Nightmare guest at last!

[Robin4]

I think I am in the process of hosting my nightmare guest....and unfortunately it is a 9 night reservation.

The booking message was OK except the guests profile says he  joined Airbnb in 2019 stating he resides in Adelaide South Australia. But his message says that he resides in New Zealand, and has for some considerable years. No other red flags though.

On arrival I realised, I had nothing in common with this guest, we were from different planets. You can tell just by that couple of opening sentences what the experience is going to be like....there was absolutely no level of empathy there for me! He looked through the cottage without bringing in his wife/partner and appeared to be not the slightest bit interested in what I was saying, walking away to look at something else while I was explaining aspects of what I offer, and what I don't.

After a few hours he came up to me and said, "the TV doesn't work"! I went in and switched it on to find out he had accessed analogue function which is not used in Australia, as soon as I switched to source and digital the TV worked fine. His comment was, "Could not have handled 9 days without a TV"! To him, It wasn't his fault, it was the TV's!

I have lost track of the number of people who have come and gone over the past few days, but the thing that has me so worked up.....the weather has been beautiful here for the past week! Daytime temps in the upper 20s and nighttime around 20c.... The air-conditioning would potentially have run nonstop since they have been here. They leave at 8.30 in the morning and return at midnight, they leave the air con running when they depart. Fortunately I have a sensor override that turns the Aircon off 8 minutes after they walk out the front gate, so that problem is solved but, they run it through every night until the sensor turns it off when they leave the next day. They are totally thoughtless energy vandals, they are using the facility because it is there, not because they need it. The poor Air con which is set on 'Auto' is rocking between heating and cooling all night long!

I still don't know what her name is....this afternoon Ade was working in the garden when they came back and she introduced herself deliberately to the both of them. He said....."I met you yesterday, remember"! and that was it, made no attempt to introduce her. 

I am feeling uncomfortable, they have taken over the garden, cigarette smoking like it is going out of style. I got permission from them to service the cottage today. change the linens, vacuum and mop, new towels, replace condiments. I was faced with a challenging sight! 

Half way through the stay  and I can truly stay I can't wait for this one to finish.....and that is sad, all those wonderful guests I have had I won't remember down the track, but I will remember this one though. Such a pity, I would have liked this one to be one of those high notes as we are off away for three weeks after this.

It had to happen sooner or later.....I guess this is, later! 

Sorry,  just needed to get it off my chest!

Cheers......Rob

[Sean433]

@Robin4 

Right off the bat, I understood clearly from your post that your in this for the social aspect more so than the money. It is great that money comes second to that. No criticism there. But just because many hosts do this more for the money, it does not make them less of a host or a person. I sensed a bit of judgement for the type of hosts that do this for profit. It is not fair to imply that hosts who do this for the money are happy to take higher risk and host bad guests. We hate bad guests just as much as hosts like you. I would happily avoid a booking and keep the place empty if the guest displayed symptom of a bad guest.

In terms of risks Robin, we do our best job to screen however there are good liars out there who will speak in a cordial manner by message but behave like animals in real life. 95% of the time you can detect a risky guest but what about the other 5%? I believe this guest falls in the other 5% bracket. It wouldn't be fair for me to say you tolerate risky guests because you have a bad guest now. You had no way of knowing and that is the nature of the beast sometimes.

Before airbnb, I was renting traditionally as long-term. The perspective renters that meet you always come with a smile and speak in a very respectful fashion. It is not until they actually move in that their true colours come out. Some guests are obvious about it but 5-10% are good liars and you won't know until you know.

[Suzanne302]

@Sean433  There really is no need for petty attacks here.

Perhaps if you were a true part of this community you would understand who Robin is and where he is coming from, as most of us clearly understood what HE meant by "nightmare" guest.

You've made it clear you have no desire to make friends with your guests, and it's pretty clear you have no desire to make friends in the CC, either, so, good day to you and the rest of us will continue with our conversations and support.

[Sean433]

@Suzanne302 

Attacks? Who started with the attack Suzanne? Me or Renato with his initial outburst? Disagreeing that this is not a nightmare is not an attack. It seems several others agreed with me in the likes so I am not the outlier here.  I already voiced several times that this is a bad guest who I would definitely give a bad review for but a nightmare, you have truly not seen and hopefully won't.

You do not like when someone disagrees with your ideologies and then go on little outbursts like this one. Actually, you do not make any logical sense at all with your ideas of guests friendship. If you like to make friends with your guests, fine, you do what brings you joy but why charge them??? Would you charge a friend who is coming from out of town to stay with you? If so, what kind of a friend charges another friend? If you make a friendship with a guest and they return 6 months later, would you give them a "friend" discount or just let them stay for free since they are your friend now? Sounds more like couch surfing to me.

