This seems overly generous!
I second this. Why have myriads of strangers sleep in my house otherwise?
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omg lol 
just reading that would make me anxious. READ the bloody description and rules people! I just donât understand. They have probably been sitting in a car/bus/train for a while getting to your place with plenty of time to read. On the flip side of this, I have one guest due to check in soon - he seemed very anxious about kitchen use what he could cook etc.
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The girl said: I want to cook pasta and rice to save some cash. You already saving some cash by paying 50$ a night, I thought. They booked for 1 night. Where they were going to put all these food that they were going to cook " all night long" I wonder., if they were leaving In a morning.
Take it with them , in this 90F heat ? I still donâtknow when did this notion started that guests can cook in hosts houses?
When I came to this forum few months ago with my story about my mad cooks, someone told me that kitchen is a selling point in Airbnb. I just donât get it. Why would THAT be a selling point? The selling point for me is much less priced accomodation, not someoneâs kitchen that I would not dare to use for cooking.
Even if I use hostâs kitchen it only for tea, and I always ask.
The girl also said, well, your kitchen is listed in amenities., so, THAT she read,she really did paid attention if there is a kitchen listed
I explained to her that though a kitchen is in amenities,itâs not a given fact that hosts are going to allow you to cook up a storm, thatâs why I explained very detailed in description about light cooking.
I also asked her how does she imagine occupying my kitchen for hours!mi I have a family, my husband come home from work tired and he needs his rest instead of listienig to banging of dishes all night long on a kitchen. I also need to cook for him. How am I going to do this if you are occupying my kitchen? Plus I have another guest whoâs room is right next to the kitchen , who also come home from work and needs his rest.
Nothing helped, she kept on insisting, and then I called Airbnb and thankfully they were very understanding. I was booked 10 minutes after they cancelled by another guest who even refused tea offered
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Oh wow booked ten minutes after she was cancelled upon. Thatâs amazing.
People need to learn how to read and not be so lazy.
Cabin, The main idea of Airbnb is to âmatchâ a guest to a host. This is what I have been told by them. They are looking at situation like this and mine of yesterday as is " not a good match". I get it, it sounds wonderfull to find a host who would enjoy having strangers to takeover the house without inviting a host:)
But⌠In reality, how is it possible? So here we are relying on common sense and similar cultural experiences. I am REALLY surprised at this situation though as I know Americans are famous for being very sensitive to personal privacy which I think is a great quality. I had American guests all summer and NONE of them even tried to hang out all over the house.
I have an idea that may be if hosts are not on IB to ask your guest about how he/ she spends her day? something like: what is your day look like? Just to have an idea what to expect? May be then it will be a good match if we know a personâs schedule.
Ahh, I think itâs time to raise my prices:). Itâs still kind of slow here, and I would rather have someone renting for little than not at all. Even with my low price and IB last week I nly had returning guests for a week stay but no other bookings whatsoever. They say itâs before Thanksgiving travel silence as everyone getting ready for their Thanksgiving trip.
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YanaâŚyou know how they areâŚthey do not read. They see âkitchenâ in the amenities ,., (which they could have even searched for) and they start gearing up with their tomato sauce. 
even if you have a time limit, maybe they will try to rush their pasta to be done in 15 minutes!
Hereâs what I would suggest⌠(Not that you asked for my opinion, LOL). I would raise your price per night, (since you say you are often heavily booked) and remove the kitchen from your amenities. Put a kettle and a few dishes in their room so they can have tea or instant noodles. You may get a better quality guest who will stay longer, and not cook⌠I donât know. Itâs just an idea. It seems to me like possibly they are getting in your way too much, and you risk getting more crazy cooking guests, especially since you are on IB.
Just as an idea!!
Thanks, Kona, any time advice is welcomed:). I am already raising prices very carefully. Last week I didnt have a single booking from any site even with my 55$ rate, only my returning guest stayed for a week. If it was not for him, the house would be empty. Competition here is very high. I getpissed at prices other people put as they bring the whole Airbnb prices down. Some people go as low as 35-40$ per night in a perfectly nice houses.
I am still trying to understand whatâs happening with the market and how to navigate it.
As you can see I am taking my hospitality business very seriously:). I am so into it.
See, my rooms are small, under 200 sq.feet. One has king size bed, another just got a new queen set, as my guests were complaining about full size.
Really there is not much room at all to put all the kitchen things. Also, we have a lot of ants. I am surprised that I get all 100% 5* for cleanliness, as I do see my ants often. We spray them non stop, my husband treats cracks on a constant basis, but still itâs South Florida.
Every crumb is being attacked by them. Every sugary not finished drink get crowds of ants.
Thatâs why my house so clean that I clean non stop and on a daily basis.
If guests make food in their rooms I will never get rid of insects and I am sure I will have more of them.,
Oh please humor me. Where were the people from Denmark coming from to be only staying one night at your place? I am just wondering why she said they had so much food with them. I donât understand why they would purchase a bunch of food to cook all night unless they purchased storage containers to take it all with them to the next Airbnb. Like if they planned to freeze all the sauce into ziploc bags and take with them the next morning.
