Hello all,
this is our first time hosting a guest - so excited! Our first booking was for 1 month instant booking which was a complete surprise and for some reason I did not expect it and did not make clear my policies for long stays on the description. In any case the person staying has great reviews so I didn’t worry. He then massages me 3 days before the stay and wants to cancel the booking as he can only make the first 6 days... I have a strict policy and it was a long term booking so 100% is forfeit. When he realises this he decides to go ahead with the booking. Then after a conversation i realise he would like bedding to be changed once a week via a housekeeper which he has agreed to pay for but would like me to organise, I don’t have enough sets to do two bedrooms for a month without having to send it for wash and press (as we won’t be near by) at a cost of €50 per week which I stumped up. Question 1. On long stays is it normal to provide full set of clean sheets for the whole duration or are they expected to do laundry?
the booking was originally for one person but then they mention their pregnant wife may visit so it’s ok because it’s a 100sqm apartment with 2 bedrooms and the way I see it he’s paid for the whole place. On checking in his sister in law is also there... but I say to myself as long as he doesn’t breach the 4 person limit it’s ok. Now he messages me complaining that there isn’t enough wardrobe space and he’d like to move some of our things around... sure ok no problem - we cleared out 90% of our things so I thought they’d have enough space....
then he complained there was dog hair on towels etc and on his clothes. We had the whole apartment cleaned for 11 hours over 2 days to make sure there wouldn’t be any issues with cleanliness. It turns out he has started using towels from our cabinet - which I asked him not to do because some of them are dog towels. I put my hands up and must add that in the description I didn’t state that we have dogs in the apartment, a stupid oversight on my part - once I realise this I did tell them just to make sure they didn’t have allergies etc but they said they were actually looking to get a dog so it’s ok. But they would like the housekeeping this week to be paid for by us as they are not happy about the dog hair - ok fine it’s my bad.
I left some herbs, veg, cheese etc in the fridge that were still good and unopened in case the guest would like to use it but now he’s complaining that it’s going mouldy and the cleaner needs to spend extra time to clean out the fridge. And also that the kitchen doesn’t have enough space for their food....I appreciate they have a 1 month booking but our kitchen isn’t small (not massive either) but we do have an American fridge freezer so I’m puzzled how a couple can run out of space... I didn’t know what to say to this...
sorry this has been a bit of a rant. I thought hosting would be so easy but surprisingly It’s been quite difficult - mostly through my own errors.
had you received complaints like the above what would you have done? Is there anything further I can do to help the guest? My main concern is a complaint to Airbnb or an attempt to cancel the booking mid way through their stay.