Enjoying hosting people is cool. I actually do like interacting with kind guests as I host 1 property as an on-site host. I do not like bad guests, I have never had one on my on-site listing because I am extremely cautious with this particular listing.  I have had them in my off-site listings. It is more so the off-site hosts who understand what a nightmare guest is. I do not expect you to understand because you are purely on-site and have full control. Enjoying hosting makes sense and I get that part of it but when you talk about making friends with guests that you charge as if you are a better person for it, you are full of you know what.

[Suzanne302]

@Sean433  I'm not even sure what you're trying to say but obviously you feel very passionately about whatever it is you are trying to convey and maybe someone else can translate for me......so, have a good night!

[Sean433]

In a nutshell, you look down at a host who does not care to make friends with their guests. That was how you conveyed yourself in your message to me even though you weren’t even in the conversation and even though the vast majority of hosts feel the same way. 

We all charge our guests a fee. I assume that if an actual friend of yours came to stay with you that you wouldn’t charge them.  If your Airbnb guests are your friends, then why do you charge them? That is all. The Vast majority should get that except for maybe you and Renato

[Sarah977]

@Sean433 I don't look down on hosts who choose to maintain a strictly business-like relationship with their guests. We all have different styles, different personalities, different factors for why we host. A host saying that they tend to have friendly interaction with their guests and that some end up feeling like friends isn't antithetical to them being paying guests, nor do my guests see it like that. They are happy to have their host treat them like a friend, share a bottle of wine, have a conversation over coffee. I've invited guests along to a beach day with me and my friends and they loved it. 

To each his own. Saying that if a host treats guests like friends they shouldn't be charging them or that those things are mutually exclusive is a put-down of hosts who entertain a different kind of relationship with their guests than you do. You are doing exactly what you are accusing others of.

[J-Renato0]

@Sean433 , you mentioned my name, so I reserve the right to answer your post.

I suppose your pleasure is to troll somebody once in while! You distort other´s the words and phrases. It is useless to argue with you, because sometimes what you really want is to TROLL! 🙂
If you really wanted to pass some message, you woud stand for your ideias instead of distorting other´s words and phrases. It is not the fact of having an opposite idea that is the problem. The problem is about you distorting other´s messages and being provocative...

Sometimes what you say does not make sense. If the owner of a supermarket have some friends, are their friends supposed to get goods from the supermarket without paying? If you have a car to sell, are you supposed to give the car for free to your friends? Come on... you know it does not make sense.

On the contrary, It is similar a hotel. If the staff is friendly, lots of guest will return to the hotel and will gladly pay to stay there again.

In this forum I notice I am not the only one that have had an issue with you! I noticed that you recently approached a lady who gave her opinion and you kind off told her off... ("Live and let live" issue... can you remember?)

I host for money. It is a business. However, by doing this I know lots of people. Most of them are a business acquaintance and no more than this. However, some become my friends. It is normal. I have to say, during my life I became friend to many people that I had a business deal with me.

My friends do not exploit me or take advantage of me. I do not take advantage of my friends as well.
Yes, if a friend of mine want to book my listing I usually charge it. It is normal, they know that to offer an accommodation, I have expenses. Actually a good friend would not like to stay for free. Except for some situation when I am offering an accommodation for gratitude becouse the the friend helped me with something in the past.
I can also offer a free stay to a true friend if he really needs it, to help she/her.
I can also offer a free stay to someone that are my friend or not, just because I think the person deserve.

I do not look down at a host that has a business! I also have a business. However I do not admire mercenary people, mean people that aim only on the money, that are arrogant and are not thoughtful about others.

@Suzanne302 @Sarah977 @Helen350

[Suzanne302]

@Sean433  For the record, I never said I look down on hosts who don't want to make friends with their guests. Not sure where all the hostility is coming from but I do want to be perfectly clear to other hosts that is NOT what I said, anywhere.

As @J-Renato0  said, maybe you just like arguing with other hosts. I, do not. So as I have done in the past with argumentative strangers, I am removing myself from any conversation with you in this topic and will not be responding to anything further.

[Sean433]

@J-Renato0 

Live and let live is a saying here in North America. It is not typically used to tell people off. More of an expression about do what’s right for you and let others do what is right for them. Not an aggressive saying at all. The fact you have such a good memory of everything i write is weird. Even weirder is that you started this stream of aggressiveness on this thread a few messages ago and ironically calling me a troll. 

Friendly and being friends are 2 very different things. Being friendly is a basic requirement if you’re hosting. In others words, it’s being nice. I’m very nice/friendly with my guests. But I do not become their friends in the true sense of what a friend is. I personally would not charge my actual friends for anything. That’s me and I wouldn’t understand someone who would charge a friend. You do, that’s you. But its not for me. If a real friend is coming out of town, they stay for free. If a friendly guest who I have been nice/friendly with in previous visits comes, they pay. Maybe gets a 10% discount.  Do you understand the difference? 

