Guests taking rather too many liberties

[Lucinda69]

I have rented out my spare room (plus private bathroom and toilet) for a year now through Air BnB - all good.

In most cases, my guests have been what I would term as true Bed and Breakfast people. In other words, they sleep, they have breakfast, they go out for pretty much all of the day (to work or to sightsee), and return in the evening. Sometimes they will ask to prepare a meal in the kitchen, and longer-stay people will ask to use the washing machine occasionally for their clothes.

However, I currently have a couple in and they are using my house as their own. They use the washing machine daily, even twice a day, there is constant cooking and meal preparation going on. They have taken space in the fridge, the freezer, the store cupboard. Both of them are "working from home" - my home  - and have taken over my dining room for the purpose. If they go out at all, it's only for an hour or so.

They are very nice people and I cannot fault their behaviour and demeanour towards me. For example, I currently have some building work going on in my own bathroom and they are good with the daytime work and the small amount of disruption this is causing. But I feel like I am a guest in my own home.

Maybe I am old-fashioned but BnB is bed and breakfast - not house sharing. Yes, I have charged them a small amount on top to cover extra utilities used, and I just wanted to know if this was normal behaviour for guests in a spare room in a home.

I really think they would have been happier in a small apartment, rather than taking over my home.

What do others think about this? They are here for another 2 weeks. Am I being picky? Is this something to expect from longer-term guests (in this case 4 weeks)? Should I simply suck it up?

But it's my home and I feel a bit like a stranger here at times.

[Fred13]

@Lucinda69 Oftentimes it helps to work backwards. Instead of getting into turning into a phycologist and find out what the guest may be thinking and how they may behave, perhaps treat all people the same, set firm boundaries that do follow your original intent.

Your price is $39 a night, obviously what you intended and consider fair (I think) is that the guest was simply renting a room in a house and hardly anything more. You come across as a very kind-hearted person (oh oh), but IF you are not watchful and forget your original intent, even the nicest guests will slowly morphed into 'house guests' vs. 'room guests', it is human nature.

   So first thing to consider is really what you want and follow that plan.