Do Guest rummage in your Private Things? How do you know they do? Give concrete examples, please.

[Olga464]

I am the inhouse host. No locks in the rooms. In one I live. Another one I rent out.

[Sarah977]

@Olga464  In-home host, shared kitchen and living room (which guests very seldom use)-my bedroom and the guest bedroom both open off the balcony, with keys. Guest could access my bedroom just by turning the knob on their private bathroom door, which opens directly into my bedroom and locks from the guest side.

Never had a guest rummage in my stuff, ever.

[Olga464]

@Sarah977  Do your guests use your Kitchen when they book at low price or high price? What's the statistics?

[Sarah977]

@Olga464  My place is the same price every day of the year. Because I live in a touristy beach town with literally hundreds of cafes and restaurants witin a 4 block radius, there are tons of choices of where to eat. So I find the majority of guests choose to eat out, where they can sit and be a part of all the action. They might only tend to buy a bag of fruit, and some yoghurt, to have in the morning - I'd say about a quarter of my guests has actually cooked meals, and as I only host one guest at a time in the private room, those meals are simple and quick to prepare and every guest has washed their dishes, wiped the counters, etc. after cooking.

I haven't yet had one of those guests who's a food fusspot and has to make themselves long-preparation, gluten-free, 100% organic, vegan meals all day, and hope I never do 🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Olga464 

cheap and effective - lock your room with a key when you sleep or when you are not present

[Alan475]

@Olga464 

We host the entire space so guests do not rummage thru any private stuff but they are all curious.

We had 2 women stay 1 night ( not too sure if they were mother and daughter or a partner relationship) Anyways we have a heavy Kitchen Dresser (cupboard) that sits ontop of a disused cellar due to safety reasons we didn’t want guests to access it. Well going in afterwards to clean we noticed they had actually managed to move the cupboard to veiw the cellar. They also lit the combustion heater - must have used toilet paper to light it in the middle of our Summer Fire season, a 27 degree day!  (If they were cold they could have easily turned the Air conditioner on? )

People will always be curious of what is in the drawer or behind that closed door.

[Yulianna0]

@Olga464, I would be happy not to have such experience but I did. Both times they decided to look for extra towels in my wardrobe. One couple just decided to reorganize my things to empty space for their needs. Both times they were taking my personal cups and plates, even when I mentioned where are the plates for guests. The latest case was exceptional. The woman even decided to go through my cosmetics and use it. And she was very surprised: “what did I do?!” For me the only option in such cases is to shorten their stay. I do not tolerate such luck of culture and respect. 

[Julie143]

No, because everything that is out is meant for their use. It’s a whole house rental, but we live here when it’s not booked. 

I lock our basement, office and a couple of the closets. Before we hosts guests, I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off, shoving our clothes, cosmetics and other personal items into garbage bags and dumping them in the rooms that will be locked. It’s probably my least favorite part of hosting, but I don’t want our personal stuff to be in the guests’ way or to be stolen.

We are fairly minimalist, so we don’t have a lot of knickknacks or clutter anyway.  The good part is that is has forced me to be more organized and not keep useless items.

I also put away some of the more delicate kitchen items  and my good knives. I have IKEA ones for the guests. 

My few items of jewelry, our passports and laptops are brought with us.

[Robert310]

Hi Julie, 

     I am going through something simalar this past week. A first time user of Airbnb requested a booking for one week. Normally I would not accept a booking of a first time user because they don`t follow simple rules and no reviews to gage the past history. In the first reply to him I specifically expressed to him that there is a parking policy for guest of the property mgmt. And what is the first thing he does? He parks in the tenant area of the building. I was not here to greet them so I didn`t know where he parked. Property mgmnt contacted me about this and I texted him with no reaponse from him. Day two, he does the very same thing again. No reponse to me from my text to him, day three again and then he parks right next to the property mgr. Needless to say I got an earful from the property mgr.

    He says his phone was not working properly is why he did not respond to my messages. I do not put restrictions on a guest coming and goings. However this young couple quickly showed me they like late night outings. One night coming in at 2:30 am and another at 5:00 am. Therefore they are sleeping all day. They complained to Airbnb case mgr. that I took the TV box and violating their privacy by going in the room to retrieve the cable box. Case in point the Specrtum technician showed up this morning at 8:00 am. Seeing they came in last night at 2:45 am, they were not awake to allow the tech to get to the box. That is why I went into the room to get the box.

