It looks like your providing the mosquito info before check in may have worked against you. It may have given this guest something to use as leverage for a free stay. She probably doesn’t even have mosquito bites and is just basing off of your disclosure of there being mosquitoes. If you feel it’s important to disclose this, add it to your pre-booking message and description, they can’t book without agreeing to it, that way you’re covered when they later decide to complain.
Hard to say what Airbnb will offer her - but as someone who can’t stand bugs and has done battle with them - can I suggest a few things ?
First - if possible - plant citronella plants.
Second - we provide citronella candles - but the ones in a bucket. There’s just a lot less risk of a fire with them even if they forget to put them out.
Third - spring for some UV zappers. Big basic ones - just the element and the mesh . Some people don’t like the zapping sound ( I find it so gratifying) but have them placed in areas where guests can draw the mosquitos away from them. Let guests know they are optional.
I have a big one in my house and at night we put it in the living room to draw any bugs that have flown in during the day.
Fourth - if mosquitos are that serious - I’d install a hook for a mosquito net or an actual net - and guests can decide if they want them.
fifth - I’d keep complimentary bug sprays ( organic and regular deet )
Sixth - if you can - get your pest control to provide mosquito control service. I have it for my primary home .
Seventh - get screens on all the windows if you don’t.
Eight - get rid of all standing water around the property if feasible
I wish you luck - I do routine battle with mosquitos and flies in our area.
In your house rules - I’d put a paragraph around how mosquitos exist in the area. Mention that every attempt has been made to ensure their comfort - and you can list the options. But also add something to the effect that by booking you understand this natural issue for the area - and exposure to mosquitoes will not be considered for a credit / refund etc. in short - you’re renting in an area with bugs .
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We use In2Care traps. We’re located in a forest on a Caribbean island that gets lots of mosquitoes! Once I started using those traps, the mosquito population went down 95%.
The trap attracts the momma mosquito, who sticks her bum in the water to lay her eggs. There is a bacteria in the water that kills the larva, and it contaminates her bum so she contaminates the other water sources with the bacteria when she lays her eggs there.
I love it because it’s targeting mosquitoes and not other insects - and it works.
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Add to your list - mosquito rackets. This is by far the best one I’ve found:
The Executioner Fly Killer Mosquito Swatter Racket Wasp Bug Zapper Indoor Outdoor Over 50cm Long Amazon.com
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Excellent suggestions on wording the response.
Caveat on the bug zappers – I know I’ve seen an article about the ratio of beneficial or harmless insects to mosquitoes killed, and it’s not a great outcome.
Found it:
If that is accurate, maybe a zapper more qualifies as “pest theater” to impress the guests!
Nah - I clean up tons of dead mosquitos around ours - I’m a firm believer that they work
I should add - they kill more than mosquitos
I briefly had a zapper last year. It killed so many moths I couldn’t even tell how many mosquitos it got. And the mess was unpleasant. I ended up buying the mosquito curtains that I previously posted about here and giving the zapper to a friend.
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I tried the zappers too but won’t use them now. Enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony watching the sun go down is lovely but not if you have to endure the sounds and smells of a lizard being zapped…
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Works on a different principle, but I read about something similar as far as knocking out the mosquito population.
It was an article in the newspaper Science section about 20 years ago. Scientists were working in an area of Africa where dengue and malaria were rampant.
Only the breeding females are the bloodsuckers- what mosquitoes normally feed on is fermented fruit and flower nectar. So they hung some things like bird feeders around that contained this mixture of the fruit juice and a chemical to kill mosquitos.
Within a week, the mosquito population had been knocked back 90%.
However, the chemical they used was too expensive for locals to be able to afford, so they then tried it with simple boric acid in the juice and found it worked just as well.
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Some scientist or geek did a study and found that the bug splatter goes out up to 30 feet. That’s THIRTY feet of bug body bits splatting across the lanai. Nope. Nope. Nopeity Nope.
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The mosquitoes were legion and vicious here in SW Ontario, Canada, last summer. It was so bad that I added them to my dangerous animal list. Maybe that helped no one complain?
I was furious at them myself. I flicked one from the clean fitted sheet I had just put in place. Having just bit me, I guess, it exploded my blood in a little arc. Fortunately, very fresh blood is easy enough to rinse out on the spot, but, ugh, it’s bad enough dealing with guest blood, let alone host blood, too.
Little monsters.
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I’ve had the same thing happen here. But I was happier to have gotten it and have to change the sheet than missed and had clean sheets.
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The obvious answer is to eliminate mosquitoes before hitting the hay.
Make sure all the windows and screens are closed. Don’t go running in and out.
Raid to the rescue. It doesn’t take much.
The odd one might sneak in. Turn the lights off.
In the morning, things will be just as bad. That’s why I like Skin So Soft.
All you need do is warn people about mosquitoes, and leave spray and repellent there.
The space aliens are another issue.
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I share a concern about unwanted visitors at our AirBnb. We had some spray but the last renters stole it. What should I do?? (oh yeh…Grizzly Bears).
Don’t forget the ghosts…
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I charge an extra fee for those.
Tired of going through the resolution center, hoping they give us a way of adding it automatically in the future.
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Hot damn. Ghosts! A whistles new market!
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Update
I offered the comensation to the guest and she did not leave me a review. The perfect five stars in this listing are preserved.
I left her a scathing review at the last minute warning other hosts that the guest figured out imperfections in my listing and kept figuring out ways to ask for compensation.
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You’re too worried about the “perfect 5*,” but I’m happy you’re hapy.
Thanks for leaving the scathing review - how many stars did you leave her? Because that’s what fellow hosts check out - stars.
Love those scathing last minute reviews.
That’s what IB hosts check out. Non IB hosts don’t see guest star ratings, so they are useless for us- we rely on the written reviews. The star ratings and written reviews should jive.