Need to do a mini-rant

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Well......Henry just called me........FUMING........to let me know when he stepped out of his study around 11:30pm to go to the kitchen for some food, he was almost blinded by EVERY SINGLE LIGHT BLAZING in the kitchen + living room with our current guest sprawled on the sofa watching a movie on his laptop. Dishes from the dinner he cooked and ate (several hrs ago) were still piled up in the sink and because he didn't wash the coffee cup properly before setting it on the dish drying rack there was a ginormus coffee stain on the drip dry rack where we place CLEAN dishes. 

Henry isn't really a talker or a people person (I usually handle this part of the hosting responsibilities) and he told me he didn't trust himself to be "nice" so he just took a "lead by example" approach by turning all the lights in the kitchen off, turned off half of the lights in the living room, placed the dirty coffee cup back in the sink with the guest's other dirty dishes, cleaned the stain on the dish rack....... then got a bag of chips and a beer which he took back to the study........ and then he ranted while I listened. (I've been totally swamped at work and wasn't able to go home this weekend..... boohoo~) 

Henry's last words today......... I'd rather we have an empty room for 4 months than host another european male in his 20s ever again~!!!!!!! 

I can't say I blame him. Sigh~~~~~~~~

Mini-rant over. 

[Ann72]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 Oucccchhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Is there any way you can price hapless millennials out of your market?  :):):)

Hope Henry survives this one!

[Sarah977]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  Oh, poor Henry. This clown's staying for 4 months? Guess you'll have some a**-kicking to do when you get home. I imagine the guest will be firing up the washing machine today to do a full load with a pair of socks and a tee-shirt in it. 

One should have to pass some sort of test to determine if they're mature enough to travel on their own without mommy.

[Gordon0]

I could very easily swap out Henry's name for my Jorge's, as in he too (most deffo) isn't really a talker or a people person. And when it comes to a guest's misbehaviour, I get it with both barrels.

I still have vivid memories of several calls (while I was away on business) when Jorge found a couple in our (no-entry-to-guests) kitchen in the process of cooking up a storm with every pan in the kitchen out. The 'Mrs' of the two also scolded us for not including breakfast in our 'Air bed and breakfast'.

Smile I say, through gritted teeth. 

[Donald28]

I agree with henry but I'd say ANY male in his 20's is one that I really don't want to host. That's what made having the potential guests photo so nice to be able to see BEFORE accepting the booking. Now, you just have a first name... that's it. You have no clue how old they are or sometimes if they are male of female. 

[Yulianna0]

I can recommend my son like the opposite example of infantile millennials:) He is too organized for my taste:) There is a big difference in between young people living with parents and those who are already paying their bills. 

[Huma0]

@Yulianna0,

I agree. I moved out of home and started paying my own bills when I was 18 by waiting on tables. I also paid for five years' of university fees/living expenses. It was really clear to me when I was studying which students had paid their own fees and which were being funded by the bank of mom and dad. I didn't have to ask them - it was obvious from their behaviour.

Many of the young people I host have no concept at all about energy saving or recyling/reducing waste, which is kind of depressing seeing as one would think they would be so much better educated about this stuff than previous generations. Those previous generations get blamed for destroying the planet for future generations, whichi is fair I think, but it's the older guests (generalising of course) that make more effort in this respect. Most younger people don't seem to give a flying fig for any environmental issues, even if they say they do.

It comes down to money. If they are not used to paying for it, they don't think twice about it (of course I was super wasteful of my parents' phone bill as a teenager). It's amazing how much people have reduced their useage of plastic shopping bags here in the UK since the Government introduced a law for all supermarkets to charge for them 🙂

[Yulianna0]

@Huma0, I have found that it is not only about age, but more about available resources and established norms. For example guests from the countries with enough water will have tendency for long showers and just letting water flow. Many people just not used to recycle, they don’t have it in their countries. Some people are used for central heating 24/7... So youngsters from such countries are just repeating their parents behavior. Good thing, that not all of them. Young people still have capability to adapt and to accept the varieties of this world:)

[Huma0]

@Yulianna0 

Yes, I think that is very true. It does depend on culture.. I have also found that men are much worse at leaving lights on than women. Of course, I am massively generalising and am likely to be called sexist but that has been my experience so far. There are theories that men are good at focusing on something, but not so good at multi-tasking, which would explain why they simply don't think to turn off the lights when they are running out the door.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 

Gosh, is he Scandinavian ? We are notorious for leaving the lights on.....

In my French home I once fell asleep with a table lamp on - my neighbours feared I had died or were seriously ill 🙂  And seriously, the youngs do not learn until they are in their own place and have to pay their own bills.

[Sandra126]

Yes, @Marit-Anne0 , when entering the house my mum goes around and turns every light on in every room. Table lamps, ceiling lamps, the whole thing. We are Swedish. I think she is chasing away the darkness which may creep into the corners otherwise.  This drives me crazy as it is so wasteful but she is old and will no longer change, just leave her to it.

[Huma0]

@Marit-Anne0

That's interesting. I always imagined Scandinavians were leaders in energy efficiency. I imagined many Scandinavian homes to be fuelled by solar panels and such.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Huma0 

Solar panels ? Maybe in our off-grid cottages, but not for our homes.  Our winters are long, cold and dark and we spend a lot of time indoors during winter. Our houses are well insulated and double glazed, but mainly heated by electricity.  We are simply used to the high electricity bills.  Heatpumps  (reversible aircons) are popular and save a bit on heating and on very cold days many will have wood burners for supplement heating.  Newbuild apartment blocks will have to be built to passive house standards, but rumour has it that they get awfully hot when we are lucky to have some real summer days.  My apartment is almost to the passive house standard and I am wringing my head on how to install an aircon....   

Winter days are long and dark with polar night beyond the arctic circle, we put the lighting on full, burn tons of candles, in short, we are light worshippers.  It goes both ways though, the long summer days hardly require lighting at all.

[Rebecca181]

If your electricity bill goes up significantly, perhaps charge him for excess electrical use? As well as 'maid' service??

[Sandra126]

Young men barely out of home can be challenging (sometimes, but I hate to generalise). When I was in my twenties I house shared with three young men. One kept eating everyone else's food and NEVER bought any or cooked dinner. So we got fed up and told him he had to get dinner for everyone occasionally. So he did: A whole raw chicken. Which he had no idea of how to prepare, or how long it would take before it became dinner.