     Considering the amount of trouble this guest caused me with the property mgr. I had asked that he check out. Again he complained to Airbnb case mgr. However I allowed him to stay. This morning I see where he totally misrepresented the situation to Airbnb. Now I am ready to kick him to the curb. I like other host live in the apartment and I do not bother guest that are here. Violating his privacy? I do not know this person from nowhere, yet I allow him in my place. One host said" the guest policy has deminished in the last couple of years" Airbnb allowing incomplete profiles! 

[Huma0]

@Olga464 

I host in my own house and none of the bedroom doors lock. It turns out that it's complicated to replace the old Victorian locks with new ones. 

I don't know if a guest has ever entered my bedroom as I've never seen any evidence of them going through my stuff nor noticed anything missing, but I think it would be naive to assume that none of over 400 guests have been tempted to snoop. I'm sure some of them must have when I was out. I did catch one guest sneaking up to the top floor where my bedroom and another guest room is. She thought everyone was out and was startled when she heard me and went running back down the stairs. 

I have had some guests go through my bathroom or kitchen cupboards though and help themselves to things that are not for guests. All the things that are for their use are shown to them in the house tour, so I don't know why they think they can do that other than they assume because it's an Airbnb that everything in it is for them.

It's more common in the bathroom, with some guests going into my cupboard (I maybe need to put a 'private' sign on this) and using my personal things. It's not uncommon for guests to use my toiletries or take my towels even though I provide them with plenty of their own. I have even had a guest take my make up brushes, use them and then put them with her stuff. She didn't try to hide this, so obviously thought the brushes were communal or something. Is it just me, or is that weird?

[Huma0]

Oh, and more than one person has used my make up brushes (which are put away in a cupboard not for their use) and then left them on the floor. This I find really bizarre. Why would anyone do that and think it was okay?

[Olga464]

@Huma0 She marked her territory, as a dog. Could be because of stress

or youngsters always do it  when they are in " to win the world" state of mind.

I bet you are very tidy and it's a pleasure to rummage in your private stuff.

When somebody's underpants are unwashed for the entire year then it's another story.

But i tell you what.... I even do my laundry twice more often now and hang my bras by colors on clothing hangers as I want everything to look perfect in case if they take a look inside my wardrobe. Once I had a guy who told me I have maniac habbits for the order. I bet he glanced at my underwear while I was absent. 

[Huma0]

@Olga464 

Yes, the make up brush/cosmetic stealing types are almost always young. There was only one exception, an older lady who went into my cupboard every day and took out another one of my personal face cloths, which she used and then left in the shower. She was definitely marking territory. The woman was a pitbull. She also took things out of my personal kitchen cupboards and moved them to the guest cupboard. Her husband took things out of my tool kit!

I am tidy and very organised everywhere except my own bedroom so I don't think snooping guests would be very impressed. I am going to organise my knicker drawer now so that it is more pleasing to them 🙂

I also just had an idea. To put a sign inside the wardrobe, so that if someone does pry in there, they will be greeted with the words "If you are reading this, you shoudn't be in here."

I wonder what the rules would be about putting surveillance cameras in your place if they were in your personal areas, not the guest ones. Would you have to declare them on the listing if they were in rooms the guests are not allowed in?

[Olga464]

@Huma0 In my case It's practically impossible to prove. I never caught them. But I can judge by their behavior and remarks they make.

I also do not have locks. And sometimes people are putting bags with grocery products on the door handle to check if the owner enters the room while the guest is absent (means, everything will be on the floor when the handle moves) Or leave their computer cameras on. I see it through half see through  glass on the door. I never enter as I have no interest for this type of things.

Once I hosted a women from tax police department. She told me about the methods they use to get the primary position in discussion between tax police and a caught businessman, for example. So, everybody marks the territory on any kind of level.

I tell in my intro letter I work in international police department. It solved all of my problems with guests at once. They feel like being safe but also being caught by the potential system from the very begining. And I feel relaxed cause they behave well.

[Huma0]

@Olga464 

Unfortunately my job as a magazine editor doesn't seem to get the same reaction! You are definitely at an advantage there.

I also do not go into the guest rooms without permission, except that I turn off the light if they repeatedly leave it on while they are out, but the switch is right by the door so I don't even need to go inside. I did notice that my current guest has moved the chair right by the door. I can't think of a reason for this except to prevent the door from opening when he is in there (even though I gave him a doorstop). I hope he is not using my handpainted, antique chair for this purpose and damaging it. I will find out this afternoon as I have permission to clean his room.

I also have no interest in going through someone's personal items... Some people are just plain nosey though. I have some pieces of furniture in the hallways. They are mostly decorative, but have small drawers where I keep stuff like gloves, sunglasses etc, nothing very valuable. I have noticed that these drawers are very often slightly open, so people are snooping in there on a regular basis. I try not to stress about it.