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Hosting has really suggested that common sense may be cultural and generational. What is “common sense” to you that guests seem to struggle with?
At my place, it is folding down the hide-a-bed. So many of my guests just sleep on the couch (I worry about it getting stained), I may make some “photo instructions” on how to set up the hide-a-bed. Step 1: take off the cushions. Step 2: pull the handle. Step 3: add bedding.
The other one is opening and closing the garage door. My entry is through the garage, so I give guests a keychain-sized garage door opener. It only has one button, so easy enough, right? Instead of pushing the button once and letting the door open or close completely, they repeatedly push the button, stopping and starting the garage door. Up a few feet! Down a few feet! The garage door is below my bedroom so I get to hear the struggle.
My first reaction is, “How are people so sheltered?” Then I remind myself, perhaps guests have never seen a hide-a-bed before, or have always lived in apartments and never have opened a garage before! Thank goodness the power hasn’t gone out; they’d never figure out to pull the bright orange handle dangling in the middle of the garage to manually release the door!
As a retired teacher I’m sure there is no such thing as “common sense” except as it comes with experience. In other words, everyone has to be taught everything at some point. As a person matures and have more experiences they begin to see “this thing is similar to this thing” so they apply the lessons to the new thing without being explictly taught. Also, what’s “common” varies. On one thread they were talking about drying dishes with a cloth versus air drying. There is a perfectly good argument for doing each thing. So what’s the common sense answer? I think the common sense thing to do with a damp dirty towel is to hang is up on the towel bar so it doesn’t mildew and leave a damp spot on the floor. Most hotels and people think the common sense thing to do is to leave it in a heap on the floor.
Parking sense. It is soooooooooo damn easy Peasy. Please park on the strip opposite my house. Don’t pull into the driveway. It’s a quiet street with very few cars. It’s sooooooooo easy. So easy.
I even show a photograph in my instructions of where to park! Yet an untold number of guests JUST HAVE TO PULL IN THE DRIVWAY, Or park halfway down the street or pull up and text-- “where do we park!!!”
The number of times I’ve read about guests using bath towels to remove makeup makes me wonder.
Aren’t you supposed to wash off makeup by using water with cleanser/soap/makeup remover and then dry your clean face with the towel? It seems like a no-brainer to me, but…
Also, how much makeup are these people wearing that it gets everywhere?
I’m a teacher too (college level) and have often thought about how similar hosting and teaching are! The review system feels a bit like course evaluations, and you definitely see the gamut of fake excuses in both!
At least in the classroom, if students don’t know something “common sense” coming into my class, I can teach them. Not everyone will get it, but I can rewards those who do with a grade they’ll be happy with. I teach at a public university that serves non-traditional students (veterans, working parents, etc.) so they don’t know a lot of stuff about how college works, but my students have a lot more “real world” sense than a more traditional college student! My students would know how to close a garage door and follow parking instructions and use a hide-a-bed!
I don’t even wear makeup, and even I know that you don’t wipe your makeup off on a bath towel! I’m shocked when I find makeup stains on pillow cases. Isn’t it bad for your skin to leave that stuff to cake on your beautiful face over night? Or do folks wear so much it doesn’t all wash off? Maybe they passed out drunk and forgot to take it off!
I explicitly tell mine to park in the circular part of the driveway. I even put it in the rules. Half of them still park in the street and I have to tell them to move into the driveway. Common sense that if I have a big driveway they should park in it. (BTW, I don’t want them to park in front of the garage doors, because I’m parked there but I have space for an additional 3 cars not in front of the garage.
Using our canoe on the river, to adults together with a baby, never done this before, the wind blowing hard and not using live vests. That’s not common sense! I had to change the listing after that. Live vests are mandatory, and everything the guests do, also canoeing, is at own risk.
