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Recently a mother booked my room for her son and his girlfriend as she could not come to pick them up from somewhere. However, possibly one of the strangest guests I ever hosted. The girl was vocal and demanding. She took shower after checking and the boy went for shower. While he was in shower the girl (from her room door) called me and asked me to handover the towel to him (saying no worries, he is not naked!). She also told me that I do not keep a good hair conditioner in the bathroom (didn’t want to argue with her, but I said i offer what I can - trust me it was not a bad brand - LOL).
I noticed them going outside to my driveway & backayrd every 20-30 min for smoking. Next strange thing she asked my husband was "can you call the white guy - he is outside smoking!).
She asked for my iphone charger and when I gave it to her she said the hair dryer was noisy !
However, She left early morning (the boy stayed till 12 PM - until his mom came to pick up). After he checked out I noticed:
-my iphone charger was missing (or she didn’t bother to return)
my front and backyard was full of cigarette butts
1 pair of room slippers that I kept in guest room was missing
So I wrote to the mother (who booked originally) and explain what she did. The mother replied and requested not to write any review for them as she is a host too!
although the booker was not the guest, I would explain the situation and say the son was better suited to a hotel. No details.
And buy an ashtray for the garden.
We are not The Order of the Phoenix or even The Freemasons, we don’t pledge to lie to outsiders for each other. Besides which another host may say “please review honestly, I am host too”.
I would ask the mother to get her to send the iphone charge back within 7 days or you will mention it in the review". Make it mom’s problem, not yours.
@samh - I’ve just read your other post and it seems to me that you’re not really managing your guests’ expectations at all but just agreeing with every request from guests no matter how many rules they break. (And I’m including rules of generally being a civilised human being).
How come you’re letting guests get away with things that are against Airbnb’s rulings such as third party bookings? Or letting guests sneak extra people in? Or letting them have your iPhone charger? I don’t understand why you’re letting guests walk all over you like this.
I do not generally book third party. Since it was a mother and son, i gave them a benefit of doubt. I started bnb last October and hosted over 80 guests so far. I have amazing guests stayed at my place which I do not mention in forum. I only post when I face some problem with guests. If that is wrong perhaps I should not post anything at all. 4-5 guests out of 80 guests can be notorious. I just thought of sharing my experience. However, if a guest forget to bring her charger I do not think anything was wrong in letting her use my charger…wrong was what she did…by taking it with her. About guest having guest, my houserule says they can have guest till 10 PM. I only realized next morning coz I went to bed at 10PM.
Don’t do third party bookings! It only takes 5 minutes for someone to set up a profile then they are accountable. If you must accept a third party booking, let me booker know they are fully responsible for the guests’ behaviour. Write an honest review! Other hosts need to know.
It’s not wrong it just makes it seem like you have nothing but problems. Many members are as you are, we only hear from them when there’s a problem. 4-5 out of 80 seems like a lot to me given I’ve had 4-5 out of 500.
As has been mentioned you should probably change your strategies if you want different results. If you just want to continue as you are and “share” your problems, carry on.
Back when I was a landlord, 3rd party bookings from mothers were by far the worst. They’re shopping for an adult child. That says it all. Then they take out differences of opinion on you. Now you are serving two clients instead of one.
Thanks, but nobody is too busy to look for a place to stay. And I don’t rent to children.
I had one of those. I told her her son needed to set up an account and book it himself. She said he wouldn’t know how to.
I thought about saying I’m not set up for Special Needs adults, but didn’t say it. He didn’t book. Probably never wanted to, just mom running amok.
Heck yeah. Me too. I even had a guy try to book for his wife once (he wasn’t coming with her), and I told him no, she would need to get her own account and book if she was the only one staying. Safety, insurance reasons, blah blah I told him. He was very understanding and said he would have her book. I never saw her because by the time she had set her account up someone else booked the room. Oh well!
I’ve had guests/tenants that would have been perfect fits. The dude is in his twenties, and delighted. Then Mom becomes condescending, likely because SHE makes the decision, not him. One actually got into a debate with me on … insulation! Fortunately we’d just been upgraded to R50…wonder if she still wipes his botty…
Read your Airbnb terms of service. You should never allow third party bookings. Airbnb’s insurance only covers you for actual booked guests. So if her “son and his girlfriend” burned your house down, Airbnb would not cover you for that because you allowed someone else other than the person who booked it into your Airbnb. How are you to know that he was actually her son anyways? All kinds of people/companies try and book their problem friends, employees, etc. Just chalk this one up to lesson learned. You got lucky this time
I don’t think I’ve had 4-5 bad guests in my entire life!
I agree, then disagree. I’ve let guests borrow lots of stuff and never lost any of these things. I think I’ve only ever lost a couple of towels and I’m pretty sure that’s due to an oversight when packing (I don’t understand why people would nick ordinary towels). So especially with a small item like a phone charger, it might not have been deliberate. If guests have borrowed items from me during their stay I ask them in the check out message to leave it/them on the dining table when they leave. It’s an extra nudge.
Write a review anyways, that’s completely unacceptable. I have had gas like that before as well, absolutely Dreadful, demanding, and entitle, and they stole.
I’ve done a couple of third party bookings but not no more.
My last ever one was a bit funny. Son booking for Mom. He had a great online reputation. Well she shows up and is mortified that we don’t allow cooking! then she is freezing cold. There’s an electric fireplace in the room, but noooo…
she decides to cocoon in her room all weekend. I cranked the house temperature up to 80f. No word from her.
well she comes down at one point and i notice her window open. So we decide to have a little chat.
Turns out that she doesn’t want to argue with me, so rather than confront me, she put up with a room that was way too hot. I said, we’ve both been so busy trying to be nice, and now look at us! we both ended up laughing and had a nice meal together.
I figured out later that her eyesight was going. That’s why she couldn’t read the posting or the little fireplace.
Yep if they’re not capable of booking they’re not capable of staying at an Airbnb. I see a divide between people who take self action e.g. put on a cardigan and those who blame others or their environment e.g. dictate the heating be turned up when it’s already at a reasonable level. The latter are impossible to ever please since the problem is with them.
If that mother hadn’t moaned about being cold in the first place the fire shenanigans would never have happened. Her sight disability should have been disclosed, it could have been dangerous. No to 3rd party bookings!
