Towelgate

[Sheryil0]

I know this is my fault but we had a couple check in. It was there wedding anniversary and the husband booked a weekend away at our place. Unfortunately his wife had visions of being whisked away to a luxury 5 star hotel and not downstairs in our back bedroom. It became apparent to us very soon she was not happy and felt sorry for her husband. We went out for dinner and returning home I checked there kitchen bathroom to tidy up as they were out, found 4 wet towels on the bathroom floor so gathered them up left fresh ones. Next morning popped in after they went out 4 towels on the floor wet, left fresh ones. They came home went out by now I am obsessed how can anyone use so many towels down I go again. 4 wet towels on the floor. Now 16 towels since they arrived 24 hours earlier. I don't know how 2 people could use so many. At this point I stopped leaving fresh ones.. I had no more dry to leave. Do you think she was trying to upset me so I would ask them to leave.... 

[Anna9170]

@Sarah977  After your answer - nothing more to add! You are perfectly able to highlight the important, I appreciate it in your answers.
@Helen350  There are a lot of hosts from England at this forum and I hope they will clarify this strange situation about traditions... If your niece came to visit you - no questions, but if you do business, respect for private borders is an absolute priority always. Here I will certainly agree with @Heidi588 .

[Helen350]

@Anna9170 Paying guests who pay a pittance in private homes are not legally a business in the Uk. They have zero rights. No matter how long they've stayed. They are GUESTS, and legally can be asked to leave at a moments notice. In UK law, the landlord has absolute right over all parts of the house s/he lives in & guests have no legal basis on which to claim rights. If you want tenant's rights, you need to rent an entire home on a proper contract. But of course it would be rude to barge in when a guest is actually in the room!

[Sheryil0]

This is actually the same in New Zealand I believe. I could have asked them to leave because I have another room with another guest and these two had a huge argument. There was no other accommodation available this night in question huge concert all accommodation booked out weeks in advance. 

[Helen3]

English host here. I wouldn’t enter a guests room unless for ore agreed towel change /cleaning.

towels changed every five days @Anna9170

[Anna9170]

@Helen3  Absolutely reasonable. Cleaning or change of towels is agreed with the guest, does he know that you will have to come in today, for example?

[Laura2592]

@Anna9170 at least where we are, a hotel maid can enter the premises to change towels etc without express permission of the guest.  If a guest does not want this to happen,  they have to proactively put up a do not disturb sign or leave instruction with the front desk.

As a landlord,  our leases state the condition upon which we can enter our property and when a tenant needs to give permission or not/how much notice we need to give them.  Guests and tenants have different rights, which is another reason not to do long term stays through a platform geared to vacationing as sometimes the legal line gets murky. 

As far as the OP goes if she changes linens as a regular part of her home share stays i would imagine that would need to be communicated up front.  If the guest doesn't wish to avail themselves of this service,  they would have to say so, as with a hotel. 

[Anna9170]

@Helen350  @Laura2592  You are now talking about long-term rent and it is off-top, because in so many countries gives other rights to guests.
Here in this topic it is about the weekend (two or three days), what is the change of linen, what are the maids? it is not a hotel)).
Seriously, in order for the host not to come to me a couple of days I have to hang a notice on the door of the room? 😉

[Laura2592]

@Anna9170 where I live, yes. Or tell the hosts.  

Guests do not have the same legal rights as tenants where I am. Not entering your space is something that landlords and tenants negotiate and codify in a lease. Hotel guests give tacit permission to enter their space when they don't say otherwise.  For example,  we stayed with a friend who had a dog in a hotel suite. There was a rule the dog had to be crated if we were away. The dog barked a lot so hotel staff entered the room while we were out to ensure the dog was crated. They dropped off linens at the same time and left us a note that they had entered.  We did not have a do not disturb sign up. They were within their rights whether we liked it or not. 

I don't necessarily think it's a grand idea to enter your space when a guest is there but in some cultures,  this is a regular part of a vacation stay. Guests should never think they have an absolute right to privacy in someone's home. Most hosts really don't want to see or hear from guests during stays but I have been places where the beds are changed and towels refreshed,  snacks or food left, etc. Again,  there was always notice that this was part of the stay. If I didn't like it, I said "thanks but please don't do that."

