Define 'Private Room' and Host accessibility thereto

[Ken28]

As a part of hosting, I take it upon myself to do a quick walk-through every couple days. I've been doing this since day one. First, I check that they're not home (car isn't in garage or driveway), and then I knock on the door, and then I let myself in when I verify that they're not present.

I take a quick look around, make sure the trash can isn't full, tissues are stocked, and then inspect to verify that towels are in their proper locations (the bathroom, and not hanging in the bedroom), food is not being stored or disposed of in the rooms, and that they are taking good care of my personal property. (Those are all things that they agreed to in the rules.)

I just had a long term guest leave a week early. She requested a refund of her unused days via the resolution center. Her reason was listed as "uncomfortable" with the host entering the room without permission.

Airbnb reached out to me, and I confirmed that yes, I access my guests rooms without their consent or even notice. Their response said:
"I do truly understand that you would just like to protect your home from damages, and I get that with guests in the past, this has become your primary goal. However, like I said, this is absolutely not something you are allowed to do on our platform. If a guest books your listing as a "private room" they are not expected to share their living quarters, which means this is only for the guest that had booked. By going into this guests listing without her permission, this makes for an uncomfortable and potentially inappropriate situation between you and your guest, and this is something we always would like to avoid."

"With that being said, per our Terms of Service, Section 9 paragraph 5 & 6, I will be proceeding with refunding your guest for the nights she did not stay in your listing. This will amount to a total of $[xxx]. At this time, because you have already received this payout you will be seeing an adjustment to your account for this total. This adjustment will be due to come out of your future payouts."

Nowhere in my reading of the Terms of Service does it say that a Private Room is not accessible to the Host. I've challenged the Manager, but haven't gotten a response back yet.

[Ken28]

@Farah1

On second thought, I'm afraid that someone will read the rules on the Listing, and assuming they agree to them, they won't take the time to re-read the rules when I send them as a message. Thus, they'd miss the codeword altogether. Have you run into that issue yet?

Is there any reason why I shouldn't put this in the Listing itself?

[Paul154]

Ken, I am very curious.

I like your idea of self-serve disinfective wipes available in the bathroom.

But I'm afraid guest will flush them down toilet and clog it.

What is your experience?

Thank you

[Ken28]

@Paul154, I've seen several in the trash can during guests stays, so I assume that's where they're going. 

The trash can is right next to the toilet, so it's easier to remember too. 

If if it helps and your worried about it, maybe a friendly label on the container that reads (do not flush) would be useful. 

Also, I have yet to see a dirty toilet since implementing those. So, I guess that's good, right?

[Ken28]

And for the record, while many of my guests are complaining that the can't go to the bathroom or that they can't come and go after 9p.... that's absurd. I never told them that, and I never implied that. They just read what they want to and make up tall tales as a retaliation. 

Yes, I gave an ultimatum to Rumaldo. But it wasn't as simple as he puts in his review. My message to Rumaldo was as follows:

"Rumi, recall when you agreed to the house rules when you booked? I provided an extra copy of the rules this Tuesday... hoping you'd read them again. One of the rules is that shoes are to be removed at the front door. Since you arrived a week ago, you have yet to follow that very simple rule. Shoes bring in contaminants... primarily dirt, but they also make footsteps very loud on on the hardwood floors of this otherwise quiet house. Tonight (and a few other pervious nights) I've been awaken by heavy footsteps in sandals on your way to the bathroom. Consider this your final notice: If you don't care to follow the rules during your stay, I will be canceling your booking prematurely. No refunds will be issued for breaches to the House Rules. Regards, Ken"

[Farah1]

ouch, the 1st sentence sounds like an attack. When guests break house rules, I send a message starting by saying "Hi X, a kind reminder that (put what rules that they break here). End with 'Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions and/or anything'. There are people who "like" to break house rules just because they don't care, but I prefer to send a "reminder" when they break rules.

[Todd-and-Reese0]

If you are bound and determined to continue to enter the guest's room(s) to "clean" and "check for improprieties" you need to state this in your listing under the house rules, house manual, and "other things to note" sections, and possibly even the pre-booking message. My husband even suggested you leave a "do not disturb/service okay" door hanger for the guests to use, and do NOT go in there unless they have approved "service".

We charge a cleaning fee and deposit, so if they leave wet towels, crums, lights on, or ruin something, we are covered. We also live in the home, so if they are doing something destructive, we will know. I have only called once to have someone rehomed and it was because they slipped and told us someone else booked for them. Since we instituted the security deposit we have had no problems with our towels walking off or anyone smoking in our room. Go figure.

[Ken28]

What's an acceptable amount for a security deposit? $100 is the minimum, which seems a bit high, and I don't think many would want to put that down, when other listings in my area have none.

[Zacharias0]

Security deposit isn't worth much, but having one keeps the vagrants with ZERO money and ill intentions out of your listing. Ususally if a person balks at a security deposit they wont be able to pay for anything if something comes up broken or missing. I charge a $200 deposit and others charge $1000 and more.

[Allison2]

sorry for the double post

[Allison2]

Mine is $500 and I don't have any problems (That's about the cost of 2 nights in our high season). It's not actually charged to the person's card unless you make a claim against it, so it should be a non-issue.

[David126]

A security deposit is just a theoretical hold on a credit card, no payment is made.

[Todd-and-Reese0]

We only charge the minimum $100 deposit. It keeps people honest if they think we can charge them for destroying or stealing. We also do not rent longer than one week. We don't want roommates. You may want to rethink the length of your stays. Then you don't need to go in the rooms. Charge a deposit, cleaning fee, and limit stays. That also helps if you get a dud that doesn't respect your rules. They'll be gone soon!

[Farah1]

@Todd-and-Reese0 I just read your listing and see the "code" in the house rules section. Do you always decline and cancel IB when they do not send the code on their initial message? I have an embedded code in the house rules message that I send before approving the request (after asking questions regarding the purpose of visit, etc). However, now I am wondering if I should also put the code in the house rules on the listing that you do... how well does this work?

@Ken28 , Reese's house rules give me a different perspective/idea on how/where to put the code, I might want to give this a try!

[Ken28]

@Farah1 I looked at one of @Todd-and-Reese0's listings. I think that is a better solution to use the code in the public rules. It should weed some people out even quicker than putting it with the rules in a message. I think the house rules aren't really suitable for sending as a text message.

[Farah1]

@Ken28 @Todd-and-Reese0 I do not want people to skip all the way to find the code word. The way I have been doing it is I prefer to ask questions first (name, age, purpose of visit, etc). If all good, then I send the house rules and ask them to share it with everyone in the group (if it is not a single person who book). They then get back to me with the code. If they only say "I understand/sounds good/agree". I send this message > There's a code embedded in the house rules message (that I sent to you) that you need to send to me to ensure you've read, understand, and agree with all the house rules that you need to send back to me.

some people get it right away after that and some not. During this process, there are some people that "just realized" about some of the rules i.e. the house silent time or the no visitor, then they decide that they cannot follow the rules. This proves that there are people who either 1. do not read, or 2. read, but not thoroughly. So, I feel that having this additional step helps to ensure that they do actually read and understand and agree (that is why I also want this in a statement as I mentioned on my previous post). Again, there is a hit and miss sometimes, but I can feel improvement since I started doing this a couple years ago.