I’m getting guests who say they are booking to visit family/friends but they never leave the apt.

[Ann487]

I get nervous when pple book but never leave the apt. How can I tactfully question potential guests to screen out for hook-ups, or pple who are potentially using apt. for reasons other than traveling, work, or visiting.

many thanks for any help with this!

[Anonymous]

@Ann487  Some hosts with Private or Shared Room listings communicate in the House Rules that their homes are best suited to active visitors who are out of the home during the day. It's not exactly enforceable as a rule - guests are entitled to occupy the rented space for as long as they please between check-in and check-out - but it gets across the message that lingering around the common areas all day is not welcomed.

Since your listing is an Entire Home, that makes things a bit trickier. You can ask guests about the purpose of their visit before deciding whether to accept their requests, but they might not always answer candidly. And while you have every right to enforce your rule about unregistered visitors, it wouldn't be appropriate to tell rule-abiding guests that they're spending too much time in the home they paid for. 

One option would be to try a longer minimum stay. Rentals for hookups/affairs are seldom more than two nights. And if you're having this problem with longer bookings, you could require that guests accept a weekly interim cleaning, so you have a chance to look in and make sure everything is on the up and up. But unless your area is miraculously 100% untouched by the pandemic, I'd expect that some portion of your rentals will be people who just want to be in a different space than the one they've had to isolate in, and aren't particularly tempted by the public attractions of Colby.

[Ann487]

Thank you, I just checked in on a couple that haven’t left in 4 days and the rental was so full of their things It looked like they had moved in! Hopefully they do actually leave by check-out tomorrow. Maybe they are homeless? Hard to tell!

[Dale711]

Hi  @Ann487 

Welcome to the community 😊

I do not allow my guest to stay in day times. I clearly defined in my house rules,

• not a good fit for the guests who need to stay in the daytimes
• ideally, for the guest, a work trip, visit family, and travel for leisure.
• I do not recommend the guests book in my place who need to stay the home the entire day

In addition, I will ask, and ask, and ask again to assume that to screen the guest before I approve the booking. If my listing is an instant booking, the guest must answer my pre-booking message before the approval.

As you are staying above the house, it's Easy to Handle the guest.

To communicate with the guest and reminder the guest.

A welcome note on the table and remember the guest your main concern 

Send a reminder on the front door and a ‘ last minute detail’  if the guests didn't go out in one day 😀

Unneeded stressful. 

Happy Hosting ✌️

[Ann487]

Great advice! I didn’t even think that was an option! Many thanks!

[Sarah977]

@Ann487 I could see myself booking a holiday as a much needed "relax and do nothing". I might stock up on food and spend the whole time reading, watching movies, sleeping a lot if I needed it. It would never occur to me that would make my host suspicious in some way, if I had rented an entire apartment. But then again, I wouldn't say I was coming to visit friends and family if I wasn't.

So telling you that and then not ever going out would make me suspicious as well. Why lie, unless you're just embarrassed about being a slug who just sits around playing video games all day.

It seems to me that guests might say that if they were actually not coming from elsewhere, but were local and trying to hide that fact, either because they intended to party, deal drugs, or were homeless.

So I guess it's a matter of communicating with them enough to feel they are being honest, or doing some sleuthing on social media to see if you can gain any info on them. But you can't really insist that people don't hang out inside all day in the place they paid to stay.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Ann, I wanted to ask the same as @Sarah977  did, why it bothers you=?

I rent entire apartments, I'm an off-site host so I don't know and don't really care how much time my guests spend inside.

If I would rent a room in my own apartment where I live it would be different I suppose.

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  I was actually editing my post while you posting and removed my question, because I realized her title was about guests who say they are coming to visit family and friends and then never leave the house. 

There are people who misrepresent themselves, where it's more a matter of self-delusion, like a guest I remember Jessica and Henry posting about who said she was active and sporty and then never left her room except to use the bathroom and kitchen. She'd probably just like to think of herself as active and sporty, rather than it being an intentional deceit. 

Or a guest who books a non-smoking place thinking it will be a great way for them to quit cold turkey, then finds their lack of will power is stronger than their intention and either ends up smoking in the house or standing out in the cold every half hour to have a smoke.

But you either have friends and family in the area to visit, or you don't. So lying about it is a bit worrying, you'd have to wonder why they'd bother to do that.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  hm... maybe they have to self-isolate themselves for a few weeks due to Covid and they don't want to scare the host and be declined so they came up with the visiting-relatives-story

Or they want to stay in bed with the lover the entire weekend but this is too intimate reason to be shared with the host 🙂

who knows...

[Ann487]

Thank you for your response!
Yes, I guess pple have different reasons for not giving you the real story.

I just had the opportunity to go into the rental today, a couple have been camped out for 4 days, and the place was packed full of their stuff, maybe they are homeless or were evicted, not what I personally want in a guest!

[Sarah977]

@Ann487  Yes, that is some cause for concern, especially if you have allowed a long term booking. Sometimes it's just that they are relocating, but you definitely have to be on guard for a squatter.

I read a post on another hosting forum- the host was really concerned because he had never seen the guests move all the boxes and furniture in, but saw them move it out. (A studio apartment attached to his house) But when he went in after they checked out, he found they had not only left the place immaculate, they had left him a cake and a thank you note. They should have told him they were relocating, and asked about moving all their stuff in, as that would have been the respectful thing to do, but it turned out okay.

Since I assume you went to the apartment with their knowledge, if it were me, I'd ask them, in a non- threatening, seemingly chatty way, why they have moved all that stuff in.

How long did they book for?

[Ann487]

Yes I would never go into a rental without permission unless emergency. They booked for 4 nights. Hopefully they will leave at check-out today, and leave me  cake! 😊

[Ann487 · Accepted solution]

Yes I do think living here makes a difference. I just don’t want the rental to get a bad rep. around town 😆

Thanks for your perspective, everyone has added such different insight.

[Ann487]

Thanks for your input! I guess I’m not asking the right or enough questions. I’m trying to give benefit of doubt... yet being a host for going on 4 yrs has unfortunately made me a bit suspicious of folks 😂

[Sarah977]

@Ann487  There very few hosts who would be okay with someone using the rental to hole up and do drugs, or to use as a place for prostitution. But you may get guests who are using it to hook up or carry on an affair. Most hosts view that as none of their business as long as we are talking about adult consensual sex. As long as they are respectful of the space, we can't really dictate what guests do there.