Difficult Guests Over Christmas

41

I may in that case ask guests to ring the doorbell in that case. I can agree to be available 24/7 but on my terms so I’m not being awoken to answer, “what’s the wifi password?” at 2 AM.

Thank you. I have learned here and from my day job (college professor off the tenure track) to be professional and non-emotional when people are pissed at you… and to pass along to “management” when needed. Reviews matter in both my job and hosting, and this stresses me out, but I learned early on teaching that accommodating unreasonable demands does not mean better ratings.

This is such great advice. I did so with the emergency/safety features when I first started hosting, but should do so with basic features like the space heater and the sofa bed.

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42

I disagree with this for a separate space or in a competitive environment where a host is looking for more bookings, not fewer.

Less choice = fewer bookings/crankier guests/worse reviews. I used to try to always meet guests and give them a little intro to the room. But between reading here, thinking about what I would want for myself as a guest and judging from guests actions and expressions, I now don’t do it for anyone unless it seems they want it. I give guests instructions on checking in on their own. But if they ring my doorbell then I step out and make sure they have the code, know how to use it and try to read the guest to see if they need more help.

Keep in mind that you hosted without a lot of issues for years. Don’t overreact to this one set of guests. If something happens more than once it’s on the host to figure out what they are doing wrong. But to spend a lot of time, money and upend your whole routine for a one-off situation makes no sense. Guests who choose separate spaces don’t really think a mandatory tour is a good thing.

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43

I don’t understand this. If a guest needs the wifi password at 2 a.m., why would you prefer to get up and answer the door, rather than just answering your phone?

I’m sure I’d prefer the phone over having to get out of bed.

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44

I’ll bet Xena is assuming that guests wouldn’t be so rude as to ring the doorbell at 2AM to ask for the Wifi password :slightly_smiling_face:
I read a host post once where the guest in a private room listing knocked on the host’s bedroom door at 2 AM, waking her up of course, because she couldn’t find the hairdryer. Some people’s sense of entitlement is unreal.

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45

This may be the best advice to help me keep in perspective. I was long overdue for an “AirBnB” nightmare situation of my own.

That was an example of something I consider a non-emergency I wouldn’t want to be woken up for. I wouldn’t be able to distinguish between emergency and non-emergency messages chiming via the app, I think very few people would ring the doorbell for mundane questions. (And the wifi password is available in about four different places, including a placard in common view.)

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46

Since you haven’t been hosting you may not have seen posts about this but the app is not terribly reliable for emergencies anyway. I’ve had multiple messages come through the app 10 to 90 minutes after they are sent. I’ll see an email saying I have a message on Airbnb but not have any ding from the app. When I send the check in message I always tell the guest to text me if it is a time sensitive issue because sometimes the app lags or the site is down. I also have a card in the air room with the wifi log in info and my cell phone number and that card says to text if they need anything. I’m less worried about “having everything on the platform” than I am a guest needing something and not getting a prompt answer. If I do have a problem I can always go repost everything on Airbnb.

More perspective: this isn’t a real nightmare. This is an unpleasant, needy set of guests. You aren’t in a good place emotionally. It’s annoying and inconvenient and may even cost you some money.

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47

The guests have left. They checked out 15-minutes late, left the place dirty (3/5 on cleanliness), and left the windows and garage door open again. Under the circumstances, I can’t find fault with the hasty checkout.

The heater heated up in five minutes. The blown fuse was from the heater being run on the same circuit as the microwave, which I warn guests against. It does appear they tried to reset the breaker themselves but couldn’t figure out how to do it. They left the interior door locked and latched properly, but with enough jostling I was able to shut the door without it latching, so some maintainance is needed here. The garage door battery genuinely seemed dead; I didn’t see signs of tampering.

If they hadn’t had issue with the garage door opener dying, I’d chalk it up to needy/inept guests perhaps hoping for a discount, especially with the number of complaints they had and their difficulty with closing doors. However, I can’t deny responsibility with the battery dying, and will ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Now to see if AirBnB will cover the hotel, ask me to refund one night (I’m willing to though neither has asked), and deal with the review.

ETA: the case manager called right after I posted. She said she supported my decision not to pay for the hotel, and pressed to close the case and seemed eager to end the call. I didn’t offer to reimburse the night, though I still will if asked.

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48

Yes, it’s annoying and inconvenient, but not a newsworthy bad experience. It felt like a nightmare getting messages during Christmas and messaging CS all night, but this bad experience will fade. The worst consequences will be a bad review and potentially a refunded night.

The CS agent just messaged me to close the case and said she could see from my past reviews that I’m a great host. That answers the question of whether my history as a host is taken into account, at the least on the surface. I believe Insider said they were.

I have three more stays over the next two weeks, so hopefully I’ll get some glowing reviews above the bad one before it appears in two weeks. Assuming he’ll leave one.

I’d welcome any thoughts on how to review this guest. I’m still leaning on a one-sentence “not self-sufficient.”

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49

As a fellow host I’d like more details.

Guests had a difficult stay and seemingly didn’t read the listing or instructions in place in the rental. In addition they checked out late, leaving things messy and doors and windows open.

I’m not convinced that they should get a pass on normal guest expectations just because they didn’t handle the problems with the garage door well. And for many hosts the bottom line is whether any of us would want to host them.

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50

I agree. Knowing enough detail to determine whether I would want to host them is very important. I would certainly want to know whether the OP would host them again.

