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What is the average number of House Rules you have listed?
We have 5, as follows, and the last two sets of guests have expressed that we have “so many rules!”
We do not charge a cleaning fee and, in return, ask that guests keep the cabin swept and tidy and do their own dishes.
No dirty/sandy shoes in the cabin.
The owner’s home is for their exclusive use and is not a reception area.
While we are happy to provide suggestions, guests must ensure they have arranged transport to and from our property that corresponds with flight times, transfers, etc.
Lastly, late check out is at $10 per hour for a maximum of 2 hours (until 2pm).
What do you mean by reception area? If that is a portion of your property that is off limits, just make sure guests know that. I don’t think this needs to be a rule.
Since you are having the issue, one I don’t see on your list is:
–absolutely no smoking inside or out. If you simply must, you may walk up to the street. Please dispose of your ashes and butts responsibly. No open flames such as candles allowed on property.
Also missing is
–Only your registered and approved guests allowed on property.
I don’t think your rules are excessive. If anything they are a little light!
Thanks, Kona! We are on a massive property, and our stand-alone rental is right beside our house. Guest are constantly walking up the stairs of the house and onto my deck. One even walked directly through the house and into the kitchen while I was washing dishes and scared the heck out of me. We’re in Central America, so our adjacent house always has the windows and doors flung right open.
We didn’t originally have “owner’s house is not a reception area” as a house rule but I’m about ready to throttle someone. Like, “stay out of my house, dude!”
Light on house rules… good to know. We have the online Guest Manual that lays out further details, but no one read it.
On the flip side, we have a neighbour, also on Airbnb, and when I click on her house rules… I get scared. I don’t want to over-do it.
One of our two new guests has an old iPhone and it isn’t picking up our awesome Wifi. He asked if he could sit on our deck to use his phone and I said yes. An hour later he was still there (our dining table is where he parked himself and I needed to eat).
After they left to go to a restaurant, I put a massive board at the bottom of the steps to block entrance. I hate being passive aggressive like that but they are here for 5 nights and I don’t want his body in my house whenever he wants to access the internet!. Sigh…
How did your guests express that you have so many rules?? Did they walk up to you and say “you have too many rules for us to follow”? Why did they book your place if they thought there were too many rules?
It’s up to each host to decide if they want no rules, or if they want 200 rules. If the guest doesn’t like it, then don’t book the property.
Our home is next to your rental. However our deck is not accessible to guests.
You may have created confusion by inviting the guest once on the lanai to access his wifi. If the wifi isn’t strong in their cabin, consider putting up a signal enhancer so that walking onto your lanai won’t be necessary. Never invite a guest into an area of your home that you will later have to kick them out of. That will not come across well.
Rather than reducing the count I would try editing down the narrative. Although I agree with @konacoconutz about the reception area. There are pre-arrival rules and on-premise rules.
Yes as Cabinhost points out… sometimes guests ask things in person to put you on the spot. I guess in the future you can have an answer ready. Oh sorry, our access up here isn’t any better than down there. Maybe if you walk up the road a bit?
Yes, I had one of those “slap the forehead because whey didn’t I think about this before?” moments.
The router is in the office at the side of the house and much closer to the cabin than the deck. I set up a couple of chairs for them with comfy cushions on them on the side of the house. I cannot see them, they cannot see me. Problem solved.
A lesson for me in making things more complicated than they need to be.
Yes… it’s always such a revelation when the easy fixes were so so easy we fail to see them.
I once had a problem with guests leaving outdoor lights on… these would shine into my bedroom. NOTHING and I mean nothing helped to remind the guests to turn them off at night. I would toss and turn at my own guest lights shining into my bedroom and become resentful… I tried texting, putting it the house notes and then finally the house rules. And still no change.
finally I hit on the perfect solution! Simply unscrew the light from the outdoor fixture. Problem solved and new guests never missed that there was a light out there. They still leave the front one on all night but it’s a low watt orange curly that shines the other direction so no biggie.
When something becomes an issue again and again, it’s incumbent on US to find the solution for them.
Our house is close to your cabin, but our home and deck is private property and not for guest access. We kindly ask that you respect our family’s privacy. We will do the same for you.
(Now I might be too harsh myself… but people tend to take liberties when we are not blunt.)
I think that wording is extremely courteous. I’ll leave it as is for now and mull over all of these great suggestions.
I also have to consider that our listing is in a Spanish-speaking country and nationals also book our cabin. I want to ensure any language is “culturally appropriate” to the lovely people whose country we and guests are enjoying.
