Input needed - review

[Dora31]

hello guys

I have been hosting for quite some time, usually good experience but recently i got two guests that I need to review and I feel a bit uncomfortable leaving a negative one so I thought that i ask you here 🙂

1. guest 1: man with a 6 year old child: the whole conversation before and during the trip was weird. Guests had lots of requests: asking many pillows, then asking me to look up a Brexit festival for him and detail him how to get there, screenshot him the airport bus schedule. they self checked in, and I got back home later. to my surprise he throw away my one last remaining Christmas toilet paper and when i asked why: his kid got scared. each guest gets 3 towels: small, medium and large. the next day he requested new towels. I asked him what was wrong with the ones from the previous day (it was a 2 day booking): he said that he dropped them on the bathroom floor - No,i do not provide fresh towels everyday, I do it eveyr 5 days if the guest books longer.  Everytime a guest checks in the shared bathroom is also cleaned. but i shut my mouth and gave him new towels. I felt that each time the guest was a bit pushy while he was talking to me. He also asked me to look up how and where he can pay with his card because he never used cash in his whole life. Again, this is something that people can easily look up themself

2. guest 2: girl with a boyfriend. I do ask guests to keep quiet after 10pm but the guests were loud and of course with loud intercourse as well. sometimes guests forget that they are in someone else's flat and i specify what guests can do or cannot do. but being loud until 1am is not something I can accept, not mentioning that having loud intercourse made me feel uncomfortable and I was trying to make them aware that I can hear them. 

[Maia29]

As for guest #1, I wouldn't complain about him or his requests. As an Airbnb host, I feel that questions like that a normal, and I don't have a problem with helping guests. As for the towels, he is a guest, and should be treated as such. You have to remember; we are providing a service and I don't think asking for extra towels is such a big deal. After all, they could've stayed at a hotel instead, and the hotel would have given them extra towels with no issue.

Guest #2? I've been there done that. It is a tad bit rude for them to not keep it down at 1 am. However, we just laugh and feel like we have done a good job hosting that they feel so comfortable to have loud "relations".  I just turn up my music or tv pretty loud and ignore it. They usually notice when I start blasting music or the tv to tone it done.

[Sarah977]

@Maia29  Airbnb hosts aren't hotels. If @Dora31's guest expected he could just throw his towels on the floor and get clean ones each day, he should indeed have booked a hotel room, where the higher room fee would cover his wasteful and entitled behavior. Airbnb hosts are not obliged to pander to this and this guest obviously doesn't understand the difference between booking a private room in a home and booking a hotel.

And guests who ignore instructions for quiet hours are totally disrespectful and should be reminded of what they agreed to when they booked. Of course, guests can get a little loud with their bedtime frolics, likely not realizing that sounds may carry and that the entire household is listening to it. In that case, a message sent to the guests along the lines of "Hi XX, just reminding you of the house rule of quiet time after 10PM. Sounds can travel between rooms here, so please try to keep noise level down at night. Thanks for your cooperation."

[Maia29]

@Sarah977 I still believe hosts should cater to their guests and make their guests feel at home and not complain over giving a guest a couple of extra towels. What's the big deal over a couple of towels? 

I agree with your point though, of sending a discrete message to overly loud guests. That's a nice way to handle it.

Posting signs in the unit noting quiet hours would be helpful as well.

[Sarah977]

@Maia29  If the guest simply didn't understand that you can't expect to get fresh towels every day in an Airbnb and threw theirs on the floor the first day of their booking, I would of course give them a clean one, just as @Dora31 said she did. But I would, at the same time, explain politely that that isn't part of the deal when booking an Airbnb. If they accepted that and stopped the wastefulness, I certainly wouldn't mention it in a review- if they acted put out or nasty about it, I would mention their sense of entitlement.

You might not find washing extra bath towels to be a big deal, but not all hosts live where water just flows out of the tap endlessly 24/7, and many hosts have budget-priced listings, so doing extra loads of laundry can seriously cut into profits. Plus, we need to disabuse guests of the idea that an Airbnb is just a cheaper alternative to a hotel, but with all the same amenities they'd be paying for and expecting in a hotel.

[Maia29]

@Sarah977  i agree with most of what you say.

I pay a flat rate for my water, so yes, that does affect my response. 