I donât know how people in Denmark make tomato sauce but I use garlic, italian seasoning, oninion, olive oil, etc. so if they were only cooking for one meal then they wouldnât be saving money. And what does she mean by they want to cook rice to save money? I donât know anyone who eats just plain rice. Surely they were going to add some sort of vegetables or meat to the rice. Unless they just eat rice with sauce.
Did this girl actually arrive at your place when you cancelled?
Exactly my thoughts. I donât know what their plans were where to go after me but nothing survives here n this heat for more than couple hours. And they didnt even have a car!. So, no coolers, nothing. I also have a suspicion that they were planning on asking me to stay longer to not pay Airbnb fees. She mentioned few times how they are trying to save as much as possible.
Considering that they came from Denmark with their crazy high prices, everything should be dirt cheap here in US.
I am sure she didnt have all the ingredients with her. I am sure my oil, spices, and other " missing " produce would be used . They donât have a car, so they canât even go the store to get missing items.,so either I would have to drive them or give them whatever I have.
No, she didnt get to the house. I never saw her. But she was already on a train to et to my house. It takes 30 min. from Miami to get here. For 20 min., she was trying to convince me to let them in with cooking. I told her there are 8 very inexpensive restaurants 2 minutes walk from us. There is Tijuana flat here where on Tuesday you can get a whole meal for 5$. And Chinese takeout, Irish pub with happy hours prices of everything half off.
I was trying to get her situated but give up on cooking idea with showing her how cheap she can have dinner here for 2 of them, without going through hassle of cooking.,
I even said, that it makes no sense for me why they would stay one night and buy all these produce that probably were much more than 10$ instead of eating out.
She would not be defieted in her desire to cook:).
Imagine, the girl made all this trip on a train without a car, and instead of just agreeing with my rules , she rather had her booking cancelled and had to make her way to another Airbnb destination with all these grosseries in her hands. Unbelievable!
I know- such a shame that this girl had to then try to find another Airbnb, unless Air was trying to find her another one. So she probably then had to purchase another train ticket? How do they arrive from the train station to your house with no car? Do you pick them up?
It sounds like you definintely dodged a bullet with them. To keep repeating that she wants to save as much as possible - she may have tried to swiped anything from your house. Who knowsâŚmaybe they packed up cans of tomato sauce and other seasonings, etc. from the place they left. Because your rightâŚit doesnât make any sense to say you have all these groceries and you donât even have a car.
Since you use Air to travel - does the house rules appear on the confirmation?
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Good question, I donât remember, or never paid attention. I always read all house rules before booking without exclusion.
I donât know how people donât. Itâs not only to know the rules for a guest but also to judge hostâs character. I read oneâs lady description of house rules and figured she was a total nut case. She actually wanted a highly spiritual person in her home as she can feel negative energy. Hehe. How am I supposed to determine what energy I have to please her??
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I pick people up from Tri rail station as a favor. Itâs a good 15 min walk. It would not be bad if it was not so hot and humid. I pick people up even in early mornings as they arrive from airport. Itâs only 2 min.drive.
But what if I didnt offer that, because I did only after they already booked me on IB. They would walk on this heat with all the produce and hand full of grocery bags?
Make zero sence to me. But I am glad all was resolved
This is absolutely astounding guest behavior and just takes the cake! Itâs so weird and bizarre, I wonder if she was up to something else???
Unreal!!!
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Why is kitchen a selling point? I have an American friend who emmigrated to New Zealand and now works at a university in China. She has to go to Germany for medical treatment and she is vegan. She told me she was looking for an airbnb in Hamburg where she could cook. She did make it clear to the host in advance what she wanted and the host agreed. The key here is communication, the problem isnât a kitchen or folks taking over a house, itâs communication. BTW, my friend ended up not booking via airbnb because she couldnât verify her identity using airbnbâs parameters. Sheâs on the freaking staff of a university but they want her to have a facebook account.
I agree, thatâs the thing: I communicate to guests my kitchen rules but they donât read. Itâs all about communication. I do my part of the deal, I state my rules in writing but it doesnât reach itâs destination.
And I can repeat again, why it is a selling point? The selling point can be anything: central Location, price, size of the room, other amenities . Kitchen can be a selling point if the whole house is rented but not when you only rent a room.
I can only imagine my mom and another woman using her kitchen. There would be a mini civil war on that kitchen within a day.
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Ha ha! I donât cook much but I donât really like a lot of people in my space. My description does say I have everything you need if you want to cook. Maybe I should remove that. LOL.
Hey 78704MCM
Horrible youre having this problem.
To stop this happening again, you should state it in your rules.
I state in my house rules â please do not bring anyone back to my home who are not part of the bookingâ.
Hotelâs dont allow a pile of visitors so why should you. They sound so dis-respectful and are taken liberties. Hope you can nip it in the bud! Goodluck.
Yana, You nailed it with those words right there.