Guests

[Thuli0]

Good day good hosts, I also need to share my experience, which does not impress me at all about certain guests behavior.  I had a couple who stayed in the room the whole day and night through out their week stay. They would make funny and irritating noises when engaged in 'what you call' even during the day. And I suspect these are the local guys who only wanted a place to hide themselves in. I try by all means to scrutinize and decline such reservations (reservations from local guys), but I was defeated on this one I never saw it coming because I think the guest was clever enough to write a town far away enough from our place on their profile. Personally I do not enjoy hosting such guests in my private accommodation, which I share with the guests. Am I being unreasonable?        

[Helen350]

"Better suited to a motel", as the saying goes on here. And no, I don't think you are being unreasonable. That's bad MANNERS. What happened to the original Airbnb concept, which included a cultural exchange between host & guest?

[Thuli0]

@Helen350 I agree. LOCAL  guys coming to your private space just for having sex for the whole week. I feel disrespected. 

[Patricia55]

@Thuli0  I'd feel exactly the same - disrespected 😞

Sorry this happened to you.

[Anonymous]

@Helen350  Cultural exchange between host and guest? I don't remember that ever being part of the original concept - more like an occasional pleasant side effect.

@Thuli0  If you're sharing space with guests and don't feel comfortable with them using their private room for "what you call," the obvious solution would be to rent your room only to solo guests, and strictly forbid them bringing additional visitors. This would likely reduce your occupancy rates and income. But if a couple is paying money to rent a private room, their room rate generally entitles them to use it for as many hours of the days between checkin and checkout time as they please, and it's not a host's business what consensual activities in bed that entails.

[Thuli0]

May be I was not clear enough, I did not say that I have a problem with couple guests who come as tourists and do what couples do - that is not a problem. In fact I enjoy hosting such couples. My concern is local guys who would come to your private home solely for having sex for the whole week. They should have booked themselves at the hotel/motel. And I do not think that was part of the original Airbnb concept. 

[Helen350]

@Anonymous I was expecting this ^from you! - I would agree with you that guests can do what they like in an "entire place" listing, provided they cause no damage nor nuisance to neighbours. But I disagree that, because guests are paying, they can also do what they like in home share situations. I would have thought that in HOME SHARES, all guests have a duty to be RESPECTFUL of the host, CONSIDERATE GUESTS. Noisy sex is disrespectful i.m.o. If I was booking a place to do a John & Yoko, & stay in bed ALL WEEK (!), I would choose, somewhere completely private, or a hotel. NOT under the nose of a landlady!

Re the cultural exchange bit, I always understood that was part of the  uniqueness of Airbnb?... 'Live like a local!' - A host near me told me he hosted for these reasons, not the money, & had a bit in his listing description suggesting this was important to him... for this reason he favoured travelers, not business people. (He no longer hosts, I suspect the pulling of the profile pics & other tools to select interesting guests.) A lady round the corner hosts in her (nice) garden shed for £15 a night or £24 for two, home made bread included! She is not doing it for the money, she wants her little boys exposed to interesting people, to broaden their career aspirations, so she said!

[Thuli0]

@Anonymous May be I was not clear enough, I did not say that I have a problem with couple guests who come as tourists and do what couples do - that is not a problem. In fact I enjoy hosting such couples. My concern is local guys who would come to your private home solely for having sex for the whole week. They should have booked themselves at the hotel/motel. And I do not think that was part of the original Airbnb concept. 

[Lisa723]

@Thuli0 so, it's OK with you if people from out of town use your place for sex, but not people from in town?  😉

If I had requirements about how many hours per day people occupy the accommodation, or what kinds of noises they make in it, I would include those requirements in my house rules.  I would leave it at that and wouldn't concern myself with their reasons for booking.

[Anonymous]

@Helen350 @Thuli0  Of course I agree that a home with an onsite host is not an ideal fit for a weeklong sex marathon . But there's nothing about your listing that would appear to discourage that. You have no descriptive text indicating what kind of household environment you have. You don't have photos of anything except a bed. There's no reference to shared common areas. Your profile is empty and says nothing about you or your expectations for interaction with guests. So people who are looking for a "cultural exchange" type hospitality experience would not find your listing appealing in its current state.

Fixing these problems with your listing won't  guarantee that all your guests will be as respectful as you'd like, but it would definitely help you attract more of the type of guests that you prefer. 

[Helen350]

@Anonymous I assume the bulk of your comment about lack of description of home environment applied to Thuli? My listings make it clear that my rooms are in my house, & that bathroom is shared with myself & lodgers or other Airbnbers. And my house rules mention consideration for others! 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Helen350   I was referring specifically to Thuli's listing.

[Thuli0]

@Anonymous Thank you for your suggestions

[Patricia55]

@Thuli0 As usual, @Anonymous  hits the nail on the head! A few more house rules etc. wouldn't go amiss...

Mine are quite minimal: “Common courtesy & respect for our home.”  [I wouldn't expect that I should have to state explicitly: “No noisy sex marathons!” but, who knows?]

[Thuli0]

@Patricia55 “Common courtesy & respect for our home.” Thanks that's an ideal tip to include in the house rules.