I figured out how to keep the cat from meowing her head off today. Was worth the discomfort. I’m very glad to have my pets with me. I love them dearly and we would all miss each other. They are family.
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I would never stay in a place that filthy. I’d rather sleep in my car somewhere. I agree to send her a note and rating of 1 (unless there’s a zero available). I also would send her the pictures you’ve shared. Picture is worth 1,000 words.
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What sort of work do you do that requires so much travel @searchedtobelost? Can you do any of this virtually to cut down on your travel costs?
@RiverRock Taking my dog with me travelling is a disaster. She’s well behaved, but:
A. She hates riding in the car and when I stop to gas up and take her for a walk, she refuses to do her business on a leash. She’s grown up in the countryside, where she has fields she trots off to the back of. She’s very private about that stuff. When I did a road trip with her, she wouldn’t even pee on the leash. She held it for 8-10 hours until we got to where we would spend the night and I could find a safe place to let her off-leash.
B. She’s a constant shedder.
C. She’s too big to deal with in a travel kennel to fly with. I’ve done it once and would never do it again.
So when I have to travel, I find a friend to house and pet-sit for me. Much easier for me, much easier for the dog.
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A balanced view? The home is filthy, is that your toilet?? It is uninhabitable. I find it amazing that so many people here have said max 4.X - when I had a B&^*ch give me a 1 and blasted my rating to smithereens. My home was spotless, it wasnt for the cleaning, but she argued (after staying a week) that the advertised bed was not a double. I swear to god, that was it. There was a broken blind cord, and a very small drip on the bathroom sink tap and I had the handyman around the same day to fix. Within 2 hours. I dont understand guests. At all. My most recent booked five nights, stayed one, moved out with most of my linen and failed to tell me he had left. Didnt leave a review but I left him one. I would leave a completely honest review.
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This thread came to mind this morning, as I was scrubbing a kitchen cabinet door hinge to remove a small food stain from the last guest.
JF
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Thank you for reinforcing this idea!
How far in advance are your guests booking?
Good point that guests can now share photos with hosts.
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Traveling as a guest is a different experience from hosting. As a host I was in my home turf. I was able to be comfortable and move about confidently. I was the most informed person on the listing. I had great community support. If a guest came to me with a problem I worked hard to accommodate them unless it crossed one of my boundaries (for example I was not comfortable with luggage being dropped off early or early check-ins).
As a guest I am walking into new situations. The host has home turf advantage. I’m not used to negotiating or handling situations from the guest side.
Also I have found that with many of these wife-husband host teams, they are strategically using the husband during a guest complaint or negotiation. I have found it to be generally unpleasant.
I have also found that in the places I stayed that were “funky” the hosts are either not used to someone speaking up or they have character defects that make speaking up unpleasant.
I’m working on my approach to situations and find it much easier to do so when I feel happy to and excited to be at the listing. Then if I have an issue it might be to ask for an extra towel or to inform the host of a wifi problem. Much smaller more inconsequential issues.
And yes, not traveling with pets would have alleviated a lot of the issues, as I would have had many more bookings to choose from. But I’m glad I’ve done this as it has been a bonding experience for my pets and I, and it has been quite the learning experience for me as well!
Anywhere from 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks. Not more than that, usually. And starting Monday, I’m blocked off because a local guy and his wife want to rent the apartment for extra space.
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Yes, I’m staying at a place right now that is lovely. I don’t find my assessment to be completely accurate. I would say… the hosts that aren’t properly following pandemic protocol need to be revealed more easily and Airbnb needs to have better procedures in place for check-in during the pandemic.
Agreed! If I were traveling, I would want to know who is a pandemic-denier and who is taking precautions. But outside of the pandemic, places should just be clean!
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It truly isn’t. We not only allow dogs, but most guests who bring dogs bring multiples and we still manage to get perfect marks for cleanliness. I just gave a guest a BOGO on the fees for their four “attack rodents” because their combined weight is only 27 lbs.
We just had a group with three big sheepdog types post up social media video of their pack fetching a frisbee in our off-leash area. So fun and thanks for the free marketing dear guests.
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I can’t believe that a place like that is on Airbnb …wow shocking!
I own a rental in a beach town in VA. It is managed professionally, but is on Air BnB. We are pet friendly with a $100 fee and a limit of one dog. No cats. There is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER for a place that is pet friendly being dirty. I and my professional manager are fanatics about cleanliness. I have pitched a fit over one small mold spot in the shower and over water stains on shower doors. We have furniture covers over all furniture that can be laundered. I leave pet stain remover in my cabinet that is accessible to guests and we clean our carpets at the beginning of the season, half way through the season and at the end of the summer season with a home carpet machine. We also have a professional carpet cleaning at least once a year. We have never had anyone complain about cleanliness. If guests leave my place a mess, their names go on a list and I won’t rent to them again. Honestly, I have more issues from small kids leaving messes than I do well behaved pets. Now, if I could just ban toddlers…
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I have a home share, and I have a dog and cat of my own, but that doesn’t mean my house is dirty. I can let it go a bit when I don’t have guests, but when I clean and have guests here, you wouldn’t even know I had animals.
As far as toddlers go, it’s the parents, not the toddlers that are the problem. There’s no more reason for a house to be left messy or dirty with toddlers around than without. It depends on whether the parents let them walk around the place with food, rather than only eating at the table, wash their sticky hands after they eat or get dirty, etc. And these days, parents seem to think parenting is about being your child’s friend, and having almost no rules, rather than teaching them how to be civilized.
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In the same way that it is the owner’s of dogs, not the dogs themselves.
Which is the precise reason I stopped allowing toddlers into my home, after my second set of guests in 2017. The parents were utterly appalling at parenting, and the toddler fell down the stairs whilst unsupervised.
Fortunately, I can claim the house and garden is unsafe for children under eight.
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You can ban toddlers - and in fact any child up to 12 @ksegers just mark your listing to say you don’t accept kids 
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