Should I cut out rules that about one third to half of my guests don't bother following?

[David3418]

I have a lot of rules on my listing. Much more than most. I don't seem to have too much trouble attracting guests,  but I guess it may help if I had less of them. Here is a list of rules I have that many guests don't follow and my reasons for having them.

I would appreciate feedback on which rules, if any, should be deleted. And if it would be ok to keep these/some of these rules but list them as "preferences" instead, out of recognition they are often not followed and can't realistically be enforced. That way, guests would know how I'd like them to behave, while not having unrealistic expectations.

RULES THAT ARE OFTEN NOT FOLLOWED.

RULE Always lock the front security door.

EXPLANATION I don't live in a rough/dangerous place. In 20+ years I only once had a drunk guy come to my front door. And I've never been burgled, either. I have this rule because I want to be able to open my main wooden door any time someone comes, knowing that if in the unlikely event they are a bit of a nutter, that they can't just come straight in. Also, during the day, sometimes the wooden main door is open to allow airflow through the security door and I don't like the thought of anyone being able to come in off the street, which, once again is unlikely.

I think greater than 50% don't follow this rule. Possibly because they are not in the habit of doing this, and it is hard to break habits.

RULE Don't eat in your bedroom

EXPLANATION. Their bedroom is private and so I can't easily check up on them. They can spill food on the carpet and leave it there so that it gets ground in. They can eat in their bed and have crumbs, nuts etc underneath their bed that are difficult to clean up (the bed is next to a desk and can't easily be moved to get underneath it). I have already had a few problems with nuts, crumbs etc under the bed. No problems with carpet food stains that I'm aware of. This rule is also frequently broken.

RULE Keep showers down to 5 min daily.

Hot water is expensive and I live in Australia. We are not supposed to waste water.  I currently have a boarder who has two 12 minute showers a day.  I read online the average shower length is 7 minutes for a male and 9 minutes for a female. I think most boarders' showers are 8 to 10 minutes in my experience.

RULE Don't leave windows open when you go out.

For insurance purposes, if my place ever was burgled, I think this rule may help. But many guests like to leave the toilet window open 24/7 (even though air freshener is provided) and their bedroom window open all day (perhaps just closing at night when it's cold). Presumably, they leave the bedroom door open because they like to keep their bedroom door locked and closed for great privacy and then leave the window open to prevent the bedroom getting stuffy (but generally always forget/don't bother closing their bedroom window when they go out.)

It would be highly unlikely, in my opinion that either windows being open increases the risk of burglary. The toilet window is extremely high and to get to the bedroom window, they have to climb over a very high fence that borders the next door neighbour's property (which is 4 units/condominiums).

RULE. Don't alter the shower head height.

Almost everyone does this. My concern is that the constant adjustment will make it loose. If it is adjusted for tall people it works for everyone.  But almost everyone changes it. Is my concern valid?

RULE. Don't put food or other inappropriate items in the recycle bin.

I am often fishing out things that shouldn't be there, including food.

RULE. Wipe down shower tiles after shower to prevent mould.

Don't think anyone at all follows this rule.

OTHER RULES THAT ARE NOT OFTEN BROKEN - UNSURE IF I SHOULD STILL HAVE THEM

RULE. Don't leave food uncovered in any part of the house.

I do this to deter rodents.  It doesn't happen that often but some guests do this.

RULE.  No smokers

Sometimes smokers book and then tell me only a few days before that they it is okay because they will smoke outside. I don't want to lose the booking at short notice, so I let them stay. Doesn't happen often. No problems so far. Not sure if I should allow smokers if they only smoke outside, or not.

RULE. Please don't put your dirty underwear on my towel.

Only one guest did this.

RULE. Women can't wear their high heels on my wooden living room floor.

It wrecks wooden floors, apparently. Are women very likely to break this rule?

[Anonymous]

@David3418  That is an incredibly long list of rules - some would say, excessive.  The biggest reason that so many of these rules aren't being followed is that the conscientious guests who pay careful attention to House Rules would never book your listing in a million years. They know that staying in your home would feel more stressful than the savings are worth, and they perceive you as someone who feels guests are a big inconvenience rather than someone who loves hosting. So instead, you're left mostly with guests who didn't read the listing closely or don't really care. 

If that's not the outcome you desire, I would strongly recommend a huge overhaul of the rules.

