How to handle guests who don't respect house rules?

Rebecca10
Level 1
Boulder, CO

How to handle guests who don't respect house rules?

We have been hosting our cabin for several years now and just recently had a guest who didn't respect our house rules and left our kitchen a mess. One of our house rules is to re-stock any food item that you use up, but to enjoy our fully stocked kitchen and use our spices, flour, oils, canned food, etc. We use our cabin personally quite a bit and keep it stocked for our family as well as our guests. After our most recent guest, I went to our place to check it out and found that our fridge and freezer (both of which had food in them) were totally emptied and our pantry was all a mess with cans and items shoved in an upper cabinet and not put back where they had been. It will probably take me an hour just to put the pantry back in order. The condiments from our fridge were later found in a vodka box in our garage, thankfully it's winter here and those things were fine to put back. The freezer was totally empty. They even threw out frozen breast milk that I had for my baby. 

 

It's completely understandable that they needed the space for the food they purchased and brought along. I even contacted the guest and she blamed it on her friends who came before she did but didn't offer to make it right. The lesson I learned is to keep the fridge and freezer space more open for guests so that they can store the food they need during their stay. I would have kept some of their deposit had I known about it sooner, but that's been returned now. 

 

Thoughts? Is this a silly thing for me to be bothered by? How should I handle this now that the deposit has been returned? Has anyone else experienced a similar issue?

 

Thanks everyone!

Rebecca

13 Replies 13
Helga0
Level 10
Quimper, France

@Rebecca10; it's simply annoying, I imagine the breast milk must be the most annoying thing. Sometimes I get guests that will eat a lot of food and replace none, others leave more stuff then they use. That gets equal over time. We learned over the years to have some staples in a locked space, to be able to cook something after arrival. It's ridiculous, but nevertheless a good thing to have some tomatoe sauce, fish cans, noodles, rice etc locked up, as you might have had guests who ate all the cans and the olive oil and you can prepare noodles with salt. 

 

That's just the normal fluctuation, but we had one guest per year who was a nutcase and threw out everything. One year the fool of the year threw out all condiments from the fridge, another year's fool threw out all the content of the first aid box but for the scissors and emergency cover. One year a couple needed to empty the cupboard with rice, noodles and tea and the freezer. They handed me two big bags of stuff when I came back to explain the wifi. Thanks a lot! I put the staples into the garage box, but could only donate all the frozen food to neighbors, as I did not want to take it on a four hour train ride. They were vegan and felt their health threatened when my Italian pasta lurked in the cupboard. Although it contains only wheat and salt. 

 

One thing you can do for the fridge: buy a large plastic box which you can close, label it "Private, do not remove" and put your stuff in there. I had put some stuff in open boxes, only to get the jam jars out easier at once, and this box was never touched.

I mention in my contract that the apartment contains private things in locked cupboards, on high shelves etc, which are not included and cannot be touched. That helps. Maybe include the box in the fridge.  

@Helga0 Thank you so much for responding and offering some great suggestions! In a previous cabin that we rented, we had a locked closet where we kept our personal items but in this cabin there isn't a great place for that. And we have had guests leave their food sometimes also but it doesn't bother me at all. This gal was clearly annoyed that they HAD to clean our fridge and freezer. I was also thinking that maybe a second fridge in our garage might be a good idea to keep our personal condiments and food till our next visit. Thank you so much and I wish to visit France sometime soon!! 

@Rebecca10, a second freezer might be a good idea, if you have the place for it. There are quite small ones or combinations freezer fridge too. That allows you to empty the fridge completely and they switch it on when they arrive. Unfortunately I can't do that, as I have no permanent electricity in the garage box.

For a while, after moving to a smaller apartment, I had a small freezer very high up on a wall. Even if it was accesible, nobody climbed up, so I put everything in, even half packages of butter etc. Small savings ...

Generally, I don't bother with claiming small costs, if it stays at 5 % of the booking price and under 50 Euros, it's not worth it. 30 Euros limit for people really annoying me. (That's not easy)

 

If you come to Paris, visit me, you will discover a cabin in a big town.;-)

Sara2
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helga0 I can't wait to come to Paris when you are there and meet you I feel I know you already I hope I can book your space too.i think I read on another forum that you may be spending more time out of town so will double check nearer to my visit

@Sara, that would be nice to meet you. I just handed over the keys for two weeks to a young lady who starts a new job. She thinks she will find a permanent apartment in this time. I told her, if not, she can stay on in half of it but I plan to be back in Paris on the 7 February. When do you come? - My current guest is really a globetrotter. Born in Bulgary, worked for the Dubai branch of the company and was muted to Paris, came from Nepal (for fun), the machine had to make a stop in India to refuel, switch at Dubai, where they cancelled a flight and she had to wait 6 more hours. She had not seen a bed for two days and nights, was charged like a packhorse and nearly fell asleep standing during my minimum introduction. I just told her to eat the salad I had no time to eat, and a frozen vegetable dish as she is a vegetarian, took my parrot and left. So far for house rules;-) At least she is no smoker and looks very decent, so what can go wrong? I'll probably send her a reminder mail tomorrow afternoon...
Ashima0
Level 1
Washington, D.C., DC

