My Number 1 pet peeve:AC left on when they leave!

[diamond54]

Yes! Exactly!thankyou!

[Artemis]

Have you been able to have a chat with these particular guests? They might be completely clueless but willing to adjust if you point it out. Or they might be selfish jackoffs who don’t care and won’t adjust. If you text them through the Airbnb system tonight with a reminder to turn it off tomorrow, then you will find out in the morning which one of these is true.

[Artemis]

Of course. My comments were directed more towards future guests, during check-in. I’m just throwing ideas out there.

House rules? Who reads house rules? Signs? Pish.

[diamond54]

Thats why I do a walk through;noone pays attention to the website or signs. From now on Im going to tell them they must turn the ac off when they exit the room for the day.

[konacoconutz]

And also tell the. that if they don’t turn it off you’ll enter the room to do so? Are you home all the time?

[Vegasjerry]

You can ASK Guests to turn it off, and bitch about this guest and the next guest and the next guest OR YOU can fix the problem…your choice. a “fix” I would consider is to put a Vera Lite Hub on the internet connection and install a motion detector wired to the Vera Lite Hub and have the A/C unit plugged in to a Z Wave power outlet also programmed in to the hub. You write a “scene” that says IF there is no motion after 10 minutes during the hours of 8AM to 6PM, turn power to A/C OFF. When guest returns, the motion is sensed by the dector and the power to the A/C is turned on, A/C comes back on and problem is solved.
Money…HUb $100, power outlet about $60, no idea for motion sensor but probable around $50…so IF you think you can save $200 bucks over the next 5 years, buy the equipment.

[diamond54]

no, but my husband usually is.

[Chris]

Most hotels have a system where you need to use the door keycard to turn on the electricity in the room.
If you leave the room, you take the card and all electricity shuts off.

I do not know it it is possible to create the same kind of system with the front door key and the AC.
So if they leave the house, they need to take the key out, and the AC switches off.

[faheem]

@Sarah_Warren

He said that unless you are able to leave the ac off for at least 3 days, it is actually cheaper and more efficient to leave it on. ACs do more than cool the air, they remove the humidity from the air, walls, furniture, etc. So for that 10 hours it’s off, it may take 6 hours of continuous running to remove all the moisture from the room.

I’m a little sceptical about this. 3 days? Really? I’d get a second opinion. The world is full of people who talk nonsense. They’re particularly thick on the ground here. But I don’t see why the US should be magically exempt.

Also, there is certainly humidity in the air. But in the walls and furniture? My walls are tile. My furniture (what there is of it) is metal and formica-covered.

[faheem]

Hi @Paul_Janaway,

@Paul_Janaway

When I had AC in my old apartment it had a sensor that detects movement and if after x amount of time has passed it would switch off till it saw movement again.

Nice idea in theory, but what about when people are sleeping at night? They aren’t going to be moving then.

[faheem]

Hi @Vegasjerry,

Interesting notion. Is this what you use: Vera Lite Hub, Z Wave power outlet etc.? Does it work reliably? The problem with all this high faluting high tech is that it may either not work properly or break down when you are depending on it.

[Chloe]

@diamond54

and honestly; they are a guest, I am their host. If I am a guest in someones house I would NEVER think of doing that!

And herein lies the problem between Airbnb Hosts and Guests. This is going to be mainly about those who rent a room in their home. I’ve seen many posts on this forum from hosts complaining that these people are guests in their homes! Shouldn’t they show more respect? Shouldn’t they act like guests? Shouldn’t they be quiet and clean, and conserve the water and energy I’m paying for? After all, none of us hosts would ever behave so badly if we were a guest in someone else’s home!

The thing is, they are not guests. They are paying customers.

Please, don’t think that I don’t agree that some guests should behave much better than they do. I have a couple right now and I can’t wait for them to leave. They stay in the house until past noon time having sex. Or they come home early and station themselves on the patio, drinking and laughing until well past dark. They waste food and ignore the dishes and glasses I put out for them, instead going through my cupboards until they find stuff they like better, such as my lead crystal wine glasses. There is a stain on the patio chair cushion that won’t come out. And yes, they leave the damned AC on all day long.

