So this is a first for me

[Amanda660]

Booking came  in a couple of weeks ago on BDC - 6 guests, 2 nights - Friday and Saturday.

Guests had a very young first name but I did my usual - what brings you to the area,? who will be staying? have you read the house rules? no parties/unregistered guests, etc,  All good according to them.  We live in the sticks - pretty village but very rural. 

I decided I’d welcome this group rather than my usual self check in.  They arrived 90 mins later than agreed and they saw me walk from my house across the road to check them in.  Excited about the house and the weekend - I gave them a quick tour and left them to it.  

I was out when I received a message today to say that there had been a family emergency (all 6 girls were mid twenties and unrelated) and they had to leave early.  

Got to the house, front and back doors unlocked, heating on full tilt, ground floor window open, every light on, plasma fire left on in the lounge and 70+ empty Nitrous Oxide canisters and balloons stuffed in black bags along with loads of broken bottles.  Clearly they had a high old time. 

I think there was to be a party (that’s a lot of lemonade) but I scuppered their plans by living right across the street  

They came prepared with their Gaviscon and Pepto Bismol

though.  

I’m just about done with guests. 

 

 

 

[Sarah977]

@Amanda660  Good thing you had the idea that this booking was best to do a host check- in on.

Sorry about the mess.

Suggest you send the photos to Airbnb.

While I see you mention that you live across the street down where few guests bother to read, you might consider putting that info in the firrst part of your listing description to ward off these types, although I realize it's a first for you.

"Please note: this is an on-site host property- we live right across the street, so we are readily available should you require assistance, although of course we respect out guests' privacy."

[Amanda660]

@Sarah977 These guests were via booking dot.  com - I’m not a fan of the platform as you get no feel for who is  booking and it’s difficult to strike up some pre-trip chat.  It’s only in an effort to avoid putting all  my eggs in one basket that I keep my listing active and get a trickle of guests from them.

I’m such a dinosaur - I had to Google to find out what the score was with these cream capsules only to find out that folk huff them via balloons -  they’re also referred to as Hippie Crack. 

I’m going to give my listing a wee tweak on Airbnb the being just across the road and see if I can do the same with BDC. 

[Sarah977]

@Amanda660  Ah, I did see you said it was a BDC booking,  just forgot when I was writing my response. 

I don't like having all my eggs in one basket, either, but there are really no viable options for home-share hosts. And I would never use a platform that only uses IB- certainly not for a private room in my home.

[Amanda660]

@Sarah977 I just nipped over to put on a load of washing and sorted out the recycling - there were actually 142 of them.   One of them left their asthma inhaler under the pillow  - well, if that’s what they used it for. 

BDC makes me super uncomfortable - I had my first VRBO booking this week - fingers crossed. 

[Sarah977]

@Amanda660  Hard to keep up with all the new drug choices- maybe we should get out more.

And they didn't even leave you a full one to try out? That wasn't very friendly. 🙂

That would have been cute- a note- "Thanks for everything, Amanda, we had a great time, as you can see. Here's a little token of our appreciation"

A friend of mine used BDC for her little hostel for a very short time. She said she got the worst quality of guests through them she had ever had in 15 years of running the hostel. And lots of no-shows. 

But I know some hosts use it and don't seem to have issues.

[Sasha207]

What is BDC?

[Sarah977]

@Sasha207 Another rental platform. Booking dot com

[Kim866]

@Amanda660 

I'm sorry you had to go through this!  We live next door to our rental and I use this phrase in my first message upon receiving a booking--"We give you your privacy but we live next door and are available if you need anything at all!"  I have received two immediate cancellations after sending that phrase--I consider it a bullet dodged!!!!  

Good luck!

Kim

[Colleen253]

@Amanda660 Wow looks like they tried it on the first night, so good job they left before the second night, when the crowd would have shown up. Bullet part dodged at least. What a mess to clean up though. You got to keep the entire booking fee though?

[Amanda660]

@Colleen253 yup, they didn’t ask to cancel just that there was a family emergency and they’d love to come back.  I was too close by and scuppered their plans - naughty me. 

[Amanda660]

So after all that they scored me a 10 on BDC.  Go figure. 🤔