I rent out a private room and bathroom in my house. I have a young couple in their early twenties living with me and they have left just about every light on, exhaust fans on and all windows open when it is -1 C outside and heating is on. They are out for the day. They did the same thing last night. Would you go in their room and close the windows/ shut off the lights? Their room is on a different floor but every time I pass it, it’s freezing. How would you put this in the review? They seem to be new Airbnb users as I don’t see any reviews on their account.
I’d give them a gentle reminder…some people just dont have common sense…it drives me crazy to. Worst I get, is people not locking door behind them!
Make sure you put it in house rules next time, then theyve no excuse.
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I rent a separate apartment as well and this is a constant issue. What’s wrong with people. I had some guests leave for one night and stay overnight somewhere and left every light and the fans and porchlights on… I thought about going in but decided against it.
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In my case it could be that they are still young to understand the consequences of wasting electricity like that. They probably don’t pay their own hyrdo bills. It’s the same kind of people who don’t know how to recycle or compost and throw everything in the garbage.
Apparently some people like the mix of A/C and warm air breezing through the room. Same goes for the heat and cold outside air in the winter.
We had a guest recently turn the heater to 100F and the. Leave the door open.
One winter had some Guests leave the AC on full heat. They didn’t understand about controlling the temperature using the AC thermostat, so they left external doors & windows open.
Even when they stayed O/N elsewhere…
We have a line in our house rules that if a Guest ‘accidentally forgets’ to turn appliances off while out, we reserve the right to enter & do so.
With medium-term Guests we agree in advance that they will pay for electricity used (we have an extra meter).
It’s remarkable how, when they think they will be paying for usage, they are very conservative & careful.
When they check-out, I hand them an ‘electricity bill’ - a blank piece of paper!
Dean
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Argh…I should have seen it coming. When the couple was checking out today - first off they were an hour late despite reminding them of the check out time. Then there was some smoke in their room and I found a cigarette pack - I don’t allow smoking on my property. Then during checkout the girl told me she stained the sheets because she was having periods. The mattress protector was also stained but thankfully not the mattress. I couldn’t get the stains off so now I have started a resolution centre case. I wish I knew how much trouble these guests were going to be. I am wondering how to put it in their review.
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I highly recommend NEST https://nest.com/thermostat/meet-nest-thermostat/?alt=3
if you have central AC/Heat. It senses when people have left the house and goes into Away Mode. I can also set limits and control remotely, which albeit a little big brother really helps conserve our electric bill.
I would be honest in your review, sounds like they are not the sort to leave a nice review for your anyways. And if you havent already got it in your house rules, state about the electricity, stains and damages etc. My rules are a page long now which I feel bad about but I have had to cover so many unexpected inconsiderate behaviours e.g. not to use white linens to remove your make-up, not to leave any lights, fans or heating on unnecessarily, wash you won dishes and tidy up in the kitchen after use, please don’t eat the food out of my fridge (they have their own should be fairly obvious), dont leave hairs and water all over bathroom, lock all doors and windows when not under your direct supervision or you are out (this one I note will result in immediate cancellation of your booking - I live in the inner city and Im simply not covered on my insurance for this kind of negligence). Ive also just designed a check-in sheet today so it again reminds people about house rules, the main guests has to sign it, advise departure time and provide id. I have had some recent thefts from guests, unfortunately expensive stuff from the depths of my sons cupboard so not identified until a few guests later so I couldn’t track it. If it happens again, I’ll be reporting it to the police so now need to cover myself legally as I understand Airbnb is not very co-operative with police and providing peoples details. I smoke but outside and I would be disgusted if someone smoked in my house, this must go in your review, appalling behaviour and thats from a smoker.
I go in. This is one of the things i can not stand. My guest went to sleep and left his bathroom light on. I went in and turned it off. Not only that i told him in a morning: i turned off light in a bathroom last night, hope you did not leave it on for a pruprose, hehe. He said, o, no, i did not even realized it.
I go in when i hear ceiling fan when there is noone there. I tell every guest upon check in about open windows and doors after i had few incidents when they opened window in a bathroom during summer in a 100F with AC running.
I would recommend avoiding the temptation to write a long list of rules in reaction to every inappropriate thing a guest does.
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That’s ridiculous!
Boke also at the stains:mask:
Boy have I done this one! Editing my rules to be only the big stuff as we speak. Figuring what are the chances of TWO SETS OF GUESTS putting briquettes in a gas BBQ and lighting it!!!
I say this in the most non judgmental way possible but … it almost sounds like AirBnB is not a fit for you…
How is that non judgemental? I work like a slave in my real job helping the most disadvantaged in society during the day and go out of my way for my Airbnb guests thus ALL of my reviews have been 5 star. I literally don’t expect guests to go through my sons wardrobe and steal his $500 speaker I bought him for xmas while he was away so I could arrange my dads funeral. Paying for it is the reason I started doing Airbnb so yeah not very nice at all. Why shouldn’t I report thieves to the police???
When I rent the entire house I have a paper full of instructions regarding a/c, dishwasher etc.
At the end I have this disclaimer;
Please use power sparingly; energy costs in Italy are quite high, power bills going over 50 euro per week get taken from security deposit
Of course I would never do it, but it helps them to stay mindful.
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You seemed to have misunderstood me. I meant no disrespect. I’m not saying you should not have called the cops. What I meant was you, as a host, through no fault of your own, and by being trusting, still seem to have a ton of problems with guests, and so with the theft and all the rest…I’m just asking, is doing Airbnb really worth all the aggravation?
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Absolutely. The more you put in your rules, the less they read. I had a one-pager of info about my property and realised that guest after guest did not know things that they’d supposedly read and agreed to. I replaced it with a half-page bullet point list and I now get much better behaviour.
I’ve had this exact issue! Family stayed in February, and left all the windows open and the heat (furnace and space heater) on full blast. I charged their security deposit $50 for additional electricity and gas usage, and airbnb backed me up!
You may also check and see that they aren’t smoking in the room. Maybe they are trying g to get rid of smoke odor and that is why they are leaving the windows open. Just a thought.
You may be able to install a smoke detector in the room that alerts just for cigarette smoke. If I had had a working one in my room when the guests lit the mosquito coil inside I could have maybe have prevented and alleviated the damage. If I hear their smoke detector going off downstairs I always run down to check things out!
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