Does anyone else bolt EVERYTHING in their listing to the ground?

[Richard531]

If something is meant to stay in place and can possibly be moved, we bolt it to the ground.  Period. 

Examples include but are not limited to:

All bedside tables, all sofa end-tables, all dining tables, easy chairs/recliners, free standing sofas, pool tables, video game machines, karaoke machines, deck chairs, ALL artwork (finish nailed to the wall).

I want things to be arranged the way they’re supposed to be arranged.  And there’s no way my crew is going to put everything back exactly where I want it if it’s moved by a guest.  The reason why guests move EVERYTHING that is able to be moved has always baffled me.  But there is no stopping it.  So I simply don’t allow things to be moved anymore.  End of story.  Strangely, I’ve never gotten a comment from a single guest about it (been doing this about the last 750 guests or so). 

About once a year, we’ll back out the screws on things like dining tables and bedside tables in order to deep clean under/behind them (it can be pretty nasty!).  That’s not a fun day!  But it’s worth it for the rest of the bookings to have our items where they’re supposed to be. 

Excited to hear what you guys think or if anyone else is as strange/neurotic/OCD (or genius?) as I am!

[Katrina79]

@Richard531 @I can’t help but picture the world spinning out of control and not on its axis, but yet your guests living happily inside their Airbnb bubble! Do what you gotta do…

[Brian2036]

@Richard531 

We have never had a problem with people moving things.

 I would be rather annoyed if they did though, particularly heavy furniture, or delicate artwork.

[Sarah977]

@Richard531  Seems super gross to me to only clean under and behind bedside tables and other furniture only once a year. I clean under and behind things every time I clean. 

Just because no one can see the dirt (and you admit it's nasty) doesn't mean it's okay for it to be there. 

I just put felt pads under furniture so if  things get moved it doesn't scratch the floor. I must admit, I've never heard of hosts bolting the furniture down before.

I remember a host saying that guests had moved a particlar piece of furniture so often, and to the same spot, that she finally realized it was better for guests to have it there, rather than how she thought the room should be set up.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 

Agreed on all points! And, yes, I love when guest - or housekeeper - moves things to where they really should be. I am definitely not the last word on things.

[Sarah977]

@Kitty-and-Creek0  I have a dear friend who had two babies a year and a half apart when she was still fairly young. She had no idea how to keep house or cope. Her house was always a disaster and you'd be hard pressed to find more than a couple of spoons or forks in the kitchen, because she'd let the kids take the kitchen utensils out to the sandbox to play with. 

One day she phoned me with a revelation she'd just had. "I just realized that I keep house like a 10 year old! My idea of cleaning the house is to vacuum the middle of the floor and rearrange the furniture, because rearranging the furniture is much more fun than actually cleaning and somehow makes things seem fresh."

She finally changed her ways. And years later when her then 20 year old daughter decided to make her mom a nice flower garden where their old sandbox used to be, she dug up pretty much an entire set of flatware. 

[Colleen253]

@Sarah977 "I remember a host saying that guests had moved a particlar piece of furniture so often, and to the same spot, that she finally realized it was better for guests to have it there, rather than how she thought the room should be set up."  I had this realization too.

There's a wardrobe mirror in one bedroom that my hubby made for his Mom about 35 years ago. It's really heavy, yet a bit fragile. I would bolt it down if I could, as it's the one thing guests insist on moving, which is problematic for a few reasons. I finally had to make a note in the house manual asking guests not to move it. So then I'd come to find blankets or sheets tossed over it and that's when I realized that the reason has something to do with how it faces the bed. It's still a mystery to me as to why that's a problem for some. 🤷‍♀️Anyway, we shifted it to face away from the bed and it's been left alone since. 

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  I should think some people might like a mirror facing the bed. Spice things up a notch 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  Something occurred to me- is it possible that the previous orientation of the mirror reflected light either from a window or a light fixture that was annoying when guests were in bed? Like maybe they were sitting up in bed reading at night, and it reflected the bedside lamp light back at them?

[Colleen253]

@Sarah977 Good thought but I don't think so, based on where it was placed. Maybe some superstition thing? Someone did tell me that in feng shui, mirrors should not be placed opposite your bed, or reflect a bed in any way. Maybe that. Except I don't know anything about feng shui, so I'm sure my place breaks a lot of other feng shui rules, and nothing else gets messed with. It remains a mystery!

[Mei-Yu0]

One can get scared by his or her own reflection in the mirror especially when he or she isn't fully awake.  Good that you have turned it face away from the bed.

[Ryan2352]

Renting to a lot of vampires, I see @Colleen253   I hear they don't like to not see their reflection in the mirror.

[Normen0]

I agree with your last point.  Although Im annoyed when things are moved, once they have been moved a few times, I consider whether everyone else is right and I am wrong.  

[Laura2592]

@Richard531  we just ask guests not to move the furnishings in our house guide as it may cause injury or damage. Most of them abide with this. Sometimes you get a guest who simply must rearrange the space even though we ask them nicely not to. That guest gets low scores in following house rules and we might not check that we would host them again. 

I have been tempted to nail certain things down. Don't get me wrong. But it does make cleaning difficult. 

[Richard531]

I also wasn't 100% clear about why I bolt things down. 

Obviously it's first and foremost to avoid an item being moved from one side of the room to the other because the guest-knows-better-than-the-host (which we all know can happen every now and then). 

However, it's also done to prevent items from being moved 1-2 inches (or less).  The exact way spaces are set up and furnished matters.  The bed is centered exactly on the window, the nightstands are an exact distance on either side of the bed, the dining room table is situated directly below the chandelier, deck chairs don't end up in the out-swing of a door opening, etc.  

Stuff gets moved from one side of the room to the other because some human beings are self-centered and entitled.  But stuff also gets moved slightly because humans are very destructive animals.  Bolting everything to the ground mitigates that and makes it much easier on my crew and ensures that everything is always in it's EXACT place.

Where stuff is exactly sitting when that guest walks in MATTERS.  

Maybe I'm the only one?