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

Ask nicely, reiterate on check in orientation. Then let it go.

The more authoritarian you become, the more likely they are to try to hide it. I agree that signs aren’t going to deter those who are going to do what they want to do. Maybe you can try the Jaquo method of speaking indirectly: “The ants just love when people eat in here, so let me know if you see any so I can call the exterminator. Some people just think they can get away with it but the six leggedes always alert me, lol.”

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:rofl: Is that what we’re calling it now? Indirect? Then I wish my mother-in-law wasn’t so indirect :rofl:

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If you aren’t crazy about chemicals - a good heavy layer of diatomaceous earth around your property and in any gaps outside will actually keep out bugs. We use it as a secondary barrier on top of pest control ( because I can’t stand critters ).

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Yes, I use diatomaceous earth in my veggie garden.

“In any gaps outside”??? :laughing: I live in the tropics and my doors and windows are always open, as are pretty much everyone’s here, and I don’t have screens.

And I love insects, I find them fascinating. They serve a purpose, they are part of the natural ecosystem. The people I know who fumigate have way more insect problems than I do. If you leave things alone, the balance of nature takes care of things and nothing overproliferates. I have no desire to kill them. The only things I kill are cockroaches and scorpions if I see them in the house.

We actually don’t have a rule not to eat in bedrooms, as it rarely happens. Maybe because we don’t have TVs there.

If it became a problem I would consider doing the things I suggested (reminder in check-in message, sign on door). Just has not been a problem with us, nor bugs. We are in MA, not in the tropics or FL.

Also, this is a separate space, so that might be a factor too.

Bugs are fine - not in my home or where I sleep though!

I also don’t like killing them. I much rather put them back outside. Even in my classroom students already know not to kill them. Luckily my classroom as a door to the courtyard so students can easily return critters back to nature. We seem to get lots of lady bugs, Japanese beatles and stick bugs. Perhaps beause the courtyard is right there.

At home to keep bugs away, we have lots of lavendar plants which seem to help.

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That’s a good idea, thanks. I’ve had fried chicken as a snack… :wink: don’t judge…

Up until the last 5 guests, it’s been entirely enforceable since 2017. This is a run of absolute entitlement.

Pregnant lady gets a pass. However, when asked, she said they’re her husband’s crackers!! Oy.

Good question. Because that room has historically been a pest magnet. I don’t know why, but it might be from the fill used to bring the land height up to code and it was full of ants? I do know that since my parents moved in in 1989, that room has had ant problems and “palmetto bug” issues.

The Germans and other folks not from Florida just do not understand Florida bugs.

Also, it’s easier to clean the 5 other places, the outside pest services do a 15 foot band around the house, and doing each room individually costs more.

OMG my kids were the worst when they were younger. This room used to be theirs when they’d spend the summers with my folks. And they’d sneak stuff in and my Mom would find it when the ants tried to walk out with the house.

BUT these guests aren’t children.

There is NO room for more furniture. None. Bed, 2 nightstands, desk, dresser. I’m NOT setting this up as an ensuite.

THIS is in my House Rules, in my Messages to guests pre and post booking, SAID out loud during house tour of “this is where the food goes, this is where to eat it,” and repeated during the stay.

I mean FML these last guests have me wanting to block days and I have a 16 day couple coming in and she wants to cook dinner every night.

I have a quarterly contract. I also do NOT want greasy sheets from f-g eating fried chicken in the bed.

Actually, 3 seasons of the year we don’t have unpleasant humidity and it can get downright chilly - 20s and 30s.

And I don’t have a problem with that as long as the next morning you bring your wineglass to the kitchen and clean it. One guest was collecting them … dirty, smeared, with dregs.

I’ve done the joking about the bugs, I’ve done the “My daughter just killed several bugs last week when she was here so I have to get pest control back and if you see ants or roaches, please let me know because people keep attracting them like they’re pets!”

Nothing. Crickets. It’s like it’s willful at this point.

THANK YOU. Exactly.

Those aren’t ants or roaches. I mean palmetto bugs…

Every time I visit more tropical places, the large iridescent beetles love to land on my hair and stay for a bit because… IDK. When I lived in San Diego, June was green scarab month and they’d follow me in the parking lots and land in my hair. I don’t mind, I like those beetles, and my ex would laugh and laugh.

Stick bugs are our friends. Bella’s gifts of lizards are humanely trapped and returned to the wild. Often without their tails.

But ants and roaches. No thank you.

I don’t think that you are going to ever get 100% enforcement. I would get the room treated and reflect the added expense in my price.

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I actually have in my HR that if there is food in the bedroom, I’ll charge $80 for pest control.

Up until now, I’ve had excellent respectful guests. But the last 5… it’s been blatant.

