But if you came across a door in a room you were renting, and it didn’t come open easily, you might look that door up and down to see why it wouldn’t budge, then your eyes will rest on that lock. Mine would anyway, and I would stop tugging. Not that I would have tugged to begin with. I limit my snooping to easily opened drawers and doors. 
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Nah, just put a piece of special turkish delight on the pillow and let things take their course…
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Yes but you’re a sharp-eyed Airbnb host and an eminently sensible person. The rest of us, meanwhile… !! Do you really think it’s snooping, though? I’ve only stayed a couple of times in a private room on Air. One was clearly the bedroom of the daughter that came over once a month. It was fine and I resisted the temptation to play with the doll’s house. I would never think about looking in drawers or anything there. The other one was similar, a bit strange to be honest but all fine. The other places were entire properties that the host didn’t live in so I gleefully looked through everything! I marked them down a few stars because they didn’t have a potato masher 
Outrageous.
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Bahahhahaha, I was only kidding. I only stay in hotels, I don’t much care for Airbnb–too many unknowns, too many rules and getting too damn expensive! And everyone knows there’s only the Gideon bible in the drawers of hotels so snooping is not very fun there.
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Ha ha! You must have stayed in at least a couple of Airbnb places though, surely? It’s the absolute best way to understand how it feels to be a guest. Also sleeping in your listing is imperative - I did that not long ago and realised… it’s not that bad!! I do need a slightly longer extension cord, though. And some blackout blinds. Apart from that, I give myself 4.5 stars.
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Never have! Although on our upcoming trip to Finland and Estonia, my friend booked two VRBO places. Those will be my first! Have not slept in my listing though since I upgraded the furnishings… Should do soon.
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I have my “moving” stories to tell. Once I had orthodox Jews who kept kosher and they brought t every thing with them.
My small appliances and kitchen utensils they hid all over the house. It took me hours to find everything
This time a group even took off paintings of the walls.
It took us 2 days to redecorate the house
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Have just booked our fourth Airbnb. All whole places. All have been cheaper than hotels in major cities. Also book hotels when needed overseas.
You are lucky that you now know who and what type of group will rearrange your things. You can warn them to be sure and replace everything before they leave.
With my neat-freak guest who moved around my “glued” things, they were on their 3rd stay. It was the first time she had moved things from one table to another and placed side tables and large items at a different angle. I figured she was getting tired of the same look. … 
The 4th time they wanted to stay (they always stayed a month to get out of the snow), I told them someone else wanted the same dates and would probably take it. I just didn’t want her back.
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I’ll admit I think I opened every door and drawer in my Costa Rica rental at some point during the stay. Some of it was snooping some of it was looking for things we needed. Like the night the power went out. We ate by cell phone light but since we need to preserve battery I had to search for candles. Another time in the kitchen there was something we needed in order to properly cook something.
As I finished cleaning the guest room for tonight’s guest and making the extra effort to get all the cat litter sucked up it occurred to me that they were looking for a broom to sweep up cat litter. I have now added a small handheld broom and dustpan from IKEA (RIP Ingvar Kamprad, founder, btw) under the sink. When I have cat people again (very rare) I will get it out and put it where it can be seen. I’ve asked in the private messaging on the review what it was that they needed. Very non-confrontational, very “what was missing that I need to add to the accessible part of the room to make your stay more comfortable attitude.”
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Hi, just my opinion but I would get rid of “knick knacks”, and only have books in the room that are useful for visitors (history of the city, hiking guides, bird guides, restaurant guides, etc…).
as one of the other members posited, perhaps they needed that shelf where the knick knacks and books were arranged. And then forgot how to put them back the same way?
A knife is moved. No big deal.
furniture moved a little. I’d send them a note and ask why. Perhaps theres a good reason.
arriving at 11:30 and knocking on door could be just thinking you wanted to know they’re there. Learn from it and let them know to please be quiet when they arrive and you dont need to wake us.
we try to assume there’s a good reason for things that bug us. we’ve learned from it.
cliff
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One major problem with people moving things is this: The next time someone asks “where can I find x__?” and you answer the place where you think it is, and the guests don’t find it there, that’s a problem, especially for remote hosts. I can’t expect my cleaners to remember where everything goes besides things I have specifically pointed out to them. And on top of that how would they know if I had decided to move it myself or one of the guests? People moving things is one of my top pet peeves, and yes, I do think it’s quite disrespectful. I also have the locations of several items in my guest guidebook. I have had people constantly move a space heater to an outlet that always blows the fuse, even though that is in my house rules as well.
Good point. Although it’s nice to make a place feel homely with a few things to make empty shelves, or whatever, look less bare, it’s asking for trouble to put anything in there that you care about. Every time I see threads like this I think I really must take out that little cat ornament that my mother gave me. Nobody has ever stolen it though, obviously. Although someone did use it once to prop open the window 
Yeah… no more tempting fate - I’m taking it out after next guest leaves!
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Thats funny. Another point, many people, including me, just don’t like “clutter”. My house reflects that, and certainly our AirBnB studio apartment is set up very nice, but simple. Would rather have lots of space to to place my travel gear when i check in.
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Agree completely. I try to tread the fine line between simple and spacious but not completely heartless and bare. I only have three small things on the five shelves, honestly! And some plants. And only a small selection of my porcelain ornament collection. (joking)
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really the issue is they went out of their way to move things mixing books up, moving things around in odd ways. It’s wasn’t simply cleared or put up. If it was a space thing I can see that but the decor is very clean and simple- it is not gaudy or all over decor. As for needing storage, There is an open dresser, open shelves and a fold down desk as a work space. There was plenty of storage space & workspace if needed. That plus they were literally for 12 hours is the issue. We’ve had guests stay 2+ weeks and I understand that they may need to arrange things to accommodate a longer term stay- but even then we haven’t had those guests go out of their way to disturb pretty much every piece of furniture/decor. The way things were placed and moved weren’t putting things away it was just mixing them up- it did feel like it was some type of game.
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HOUSERULES
Rule #523
Please return everything to it’s original, purposely allocated, place. Failure to do so will result in a deduction from the security deposit of $US 2,00 per badly placed item. We were so kind to outline all objects and furniture on walls, floors, ceilings, and in cupboards and wardrobes, to help you execute your task.
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How fun!! That is the coolest idea, @GutHend. Now I’m dying to know what Rules 1-522 are!
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It’s soooo hard to keep guests “in line” 
.
For the other 522 rules I will refer to my high expertise, master classes on my blog www.keeptheminline.com/blog/ so you can all benefit from my decades of experience with over 1000 guests a year: After this I can assure you, they will keep in line !
I’m also working on another blog www.keepyourBnBdoginline.com/blog/.
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You can feel free to give a thumbs down, guests are not informed of that. Also they do not read your review until they have left theirs. It was obvious you didn’t want to be disturbed, hence your self check in instructions, although maybe some people need that spelt out for them. Give them low stars for check in, communication (they didn’t listen to your instructions), and cleaning as you had to spend a long time putting things back. Bizarre they should move things around over one night, perhaps they were insomniac or drunk. There are plenty of good guests out there, we don’t need guests like that. Do us all a favour and give them a factual, professional but poor review.
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