HOW Do I Get Guests to STOP with the Food in the Bedroom?

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Rant…

I’m at my wits’ end here…

My last 4 guests have all eaten food in the bedroom. My HR state “No food eaten or stored in bedroom, there is space in the kitchen.” My meet & greet reinforces this. I say “BUGS! This is Florida and we’ve had issues in the past.” I mention quarterly pest control and only 30 day warranty or they will pay $80.

There are FIVE places to eat your food: Indoors: kitchen table (seats 4), dining room table (seats 8); Outdoors: lanai table (seats 6), pool area table (seats 4), cute seating area on lanai (seats 6 with table for charcuterie and wine).

And yet…

Recently my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson came to visit after the guest from heck and the follow-up guests, both sets of guests stored and ate food in the bedroom. As I “checked in” my daughter, there were BUGS. We killed them.

Which guest do I blame? I’ve had back-to-back bookings and I clean like a fiend - especially due to the

  • potato chip bags
  • Nuts
  • Breakfast bar crumbs and wrappers
  • muffins
  • FRIED CHICKEN
  • Ice cream
  • wine and chips in bed with wine glass left there for days
  • Assorted chocolate snacks
  • candy bars.

So daughter et al leave. I have 3 days to clean. I clean daily. Daily. Hands, knees, under the bed, in tiny crevices. Crumbs are everywhere. I’m vacuuming daily. Un-f-ing-believable.

Guests #3 come. Eating in bedroom. I mention it. They say “OK,” and they do it again. And again. Then leave. Crumbs and sticky candy bar wrappers.

Guests #4 come - same thing (they’re they fried chicken gals) Who the f-k eats greasy fried chicken in bed???

Now I have #5. Pregnant lady, nice husband. I ask if I can get to the linen closet to put stuff away “Sure.” What do I find OPEN crackers. I get it, she’s pregnant, but seriously…

WTF is wrong with people? I have never, ever, since I started in 2017 up until the 1* across the board guest from heck, have had this many problems getting my point across.

They’re ALL, except 1 couple in their 60s, in their late 30s, early 40s. Is it generational? Entitlement? General f-k you to me and my HR?? IDK.

On the plus side, I have a repeat coming who is absolutely a gem. She’s booked 2 1/2 weeks M-F (leaving Friday) and I’ve blocked the weekends so she can leave stuff here and blocked days around her visit.

I know, I clearly need a break, but seriously, how f-king hard is it to respect a host? Do I charge them all the $80 it will cost me for an out of 30 day revisit from my pest control company? I have the time stamped photos of food and drinks and ice cream in the garbage and on the dresser (!).

#FML.

Rant over.

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The only one I might give a pass is the pregnant lady. I remember those days — nearly 50 years ago now! — and the misery of morning sickness and the necessity of crackers first thing.

But seriously, you have my sympathy. I don’t have a problem with guests eating in the bedrooms, probably due to two factors: the bedrooms are all on the second floor, and there are no TVs in the bedrooms. It’s probably more that the bedrooms are on the second floor though, because many people watch TV on their tablets and phones these days.

I’m not sure how you can stop it. Asking for the cost of pest control upon proof they broke the rules is possibly your only option. :frowning:

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Just a thought… knowing how dumb some people are these days, maybe if you said food OR SNACKS. I can imagine some guests thinking “Food? Well, I didn’t have any food in the room, A few chocolate bars maybe and a breakfast bar every day, but no food”.

Yes, I really do think that some people think that way…

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I’m sorry that you’re having this problem. We haven’t had this problem, but we also don’t have TVs in the bedroom. Or maybe we’ve been lucky.

I love these decals you can get from Etsy. You can customize it to say in calligraphy ‘please no food here’ and put on each bedroom door. Private Door Decal Office Door Sticker Private Office | Etsy

I know that some Hosts feel that signs are tacky, but I would think they’s work. Just my two cents.

The other thing you can do, I suppose, is that you can remind them in the check-in message. As a last resort you can impose the fine, maybe $X for first offense, $Y for each subsequent offense. [You don’t want them thinking, "Oh, well, I already am going to be fined, so I might as well keep bringing food in the bedroom.’]

Or at the greet-in, ask them to repeat three times ‘No food in the bedroom.’ [Maybe that’s too much.]

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I think no food in the bedroom is unenforceable . I get why you want it but beyond asking guests respectfully not to do it - really what else can you do ?

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Absolutely. I think pregnant women get more passes than deserved but this one is 100% deserved. The crackers are not likely a craving as much as a deterrent for nausea.

I understand the “your house, your rules” angle, and I support that. But through all of these issues that you’re having with guests, I keep asking myself, how is it that eating in the bedroom causes more pest problems than eating in those other five places?

What is different about this room? I understand not wanting your bed linens from food or something but you’re not saying that, why are there more pest issues from eating in this specific room?

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They can eat what ever they want in a hotel room and I think this is where this is coming from.
I have similar rules and have found some very tired fruit in a bedside drawer.
Usually it is the- I paid so I can do what I want attitude that does my head in.

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I’ll throw this out there - I have kids . They sneak food everywhere - as much as I can’t stand it , complain , reprimand, punish and constantly go on food hunting missions - we can’t catch it all every single time. We maintain regular pest control in our house - and we don’t have any pest issues. And I can randomly find a half eaten sandwich where it doesn’t belong in my house.