I think I am fortunate in that my guests tend to be all business types who come mainly to sleep and leave early to go to work; they are repeat guests and perhaps they value the place enough not to cause me to give them bad reviews and not allow them to stay again? I have a full kitchen but the stove is turned off and the top is used as a display area.

That said, raising my prices by almost 25% upon reopening has lowered the amount of inquirys from folks who only seem to inquire to bend the rules so clearly set in the listing - asking for long extended stays when my max is 5 days, kids, requests for discounts, etc. Perhaps more $$s might get better guests - or at least comfort you when you find crumbs or such… money is good at comforting you as you use your dustpan… :wink:

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If that is what you say, it doesn’t sound like the right message. I think you have to be more direct. “Please—no food or snacks at all in the bedroom. Food residue attracts bugs, even though we have the whole house treated (monthly, whatever). If you find bugs, or I do after you leave, you will get an $80 charge for additional pest control.”

Your house rules need to be very direct, too.

Also, can your extermination company treat just that room each time the house perimeter is done?

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@casailinglady, another point raised by my husband. Something I’d forgotten.

One of our bedrooms used to attract ants, which didn’t happen elsewhere in the house. Virgil investigated outside and found a small tree very close to that room’s foundation. The tree was covered with ants. We had the tree removed. No more ants.

The point isn’t about ants, but that there seems to be something different about that room. You mentioned (I think) suspicions about fill dirt used around or under it.

Seems possible that the room itself is more the issue than guest behavior is.

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This doesn’t stop your guests, but it seems to work to stop the ants and most other crawling bugs from wandering in to our open air house in the tropics: Terro Ant Outdoor Barrier
The Terro liquid ant baits also worked for us.

Terro is Everything when it comes to getting rid of ants !

I’ve used it a few times and just a few drops where they walk and that’s the end of them.

We have, I suspect, areas in our building that have had ant nests for over two hundred years. All we can do is control them, to the best of our abilities.

The only way to eradicate them would be to fill every nook, cranny, void, gap space and where we live with shit I’m not prepared to use.

Truth be told, I quite enjoy watching them demolish a dead cockroach or gecko carcass, transporting the various bits and bobs off into a tiny crack somewhere.

Sadly though, when it’s in an area where guests frequent, it always ends badly for the wee fellas.

When we first moved in, our kitchen was bad for them, so I essentially sealed every crack or gap I could.

Was fine for a season, until they discovered the secret ant highway, i.e. electric cable conduits. Little buggers. Anyway, half an hour with acrylic sealant and that route disappeared!

We still get the odd few, but like @muddy mentioned, constant cleaning is the second key, after denying access.

We always leave bug spray under the sink, and point it out to guests, and so far no-one has either marked us down for bugs, or mentioned them in a review. I think on the basis we’re closer to Africa than Madrid, most probably expect a few here.

JF

This is the real issue IMO. Smoking? Food/drinks where not allowed? Overcrowding? Etc.

I will say, @casailinglady, you’ve had an unusual string of dismissive guests. So frustrating.

Brainstorming….$100 Snack/Food deposit that you keep to go toward pest control if evidence found of rule breaking else you return it? It’ll send the message you’re serious about the rule and penalties. If that’s offensive to the guest then they were the wrong guest as they clearly planned to ignore your rule.

Or, compromise? Limit to sealed snacks only & provide sealed snack storage container (1 max or something), require they allow you a daily trash removal & have a hand vac available in the room? I don’t like this idea but trying to think through all possibilities for resolution.

I tried to compromise on the smoking by allowing outdoor only and it worked for awhile but even that had to go eventually…give an inch and they take a mile kind of thing, I have to assume.

Curiously, in over four years we’ve only had evidence of someone smoking inside twice, or maybe three times.

We allow smoking on the patio and are explicit in our house rules that the apartments are non smoking.

Had many an interesting conversation with guests sitting on the patio, having their last cigarette, while I’m locking up for the night :rofl:

JF

Nope. I have quarterly pest control, a 15’ band around the house, and NO bugs when people follow the HR.

FFS it’s MY house - I follow people’s HR when I’m a guest, paying or not.

I’m in Florida FFS, one would expect people to expect bugs. And lizards…

Yes and now a 16 day guest is checking in. I hope this goes well.

I already do that “BTW, guest, I’ve left you a (reusable glass) bottle of filtered water. Do you mind if I check in the mornings after you’re gone and clean the glasses and refill the bottle? Also, I might need access to the linen closet to put away the linens from the last guests. Is that OK? Thanks!”

So as they’re walking out I tell them I’m walking in and I tidy up. I put clips on open chip bags. I clean up crumbs. It’s been a run of dismissive guests.

Same here.

Almost forty replies and no real conclusion.

Allow my OH to be your co host for a couple of weeks and no-one, and I mean no-one, would even eat so much as a malteser in your bedroom. My management fee for her is around twenty percent :rofl:

JF

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