My point here is that I’m honestly not totally sure what side of the fence I land on with this. Of course, I do want people to be careful and respectful and not ruin my stuff. On the other hand, they are paying nearly a $100 bucks a night to be here. Doesn’t that kind of buy them the right to sleep in, stay up late, walk into a cool room at any hour?

I’m the one who opened my house to paying guests. It’s not like I’m hosting my sister-in-law for free. To some degree and within reason, if I can’t figure out how to make a profit while not micromanaging guests and allowing them to relax and be on vacation, then maybe I’m not really in a good position to host.

Again, I’m still a REALLY new host, only been doing this for 7 weeks (though I’m on my 17th set of guests), and I’m still trying to figure it all out.

[diamond54]

I disagree. They have a right to use utilities as much as they want when they are in the room. They do NOT have the right to blast the ac for 10 hrs when they are gone.Like I said it takes under 5 minutes to cool the room down. There is a sign posted at the exit to turn off the ac. Its downright rude to do that. Its posted on the website now. I am considering putting it into my listing that if the AC is left on when they leave they will be charged an extra 10 a day out of their security deposit. If they were here for a day or 2, I wouldnt care but a week is a long time. I hate long term stays.

[diamond54]

and no, guests cant do whatever they want!I work in a large hotel and guests frequently get thrown out for obnoxious behaviour.

[Chloe]

@diamond54, I do actually agree that it’s rude to leave the AC on all day long, especially when you’ve pointedly asked them not to. I have not posted any signs like that, so I have no one to blame but myself right now.

In my previous post, that’s why I prefaced with “to some degree and within reason”. Of course, I don’t think that guests should be allowed to behave really obnoxiously or do “whatever they want”.

[Chris]

I did a little more research.

Search for something like this.
Wire it to your AC, and install a copy of your front door lock cylinder.

http://www.novoport.at/media/image/4000/4000/1/schluesselschalter.jpg

Guests will need the same key to enter the house and turn on the AC.
So they cannot run the AC when they are out of the house.

[Sarah_Warren]

@faheem

Also, there is certainly humidity in the air. But in the walls and furniture? My walls are tile. My furniture (what there is of it) is metal and formica-covered.

Ok, granted this is for my house and area. We deal with 85% humidity and I have plaster walls, carpet and upholstered furniture. And it was for my central air. Window units and smaller places are different. But there is more to think about, especially if it’s just for a few hours.

[faheem]

Well, said, @Chloe. With a little expansion and editing, that could be a nice blog entry somewhere. (Blogging (ugh) is now what they call writing essays on the net, so I’m just being my usual conformist self here. Sorry about that.)

Like you, I’m not sure what side of the fence I fall on here. We’ve basically got two camps. One camp says - it’s our home, guests should be respectful of it. The other says - well, they’re paying to be here; we’re not that different from a hotel. And we all know that hotels don’t expect their customers to be respectful. Though I don’t know enough about hotels to say how they would react if someone was to, say, trash a hotel room.

And been doing this 3 months here, and around the 16th set of guests, though it’s getting hard to keep track. I guess we’re both newbies.

[faheem]

Hi @Sarah_Warren,

Ok, it’s for your particular setup - fair enough. Still, your guy’s 3 day estimate sounds excessive, regardless. If I’m going to be out of my room for any length of time, say 1/2 hr upwards, I put the A/C thermostat up.

[Sarah_Warren]

@faheem

say 1/2 hr upwards, I put the A/C thermostat up.

Oh yeah. He said to definitely turn it up. But to turn the machine off for even overnight in my house could mean it running continuous for 6 hours. And since I’m dealing with plaster walls in my unit, I have to keep the AC unit set around 78-80 even when no ones there because it will warp the 100 year old walls and cause cracking, swelling and bubbling. I’m already dealing with it from me turning it off for a few days between guests.

I do plan to put up a sign saying “please turn the AC up to 78 if leaving for the day” or something like that, as I definitely don’t want it off at my place.