With a suitable barrier around the house and regular inspections / pest control in the home - your pest control company should be able to keep bugs to a minimum. Even more so since you guys end up with regular cleans from bookings.

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Reminds me of the saying “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Folks will almost always bring in snacks. Maybe you might consider putting a little table with chairs in the room, waste basket nearby, dust pan and wipes so that they can clean up after themselves.

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Our tenants do stuff like that and they are “grown”.

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Yep, the millennials. I wouldn’t say it’s across the board, but they tend to have an entitled attitude- that online phrase “Okay, boomer” that some of them use on forums to dismiss what anyone older and wiser than them has to say pretty much sums it up.

I have 3 grown daughters. there is a 5 year gap in age between each of them. The two oldest don’t have this attitude at all. They are 49 and 44 years old. The youngest, who is 39, has this sense of entitlement that surfaces in many situations, although she wouldn’t simply ignore a host telling her not to have food in the bedroom and do it anyway, she’s not that bad. But her general attitude is an “It’s all about me”. I always figured it was a combo of her being the baby of the family and her being a millennial.

All of them were raised the same way by me, with the same values, yet she has a different attitude to life than her older sisters.

Maybe you need to put a sign on the outside of the guest bedroom door- “Food-free zone”.

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I absolutely agree. Airbnb has been around long enough that those lines have blurred. The idea that are rules is escaping people regardless of how many times they told abou them.

That’s why I started wondering about the logic. Sometimes a rule is more likely to be adhered if someone understands the logic behind it. I think it’s a combination of hotel room + lack of truly understanding. I.e. the trees are really close to the windows in this room so any kind of food will attract pests, plus we try not to use the heavy-duty pesticides in the bedrooms.

I don’t know, I’m just guessing. I grew up in a heavy pest area and it was a constant battle but it didn’t matter which room it was, they all seemed like fair game to the bugs.

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What about signs that say “Any Food, Snacks, or Crumbs in Bedroom WILL Attract Bugs! Please Don’t!”

Don’t know if that would work—or would it give guests more complaint ammunition?

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Our listing is in SW Florida – almost exactly 100 miles south of @casailinglady . We have a quarterly Bug service contract. Our listing is basically a one room cabana with kitchenette (fridge and microwave) but otherwise no cooking facility. Our guests come and go, eat their food – restaurant leftovers, snacks, microwave meals, you name it – where they please, inside or outside at our poolside Margaritaville table where I serve breakfast .

I don’t understand. We have zero insect issues. Less even than in the house 50 feet away where we get the occasional “Florida bug” and trail of ants.

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I totally get the no food except in eating areas. We had that rule in my house growing up. When I was raising my girls we had that rule. Now I’m remarried to a guy that eats in front of the TV, sticky stuff, things with crumbs! Drives me crazy.

So I do not have a TV in the bedroom. Keeps anything other than water away from the bed. Other than that I have my own den, which is not crumb filled and sticky…

For you place maybe you need to have that rule as part of the title, and certainly in the description. “Sticky and crumb free bedroom suite!” I admit, it would attract my booking…

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People are going to do what they do. Perhaps place a small Lined trash can and empty it daily. Or let them empty it into either the large bin or the kitchen trash - as long as they are cleaning after themselves it is a no judgement zone.

Crumbs from eating in the bedroom are no different than kitchen crumbs.

I’m in coastal SC so bountiful bugs. Entire home rental. Guests eat & drink anywhere they wish. Quarterly bug treatment. Other than the occasional rogue Palmetto bug, no problems.

The daily getting on your hands & knees to clean is concerning. I’m afraid if I got down, I couldn’t get back up!:flushed:

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Excellent point! My refrigerator sign says “Clean up dirty dishes and spills right away or the bugs will find it right away!”

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What about an attractive sign on the door that’s not btchy? @konacoconutz inspired me to create an attractive sign for the refrigerator with reminders of the house rules. Maybe you could put that on the door to the rooms at eye level?

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My house rules are on the refrigerator too. But the rules need to be enforceable & logical.

Someone telling me to not have a granola bar & coffee for breakfast quietly in my room while I watch morning news isn’t going to work for me.

I don’t want to go outside to dine if it’s humid (oh right Florida-100% humidity all the time), hot, or raining. I don’t want to sit at a kitchen table with a host fluttering around fretting over crumbs.

I want to enjoy a glass of wine watching Netflix on my iPad without feeling like I’m bothering anyone.

Well not all rentals are for all people. I’d be happier at a Holiday Inn express & I’m not fond of those.

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Yes, they are. As a home share host like casailinglady, and also in a major insect location, I am in the kitchen off and on all day long- counters get wiped, spills get cleaned up immediately, floors get swept constantly. A private guest bedroom is not someplace a host usually enters during a guest’s stay. So if the guest is eating in their room, dropping crumbs, leaving cookie and candy wrappers around, etc, ants, cockroaches and rodents can be quickly attracted to that and move in.

And aside from that, the host requested that guests don’t eat in the room. it’s a simple request and there are plenty of other places she provides for guests to sit and eat. The disrespect in ignoring her simple request is the main issue here, not whether other hosts don’t see anything wrong with a guest having food in the bedroom.

And there are plenty of us who do not believe in spraying toxic chemicals around. I would never fumigate my place and there’s no need to if it’s kept clean.

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