When Suzanne jumped in and went off on about not wanting to be friends with people here or my guests, I called it for what it is and that is B.S. it was also aggressive in its own way. Nobody here are true friends who call each other or actually meet up. They are being friendly and give advice. But real friends , they are not. And real friends to me would not charge a guest. Again, we should all be friendly to our guests but how many of us actually become real friends. I would guess a fraction of 1 percent. Calling me out because I don’t want to be friends with my guests was “troll” like behaviour because it was a self righteous, exclusionary and over simplistic statement.

anyways I’m out. Do us both a favour. I will not be tagging you in any future messages and you can leave me out too. It’s pointless.

[J-Renato0]

Hi @Robin4 
I have had some guests that I do not admire in terms of manners and pleasantries. However, if they respect the house rules and behave properly during their stay (do not bother neighbours) and do not damage the property, I can cope with them. Of course I may not like them, but in the end, it is a business. I may not like them as guests, but I understand that they do not want to have contact.

As for the guests you have mentioned, I think that there are 2 things that may be somewhat unaacceptable.
You could talk to the guests in question to ask them in a softly and polite way - Ask them not to dirt your garden (cigarettes) and to not leave the air conditioner on all time. (communication via airbnb and in person)
If they are just rudes, (but not bad persons) they will understand and see your point. If they want to confront... then ask them to leave.
Even if they were staying in a hotel and were dirtying the gardens, certainly the hotel would giving them a warning. If they would continue dirtying the gardens, the hotel would invite them to leave.

Just my opinion Robin! I hope you can deal with this successufully.

[Helen350]

@J-Renato0 You suggest to @Robin4  "You could talk to the guests..." - That's the point! They won't let him! 🙂

[J-Renato0]

@Helen350 

Good point....  Well, he can sent the message via Airbnb and then knock the door! 🙂

[J-Renato0]

One more thing to say, @Robin4 

I suspect that this type of guest that refuses any contact and behave in an strange way, maybe are people that books the place to have a kind of secretive affair. They know what they are doing, so they can not present theirselves in a normal way, they have something to hide. Probably is why they averse to any social contact.

Another hypothesys would be, they could be either criminals or maybe people in danger using the listing as temporary safe house. However this hypothesys may not make sense. They have to use a cred card to book. If they were criminals they would be tracked at once. If it was the case of the "safe house", the use of the cred card would make them easyly tracked.
So, I think the hypothesy of the secretive affair is the most probable.

One more hypothesy very plausible is that the couple are having bad times, are constantly having an argument, on the verge of breaking up. So they do not feel good to have any social contact.

So the best thing to do is to get some distance from them.
It would be a very simple solution, if it was not for the air con issue and the issue with the garden. Anyway, about this I gave my opinion in my previous post.

[Robin4]

@J-Renato0 

Thanks José, I always appreciate your words of wisdom mate!

Cheers.....Rob.

[Robin4]

@Sean433  @J-Renato0 

Hey come on guys, let's not beat each other up. You are both great hosts, we all host differently and we host in a style that we feel comfortable with....what I feel works for me won't necessarily work for you Sean, or you José but that doesn't mean any of us are 'wrong', and you guys do have the runs on the board, you are both superhosts and your guests love you!

I woke up this morning about 6.30 am and my guests (the subject of this thread) have gone, place wasn't left dreadfully but,

A folding chair has upholstery tears and is broken.......

seat now sits at a crazy angle, possibly he tried to stand on it, who knows.

A Balinese wooden lamp shade is broken.....

After putting a load of washing through I came across this tea towel as I was pegging it out to dry...

I have no idea what it is, but washing wouldn't remove it so I have just binned it!

This is how the butter dish was left.....

and I have no idea what is on that spoon!!!!!

The toilet was left like this.......

The TV was working when he got here, although he said it wasn't....but now he has left, it isn't working! The remote  does not work! I have tried replacing the batteries, no luck. I fear it has been dropped on the concrete floor.

There are beer cans, paper towel with odd matter attached left lying around, air con still left running.

I don't want to touch anything, but I have to.......next guest is arriving in 6 hours and it is going to take me every bit of that 6 hours to remove all traces of this last guest. At the moment I would not want to stay in there.

I have washed every bit of bedding including both the mattress protectors using a double dose of my antibacterial in with the detergent. The sheets were quite damp on one side of the bed so all of this bedding has gone on the most vigorous washing cycle. This leaves me with only one clean mattress protector, and I have binned all 6 of the pillow protectors. At the moment I am considering binning the pillows as well but I will wash them first and see how they dry. This turn-around is a serious challenge for me in the time I have at my disposal. 

As soon as this guest walked in I knew this was going to be a poor quality stay....the things that were broken I can quickly replace but, the thing that breaks my heart, he is going to give me a poor review.

Never mind, what was that British comedy show?....'Some mothers do ave em'! 

Cheers......Rob

@Helen350  @Sarah977