The House Rules that you post on your listing should fit a few criteria:

1. Guests need to know them to make an educated decision about whether to book.

2. They are enforceable, and important enough that you would terminate a booking if they're broken

3. They are clear and unambiguous, no room for doubt about what they mean.

Your expectation that guests learn your work roster and adapt their use of the home to your schedule suggests that perhaps your current work/life conditions aren't compatible with hospitality. I'm not surprised that people keep eating in their bedroom, because you make it sound like they're really unwelcome in the kitchen and common areas when you're working. But if you can't bear to do without Airbnb, the best you can do is make your preferences as easy as possible to work with. One way you can do that is with well-placed signage. The rules for waste sorting should be clearly labeled on the bins. Expectations for the bathroom should be clearly signposted on the bathroom door or wall. If there's a time limit for the shower, you had better put a timer in the shower, because people don't usually wear a watch in there. (And for the love of all things holy, perish the thought that air freshener spray is a substitute for ventilating the bathroom with an open window - it most emphatically is not, and that is the nastiest thing I've heard all day). 

Finally, your last four rules miss the mark a bit. Rather than making rules specific to one gender or type of footwear, you may simply ask that people not wear shoes indoors, or provide house slippers if necessary. There's never any point in saying "no smokers," because it's not up to you to control what people consume outside of the home. And just because one person did an oddly specific thing like leave underwear on your towel does not mean that it needs to have a rule. Making people read all this silly stuff means they'll fail to take the important rules seriously.

[David3418]

Thanks for your comments. I had AirBnb guests a long time before I started working from home and they still ate a lot in their room. I think the main reason they eat in the bedroom is because they like the privacy. But overall, you make very good points.

[Matt682]

@David3418 

You host in your home like me, and sometimes it’s tough when someone is in your personal space and isn’t a perfect house guest. So I do see where you’re coming from. You have to balance the benefits of hosting with the impact it has on you.

There’s a lot of feedback that says guests don’t read the rules, and having so many in there would be off-putting, even for those that do. This means they might book elsewhere (losing you conscientious guests), or not read them, then the rules aren’t followed.

Personally, I’d say pick 3-5 most important, and keep those on the listing. I’d probably choose the security ones, and maybe the aircon one about keeping the heat out, but it’s personal choice, so pick your top ones.

Then choose another 5 or so that aren’t pitched as house rules as such, but when you have an arrival you just explain… e.g. “What’s your routine in the mornings so we can plan bathroom hours?” Or “Once you’re settled and want to cook, let me know and I’ll show you the kitchen.” (This is what we can and can’t recycle, this is where the hob cleaner is etc). “Do you mind just kicking your shoes off, we don’t wear shoes indoors?”

The rest, like shower height, wiping tiles, timing showers, eating snacks in the room etc. Are probably incompatible with successful hosting (frequently booked, no conflict with guests, and a happy host) if I’m honest. Some of these are personal preferences, others are as you say, non-enforceable. You’re a host, so you want to make people feel welcome, and this level of restriction is probably not contributing to that feeling you want to give.

With the ones that don’t make list 1 or 2 above, I’d recommend you consider. How often would a guest not do what you expect, and is that something you can live with? Lord knows I’ve had a couple bad guests, but they are the exception, so I haven’t created rules for everything I didn’t like. Instead, I just provide a friendly challenge at the time of I see it happening (not using placements on a wooden table for example). This method so far has worked consistently for me, but I’m sure there will be loads of hosts who have other examples cos of the variety of locations / properties / guests. You could combat the wear & tear themed rules by removing them and simply charging a dollar or two more per night, then you have a slush fund for replacement when that shower adjuster does finally break.

The last thing I would say is that the $10/n extra person fee should go through the platform really. I’m not trying to be an Airbnb golden boy, but they would ordinarily be entitled to a % of that, which they aren’t getting on the side deal that happens with cash payment. There’s a setting on the listing you can use, or you can use a reservation change. In terms of benefit, I don’t know what their stance would be if a guest broke something, you tried to claim, and then Airbnb found out one of them didn’t go through the platform to pay. I’d hate for you to lose out on a damage claim.

[David3418]

Thanks. This is excellent feedback and extremely helpful to me. You obviously went to a lot of effort with your response. I really appreciate it. I will make changes to my rules very soon, using your advice to guide me. Thank you so much for your great assistance.

I also greatly appreciate the empathy you showed in your response.

Also, another thing I would like to mention is that I have Asperger's. This means that I am socially impaired and so makes it harder for me to know the best way to deal with social situations. People with Asperger's have a tendency to make too many rules!

