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I had guest who told me about a “Private cabin” he had rented, where it was obvious that the host just went and slept somewhere else when she got guests.
The place was full and cluttered with her stuff, and not cleaned- it looked like she’d just walked out the door to go shopping or something.
Then she just came over unannounced, many times, entered without even knocking, to rifle through drawers looking for clothes and stuff she needed. This happened the first morning when he, his wife and young son were cuddling and talking in bed. The “host” just walked right into the bedroom, without so much as an “excuse me”.
My guest said that it was pretty obvious that the host had mental issues, as normal people don’t behave like that, regardless of whether they are hosts or not. It certainly wouldn’t even be acceptable if you had close friends or relatives staying with you, to just walk into their bedroom like that.
@mariamag I don’t think you have to change the name, but I think your title is misleading, as it seems to me that most guests seeing that title would assume it’s an entire house, although you may not have had any confused guests up til now.
I would come up with a new listing title, and it isn’t necessary for it to include your name, as private room listings say “Private room hosted by XX” at the top, anyway.
Maybe “(insert grabby adjective- Sweet, Sunny, Great View, etc.) Homeshare Room on the Island”?
One would assume there is a door - however, I looked at a listing is a small town in upstate NY and the “room” was a divided area of a large living room in a Victorian house. The walls and “door” were curtains. This was last summer. I haven’t checked the listing to see if it is still up
Honestly, any sleeping arrangement is acceptable, as long as it’s made perfectly clear what it consists of, which I think is what Airbnb is trying to accomplish here.
I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping behind a curtain in a corner of the living room in some stranger’s house, but a non-fussy young guest just looking for a cheap place to sleep for the night might not mind at all.
Maybe there should be a category called “Bottom of the Barrel”, subtitle “Expect nothing but a roof over your head”.
I know there are quite a few hosts who list their entire place and go sleep at a friend or relative’s place when they get a booking, but it’s always seemed like a strange hosting model to me and one I would never ever consider unless I was absolutely desperate for money.
That’s different from a host renting out their home while they are on vacation or on a business trip. In those cases, while there may be lots of the host’s personal stuff there, their books, music collection, clothing, etc, they usually make sure there is an empty closet for guests, that the place is free of clutter, well-cleaned, with highly personal belongings locked away somewhere. They may even lock off their own bedroom, having a guest bedroom and use of the entire home aside from their own room.
