Post Covid Guest Behavior Changing

[Marie585]

I've been hosting since 2007, when VRBO was the only game in town. The last 6 months of hosting on Airbnb have been worse than ALL the previous years combined. I'm not sure if guest behavior is changing, but it appears that way. Entitlement and breaking basic rules are the norm. I've incrementally had to increase rules and be very specific, which was never needed before...people were respectful for the most part.

I'm not sure what to do other than sell all four of my properties and quit hosting. If things don't change soon, I can't imagine anyone will be hosting. I don't need this mess, but maybe you guys will have some ideas. For example, my last guest registered two people and showed up with a dog, who they claimed was a service animal, once Airbnb questioned them about another issue (Although it was left alone during the day in the home and not kept with its owner for the majority of the time) so suspicious, but whatever, I have no choice but to let it slide. 

At 1:30 am on the first night on a weeknight, I'm woken up to a demand for my amazon purchase pin and to turn the AC WAY down (in the desert with 95+ temps outside, it's customary in the desert to keep the thermostat at 80 to avoid overloading the energy circuits preventing brown-outs). I was thinking, "Geez, this is going to be a great experience." Then the same guest brought over an unregistered guest AND another dog, an aggressive dog, to stay...and when the dog bit my husband and had to go to the hospital, we asked them to remove the extra guest with the extra dog, and were told flatly no by the guest.

When I reported this to Airbnb, along with the refusal to remove the aggressive dog, Airbnb canceled the original guest's reservation for breaking the rules (which was probably the right thing to do)...but the guest then harassed my husband and me to the point where we had to threaten to call the police to get them to go. The guest RIGHT before this one BROKE IN after checkout and tried to throw a party with 100 people.

Luckily my neighbours called us immediately, and the police were called. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?! I manage one home myself, but the other three are managed by regional vacation rental companies who are having the same kinds of issues.

What to do? We've always considered ourselves reasonable people and have made some great friends using Airbnb...but that seems to be the exception, not the rule. Is Airbnb over?

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Here we both are again, going off topic and talking about furniture. Still, if it's about guests being overly picky, I think sometimes we have to stop and question ourselves. Are the guests being picky or is it valid feedback.

My living room used to hardly be used by guests, most of them being out and about seeing the sights of London and then chilling out in their rooms, or in the kitchen/diner if they want to be sociable. So, I was overly concerned with all the seating being very comfy. Now I feel something has channel in the past year or two and guests much more frequently use the living room to relax in, read, work etc.

I have both a more regular sofa and an antique style settee (ignore the blue sofa as that was there temporarily and is now gone) and a couple of antique chairs. Everyone opts for the comfy sofa. No one (except my tabbies Pinot and Grigio) ever chooses the settee or chairs. If I was hosting families or groups that expected to chill out together in this room regularly, I agree that two comfy sofas would be a better choice.

When the guests say that there was nowhere to sit and relax for more than one person, they don't necessarily mean there wasn't enough seating, they could easily mean there just wasn't enough comfortable seating. Sometimes one has to read between the lines.

[Stephanie365]

Well, this was the first guest who said something negative about my furniture.

Furthermore, when she said there was no comfy place for 2 people to sit and relax, she did so without ever actually sitting on the furniture. That's what chafed me a bit.  They literally would not know if it was comfortable or not. She bemoaned there was only 1 recliner. Had she sat in the furniture she would have discovered another one. And as she managed to read and be offended by the 1.5 page article (I have no idea where 3 pages came from?) surely she also read the page that listed my amenities room by room, which would have told her about the recliner.

If a guest has commented on my furniture in the past, it's always been a compliment about how cozy and comfy it is. I have never once had a negative comment regarding comfort in my home.

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  #offtopic haha. 

that cat pic is 😍
btw I suspect he's look at the comfy sofa, but he knows he looks better posed on the vintage settee. Cats be vain creatures.

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Actually, that one is a she. It's Pinot and she's a total princess. She sleeps on that vintage settee all the time - much more often than the comfy sofa. If she had her way, she would only sleep on a bed of silk.

Pinot may be plump (has seduced a couple of neighbours who won't stop feeding her), but she knows full well that she is pretty. I've had three photographers round (two from Airbnb and one from a location agency) and she's the only one of my three cats to photobomb every time. She has EVERYONE wrapped around her little finger.

[Gillian166]

oh, @Huma0  so sorry to misgender your cat!😅 haha, happens all to time to me, cos my 2 cats are boys but the big tabby (with a lot of norwegian forest cat) is fluffy, so he gets called a "she" often, and our smaller boy (no idea what he is, some kind of short haired calico) is so goshdarn pretty..... this is him as a kitten, but he's still very small and slight. 

#offtopicqueens

cats have a knack for being photographed, or just around when you don't need them. we are selling our house (not our airbnb) and the RE agent laughs at how during the Opens one of the cats will always be lounging in the sun on the spare room bed, mostly cos i'm keeping that room closed and clean, and when the door is open he can't help but rush into the forbidden room to hang out. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

I know, we have really gone off topic again. I hope the OP doesn't mind. 

Your kitty is so gorgeous. One of my cats is very fluffy and pretty so people often think he is a she. 

I have a guest room that's currently empty and being prepared for the next guest. Whenever this happens, Pinot MUST get in there and camp out on the nice clean bed. It's covered in floof now, so another job to do... The photo above was when I was trying to make a bed and she was doing her best to distract me.

[Stephanie365]

I love talking about cats and furniture. I have too much of both. 😛

[Huma0]

@Stephanie365 

Lol, me too. How many cats do you have?

[Stephanie365]

@Huma0     I am an official Crazy Cat Lady. I currently have 6. I was very briefly down to 4 (for a month) but when my aunt passed 2 years ago, I wasn't about to send her cats to the shelter. So for now I'm back up to 6.