[Sarah977]

@David3418  "RULE. Don't alter the shower head height. . If it is adjusted for tall people it works for everyone.  But almost everyone changes it "

No, it doesn't. I'm short and I don't always want to get my long hair wet. If it's adjusted for a tall person, it doesn't work for me at all. And if it worked for everyone, why would your guests be adjusting it? I and my guests adjust the shower heads all the time- they are designed to be adjustable. They don't get loose.

"RULE Keep showers down to 5 min daily."

I'm not someone who wastes water and if I'm only washing my body, I can be in and out in 3 minutes. But if I am washing and conditioning my hair, and shaving my legs, There's no way I can do that in 5 minutes. Just ask your guests to be mindful of not taking long showers or wasting water. Raise your prices if you can't afford the hot water guests use.

"RULE. Wipe down shower tiles after shower to prevent mould."

It's your job to keep the bathroom clean when you host in your home.

"No smoking". You can't dictate that adults don't smoke outside, only that they don't smoke on your property.

"RULE. Women can't wear their high heels on my wooden living room floor."

Can men?  🙂

[David3418]

Thanks for your response.

Airbnb is very politically correct, and I guess it is possible a transexual or cross dresser who wears high heels may stay at my place. But I think having a go at me in that way is somewhat inappropriate.

Otherwise, you make some good points that I will implement.

[Sarah977]

@David3418  Sorry you found it inappropriate. It really wasn't directed at you, I was just goofing around.

I am a home share host, too. Only one private room, private bath for guests, they share my kitchen. I only host one guest at a time. I have no "rules", aside from no pets and not bringing anyone else over without permission.

I have a framed note in the bathroom about being  conscious about wasting water and other than that, I just speak to my guests if there's something I need them to do or not do. 

Sure, there's little things some guests do that bug me, but I try to be tolerant of other people's ways. It's sort of necessary if we're going to home share and not be irritated or stressed all the time.

[David3418]

By the way, the rule about high heels was taken directly from an organization that  organises hosting students (like an Airbnb, except that all guests are students) , that I used to be involved with. So, strictly speaking it is not even my rule. That organisation implements that same rule for hundreds of people/families who host students.

In fact, many of my rules, that others disagree with, as being excessive or inappropriate are taken from that same organisation. So, I guess that what is appropriate for hosting students is not necessarily appropriate for Airbnb.

[Kath9]

@David3418  others have made some very good points here. I agree with them that your list of rules is way too long and somewhat unrealistic. I will address them one by one:

RULE Always lock the front security door.  I would delete this one. You can maybe suggest it to people when they arrive or just lock the front security door yourself when you're there.

RULE Don't eat in your bedroom. Delete. If people want to eat in their bedroom, let them. You have to clean the room after they leave anyway.

RULE Keep showers down to 5 min daily. This is a tricky one. I also have this rule as I can't bear water wastage. My guests frequently break this rule and often have two or three 15-minute showers a day! However, I think it's important to keep this rule because water shortages are a major issue in Australia. While people won't always follow it, it may help them to at least think about keeping their showers shorter. I also contacted the Water Corp and they sent me a bunch of stickers and shower timers. Having a timer in the shower helps I  think.

RULE Don't leave windows open when you go out. I wouldn't worry about this either. It sounds like you live in a pretty safe area and it would be difficult for anyone to break in anyway.

RULE. Don't alter the shower head height. Definitely delete. Adjustable shower heads are designed for precisely that purpose, and a shower head that is too high is not great for shorter people.

RULE. Don't put food or other inappropriate items in the recycle bin. Oh, welcome to my world. People from many countries have no idea about recycling. Rather than having this as a rule, I would label your bins. I have five different bins under my sink, and they are all labelled with what goes in what. I think this is a more effective way of doing it. Nevertheless, still be prepared to sort out the bins.

RULE. Wipe down shower tiles after shower to prevent mould. Definitely delete. No-one will do this, and it's not really their responsibility anyway. You just need to do this yourself.

RULE. Don't leave food uncovered in any part of the house. Delete

RULE. No smokers. Delete. The only rule you should have re smoking is no smoking in the house or on the property. What people do off your property is their business.

RULE. Please don't put your dirty underwear on my towel. DEFINITELY delete.

RULE. Women can't wear their high heels on my wooden living room floor. Delete. Most female (or male) guests don't wear high heels anyway. They're tourists, so they're more likely to be wearing comfortable walking shoes.