hi

I have an issue goin on ...I am new to airbnb.. my guest has come to stay for a month and he never cleans his dishes .for past 2-3 days i was just kinda observing to know his pattern.. i hvae a house rule that you clean your dishes right away or put them in the dish washer after rinsing.also that dont leave used cups anywhere in the common areas... also he has been using all my grocery and uses all my crockery without hesitation and collects tons of my glassware in the sink at the end of the day ..i never offered my crockery to him either.. he burnt my cooking induction plate appliance TWICE..and never cleaned it , first day i thought its mistake so i cleaned it myself and told him ..when it happened the next day.. he had no courtesy to atleast clean up his mess.. rather prolly he thought im gonna come n clean it myself ......

 i was friendly in the begining when he came 5-6 days ago but now im kinda frustrated with his habits and i doubt that i would be able to tolerate this for a month ..... im kinda shy to tell him staright to read my house rules on the listing and beahve clean as other guest are living too n they are so super clean ... 

how should i deal with him .. so that it doesnt sound rude but at the same time conveys my message staright ... 😞 

i have decided to stick a big list of small house rules in each bedroom 

Deborah0
Level 10
California, United States

@Rebecca10

I imagine how frustrating and upsetting it is to have something like this happen --  an issue both of disrespect and of not following house rules.  

It's not a silly thing to be bothered by.  AIrbnb doesn't actually collect a security deposit from any guest, so they don't "return" a deposit to the guest.  However there is a limited amount of time to submit a claim on the guest's deposit -- generally 48 hrs.  However, this doesn't mean that you can't still use the resolution center at www.airbnb.com/resolutions and ask the guest to pay for what they did not restock, pointing out that as per house rules, they are required to do this and did not restock the items.  Then bill them for a reasonable amount of the cost to restock.  It can't hurt to try to get reimbursed. One way to apply "pressure" to the guest to take responsibility for paying for what they used, is to say something to the effect, "I am waiting for this issue to be resolved before I write my review of you".  This will suggest to the guest that they have the opportunity to avoid their lapse in respect being mentioned in a review by paying what they owe.  

 

THen as for the review of the guest --  two ways to go.  If guest pays for the items thru resolution center, you can leave this matter out of the review, or you could say that guest did not follow rules and restock the items, but did pay afterwards for the restocking.  If guest does not pay for the items not restocked, you can just state in the review that guest did not follow rules and did not restock items.  Do not state in any review that a guest didn't pay you thru a resolution center request, because making statements about security deposit claims or resolution center claims isn't permitted when writing a review and doing that can cause Airbnb to remove your review.    

@Deborah0 I wish I had posted this question earlier because I just wrote my review and gave them a bad rating. I would not host them in the future or refer them or whatever the last question on the review is. I did reach out to her via text to give her a chance to make it right but she failed to respond. I do think I will try to get a reimbursement through the resolution center, thank you for suggesting that as an option. And that's good to know about the review and resolution center. I wouldn't have known that. Thank you for your help!! 

Deborah0
Level 10
California, United States

@Rebecca10

Yes, it can sometimes help "pressure" a guest to do the right thing by the host, when the host makes them aware that they have a review hanging over their head, which they may realize, could go one of two ways.  You dont' want to threaten them or say anything in a way that suggests that if guest doesn't do "X" you will give them a bad review, as that might be viewed as extortion, which is not permitted by Airbnb policy.  But just to point out that you are contemplating how you will review them, is not in itself a threat, and helps drive the point home.  

Kelly3
Level 10
Seoul, South Korea

@Rebecca10

I am sorry you went through all these trouble. I feel really bad that these things are happening in Airbnb.

Your setting with your listing would be very much appreciate for many people(including me) indeed - yet, now that Airbnb is growing into just another holiday rentals (actually worse, cause Airbnb markets to EVERYONE around the world, not just 'middle age family guests from similar culture' kind of thing), it is better to be prepared for the worst.

 

I would make the guest only pantry space, fridge space, and clearly mark them. Say in your house manual that guests are only allowed to access the 'guest' space, and if they take anything from other area, there will be penalty - to protect you and make the 'resolution' process smoother for the next incidents.

 

 

Be very very careful about this guest. In some jurisdictions, and I beleive that includes your state, any person who rents for 30 days (and sometimes even less than that) becomes a tenant with tenant rights. You may be stuck with him for many months until you obtain a lawyer and a court order to kick him out. Contact airbnb and tell them that he is not following house rules and ask them to relocate him. They will do it - they have to. You do not have to put up with a guest like that.

Laurence96
Level 2
Miami, FL

We have a strick no parties in the house policy and 8 out of 10 of our guests do not respect that . We end up cleaning terrible messes . Disposing if 50+ trash bags and the neighbors are not happy .
I don t know what to do anymore to avoid this...
Sara2
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Laurence96you need to be very picky about how you choose your guests if their is any sign that it's a party ie birthdays hen or stag dos etc say NO if you have a healthy deposit or high cleaning fee you can get this paid for

Folks use ABB so they don't trash their own homes with parties