Experienced hosts how do you deal with disrespectful guests ?

[Stuart177]

Hi Hosts,

How do you deal with disrespectful guests ? By this I mean the type of guest who:

1. Does not follow the rules.

2. Demands your address as they are sending a package to your house (without asking if its OK)

3. Smokes pot in the room when there is a no smoking policy.

4. Goes through your cupboards and helps themselves to new towels 24hrs after arriving.

5. Leaves all the towels they took soaking wet and covered in body or hair oil ?

6. Leaves spot stains on bedding, couch, carpet.

7. Doesn't lock the door when leaving or put the key where you asked just tosses it on bed.

8. Leaves trash in your garden.

9. Moves furniture around and doesn't put it back. 

10. Drinks all 20 coffee mate cartons - thats kind of a joke but why do some guests drink coffee mate like a glass of milk?

You get the gist, we've all had them...

So do you just take the disrespect and accept it and clean up after them, avoid giving a bad review as theres a disincentive (ie who wants to argue with their guest in your description reviews?) and put it down to the costs of doing business and opt for the easy life.

or

Do you leave a bad review, confront them with their disrespectful behaviour, try to teach them if they are young that this is not a hotel and they need to respect someone else's private space, do you claim extra for the ruined towels and spot stains on carpet, couch etc ?

How do you deal with it I'd be interested to hear...

[Emiel1]

@Stuart177 

My guests are mostly staying for a week or much longer. I explain such guest to change attitude, otherwise i will  sent them a request to shorten the reservation. It helps !

And the real diehards ? Call Airbnb and ask for cancelation due to misbehaviour. They will contact the guest first. It helps !

Best regards,

Emiel

[Stuart177]

thanks appreciated.

[Laura2592]

@Stuart177 How long do you have to tolerate this person? If you still have a ways to go on the stay I would say something like "Im sorry but I don't think my place is a good fit for you. I've called Airbnb to let them know and we are working on finding you a better accommodation. " And have  that be true.

If its just a day or two more I'd just suck it up and write a very honest and factual review. 

[Ann72]

@Stuart177  Raise the price of your lovely room.  How much would it cost for them to get a hotel room in Culver City?  Make your price 2/3rds of that.

[Stuart177]

Hey Ann, you were spot on I did exactly that and found the standard of guest improved dramatically. Thanks for the advice it worked. 

[Sarah977]

@Stuart177  Message to guest: "Hi XX, when you book an Airbnb, you are entering into a contract with the host. The host must provide what they state they provide in their listing information and the guest must respect the property and follow the stated house rules. Failure to comply with house rules and to show respect for the host or the property by making a mess, staining furniture and carpets, helping yourself to the host's supplies, etc. will result in termination of your booking and payment for damages or extensive cleaning."

Don't leave extra towels, creamers, or any other amenities within access of a guest beyond what you feel is reasonable for the number of guests and the length of stay. Tell them when their towels will be changed out and that they don't get fresh ones just because they threw the ones you gave them in a wet wad on the floor.

Make your expectations re clean-up, and pre-check-out tasks specifically clear. What the guest considers to be tidying up may be quite far from yours.

And please don't let guests get away with bad behavior simply because you are afraid of a bad review. If you do this, they just continue this behavior at other host's homes. Leave honest reviews to warn other hosts of bad guests. You can write it in code which other hosts will "get", if you don't want to be specific (altho other hosts do prefer to know what the issues were,- not in excruciating detail, but in general terms)- "Guest stayed 2 nights" tells me that you had nothing good to say about the guest.

You have to judge for yourself, in each individual case, if it's worth confronting the guest or charging them for damages. If a guest is smoking in a non-smoking place,  meaning you or your next guests will be disgusted by the smell, or even cancel, that's a serious violation and worth pursuing. If they ruin an entire set of sheets, that's likely worth charging them for, if they just stain one pillowcase, or leave a spot on the carpet you find you can remove with the right product,  I'd let it go. Set aside a fund, a few bucks from each night's fee, to cover general wear and tear and replacing inexpensive items.

Some guests are just slobs, some are clean, it sort of balances out in my experience. And is part of the hosting reality.

And yes, sometimes it's a matter of the guest just being young and/or clueless and in some of those cases, it is better just to educate them on expectations if they seem like someone who will apologize, take it to heart and change their ways.

[Stuart177]

This is excellent advice, thank you. Especially the writing in code. I was doing that previously and would simply write 'thanks'. But prefer guest stayed 2 nights thats useful. 

[Katrina79]

@Stuart177 It depends what the guest has done to be disrespectful. I have a lot of tolerance but the grey line between black and white shouldn’t be crossed. I kick out guests that: smoke inside, yell/fight, invite friends over for a party and any illegal activity. If I find out after the fact I cut their stay short if they haven’t already left and leave an accurate review. If a guest does one or two of the items on your list I just clean up and move on. Like pick up a piece of garbage in the garden, smoke butt off the lawn, clean the stains, wash the towels, put the furniture back in place etc. None of these small things are too much to concern me....but if one guest does them all I would be annoyed and probably say something in the review. 

[James2566]

My review for such guests is "Better suited to a hotel." Maybe I'm reaching my breaking point but I now charge for damages above US30. 

[Stuart177]

Thanks James, I found raising prices largely solved the problem. Also there was alot of younger people travelling and a high state of anxiety towards the end of summer which is part of the issue and frankly some people not being taught how to respect someone's home.

[Robyn351]

Hey @Stuart177 I definitely find that setting a good price point is the key to avoiding this behaviour. If you charge a premium, and provide a premium service, you tend to attracts guests who are more respectful of your space.

Depending on how bad any damage/destruction is, I would not hesitate to reach out to the guest to claim on their damage deposit, or reach out to AirBnB and the resolution centre - sometimes they step up if the guest fails to.

And finally, I would leave a public review that is not scathing, but tips off hosts that this guest was not great - something like "The guest had some difficulties with instructions". I then leave polite private feedback to the guest letting them know about how they can improve in the future - many of them are simply oblivious, and just need to be made aware of the expectations. 

Hope that helps 🙂