Guests hanging around the house during daytime

I have been hosting for five months. We let our guest room through Airbnb. Our general expericence is positive.
We are, however, starting to notice a pattern. Most of our guests are active. They leave reasonably early and
come home reasonably late. Some guests behave a bit strangely. Instead of spending time in the city they tend to stay at home during daytime. They aren’t causing any major trouble but we still find this behaviour a bit annoying.

Would there be any clever way to handle this? To set strict rules about staying out of the house would be a bit rude but maybe there is some other way?

The only idea I have come up with so far is to block certain weekends. If people want to sit in the room while I am at work is not really a problem.

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If you find a way, let me know! One thing other hosts do is ask “what do you plan to do here in my town” or some such.

We had guests arrive early Saturday. They got showered and spiffed up, and went out for awhile. Came back with some food, sat around in (their) kitchen chatting, and stayed in all night. Then they left about 1:30 am. and returned about 4 am. Not my normal guest.

Mostly I wanted to know - where do people go at 1:30 a.m.? Or, maybe I don’t want to know… I almost asked them at breakfast but didn’t.

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Night clubs

Do you have 24 hour diners there?

Clubs, gambling…

We already had inquires here about it, and some hosts actually do just that: they tell guests that they need to be out and about. I personally cant imagine telling people how many hours they can spend in and out.

In a beginning of my hosting i was bothered by that too. I would not want to make anything on a kitchen when i had guests. But little by little i got used to the idea that i have people here all the time, and i dont restrict myself anymore on what to do around the house.
I have my small tricks though. When i see that i am stopped frequently by a certain guest during me doing something and having endless conversations with me, i pretend i talk on a phone. May be it sounds silly, but i had one girl who was following me around all day and talk non stop with me about her life. I listen to her once, twice but then it got boring and repetetive. So, i would go on a kitchen or living room with a phone, and she stopped bothering me.

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Are these longer stays? I notice this happens with 3 or more day stays.

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The guests staying at home during daytime have not been staying any longer than others. We typically have guests staying 3-4 days. I live in a suburb so clubbing locally wouldn’t be much of an option. Supposedly more central locations could attract visitors with other interests than daytime tourism.

I could imagine staying hanging around the house during my holidays, when staying in another country. In this case I would prefer having a full home with balcony or garden. I have been using Home exchange to find such options. It has worked out very well. My Airbnb guests do however sit in our small guest room during daytime. That does not make much sense to me.

I’ve had that, to be honest it doesn’t really bother me. It’s a homestay at my place and vacations need a bit of down time. I’m very much a people person though, and I spend a great deal of time establishing a rapport with my guests. Now that being said, I’ve had personal friends here who I couldn’t stand having here but because they stay and don’t pay me, cleaning up after them seems upsetting? Annoying? I don’t know, but it seems like my guests, even if they hang around are much more considerate.

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I stayed in a rental recently and spent the entire three days reading - this was a complete luxury for me because it’s not something I find time to do in my day-to-day life. There are so many reasons why people might want to get away from their everyday existence.

Mind you, with our rental, if guests stay in all day, I worry that they are not enjoying the fabulous things the area has to offer. If they are out all day, I worry that they are not enjoying the apartment. They just can’t win :wink:

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Yes,this is the worst aspect of hosting for me. Even after nearly 4 years of doing it I still find myself cursing when guests hang around the house. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about it. They paid for the room so unless you want to be a dragon guesthouse landlady from the '50s and throw everyone out in the morning, you just have to suck it up. I do make clear, though, that communal areas have limited access during the day and have no shame in chasing people out of the dining room with a smile, vacuum cleaner in hand. A recent guest’s ears must have been burning, though, with me muttering ‘FFS, you travel half way round the world to one of the most spectacular cities in Europe and you want to spend the day hanging around in my house? What the hell is WRONG with you??’

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I have in my description, not that people read the descriptions that my home is not a luxurious getaway, best for guests who plan on being out exploring nature, yet want to come home to a comfortable, safe, quiet sanctuary.
I still get guests however, when I come home from the beach or some hike or a paddle around the lake…they are sitting looking in the living room looking at their electronics at 330pm on a beautiful sunny day.
I’ve gotten quite brazen and actually do say to them…you do realize you are in a beautiful part of the world right? And the sun is shining and there are hidden beaches and waterfalls and lakes and rivers and paths that are surrounded by really old trees so when you are walking it’s so quiet and it’s like the rest of the world doesn’t exist?
I also remind them they can spend their whole ‘down time’ at home looking at their electronics.
Last guest that I found in the living room on a sunny Saturday…I gave them a task…asked them to take my map and printed directions, and find the best place to take a nature pic so I could use it on biz cards.
They did it. Came back and they thanked me.

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hahaha, next time give them your shopping list, a map to all the stores and a challenge to get you the best prices for your groceries!

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My very first guests were the only ones who laid about all day, at least that I noticed. They were here apartment hunting for three weeks, and found an apartment the second day, so they just laid around in their undies with the heater on high while they waited for move-in day to arrive.

I quickly learned. I limited the time guests could stay to discourage those looking for temporary housing. I started declining guests who were locals. I also added to the house rules that guests weren’t allowed outside their mother-in-law apartment and couldn’t access the rest of the house. I added a door to separate their space from mine. Now, guests may lay about, but if they do, I don’t have to see them!

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I just have a new guest who wants to stay for awhile. He is not exactly house hunting but local, and out of relationship. He works 2 jobs which is a good thing. I would rather have someone not local, so i told him lets do week by week and see how it goes.

My first guest stayed 4 days and neither my hubby or children saw him. He just went to the loo and chatted with me briefly. He said he was coming to meet up with friends etc but sure it takes all sorts to make the world.
I did see a review from an older lady in Dublin, the guest said she told me to get out every day from under her feet, and don’t come back tea time. I think he thought he could use all her rooms and chill and she wanted a guest who was out and about all day.

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I don’t know Yana, this guy sounds like he could be trouble even though I know you can handle it, but who need drama. I just got a request from a local girl who has stayed here twice with family members asking kind of a veiled request for a long term rental of a room or apt in my area as her lease is up in February. She wasn’t direct but I got a feeling she wanted me to say she could rent long term. She was an ok guest, did not leave a review and kind of acted like I was her mother figure! I wouldn’t have her back as an Airbnb guest, no less as a roommate child! I won’t go into detail but she exhibited some odd behavior on her second visit. AND, we are not convenient to her work location. So I put her in touch with a local realtor.

I contacted the city tourism office a couple weeks ago asking for leaflets of things to do here and they got me in contact with someone who provides them for FREE! They sent their personal delivery man to my house on Monday. Was quite a nice selection. They gave me a big box with hundreds of a bunch of different ones.

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They went out clubbing! :slight_smile:

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Try you library as well - my local one - has LOADS of local leaflets and bus timetables too.

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Lol, makes me homesick to hear that get out from under my feet!