Being a landlord is totally different than running what amounts to a guest house.  Again and again I see people here confuse what that means. I don't know of the OP alerts her guests to her linen service,  but I suspect most people probably appreciate that or they let her know. 

[Helen350]

@Anna9170 In the UK there is NO legal difference between STL & LTR when the room let is a spare room in a private home. Whether the guest is staying 1 day or several years, the legal position is that they have zero rights, and the home owner has the legal right to access all parts of their own home at any time. - - Which does not mean that the home owner should not show common courtesy, or barge in just because they legally can!!!

[Anna9170]

@Laura2592  I perfectly understand this difference, between a common space and living together in the house and a separate object for the guest.
My ex-husband and I have a house on the Costa Brava, its on mortgage, and in very difficult financial times we lived there ourselves and sold two rooms. Usually these were couples for the weekend. Never once did any of us allow ourselves to enter a guest room, perhaps if there was a fire I would have done it.
I see on the forum how any wrong step of the guest causes complete hysteria at the hosts, ah, came to my kitchen, ah used a microwave, ah it was not at the time specified by the rules ... And - all this is correct. But why is it considered a norm for hosts to violate the minimum private space of a guest in this case? Guest pays money for living in your house, and this fee, which you set yourself, means you are satisfied with it. And for this fee, for example, I would like to spend time in my room without thinking about police control).

[Laura2592]

@Anna9170 we are all so different.  Thats the beauty of hosti g and traveling...experiencing that exchange.  This host was probably well within her rights but maybe it would be off putting to someone who really needed to be assured of privacy at all times.  We don't enter our guests space without invitation but I can think of circumstances where we might do so. Every host has their own style and norms.  This is why guests need to read and choose their accommodation carefully.  

[Anna9170]

@Laura2592  And what are these circumstances? Let's not talk about a party or fire now.
Just a couple came for the weekend for a romantic weekend. What are the circumstances?👻
So that they do not forget that this is not their property and they are not tenants? 😎Yes, I agree, it is worth going into their room so that they do not relax. 😂

[Laura2592]

@Anna9170 i think this thread is really derailed and I don't want to do more of that.  But if I thought there was anything illegal happening in my space,  if health or safety was a concern for a person or an animal a guest left alone (we allow pets), if the neighbors reported something really egregious/called the police for some reason, etc., I would absolutely go into my home while my guest was staying there. No question.  Not illegal and certainly its my property and my liability insurance. 

Some guests might be fine with sacrificing a little privacy for linen services,  daily cleaning  or breakfast.  Again everyone is different.  The important thing is to communicate up front and make sure all parties know what is expected. I don't see anything at all in the OP that states she was violating the guests space if this is something she regularly offers. Again,  not everyone hosts in the same way.  Some people are fine with hotel maids entering their rooms without permission. Some people are not. Neither is wrong to feel the way they do, nor is the maid wrong for entering the room.

[Sarah977]

The OP has several private room listings and they say that the host lives upstairs. But she also makes it sound like it's very private, and some mention a separate entrance. Nowhere in her listings is it stated that she comes in to tidy up on a daily basis or at all. 

I agree that if a host wants to provide daily maid service, that's up to them, but that should be mentioned in the listing, don't you think? If I were a guest and rented a space advertised as a private space and found the host had gone in when I wasn't there to tidy up, I wouldn't be pleased at all.

@Laura2592

[Laura2592]

@Sarah977  LOL we had guests early on who were angry that we did not change sheets or offer cleaning daily.  Now we say this explicitly in our check in email.  We don't know that the OP mentions her linen services or not in guest communication. We don't have it in our listing because no one reads what we do have.  If you book or inquire we certainly spell it out. 

You just can't please everyone 🙂  Each guest will have different expectations. Personally I have stayed in places where people entered my room and it has not bothered me so long as I was aware it might happen or what the options were to prevent it. Everyone has different ideas about privacy needs.