In Hawaii, you see tourists do crazy things every day. It’s why Hawaii is the drowning capital of the nation, and almost all are visitors. They can’t look at surf that looks like victory at sea and think hey that might not be safe to snorkel in? No, they can’t. They only have so many days in Hawaii-- and high surf advisory or not–they are going out whether it kills them, and sometimes it does.
We have a Asian dollar store four hours away. I bought these little square make up remover pads and guest have started using those instead of towels.
See if you can find something like that.
Oh, the makeup! I got so fed up with the occasional makeup stains on my white Turkish towels that I bought some of those small black towels with the word “makeup” stitched on them to hang beside them. You’d think that would do the trick, right? NOPE. I swear I see more makeup stains since than I did before. And the makeup towels are generally unused. I think they see it as a dare or something.
I once had guests try to heat my electric kettle on the stove top. Melted plastic everywhere… They had the nerve to question the amount we charged them for a replacement until we produced a receipt.
My current guests sent an inquiry stating that they wanted to go swimming and be in the outdoors of the parks and Mountains where I live.
This area has lakes and beaches and parks all over the place as noted in my listing.
I was at work when they arrived (I let them arrive at noon since I was at work and did not have guests last night, so the bedroom/bathroom has been ready for them for 2 nights).
I left my usual guide of things to do and places to see on the kitchen table, which includes that if they forgot their beach towels, they can borrow two of mine that I have on a cute shelving unit just inside my front door and in case they forgot their folding chairs, they can borrow the two I keep on the front porch (the beach is literally a 5 minute walk from here).
In my listing, I specifically warn and tell potential guests that weather can change drastically, to bring some warm clothes, waterproof gear, bathing suits, and to bring the following: beach chairs, beach towels, sunblock, water shoes, hiking shoes I do NOT, in my listing, say that I will let guests borrow these things or that I will supply them.
3 beach towels and both chairs gone when I finally arrived home from work.
Now, why oh why would you specifically choose a destination for the very purpose of going to the beaches and going to parks and NOT bring your own supplies??
So, I guess the common sense my guests lack is 1) expecting everything to just land in your damn lap and 2) probably not being a responsible consumer and reading what you are buying and 3) just plain old not having your sh!t together and being prepared!
What if I didn’t have beach towels? What if I didn’t have those Coleman folding chairs?
I just may start charging for these items. Seriously. That’s 3 towels I now have to launder, which is 1/2 load in the washer.
Guest (via text morning of checkout): Were are the outside trash cans? They walked past them several times every day during their stay to get to their parking place.
Guest (knocking on my door just after checking out): I need to get back into the apartment because I left my sunglasses. He was wearing them.
Guest (in the private part of the review): We wish there had been a coffee machine. The coffee machine is the only appliance on the countertop in the rental’s tiny kitchen.
Guest (in private part of the review):
There was construction work on the road to the beach. Yeah, MY fault.
I do a quick demo of each appliance from the dishwasher to the TV or the cooktop at each checkout. I even show how to operate shutters as reviews of neighbouring listings indicate that some people have no idea that shutters may be used to block out daylight.
I’m just wondering if this was inadvertent. Did they think you were inviting them to borrow these things? I confess I might have grabbed them as well since you made it sound so inviting?
I have 2 different makeup remover pads for women to use(which I point out on the walk-thru) They STILL use my white facecloths and towels!!I can get most of the stains out usually(and if not it goes in my house)BUT stain removers are very expensive and it is a time consuming task! Also when I email them and ask them a question and they reply, BUT NEVER ANSWER MY QUESTION!! For example, older people do not always have a smart phone.So I will email and ask them if they have a smart phone,I like to text a little map and photo of my place(everybody gets lost and makes me wait around). So they email me back and let me know when they will be here but never answer my original question. Also, I make it clear in the opening statement in my listing to please read my entire listing as most questions are all answered!!NOPE! They still email me “what kind of bed do you have?”(The listing says queen). “can we have an early check-in?” My listing says NO. I make it very clear its 2 adults max; no exceptions; they still want to know if they can bring their baby…