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51

As you do admit that garage door opener was dead and take responsibilty for that, and that the door latch needs looking at, I wouldn’t leave a review like that myself. I’d be inclined to write something like "These guests seemed to have a lot of issues during their stay, most of which could have been avoided had they paid more attention to instructions provided. I do take responsibility for the garage door opener having dead batteries and will be looking at a possible problem with a door latch, and apologize for any inconvenience this caused. Unit was left in a poor state as far as cleanliness.

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That’s interesting…I wish I had gotten that case manager with my guest who didn’t get her stuff u til days after her prematurely shortened stay…and then only with a sheriff escort…amazing disparity in case managers…

@KKC I wish I had seen this tailwind smart garage door opener a couple weeks ago. I just got the runner up MyQ on a lightning deal on Amazon. They work great but have an annoying flashing light, even more annoying loud beep and even more annoying delay in closing while the previous two warn u suspecting people that it will eventually close. I did get two for less than $50 ( it was a better deal that way than for one with an extra door sensor because this way i have a back up controller for $5…

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Keeping in mind that reviews are for the next host, I’m disinclined to use a guest review to admit to any hosting deficiencies.

I’m pretty flexible but even taking Xena’s missteps into account I would rather not host this couple. If they instant booked me I would probably use one of my free cancellations. I’m spoiled.

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54

I don’t have all great reviews (although should be getting Super Host for the first time with this next review, pending my last guest not giving me less than 4 (I think I have room for it to be a 4 but not 100% sure)) and I have gotten that comment before too, both in writing and on the phone so I guess it depends on what they are wanting to convey. At least it is nice to hear (or read) it sometimes!

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55

“Christmas” is completely irrelevant to this situation. If it being Christmas makes you feel that guests should require less from you and not require working doors, batteries and electricity, then yes, I don’t think you should host on Christmas. I’m inclined to make sure things are extra-perfect for guests on Christmas, not less.

Merely saying that there are chickens at the listing is not enough for people who don’t anything about chickens. I think it should be noted under “Potential for Noise” that guests may hear the chickens. For people who have not been around chickens, the noise they make will not be obvious until they are already at your listing. It may help you to avoid this problem in the future to note it under the potential for noise. If nothing else, it is then disclosed in the listing and will protect you from other complaints about it.

It really shouldn’t cost much to get this fixed. It is not acceptable that a guest can’t run these 3 things at the same time. It is very likely that these 3 things would be running at the same time on any given morning. If you won’t get it fixed, then you should disclose it in the listing under “Amenity Limitations”.

The interior door absolutely must latch. I can’t believe that anyone would be expected to stay somewhere that the door doesn’t latch. You seem to think that the garage door “counts” as a latching door but this seems highly unusual. If you want to depend on the garage door, then you should disclose in the listing that the door to the apartment doesn’t latch but that the garage door locks. I would think it will cost you some bookings but at least a guest shouldn’t be surprised by it.

I hope this is disclosed in your listing. What happened to @Xena’s guests could have been ameliorated by her being available to let them in when they got locked out because of her failure to have working batteries. Yes, batteries die, but they ideally shouldn’t if they are a guest’s in and out of the listing. But because sh*t happens anyways, like dead batteries, that is why we have to be available exactly for this kind of thing. Otherwise, block the night off, don’t book and don’t worry about anything.

I have never had a guest who was already checked-in contact me after 8pm or so but if I was going to not be available after a certain hour then I would disclose it in my listing.

@Xena Forgive me if I sound harsh but IMO, your listing needs to disclose all of these issues. These guests may or may not have been nitpicky. To be honest, it is difficult to tell as there were real issues that they were dealing with and all of them could have been avoided by preparation, communication and disclosure.

If your listing says: “The chickens are loud, the door to the apartment may not latch properly, the batteries to the garage remote may not work, you can’t run 3 basic appliances at the same time and, because it’s Christmas, I may or may not be available if you need assistance”. Then it was the guests. However, if it doesn’t disclose all of these things, then it was the host.

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56

Given what was written here about the guest I’d be happy to host them in one of my houses:

I don’t have chickens or anything in the neighborhood that would consistently make noise early.

My doors all latch.

My homes are less than 20 years old, so all electrical is up to code and able to handle loads.

There are multiple ways in and out of each house in case of battery failure.

And most importantly, between myself and my co-host we can get back to our guests 24-7. My co-host and I live a mile apart, and the rentals are between us. These are all easily and quickly fixed problems if someone is nearby. I wouldn’t have classified them as difficult.

Perhaps the “not self reliant” review works well. I don’t need self reliant. I do like “willing to rent in low season.”

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57

I wish that was how it worked…unfortunately when a guest doesn’t read it doesn’t matter…

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I’m so sick of “guests don’t read”. It does not absolve hosts of their responsibility to clearly and accuarately describe their listing and its limitations.

It’s like not stopping at a crosswalk because pedestrians take too long to cross.

Besides, it will protect a host if the guests complain to Airbnb. If they complain the chickens are loud (or the train or the school across the street or whatever) then the host can say, “yes, I disclosed that in my listing uner potential for noise”. It’s just a best practice.

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59

I don’t disagree (read: I agree).

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I think I read this is a finished basement. I don’t know the configuration, but at a minimum, it would require adding a breaker and wiring an independent circuit to the room. Maybe even 2 breakers and circuits. That very likely means drywall repair and painting on top of the electrical work, and adding a breaker may require an inspection fee, too.