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RiverRock, then in this respect, YOU are treating them, allowing them, to behave like irrisponsible children by not expecting them to read, comply, be considerate…RULES are part of life, in work, in play, in personal relationships. Boundries are part of life, with kids, animals, and adults. There is no reason one should NOT expect it, require it when needed. RESPECT is also expected in society. And it should be. I respect someone’s space, their privacy, their property, and their goals, it’s part of MY self respect…and when they book my property, I deliver a personal, clean, attractive property and in return, I expect that what I’ve provided is respected with common courtesy. The ‘whatever’ they do attitude is why some do NOT respect. They don’t have to. They ‘get’ that some do not hold them to common decency…and there are no repurcusions fro their misbehavior.
I have rules, they are not ‘controlling’, they cover how to manage things in my unique place, they cover energy efficiency directions, (would it make you feel better if we called these things ‘directions’ instead of rules?) and they cover being ‘respectful’ of my property by tidying up a bit upon leaving. If they can’t take the time to read these ‘directions’ OR listen to me as I repeat them in person, then they need to go to Motel 6. And if they don’t respect my property (and leaving a place messy, dirty, or otherwise totally unlike it was when they arrived IS showing they have no respect for you or your property…kind of like grafitti in my book) I WILL ding them in as civilized a way as possible (with the wonderful help from those on this forum)…Perhaps this lack of holding people to considerate behavior is one reason there is an epidemic of inconsiderate and disrespectful behavior culture wide…
Fair enough. Many hosts have common sense rules (because some guests lack any and Air won’t support you if it isn’t spelled out). My point is that you should be prepared to follow a host’s house rules.
The one I get some push back on is having a first and last name along with contact info (phone or e-mail) for each person in the group. The city requires it.
If you booked without reading the house rules and then got upset that it’s “none of my business” who is coming you can decide between cancelling (without refund) and following the house rule.
The rest are indeed easy: keep gates shut, smoke outside, do a few things at checkout.
Yep. The ones who are going to read it don’t need to be asked and the ones you asked to read it won’t do it anyway. Rules can’t fix the problem which is inconsiderate, disrespectful people. Now I do put certain rules that go beyond ‘common sense’ such as a reminder not to flush wipes or anything besides toilet paper. I wouldn’t consider that a thing that falls under the considerate/respectful category.
I get this too, I am required to get a copy of ID for the booking guests, it’s in my rules but still I get some pushback, well I already gave it to air…
All this back and forth about respect, common courtesy, rules, hospitality…Sad that it’s not simple. Every guest should be able to find a place that suits them. Every host should have the right to set whatever boundaries they need.
I’m also a guest who won’t book a place with too many rules and I look for a place that has animals yet many hosts here are quite adamant about their rules or attitudes about pets. It doesn’t matter if one host thinks another host’s policies are bonkers. All that matters is that the host can get all the bookings they want with guests who are a decent match. I figure if a host is overly demanding or overly lax they are willing to put up with the baggage that comes with those situations.
@Allison_H. Bravo! What she said!!! However, from reading this forum for several years I think many hosts tend to go overboard trying to anticipate everything that could go wrong and end up with so many rules that guests roll their eyes and can’t be bothered. I remember a host who used to post here saying she sent a 30+ page PDF to every guest who booked. I admit I would absolutely not read something like that if I received it and would probably use my 48 hour free cancellation.
I was just thinking about reading the rules and guidelines as I was trying to troubleshoot something. There’s probably a troubleshooting guide in the paperwork that came with the device but it’s just easier to say “ok, google, how do I …?”
It’s just easier for a guest to message the host a question than read a guest guide to find it and a large number of guests are going to do just that.
This is turning out to be a really interesting discussion and I appreciate the different viewpoints and as always, learn from them.
I’m quoting KKC above because I was thinking we might be able to see a difference between rules and policies. Our policy of only accepting children who are competent swimmers is absolute useless as a house rule, because once guests have arrived with their 2-year-old non-swimming triplets it’s too late to impose it … there’s nothing for it but cancellation and please find them another place, ABB.
Similarly, having to record the official ID for every adult guest, as many of us have mentioned here, is a Policy rather than a House Rule. I don’t personally give a damn whether I have your passport number, but get huffy and refuse to give it me (it’s a Free Country, innit?) and sorry, but you’re not staying here … or indeed anywhere else in Spain!
So this type of “rule” or Policy, is one that has to be made absolutely clear BEFORE the guests arrive, but to me, the other types of rule are things that I would personally prefer if guests do/don’t do, so I’d call them preferences rather than rules and as such I don’t enforce them (apart obviously from the Essentials regarding feral cat non-feeding and pool skimming …) And the funny thing is that I’d say over 95% of guests obey these completely unwritten and unspoken rules: they don’t leave dirty dishes, they tidy up before they leave, they turn off the aircon … so I think it’s a moot point whether having House Rules influences guests’ behaviour, or whether they would just have behaved like reasonably civillised people anyway …!
@stacb Stacey, you might be a new host and I think you are being overly strict and perhaps a bit petty. I agree with @dpfromva 's comments; I think you are being a bit anal about your expectations and overthinking the review. I would not criticize or take away stars for the described behavior.
Why bother then? As a guest you won’t read them you say, so why bother as a host, especially if you don’t expect them to actually be read anyways? Seems an odd thing from my POV.
I would hope so for your Host’s sake! But pretty poor guest attitude I would think to not even care enough to check (skim at least) and then not very honest to sign off that you had read and agreed to them when you knew you hadn’t had never had any intention to…
There are always guests who do read them and even want and appreciate them. I don’t know that I agree with RR choice of “cannot expect them to” read them. I do expect guests to read them in a manner of speaking. I expect people to act in socially acceptable ways more often than not and they do, more often than not. But when someone disappoints me, I don’t lose my $h!t over it. People are so disturbed by some rather minor things and not only post on a forum about it but will go on and on justifying their position. It seems that accepting that some people aren’t going to read your guidelines and aren’t going to do what you want goes with the territory. It’s not Airbnb, it’s everywhere.
It has previously been explained as “it’s my personal home.” You see there is a lot of host ego (in the Buddhist sense) wrapped up in the home. If someone disrespects the home it’s tantamount to disrespecting the person. Like you, I don’t have that kind of attachment (Buddhist) to my things but I understand those who do. Again I’m going to credit my career where I had to deal with loads of “disrespect” from adults and kids. I’ve decided that most people just care about themselves. So a guest is thinking to themselves, “this host disrespected me by having all these rules and demands and threats and fines and…”
