This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
With regard to breakfast, I just put everything out on the kitchen counter very early in the morning, whether I’ve got to leave the house or not. Then there are signs telling people the fruit basket on the table is for them and they can find the milk/half & half, yogurt, cream cheese, etc on the top shelf in the fridge. The coffee pot is full and there’s another note telling them to just press a button on the coffee machine if they run out. I leave it all set and ready to brew.
This way, they can eat breakfast or not, whenever they choose. If I’m home, I’ll put everything away when I know they are done. If I’m not, it sometimes stays right there on the counter until I get home in the evening.
They sound truly dreadful!! If they haven’t damaged anything, their biggest crime is being rude, and this is your worst guest to date, I’d take a deep breath and let it go. As far as the review, I would say they were better suited to renting an entire place since they weren’t very respectful of the shared spaces or your time.
Do self service breakfast and have set times for the kitchen. Do not offer use of your living room. I could not stand someone in the bathroom for an hour and a half. Inconsiderate guests.
I think this is a perfect way to review these people; short, factual, simple and lets other hosts know what to expect if they accept an in-home booking from them.
At the risk of sounding didactic myself….have you ever read the classic child-rearing book, “Children: The Challenge”? In essence, the book advises applying the “natural and logical consequences” to a child’s bad behavior rather than bickering, punishing and fighting endlessly over the same issue.
As an example, my friend’s daughter refused to get ready for school. Every morning brought the same battle over her tardiness, until one morning –nothing was said, and when it came time to go to school she was simply carried to the car in her pajamas and delivered to school on time (pre-arranged with the teacher, of course). That ended the problem without another word.
I firmly believe this technique applies equally to adults, though perhaps with more subtlety. The point is not to humiliate into submission, but to remove oneself from the angst and resentment that causes ill will….and show who’s in charge at the same time!
As others have suggested, simply putting breakfast out at the requested time, accompanied by a polite warning knock on their door, then happily going about your business would have satisfied your obligation and prevented all of the hand-wringing.
However, the bathroom situation would have required some creativity. Remove all reading materials? Turn off the heat? Knock on the door every 15 minutes and ask “how much longer”?
Again, this is not about retribution or teaching a lesson as much as it is about saving your sanity while hosting dreadful guests.
Excellent advice. Many hosts reinforce the undesirable behavior over and over and wonder why they keep having problems. And many hosts are utterly unable or unwilling to “adult up” and deal with their guests as fellow adults.
The bathroom issue would be untenable for me. I do not know how a person could host guest in their home with only one bathroom. I would go ballistic on ANYONE being so rude to occupy the only bathroom so long. Those guest are better off in a hotel for sure.
@Geosto
Loved the story about the girl who wouldn’t get ready on time.
Many years ago I did something similar. My adolescent daughter refused to comb out her long hair after washing it so we could get to the orthodontist for her first appointment on time. I decided to also allow for natural consequences of bad behavior and so we went with her hair looking like Medusa. She was quite smug thinking she had won the day until the orthodontist walked in, so young and handsome, every girl’s Prince Charming! She was instantly mortified with her hair and it was never a problem again.
It is the only bathroom… Those people should be in a hotel… As a host would not rent out a room if there was only one bathroom, that’s just me of course I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of people sharing bathrooms. ewe.