[Helen350]

@Maia29 I agree with everything @Sarah977  said. Not all hosts work to hotel standards. I host private rooms in my own house & charge LESS than a hostel that has bunk beds in dorms! That way, I get bookings where local competitors don't! With my super-low prices, I can only afford ONE towel per person, and I would only offer a second if they stayed more than 7 days (maybe 5 if we had a rapport,& they asked super nicely!) Whilst I try to be hospitable to guests, offering tea, chat & advice on tourist attractions - and breakfast, I can't afford to do more than one load of laundry per booking. (Yes, I have many one-nighters, but need to trade this off against guests who stay longer & recoup laundry costs by only offering one towel per person.) Often, I would not have spare to give, if all my rooms were full, with towels from the previous guests still drying! If you charge hotel prices you can provide hotel services!

[Helen350]

@Dora31 Regarding the guest who asked you to look things up & screen shot him, I think a lot has to do with how much you charge... If your prices are low, you shouldn't have to spend hours on your computer for him.. You're not getting paid! Personally, I have often looked up buses for guests... but cos I was interested in their plans, & whether staying here was even a realistic option, I certainly don't think it's part of my job! We are not hotels or package holidays; it's the GUEST'S responsibility to do their homework.

I wouldn't mark the guest down, (unless he was entitled!) - but I might make a reference in the public review to him  being unfamiliar with the difference between home share & a hotel, having an expectation of more services than usual. Or I might dock him a star for communication if it was all too much. I might let him know in the private review that it's usual to do your own planning & research & the towel issue... as a heads up for future stays, not as a reprimand. "Future hosts might be unwilling to...."

Re the noisy guests, I'd give them  a 3* for house rules, but my house rules ask that guests be considerate of other guests & not disturb their sleep! (Sounds better than demanding they do not disturb ME!)

[Dawn81]

@Dora31 

Your guest with the child sounds truly dreadful. First of all asking so many questions of you that he could easily have looked up himself. And I can bet you didn't get one  peep of appreciation from him for you looking up information for him like a travel agent . 

It's totally weird asking you for screenshot of the bus station. If it's public and he could have found it himself.

re the credit card and I'm not really sure what that's all about. 

I would have advised him to shake his towels out and reuse them.  Why couldn't you explain to him that a set of towels is meant to last for a two-day stay? Had he used them to mop up a wet bathroom floor? Perhaps that was the situation. Do you have a bath mat so that a reasonable person knows that they can dry off partially in the shower and use the bathmat ?

 I actually wouldn't give him a good review. First of all mention what his intentions were for booking and how long he was booked. I would then go on to say that he was careless with the clean set of towels supplied for him which should have lasted for two days. I would mention that he threw out  good toilet paper ostensibly because of the design and that he was just generally demanding and unappreciative you can mention that you would not host him again. Other hosts should know so they can avoid this unappreciative guest. 

Wait until the day last day and leave your review. He may not even bother to leave you a review and if he does he does you don't know if it's good or bad until after the 14 days. My final comment it really sucks to have a guest that make the time while they're in your home uncomfortable.

[Sarah977]

Rebelhost

[Maia29]

Ok you guys got me. Even i use towels more than one time. I agree it’s wasteful and an outrageous request to expect not to use a towel more than once!

[Sarah977]

@Maia29  I was looking after a neighbor's Airbnb for a few weeks while they were out-of-town. Their 2 male guests managed to go through 17 bath towels in one week!  My neighbor had told me where to find the clean bath towels to put out for the following guests, and when I looked there, the shelves were bare. I found all the towels in a wet pile on the laundry room floor and even though all I was supposed to do was meet and greet and show guests how everything worked, I had to do an emergency wash and dry for the guests who were arriving a few hours later.

[Maia29]

You have a very valid point.

More than one towel per guest per day is excessive. I, myself, only use one towel per week. 

And in this current climate of water conservation, it’s actually abhorrent. 

[Dora31]

Thanks all. My price is avarage, it is a double bedroom near the center of the capital. 

I gave the man new towels, simply because of his son. 

Back to the other guests, who had loud intercourse, and really loud music. I feel sometimes uncomfortable telling guests how to behave. We are adults so i would expect genuine behaviour. Anyway the guests left now leaving their condoms on the carpet. I felt so disgusted 

[Dawn81]

@Dora31 

You will be sadly disillusioned If you continue to believe that people are going to behave in a decent manner just because that's your behavior.
Maybe it's my age and maturity. I would have booted their arses out so fast, it would have made their head spin. I would have knocked on their door. I would have told them that I'm on the phone with Airbnb that they're being cancelled and for them to pack their stuff and leave. I don't care if it's the middle of the night.
There's nothing even mildly appropriate about their behavior. Their noise their exhibitionist behavior. Totally inappropriate for an Airbnb.
And then leaving their French envelopes all over the floor just shows you what type of lowlifes checked in.
You really need to give these people a scathing review and make sure that you put the kibosh on anyone else having to be burdened with them.
Don't delay. Make sure you give them the review they deserve.