Food in the rental room

[Anamika7]

Hi, I am renting out a single big room on Airbnb.

The guests have full access to the living-dining kitchen all day. I have a strict policy for No food in the bedroom - for two reasons - one the smell that gets in the furniture and the bedding, and second, the bedroom is on the second floor, while carrying food (as a guest was storing eggs in the bedroom) to the kitchen for cooking or the cooked food, if any mishap, will damage furniture and walls. Another most important thing is the fear of infestation of cockroaches. 

Still, the last two guests were storing cooked/uncooked food in the bedroom. I tried to politely remind them about the reasons, but they still ignore.

Have you had any experience like this, and if yes, what did you do? 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Anamika7   I think your listing might be miscategorized; it's currently showing as a "Shared Room," but if guests have their own bedroom, it should be listed as a "Private Room" in a shared home.

It's not unreasonable to request that guests not store food or eat in the bedroom, but it's not really enforceable as a strict rule.  Guests who are shy or not fully comfortable with your social dynamic will not want to eat in your shared dining space, and confronting them about that rule will only exacerbate the discomfort. Perhaps this is what happened with your recent guest who claimed to have felt "verbally assaulted." (BTW, I strongly recommend that you delete your public response to this review - the intended audience is your prospective guests, who will be horrified by how graphically you trashed the guest in those remarks). 

You might consider removing kitchen access as a listed amenity altogether, and just offering it selectively to guests who have already earned your trust. As long as you're primarily hosting short stays, it's not necessary to target self-catering guests. It's also possible to decline requests if you don't feel you've developed a strong rapport with the guests in their initial correspondence, but this might be quite limiting to your business. 

What you don't want to happen is that guests feel they have to hide in their rooms - with or without food. I saw a worst-case-scenario of this when staying with vegan acquaintances who imposed a strict rule on their flatmate that no non-vegan foods were allowed in the house. One day, they entered the flatmate's bedroom to look for their missing cat, and discovered packages of lunch meats under her bed, slowly spoiling at room temperature. Point is, trying to micromanage this person's eating habits did not advance the cause of veganism, but it caused a lot of bad feelings, bad smells, and probably a terrible stomach.

[Anamika7]

Hello Andrew, thanks for such an elaborate response, and I can see that you have gone to great lengths to analyze my reviews and listing. 

First of all, thanks for the suggestion to change the listing type to "shared room". 

I understand that it cannot be enforced as a rule, but the guests are informed that little dry snacking is okay. But storing all kinds of perishable foods like fruits and bread in the bedroom closets is not something acceptable. 

Regarding the public response - "how graphically you trashed the guest". I don't think you realize the connotation of "verbal assault" in Canada. You can go to prison for just saying verbal threats. I had formally lodged a complaint against this guest with Airbnb after a week his check-in. Airbnb never got to respond until the check-out date. And I have gone through so much trouble on account of this guy. I contacted Airbnb after the guest's review of verbal assault, and Airbnb staff reviewed my comment and they asked me to maintain my review.  If the guest removes his comment, I will remove mine. I don't care if the future guests don't come to my house. I am not prepared to provide a maid service for anyone, cleaning people's **bleep** and urine and their dishes. So thank you for your suggestion, but I am not going to remove that public response. 

My question is - do you allow your guests to store perishable food in their bedrooms? I don't have any dietary restrictions for anyone, everything is allowed in the kitchen. I have also provided an extra fridge in the kitchen, and store my food in the basement fridge. There is a pantry space allocated for the guest to store their groceries, dry foods. 

[Anamika7]

And just so you know that particular guest apologized to me for posting that "verbal assault" comment later on a personal text message.

[Anonymous]

@Anamika7 It doesn't take much analysis to read 5 reviews 🙂 

I'd prefer that people not let perishable foods decompose in the guestroom, but I respect their privacy and feel that what the registered guests do and keep in their own room is none of my business. Fortunately, no guest has ever caused a pest infestation, and I've never found food stains/smells in the bedding to be any harder to deal with than those that come naturally from their bodies. 

Most of the time, I don't really know what people are keeping in their private space because I don't enter it during the stay. But if it's clear that the guest is uncomfortable or you're not getting along, that seems like a much bigger problem than where they put their food. It's pointless to make a "formal complaint" to Airbnb while a stay is in progress - if it's not working out, just ask them to leave and refund their unused nights. (The easiest way to register this in the system is to get them to agree to a booking modification). 

Hopefully most of your future guests will be more enjoyable for you, though I fear you'll have a very hard time attracting the best ones with that review response. You're perfectly entitled to uphold your boundaries in your own home, but realistically you won't be able to micromanage people out of their gross and weird habits. Sharing a small house with strangers from the internet is definitely not for all tastes, and most who try it out don't continue it in the long term. But for your own peace of mind, I recommend thinking hard about how long you can see yourself putting up someone whose behavior you just can't stand, and making that your maximum length of stay. 

[Anamika7]

As you have seen from other reviews from other guests, I never had any problem with anyone. People are respectful mostly. 

For this particular guest, I discussed that option with him to refund the money, but he was an international student - he didn't have much money to book another airbnb, didn't know anyone in the city, and had no alternative accommodation.  The only thing I could do is keep giving reminders until he rented another cheap room, but he would do it sometimes and sometimes just ignore it. 

I never enter anyone's space either, but the current guest was cooking 3 meals - omelets in the morning, which I didn't realize for the first two weeks, as I am mostly out for work. But then last Friday, I was at home, and he made an omelet in the morning, but no eggs in the fridge. So first I thought he was using my eggs, but he told me later in the evening that he has stored them in the eggs. I politely asked him to bring them and store them in the fridge. Next day with his permission i had to enter the bedroom, as was getting regular yearly summer pest control done, and then saw the closet full of bread, fruits, juices, bottles of honey, packets and packets of dates, cookies, and all kinds of food... Now you tell me what to do? 

[Anonymous]

@Anamika7   Well, it's not like you can force a guest to use your fridge if he doesn't want to. Anytime a guest is refusing to follow your rules, your primary recourse is to terminate the booking and force them out. If you don't feel the matter is serious enough to warrant that, you're probably better off letting it go.

I can definitely understand the concern about food attracting pests, and I think most guests would be motivated to avoid an infestation in their bedroom. But as soon as a guest feels like they're being nagged - even when they deserve it - you're both going to feel uncomfortable for the rest of the stay, and your own business takes a hit from the inevitable bad review. Are eggs in the closet a hill worth dying on?