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Hey guys so I have started listing my cottage as an entire home, as well as 2 separate listing for my rooms that I do B&B in. I have only had one booking so far, and although it went reasonably well I did have a couple of issues. Firstly, they broke a glass, part of a set that sits in a wicker holder. I know, I shouldn’t have left it for them, but I use it every day when I do breakfast and honestly did not think it would get broken! Second, they went into cupboards that I had tied closed and had my catering sized bottles of ketchup, boxes of dishwasher pods and such in, and helped themselves. They took a massive bottle of ketchup with them when they left.
So, I have changed my booking requirements to, Guests who meet Airbnb’s requirements, and also have:
Provided a government-issued ID.
Am I being overly paranoid and do you think it will lower my bookings. I can’t decide. I do use IB, so I thought this would maybe give me better behaved guests?
I used Ib for more than a year for rooms in the house i live in, but never for a separate house. Its a fact that guests behave less in a separate unit. And i would never let someone in without previously seeing who this person is.
SO, you dont mind if a bunch of 21 years old stays there? I dont allow kids that young, and they can tell me as much as they want about age disrimination. I would take your cottage of IB, and screen every guest who inquires wih questions
Well, that is the new kind of guest that AirBnB is attracting.
They pay for the whole house, so they think they are entitled to everything that is in it.
So put everything that they are not allowed to touch, behind a locked door, else they will open it.
If you are not on the premises of this cottage then stop what you are doing right now…and buy security cameras for the entrances to the home. People will book for 2 and bring 4. (you do charge for extra people, right?) They will smoke on your property even if say no smoking on the property. They will bring their dog. They will have unauthorized guests. They will throw a party or hold a wedding there.
Next, have a locked cabinet or closet. Get a nice sign that says “private” and put on it. I have locked closet in my guest room. It mostly stores spare linens for the guest room but I don’t want guests messing with it. But I had a couple pry it open and scratch the door doing it.
I’m confused about the broken glass. You use it every morning? You come in a make breakfast for the guests? If you live there and just vacate it when it gets rented as an entire home I’d do major reconfiguration. Put away anything you don’t want broken or missing.
Finally…how much did the Ketchup cost? $10? How much did you make on the rental? Feel better now?
It’s not the cost of the ketchup… It’s the principle! Anyone who would steal supplies belonging to the house is not respecting the host.
When G stole my extra large Johnson’s Baby Shampoo and OFF I was pissed. Just the attitude that they are entitled to take what they felt like because they rented a room is off.
In my house guidelines and info doc, I’ve have had to add, “supplies belong to the room. Please do not take them with you.”
Along with a few other obvious or common sense things. Along with the great line someone thought of: “sorry for stating the obvious but experience has taught me I must be clear.”
If I had to do over I would never have recommended G. In addition to her odd behavior with the wind chimes, she stole supplies from me. Who does that? And G and her oddball husband were in their 60s.
So it’s not the $10. If someone takes your house supply, that tells you everything you need to know about their personality.
On my side I try to treat guests as I want to be treated when I am a guest. I expect the best but I don’t take it personally when they disappoint me. I don’t feel that they are backstabbing me and I don’t get feel hurt. I focus on what I can control and that is only, imperfectly, my reaction. I can shake my fist at “principle” all day long but I can’t prevent guests from prying my door open, replacing their nasty old pillow with my new one or taking my ketchup. I get respect in many ways and if I get it from guests or not I’m fine.
Yes I put some things in my rules and I put a lock on my closet door. If I know who violates the rules and my trust before I write my review I will include it. I will try to learn from my experiences and take steps to not have it happen again.
But at the end of the day I count the money and feel gratitude.
That and $10 and I can buy more ketchup. The main thing that would piss me off about it would be if I needed ketchup, didn’t have any and had to make a special trip to the store.
Yes, true…don’t sweat the small stuff. As I’ve mentioned, my guests lately have been mostly great!! No problems, aside from the Pyrex pan and spoons. Both cheaply resolved. And chalk it up to one off since I have guests who are mostly good.
Just three five-day bookings per month pay my mortgage. Cannot complain.
We turned instant book off as some of our instant book guests were definately not who we wanted in our ‘entire home’ listed apartment. For me having a flat in a very built up City area noise is my biggest concern. We got kids wanting to party. We now don’t accept groups of under 30’s. Only families, business & mature travellers. I respect my neighbours & don’t want their lives impacted negatively in any way. Taking instant book off has given us much better control.
I would be more pissed about guests breaking into closed cabinets and stealing stuff versus guests trying to invite more over the max occupancy, and blatantly lying about it. And I would also quote them laws in my state as to what jail time they can face with theft, and that I might need to file a police report. I would let them know what qualifies as a misdemeanor and what qualifies as a felony. This is ridiculous! Your cabinet was tied up!
Prevention is worth a pound of cure; best to lock and remove temptation. Then again who would even think that a guest would steal a bottle of ketchup, I mean really, what trashy behavior.
We put sensors on doors that are locked and state that forcing these doors is grounds for immediate remove, including having police escort them from property with no refund of rent and fees. I also state removal of items from house will charged to their deposit and handling will be charged at $50/hr.
I should mention we rent a whole house. We also charge $210/day and have a $1200 deposit. After 8 rentals we have had no missing towels.
It wasn’t the ketchup it was the fact that they had apparently gone through the cupboards that were clearly closed and sealed. Although not locked. I do have a lock out cupboard but as these things ARE so cheap, I decided to leave them.
Yes, I do go and make breakfast every morning for my non entire house bookings which are 90% of my business. I have only recently moved out, only a few minutes walk away and guests know this, so I am not overly worried about them bringing a whole heap of no’s to the cottage.
I’m not annoyed, it was really small stuff, my original question was whether I should up the booking requirements to those with ID supplied as verification. I am still getting guests with no photo on their profile and the only verification is a phone number.
and I put a lock on my closet door. If I know who violates the rules and my trust before I write my review I will include it. I will try to learn from my experiences and take steps to not have it happen again.