I would also think about how you're framing your rules from the negative to the positive. In other words, rather than saying 'Don't do this, don't do that', reframe it to the positive. For example, 'Please close all windows when leaving' or 'Please remove shoes when inside'. This might be perceived a bit better by your guests.

[Karol22]

This may be a long list of rules and you might want to consider pairing it down a bit. For example, is it really necessary to enforce how long a guest can use the shower? Sometimes when we have a problem with one guest we might think up of a rule for future guests to follow and soon end up with a long list of rules that nobody reads. So re-evaluating your rules for reduction might help.

One thing that could also help is to place notes at the place in the property where people actually use the item. And present it like it's a helpful tip or friendly reminder rather than a rule. For example, a label next to the door lock stating "Please Lock Door," when I posted this, I noticed a significant decrease in doors being left unlocked.

[David3418]

I have revised my rules based on great feedback on this forum. You can evaluate my revised rules if you like.

[Sarah977]

@David3418  I took a look at your revised rules. I have to say that most of those things are just stuff home share hosts tell their guests when they are orienting them around after they arrive. The "No bullying" rule is really odd. It sounds like you're running a school, not a room rental for adults. 

Returning the parking permit and keys aren't things hosts put as rules, you just remind guests the day of check out to do that or leave a note on the inside of the front door or their bedroom door, that they'll see before leaving.

Same for keeping the doors closed, etc, when air quality is bad. It's the sort of thing you mention to guests if the air quality is bad, when they are in residence, not as a house rule.

I could understand putting some of those things in a house manual if you were hosting an entire house where you don't live, but you share your home with your guests. Why not just talk to them?

Guests will remember to do things much more easily if you just converse with them, rather than expecting them to remember all these things you had listed in your house rules when they booked.

Kath had a really good comment about stating things positively, as dos rather than don'ts. Just putting "please" in front of "don't" doesn't make it positive.

I would remove all of those additional house rules, beyond the basic No pets, no kids, no parties, etc.

You could just put a short paragraph in the house rules section something like "You will be sharing this home with the host and other guests. Respect towards housemates and my home, in words and action is expected. This includes cleaning up after yourself in common shared spaces, not disturbing others with noise, etc."

[David3418]

Thanks for your feedback.

The reason I say, "no bullying" is because I had loads of problems with being bullied by boarders in the past. Either by making excuses not to pay their weekly board (even though they had the money) or in the way they treated me. I have not experienced this since doing Air bnb and I think this is mainly due to this platforms dual rating system.

Also, because I was not diagnosed with Asperger's until 50 years of age, I have experienced loads of bullying in my life.  (I read Tony Attwood's book about Asperger's and statistically we get bullied at least 4 times more often than neurotypicals).

Yes, it would be more positive to express it as, "We must do our best to respect ourselves at all times." or similar, but because of my experience of life being the way it is, I'm very reluctant to get rid of this rule. Even if it makes no difference.

I have got rid of the Air Quality rule as it is only relevant on certain days during summer, and I should be able to remember to tell guests if it is applicable. The only negative to this would be if they insist on leaving windows open on bad air days on the basis that they didn't sign up for this rule before they came, but I guess that's unlikely.

As far as telling people things when I'm orienting them around, even though I now work from home, I can work up to 64 hours a week sometimes. Guests are not always available to be "oriented around". Some guest have odd work hours and are hardly ever home or only home at unusual hours etc.

The parking permit/keys reminder is in the message I send to them just before they arrive and so I have removed it. I agree it is better to remind them the day before they leave, but of course, that's another thing I have to remember.

The best way to deal with the security door would be to have a digital lock system that co-ordinates with both main door and security door but I looked into it and it is really expensive. So I'm stating it as a preference because no more than half the people that stay do this.

I think most guests obey the shower fan rule, and I have a note on the wall about it. But it's possible they could miss it. And I'm not sure if I want to put a big, unmissable sign on the shower glass door.

The rule about covering food, I have expressed more positively now. I hate rodents and I live in a high rodent area due to being close to a lake, a creek, food outlets and a train station. They are in my roof and directly under my property.  I paid $2000 many years ago to block all the holes they were using to get inside, after seeing a mouse inside my place one day. I also read online that guests can demand half their money back if they see a rodent. Poisoning them is not a silver bullet because it makes them thirsty and they will try and get inside for water, as well as potentially stinking out my place by dying in the roof. And poisoning only kills 75%, so you still have them.

Overall, I'm pleased that my rules have improved a lot from how they used to be. I don't think they are overly excessive or weird any more.