House rules - recommendations to prevent headaches

1

Hi, I have been a host for 2 years+ and hosted over 1000 guests.
I have had my fair share of bad experiences (and great ones) and at the end came up with those house rules. I am based in Europe and every time I had an issue with a guest, Airbnb always takes the side of the guest and I never got refunded for what guests broke. A lot of decisions are taken unilaterlly as well by Airbnb so I decided to make my own rules people have to approve before booking (almost 100pc of my guests do instant bookings). Any view on those? Things I might add to avoid big headaches for small issues dealing with guests complaints and Airbnb?
I notice that nobody reads the house rules before booking and it has no real impact on my booking rate but at least i am on the safe side !
Thanks for your feedback and-or recommendations
PS: i live in a ski resort

House rules

Home best suited for guests between 18 to 45 years (no elevator).
Not suitable for disabled/handicapped.
Shared apartment with other travellers (not a rental of the whole apartment)
No pets.
No access to washing machine and dryer.
No breakfast provided.
No smoking.
No shoes inside.
Check in from 17.00 to 22.00.
Read the house manual upon check in.
Apartment located on first floor.
In order to protect my listing and its content, there might be or there is a surveillance system installed in and around the common areas of the building and at my listing.
All sports activities at your own risk. I decline any responsibility in case of an accident or injury in my house, outside of my home and during your stay.
No subletting of the flat under any circumstance.
Only people who have officially booked the housing are allowed at my listing: no external guests allowed in any circumstances.
Be quiet and respectful of neighbours all the time.
No ski/snowboard boots in the flat.
No parties.
Common sense, courtesy, politeness and respect are expected during your stay. Please keep it quiet between 23.00 and 8.00.
For any complaint, a formal message should be sent to me via Airbnb at the latest 12 hours after official check out time. Any type of complaint should without exception be documented by a report established by a third party such as a doctor (in case of any type of health issue for exemple) , the police (in case of damage, theft etc…) or any relevant third party. It must be documented with pictures and sent in English at the latest 12 hours after official check out time. Late check out might be charged 150 CHF per 24h if not notified 24h in advance. I decline any responsibility in case of theft or any kind of damages. I retain the right to refuse a guest to stay at my listing if I believe that the guest is under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, behaves in a threatening, disturbing or otherwise unacceptable manner.
I retain the right to ask a guest to leave should the guest disturb the peace, or annoy or insult any guests, or behave in any other way deemed unacceptable by myself
For all above mentionned cases, the guest will have to cancel the booking and no penalty will apply to me.
I am in no way responsible for the loss of or damage of the guests properties and valuables.
Guests are not permitted to enter areas of the building which are indicated as closed for non residents. I am not responsible for death, injuries or illness, or loss of or damage to property of guests that may occur while in non-permitted areas.
Guests will be held responsible for any loss, damage or property or injury that they directly cause.

2

I would separate the above into two separate lists: general information and actual ‘rules’ pertaining to expected behavior to make it all more readable. Perhaps even three, since you do mentioned liability also. I would also add the smoothing words such as ‘Please’, to make the rules more palatable and come across less harsh sounding.

3

Agree. Consider putting everything after the ‘be courteous’ line into a separate section called “the fine print.” I get why you have it all there based on past experiences (and it’s sad we have to do much to protect ourselves), but all of this in your main rule section could make you appear super uptight and drive away a lot of perfectly good guests.

2 Likes
4

thx for your feedback. seems like a good idea!

5

If I saw this list of rules, I would move on!
You can reword them so they don’t start with NO.
At a glance it looks like NO NO NO NO
Kind of a turn off?

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6

Jack, glad to see you back! Thought about you last night as the Oscars aired and wondered if you had guests booking for the Red Carpet! Any celeb dirt you can dish? Nah just kidding!! :wink:

7

Ha ha! It’s been the slow season in L.A. but starting to pick up again since we’re experiencing some heat waves, and folks are flocking to our location from colder places.

I jacked up the prices on Air for Oscar weekend but ended up getting a nice young man who booked on Mister BnB…he paid the usual prices, because we are very slowly building up a presence on Mister, so he got a darn good deal. It was indeed a zoo in my neighborhood…helicopters and blimps bussing around…streets closed off all week…yahoos combing the streets with their cameras trying to catch a glimpse of an A-lister. Fun stuff…unless you don’t care about the Oscars, and then it’s just a headache. Being the good Hollywood resident I am I LOVE them, so I find it tons of fun. Oddly enough, I watch all the red carpet proceedings on TV even though everything is taking place about 100 years away. Weird I know, but that’s how I do it.

8

Wow, what is MisterBnB? Do share!

9

thanks i understand your point but i have an occupancy rate of over 95pc year round, so apparently it seems to not bother my guests. i will rephrase it though so it looks more polite.

10

OK. Well if it’s working for you, leave it alone!

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11

It’s a French company that works just like Air but targets gay men. It was founded by some guys who got tired of traveling with Air and gambling on the likelihood of booking with judgemental guests.

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12

@ visnou You are taking other’s opinion in good spirits. Everything is subject to improvement. Perhaps a more friendly sounding house rules will result on 95% of your guests arriving less nervous, the 5% who do not know better is who you will always got to keep an aye on anyway, rules or no rules. :slight_smile: