My bad guest experience - Just me griping

It’s not something I’m worried about. I am able to avert my eyes.

In hotels maid service enters the room daily. I see no reason to behave differently in a room that is, in effect serviced.

Were the room let on a contract, with the occupant being a tenant it would be a different story.

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In hotels one has the option of foregoing cleaning service. For a stay of longer than three days I offer to change the linens and vacuum. So far, no guest has taken me up on this offer. Unless I’m asked to enter by the guest I don’t enter the guest room during a guest’s stay. I respect their privacy and I don’t want to be blamed if they believe that their things are missing or have been tampered with.

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Hosts need to do what works well for them. I’ve been hosting well over two years and have yet to have anyone complain that I’ve left them fresh water or made the bed.

Further trust goes both ways. My guests have access to my whole home…I find it odd that they’d choose to stay at my listing and worry I might steal from them because I went in the room to open the window.

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In your situation it’s true because it’s just you besides them but I have 3 rooms for rent . May be that why they are sure to lock their rooms.

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I suppose it all comes down to disclosure. Also, this is one of those quasi-hotel things… are we hotel? Or BnB? Are we landlords and they tenants?

Disclose that you plan on entering daily and there should be no issue with it.
I hesitate to do it myself. I have a separate guest suite. I even have it in my guidelines that I reserve the right to enter if fans are left on or there are other maintenance issues, such as a faucet running which will cause the pump to go continuously and if left long enough, eventually drain my water tank.

I don’t always exercise this option though… For instance, I just had guests buy a fan without telling me and bring it into the apartment. I looked past that, although I didn’t love that they did that. However, they left it and the other fan running 24/7 full blast whether they were there or not. That’s a huge waste of energy and expensive in Hawaii. They got dinged on my review for it. Yes I could have said something or entered to turn off.

But I don’t want to nanny my guests to death.

Honestly, I didn’t want to remind them either, because the nagging could eventually lead them to leave me a bad review because the room was “hot” and they had to buy a fan, or something.

Anyway… I do leave the option open that I reserve the right to enter the room for maintenance purposes.

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I found it odd the first time a guest mentioned in review that she wished the guest room door had a lock. I figured that if I was willing to lend her a key to my front door and as I don’t lock my bedroom door she would trust me in return. After a few more guests requested a key to the guest room door I got one even though I still find it illogical.

Regarding your views on guests worrying about hosts stealing their stuff; look at how often hotel cleaning people get accused of stealing. When I worked in an office whenever anyone couldn’t find something they accused the cleaning crew. In my view, it’s never the cleaning crew. They aren’t going to risk their ability to make a living over some trinket someone left out.

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You’re right it’s never the cleaning crew. That’s one situation where if they lost their job because of theft that’s their whole work life ruined.

I’ve never had anything stolen (well aside from my brolly) and to be honest had a lot of faith in people renewed through hosting.

I have expensive stuff lying around - an iPad, a MacBook, some jewellery and none of it has ever gone. I trust my guests and they need to trust me, or this whole thing (being in a room in my home) isn’t going to work.

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Perfectly said @Zandra This was the spirit of Airbnb in the beginning and we’ve been hosting since 2010

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This is a very important point, I think, and you’re right that it is one of the main reasons that Air pushes IB so hard. I recall reading some analysis that being declined for no good reason is the number one frustration for guests and the primary reason they abandon use of the platform. So Air loses business as a result and therefore, obviously, we hosts lose business too. That is why it kind of pisses me off when people are so cavalier about unprofessional hosting and the “you should be grateful that I’m allowing you to give me money to stay” attitude.

On the other hand, hosts with this kind of approach will probably not last very long as they will drop to the bottom of search results and will eventually get stinking reviews. So maybe it doesn’t matter!

@TuMo, yes, I have traveled as a guest a handful of times in the last year and have had great experiences. I even picked up a few ideas on how to improve things in my own listing. I also highly recommend it to other host who haven’t been guests yet.

You are absolutely right that it’s super easy to click a day and block it on the calendar… but I can also see plenty of understandable reasons why a host (especially a host who has chosen not to opt in to instant book) might not want to accept a last-minute booking. Sometimes, when I’m under a lot of stress in my personal life, I am forgetful. I think you may have actually dodged the bullet here by not having to stay with someone who wasn’t completely prepared to host the next day. Unexpected things happen all the time, and when I am in the middle of a personal crisis updating my Airbnb calendar isn’t usually my top priority.

I’m not saying I would respond like that today, but in the first several months, especially right after being burned by an ungrateful guest (which, in my experience, happens more often with last-minute reservations), I could have easily sent that message.

I also noticed recently that Airbnb made it more difficult to decline a guest. You have to explain to both the guest and Airbnb why you are declining, and they make you pick from a multiple choice list of reasons, where none of the reasons usually apply to my situation. Overall I think this is an improvement for the entire system, but there have been a few times recently where I have let a request I’m planning to decline linger just because I didn’t have time for the extra clicks while I was out and using the mobile app.

Anyway, to me “short notice” is a valid reason, not no apparent reason. I’m not trying to insult you by sharing that opinion, and I’m sorry if I offended you with my post. I’m just reminding you that many hosts are just people living their lives, and hosting is often not their entire life. To me, it’s not worth the strain on my mental health to accept every request, especially under tight time constraints. That may make me a sloppy, unprofessional host, but my sanity is more important to me than any guest’s opinion.

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This is really interesting, thank you for bringing up this point. What do you consider successful? Is it max occupancy? Max income? Max personal fulfillment? We all probably have slightly (or even extremely) different definitions of success, so maybe that’s where the disconnect lies. For me, staying sane is a big priority, so that is my guiding principle these days.

I never said I expect a guest to wait patiently for my life to settle down, and I never expected anyone to, actually. I told them that if they were in a hurry to confirm a reservation to feel free to book elsewhere. I was really surprised at the enthusiasm I received when I told them a few days later that we could continue the conversation, and they ended up sending another request which I accepted. I wanted to share this experience because it was unexpected.

I admit the mother’s death excuse was a little extreme, but it stems from my own experience hosting through the sudden death of a friend last year. I didn’t realize how much my grief was affecting me at the time, but I was really distracted and not on my best hosting game for several weeks afterward.

Or maybe she didn’t want to deal with a one nighter. Who knows!

Thank you for your gracious reply to my snippy comment. You’re right, of course, we all have different hosting styles, needs, expectations etc. For me, it’s primarily about the money. But I do enjoy the fact that I appear to be quite good at this game and I was thinking the other day that if I won the lottery and didn’t have to do this any more - I’d miss it a lot!
I block off a few days now and then to catch breath and stay sane. But you can’t schedule unexpected things and it can be tough. Sorry about your friend :frowning: , that’s hard because sometimes it’s a very lonely grief.

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@Magwitch It has been quite lonely, now that you mention it. Wow… I hadn’t even realized that, thank you.

The worst part (with regards to hosting) was stopping for lunch on the way to her funeral and seeing an email that a review had just posted. These guests were friendly, quiet, and clean, so I was eager to read what they wrote. Turns out they were two-faced - telling me everything was fine and acting friendly to my face while they were here, but then leaving a scathing 2 & 3 star review complaining about things they never mentioned when I asked if they needed anything. I was furious! Those guests booked the day before arrival, too, so I think they have tainted my opinion of last-minute guests. :slight_smile:

I slipped into a bit of a “why am I even doing this” funk for a few weeks after reading that review. I was definitely just going through the motions with hosting for a while. I probably should have blocked off some time for myself during this period but I didn’t consider it at the time. Something to keep in mind for the future, I guess.

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Language is fluid and develops with time. Yes, it was a cardinal rule at school/uni not to begin s sentence with “and” or “but”, but that was 40 years ago for me. When I do, it’s to add a certain emphasis or critique to what I’ve written beforehand. An and/or, so to speak.

In academic writing you still should not do it. Or if you do, sparingly.

@carolgrrr, sorry to hear about this difficult time in your life. You are so right, guests have no idea what hosts are going through. Thanks for sharing your story.

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I’m not an academic! But I am grateful for having been given a good
grounding in analysis and use of language early on in my life. I’ve ended
up being commissioned to carry out hardcore investigations into serious
incidents in both health and social care services, where language is of
such importance in ensuring the right evidence is used, that decision
makers will read the report properly and that recommendations are
succincOff my own soapbox, and off to the pub. It’s Friday evening and our
guests are already there!

@carolgrrr Ah it’s hard enough to deal with those kind of two-faced reviews at the best of times, let alone when you’re coping with personal difficulties. Feel for you :frowning: The reason I said losing a friend can be a particularly lonely grief is that usually you aren’t included in the family grieving process and the one person you want to talk with about how you’re feeling is the very person that’s gone. Not sure if that makes sense, I haven’t written it very well. Should pay attention to the concurrent grammar discussion going on in here, ha ha - only on here!

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@Magwitch - I knew exactly what you were talking about as soon as you said lonely! I just hadn’t realized how lonely I have been until you mentioned it. So, thank you for that insight.

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