I have regret but don’t expect anything else. Where did you get the idea that I do?
Just smile sweetly @lauras0323 and tell him you didn’t realise he wanted to use the table to study and he will need to do this in his room as it is disturbing others who share the space. Simple 
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That is the most practical response to this. I will do that. Thank you for the tip!
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Do you expect the guests to lock you inside your house??? I’d probably not lock the door if you are sitting right there, either.
Right now, set your house rules that guests can only use the common areas for very limited hours (say 4-6 pm) - or not at all except for travelling through them. And YOU need to tell them to leave if you don’t want them there. I’m with @jaquo - handing him the tissues instead of telling him to go into his bedroom is very passive-aggressive and doesn’t work in the AirBnB world.
I don’t see that this guy did anything horrible except do something other than what you wanted him to do.
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@lauras0323, I get your frustration and I’m a bit taken aback at some of the negative replies you’ve received.
I have a similar set-up to yours (although my house is bigger) with a dining room and small kitchen attached. Guests are welcome to use it for breakfast or evening meal. In my early days I had similar experiences with guests sitting there for hours with their laptops. It got on my nerves too!
So I put a small desk and chair in the guest room so there is no reason for them to use the dining table. Can you do the same?
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Speaking just for myself I’m more patient when I haven’t already been through this before. I don’t know if members of the forum have poor memories or don’t know that old posts are visible or what but…
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Why not just tell him that you’d like him to study in his room late at night because the light and the noise is keeping you up?
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Yep I limit dining room use from 7-9 a.m. and 6-8 p.m. due to exactly this issue.
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Bloody hell, do you really think that we all go back and check on peoples’ previous posts? Or commit everything to memory??
I can’t speak for anyone else, of course, but generally I just take what I see. Yes, there’ll be the odd poster whose modus operandi is immediately apparent but it’s an open forum - people post what they post. If it makes you impatient, go for a walk or something.
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Honestly, the guy just wants to study, and he’s paying to stay in your place. If you’re that annoyed by someone in your space, perhaps hosting is not for you.
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I really dislike it when people jump to “perhaps hosting isn’t for you”. OP is happy to host when the guest primarily uses the room and bathroom they paid for. She’s only feeling put-upon because she’s allowed someone to push beyond her comfort zone. She needs support on how to better enforce her boundaries, not a dismissive “you’re not suited to hosting”.
@lauras0323 I’ve found it really important to put a time limit on most asks.
“May I use the kitchen table?”
“Yes, but we’ll need it for dinner, so please pack it up by 5pm.”
Same goes for late check-out, leaving luggage, borrowing bikes, etc.
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I hadn’t had a chance to reply to this thread yet, but I was going to say: OP will want to enforce her boundaries if she is to continue hosting. She should become comfortable saying, “would you mind turning out the light now?”
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Huh. Apply this to my posts as well then.
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I use Japanese curtains on a curtain traction rod to separate spaces that don’t have doors. People get the hint that the other side of the curtain isn’t their space. You have to show them what is and isn’t theirs. I know the curtain sounds funny but it doesn’t look strange at all and it works.
Guests ‘nesting’ is fairly normal but not in a common area. That guest sounds extra annoying. The suggestion about guidelines on hours when the common areas can be used sound good.
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Yes, same here. Like we’re all feckin experts? Many contributors on here are very experienced and have a lot of good advice to share. But nobody has the right to decide whether an anonymous poster is a “good” host or not.
Puppylover posted some silly examples but they’re not the norm, are they? Sometimes people just need some guidance.
I wish this forum had been around when I started out. It might have saved me from 6 months of being a feckin doormat.
I am skint and desperate for bookings. Tonight I had a booking request from some students asking for a “special offer” because they’re on a budget. This hasn’t happened to me in years. I’m cheap and budget already. If it wasn’t for a forum like this that taught me ‘DON’T EVER DISCOUNT because if they don’t respect your price, they won’t respect your place’ … I wouldn’t have learned.
Anyway, in yoda fashion, Everything you think you know - the beginning it is.
@Magwitch I have to disagree with other hosts who encourage hosts not to reduce their rates… naturally, if my nightly rate was $48 and the guest was staying for a single night and wanted a discount, I would tell the guest to take a hike. However, if the guest was staying for several days and my place would otherwise remain empty, I would certainly consider a rate reduction…
I would disagree,
a guest who does not respect your price will not respect your place is solid advice.
Go ahead, discount away, at some point it will be cheaper just to send the guest money and have them book somewhere else. The race to the bottom will only get worse unless hosts hold firm.
RR
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@RiverRock Being a host is a business and in most businesses there is some negotiation; if a guest wants to negotiate the rate, I’m not going to be offended because I’m a businesswoman. Ultimately, I will evaluate my options and either accept or decline the prospective guest’s proposed reduced rate…
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It’s not so much the haggling part as the red flag that the guest will be a huge problem in other ways after getting the discount, which seems to correlate.
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