Wasteful and inconsiderate guests

[Olia74]

Hi all,

Just wondering when my guests leave can I ask they pay for charges re wasted electricity and cleaning the oven? They run the washing machine for 2 - 5 items. And have made my oven extremely dirty by grilling items within. Not to mention the oven trays are now extremely gross even after I tried cleaning it. I'm going to have to get a cleaner to do it next week if they agree to it.

Aside from there's the cooking smelly food and not always airing, ordering items on Amazon without asking permission to use my address, putting greasy wet glasses in the cupboards, being loud in common areas when they know I'm working from home. I can admit I've not been a welcoming guest because from day one I found them to be lacking common sense.

They leave on Thursday so I can't wait but I wonder if I should leave them a bad review for lack of consideration and ask for payment for the cleaning of the oven or wasted electricity. Thanks in advance 

[Sarah977]

@Olia74  As a home share host, it's important that you communicate with your guests when issues arise. You shouldn't just fume in silence, feeling disrespected in your own home. You need to communicate expectations and proper home-sharing behavior.

So no, you can't charge them for things like this- it is your job to let guests know what is acceptable and what isn't. Of course it's wasteful and ridiculous to fire up the washing machine to wash 5 items, so put in your house rules and reiterate when guests arrive that they are allowed to do one or two washes a week, which should be plenty for anyone. Same with other things like cleaning the oven when they make a mess of it.

It's your home, you have to take charge.

[Helen3]

When you showed the guests around your home. Did you make your expectations clear around use of the washing machine and that they should clean the kitchen after themselves after each use? @Olia74 

You can't charge a guest for wasting electricity but you can reinforce your house rules around how the washing machine should be used for example I state I include one use of the washing machine every five days.

If you haven't done so already remind them that they need to fully clean the oven and grill and that they should minimise noise in common areas while you are working. 

Obviously leave an honest review based on how well or otherwise they followed your house rules.

[Linda108]

@Olia74  Your hosting honeymoon might be over.  It appears your first guests have been considerate and have been pleased with your listing, as portrayed in your reviews.  Then you get to have a guest that is part of the public but not as in line with your expectations.  As both @Helen3 and @Sarah977  have suggested, you must make your expectations clear during your meeting of the guests.  It is also good to have a welcome letter with some of those expectations in writing as well.  Do not expect to charge for cleaning or messiness or inconsideration.  Your honest review is all you have and most guests want a good review.

[Mark116]

@Olia74  It's  hard to charge for anything, especially something like electricity, after the fact.  You could try charging them for the stove cleaning, but my guess it would be more trouble...photos/an estimate from a cleaner, etc. than it's worth, and if your guest denies it all and says it was dirty when they arrived, Airbnb will probably side with them.

Prevention is your best weapon, so learn from this.  Tell future guests how you expect them to use the appliances, and if they don't do it, remind them, what your rules are on cooking, receiving mail, etc. Do this at the beginning of the stay to hopefully prevent this behavior in future.

You should absolutely give them a poor review and a low score on cleanliness.

[Sarah977]

@Olia74  Due to their inconsideration in being loud, make to sure to mention in the review something like, "Due to inconsideration in being loud in common spaces, in addition to the other disrespect shown, I don't consider these guests suitable for home share listings."

Further as to communication-  I had a lovely guest who stayed  for two weeks. She had a lot of great reviews, so I didn't even bother to read through all of them, so never saw the one she mentioned one day when we were discussing home-sharing, and how it's so important for there to be clear communication between host and guest for it to work smoothly.

She said this host had slammed her in the review, saying that she had "overused" the kitchen. Full kitchen use was offered in the listing ad, my guest said she and her boyfriend were out and about almost all day, but liked to cook and eat healthily, so made themselves a good breakfast before leaving for the day, and dinner when they got home. She said, "If that was bothering the host and she felt she couldn't use her own kitchen when she needed to, why didn't she just tell us that? We would have been quite willing to cook on a schedule that didn't  interfere with the host's meal schedule. Instead she gave me a bad review- how did she expect us to know we were upsetting her if she didn't say anything?"

[Sarah977]

@Olia74  Another hint for home-sharing. Try to establish an easy going rapport with guests from the moment they check in. That makes it much easier to bring up some corrections to their behavior, because then you can casually drop it into the conversation, rather than feel like you are nitpicking and criticizing them. As in "Mmm, that looks good, I'd love to get your recipe before you leave. Oh, by the way, could you remember to wipe the counter really well when you're done in the kitchen- I don't want to end up with cockroaches or rodents here, thanks. "

Some guests are by nature chatty, some are more private. Some share hosts enjoy hanging out with guests, some prefer they just keep to themselves, and all that is fine. But you should try not to let a situation develop where either you or they simply ignore each other, or never exchange some casual banter, because that negates the concept that they are guests in your home. Just because they paid to stay doesn't mean they get to act like it's their place.

[Anonymous]

@Olia74 You've gotten a lot of great advice here so far. Summary - no, you can't charge (and will only trigger a terrible review if you try to) and communication is key.

Looking ahead to the future, though, you might want to re-adjust the scope of what you offer to make sure that your hosting situation fits your way of life.  For example, just because your bed is big enough for two doesn't mean you can't limit your room to solo travelers. That way, you're never outnumbered, and noise won't be an issue. You can also establish limits on the amenities, such as 1 complimentary laundry cycle per week, or no kitchen access.  Or you can set a shorter maximum stay, so that even if you get a stinker of a guest you know you won't be stuck with them long.  

No matter what parameters you set, some people are just plain inconsiderate. But I do find that people reveal a lot about their personalities in their initial correspondence, so as long as you're not using Instant Book, you can still use communication style as a filter against disrespectful guests.

[Olia74]

Thanks all. Super helpful. I had thought of most things when setting house rules but it does seem using ovens appropriately and not using the washing machine in an excessive manner wasn't one of them. Appreciate all your advice. It was has definitely been an eye opener. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Olia74  in fact, laundry machines don't use a lot of electricity so I wouldn't worry about it .

Regarding the oven... well...I  think oven at short term rental is not worth the trouble