I sleep with my bedroom door, which is an outside door, open. And while I do lock my doors when I go out to town, I have sometimes forgotten. The other day I was gone for 8 hours and came home to see I had totally forgotten to not only lock my storeroom door, I had left it wide open. All my tools, my powerwasher, etc, are in there, but all was untouched. It’s not the first time I’ve done that, either.
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Because I’ve posted my listing on this platform several times I can neither confirm nor deny that I’ve done the same and worse over the last 30 years that I’ve lived here.
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This is how we look at it too. Usually we overlook things as the guests are typically responsible and things do happen. It’s when it’s a whole bunch of things with the same guests and they are so non-challante and lack of responsibility.
And just an update —
It was hair dye on the butcher block counter and in the white farmhouse sink 
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We submitted all the details through AirCover — we’ll see what happens. Thanks for all of your insight, comments, suggestions and most of all listening to my rant!
I feel like it’s groundhog day Airbnb style…lol … On to our next story!
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Hot tubs are a maintenance nightmare, be it personal or at a rental. I had a huge hole dug in the yard & used the tub as the “footprint” for a great pond. Wouldn’t even think about having one at a rental!
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I let them know in my first message that I will be there to meet them & show them around. I ask that they message, call or text when an hour out so I can open the gate. If I don’t hear from them within that “hour out” timeframe, I call. No word from them, & the gate stays locked! Only had 1 guest message saying the gate was locked… Claimed they didn’t get my message, but they weren’t upset.
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I am laughing so hard now! I stayed in a lake house that felt like “Grandma’s house” from the minute we walked in. Furniture (meh), kitchen ware, bedspreads (no duvets or covers here!), and every.cupboard.cabinet.drawer. had labels on it- we laughed and laughed! Mind you, these were not computer generated labels, but the old labels Grandpa had, from a “label gun”. Just reminiscing, sorry! 
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I agree. My hubby immediately emptied it and hid the cord. He thought it would be a nightmare checking the ph balance after each check out and having to clean it. Plus we were also concerned of folks hanging out in the tub late at night making noise that would wake up the neighbors. And if course, the possibility of getting a huge electric bill.
Love your idea of making it into a pond. I would love that! Great idea, thanks.
I’m busy preparing to go the hot tub route . Where our cabin is - hot tubs are basically expected. We’re going to build out a game room first - but will probably have to add a hot tub.
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Not here, bears would just walk in if they smelled something attractive. 
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We have bears too! If you slept with an open door - you may wake up with VERY unwanted visitors. They even climb decks if you leave food on the decks and are capable of opening windows.
We have very strong guidance for our guests regarding bear safety.
We’ve haven’t had too many issues with the hot tub. It certainly is a draw card between our rentals. The worst thing is when people wear lotions in it. We can always tell and just needs and extra bit of care for those instances. We only had to empty it once or twice because of mishaps. We always leave at least 24 hours between guests – most times 48.
There’s no bears here, I’ve only had an occasional bat fly in. If there were bears, although I know they have no trouble climbing, they probably wouldn’t try to climb the outside metal slat staircase.
But someone claims they saw 2 jaguar cubs up the arroyo the other day.
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lol, plenty of politicians (even the blue variety) were photographed holidaying in FL last year.
We live far far away from our rental but created a smart house that can basically be controlled from my phone. Never meet the guests!
We have a very good cohost available but in 2.5 years of mostly being rented (when we are not vacationing there) and more than 50 guests he has had to go see only one guest. Mostly it is checking on things, restocking supplies etc that we have needed.
I think communication both before and after booking are the key. Sure things break, get stained, need to be replaced. All built into the price of the nightly rentals.
Fortunately we look at it that the guest fees pay for us to keep and use a house in another country that would not make financial sense otherwise. House pays for itself and more. Each of us have to look at our numbers and decide if the risk/reward and opportunity costs are worth it? How is the property appreciating as that is a big part of the ultimate return on investment calculation. I don’t know if I would do AirBnB purely as a real estate investment business. For that I have real estate with long term tenants.
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Thanks for chiming in! Totally agree with this. We do it mostly for the enjoyment and the investment. Love bringing family and friends together. And it really is just those few bad apples with no scruples that are annoying. The majority of guests are non-issue.
Us too! Feel quite blessed in our lives and there is something great about giving people the chance to share in our good fortune! Many guests tell us how much they appreciate the chance to experience a place like ours. Wife has one down here and many of her guests are apartment dwellers from the capital. To have space, indoor and out, to be able to bbq privately, a pool etc especially for their kids is amazing and they are so grateful and we are happy that we can make others happy in this mutually beneficial way.
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Agree 100% Even though we’re making money on it (but it’s a large investment of time and money so I don’t feel bad about that), it’s wonderful to be able to share. Our last guest had a 11-year old boy, who came up to me and hugged me before I left, and smiled up at me with a beatific smile and said “Thank you!” That makes it all worthwhile.
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Just had this conversation with a new host. I purchased my 1br condo for personal use & summer only rental to help pay bills.
My financial situation changed & the income has been welcome. I’ve learned more about personal flexibility & mid-term rentals than I wanted to know.
Ordinarily I would agree BUT for those of us who purchased between 2006-2020, we are in a sweet spot.
I could easily sell both of my beach condos for 225% of the 2014 & 2015 purchase prices & they’ve paid their bills plus some.
My new host purchased a few weeks ago. She paid a fair price for the current market. Her purpose in buying/renting is to provide supplemental retirement income. With the higher purchase price, she has a different level of pressure to keep it rented at the highest price possible.
Agree, @Annet3176. I’d like to say I’m smart but really we were just blessed to stumble into this biz in the same window. I really want this house for retirement (lower tax area and single story). But, I’ve especially learned since Covid to plan…but be prepared for the unexpected. So far, so good, and we get offers on our place a couple of times per month. It’s a little crazy.
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