to hosting you!"

Response is:

"Hi Laura- we are wine drinkers and always looking to try new things! I am not aware of any allergies. We are so excited to stay! The property is so precious! No pets- we may have a couple other people coming to join us in the evenings to have dinner but no other changes. I also wanted to confirm we can check in around 12 on Friday? Thanks!!!"

And my response was (per my house rules about extra guests and parties):

"Yes, check in is at noon. We will send out an email with instructions on Thursday, so be on the look out! Make sure you take a spin around the house rules and let me know if you have questions.

We do have a police officer neighbor who is sensitive to extra guests/lots of cars so just be aware 🙂 Our house capacity is 4 people for overnights, so please keep that in mind. We don't mind one or two visitors as long as they leave by 10pm. Its always a balance with insurance coverage and keeping positive relationships with the neighbors. We are lucky so far in that they do really care about our space and keep an eye out.

I will pick out some goodies and some wine. There are some great wineries about 15-30 mins away in case you want to explore, but being in (local area) you may already be aware! Lots of info in the house guide on the coffee table. Looking forward to your stay!"

So place your bets, hosts. Will this be a party? What say you? I think its about 60/40.

[Jennifer2682]

I'm so curious to learn how this goes!!!  Keep us posted @Laura2592 !  (My bet?  They'll be loud and silly, but they'll leave it decent enough.)  

[Marissa160]

@Laura2592  I have a bet with my husband for a similar situation this weekend. Guest says she is in town for a wedding shower. Correct number of guests check in last night, but today around 2 pm, about 10 people show up on the front porch! They appeared to leave quickly and weren’t carrying bags, but I’m definitely wondering how tonight will go. Since they left soon after they arrived, I decided not to make a big deal about it right now. I’m hoping that is the right decision. 

[Laura2592]

Soooo here is the update. 

I had to go out of town this weekend and my husband was watching the reservation. Friday at 12 promptly several cars showed up and started unloading case after case of cheap booze, pink gifts and coolers. My husband saw it on the Ring. The neighbor called to alert me. I called ABB about party prevention. They called the guest who claimed it was only 4 people staying but "3 people visiting." I never okayed that. ABB called me and basically said to call the guest.  So I messaged the guest and called her saying that "1 or 2" was now three and that we do not allow parties. The guest was very nice and said "oh no! Its just to catch up." We captured some Ring footage of the unloading but ABB said it was insufficient to prove a party was about to take place.

So we basically had the choice to throw them out or allow this to happen. I contacted the guest again and said that the neighbors had raised concerns, that we would be sending someone over to ensure that there were only 4 guests at 10pm and who should we talk to? The guest said again that it wasn't a party and that everyone would be gone, and that the co host could speak to her.  The police officer neighbor drove by at 10:30 and all seemed quiet.

The guests left the place in good condition but the cleaners found condoms, **bleep** stickers and bride stuff. It was a bachelorette party.  There was also a number of items left behind like pillows, chargers and clothes. I find that groups who have a Sunday morning hangover tend to leave behind more items than those who don't 🙂 The guest contacted us asking us to ship the items to her mailing address. She was very nice (of course) left us a review right away (not sure what that says...) thanked us again and again and did a nice note in the guest book.

So how would you review this person?

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 Ugh. Call out the deception and ignoring your house rules. She was fully aware of what she was doing. 

And if you’re going to go to the trouble of packing up and shipping her forgotten items back to her, tack on a plump service fee for doing that, in addition to shipping costs. The nerve. 

[Laura2592]

Sigh. Nice forward facing review from this guest, low stars. I figured. I left her an honest review and low stars/would not host again. I really do wish that ABB would do something about retaliatory reviews....

[Colleen253]

Ugh @Laura2592 . The nerve, to repay your patience, grace and generosity the way she did. I’m snarky and wouldn’t ship her things back to her, but I bet you even did that. 

[Laura2592]

@Colleen253yeah we did. She only gave a partial address through so I don't know if it got to her. No apartment number. Maybe she was hung over lol.

I figured we would not escape unscathed as she was clearly caught and confronted. But her low stars were in weird things. Like check in. Maybe because she was on the Ring unloading case after case of Whiteclaw with 4 guys in 3 SUVs and got a call immediately from ABB.  I am sure that wasn't a great check in experience, but one has to take some responsibility for that as a guest! Its funny to me because we never have had anyone rate us under a 5 on check in-- its self guided so not much to rate on.

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 People are weird. I’ve mentioned before that I got rated low on check in once, because the guest objected to my very reasonable CHECK OUT TIME. My check in process is self guided and dead easy, too. The guest got in no problem! I throw my hands up.