We had two listings in Los Angeles and for this reason and a few others we have decided to take ours offline as well. Total trash guests.
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You are not alone. Many have remarked how more challenging things are now.
There are some great examples here (search) for house rules, etc, images etc. This way, guests will know for sure (or canât effectively claim otherwise) that it is âno smoking, no parties, cameras on prem, etcâ.
With a 15 min drive time, your recent challenges, and âall this bsâ - it is prudent to change your game plan:
- Meet all guests in person unless you are VERY sure they are low risk
- Cameras - 1 at front door and if needed 1 more at driveway / street, etc. Make sure they send to the cloud and can not be disabled. Add language to house rules about tampering with or disabling cameras rules and will result in the immediate termination of stay without refund.
- Give your house rules a serious going over. Many here will help tune your draft. @HH_AZ has great stuff, among others.
- Put a âsecurity depositâ on your listing of at least $1000. We have ours at $2500. Yeah itâs kinda bs - since there is no held charge. BUT ⌠merely having one might help dissuade some with intentions of âpartayâ.
Make a small gift basket for your very nice neighbor! Thank him and let him know what you are putting into place - for everyoneâs peace of mind.
Oh ⌠and good luck!
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Our neighbor has been a outright blessing for us. We go out of our way to help him whenever possible. My husband has climbed on his roof ti take down his satellite dish, introduce him to our tech specialist, helped him fix his camper etc⌠He has repaid us many times over by watching over our STR. Be nice to your neighbors. You will never regret it!
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Jefferson - Wow! Alrighty then. Making these changes now. I canât wait to install the cameras! Our next guests will be the first that we will actually meet in the year and a half weâve hosted. Here we go!
Love the gift basket idea. Iâm sure theyâll feel SOMETHING is due for their inconvenience by now! Lol ha ha Thanks again -
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Mountainhost - thank you for the âcosignâ on the small gift basket. This is on my âto doâ list for the weekend.
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Thatâs too bad but itâs kind of comforting to know we were not alone. After reading all these comments about the great guests they were getting I was thinking there was something wrong with us.
REMOTE CAMERAS. If you are not on site you need them.
We have ordered one. Totally agree that for purposes of deterrence alone, we need the camera. Took the advice of this forum and now taking names and birthdates of all guests and have this listed on my house rules. And no, the guests are not reading the house rules at all. They sent me a list of 6 guests when they booked for 4. Then seemed âput outâ when I pointed out the reservation was for 4, and 6 guests was 1 over the 5 I had as max at the timeâI have since dropped to 4. Then threatened to cancel the reservation. I referred them back to the platform, after 2 hoursâWere they on hold, perhaps? âshe sent back a message with a shorter list of guests and let me know her friends were not coming after all. SighâŚ
Watch for them to show up anyway and then make another excuse.
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Yup. Thatâs probably what they will do. Being that the second list she sent me had 3 new children replacing the names of the ones on the first list, and being they are here for a tournament, I think they have several places rented in town and they are playing musical chairs with the kids. I imagine at 10 pm they shuffle a few extra kids into the place while I am asleep and they are up and out at the crack of dawn. Waiting for the camera we ordered. Can I do a night raid or is that too much? Lol
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Yeah, itâs a bit much. Sometimes you just have to let it go and count the money.
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Could not agree more. My last guests brought FOUR dogs. Worse, customer service by AirBnb has dropped off a cliff, took 3 days to get a response and now two weeks without resolution. Another guest claimed my unit disgusting, when the guests who checked out two days before said Sparkling Clean. This is a 5 star property, same cleaner used. Gasp- there was popsicle left in the freezer, and coffee spot the size of a dime on the floor. Another guest complained the fan on the oven too loud and wanted a repair person in to repair as she was staying two weeks. Repairman came and said not sure what sheâs talking about- itâs fine. and on and on and on it goes. Iâm exiting Airbnb for long term rental for awhile. I have become exhausted withe the nonsense of First world problems.
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By vetting I mean asking the guest why they chose your place? About plans for their stay? Checking their reviews and profile? Getting them to confirm they understand and accept your house rules that you find they are now breaking.
Not just ticking standard settings such as photo ID
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I hope Iâm not jinxing it, but since we reopened the standard of guests, mainly BDC with one Airbnb and one VRBO, have been excellent. Cleanliness, communication and acceptance of the slightly more onerous check in procedures we now have in place, all been great.
Saturdays check out stripped all the beds, bundled up the towels and put them in separate piles in the utility room, despite our check out instructions being to just leave them.
It would be harsh to mark her down on house rules because the apartment was spotless, sheâd taken the time to not only sweep and mop, but had cleaned the bathroom too. Ok, weâve got to do all again anyway and it threw a spanner in our personal protection routine, but the gesture was nice.
The clean/tidy factor has definitely increased since we reopened, to such an extent that it is unusual now to even find a towel left on the bathroom floor, or an unwashed mug or plate.
Long may this continue.
JF
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So the floor was not mopped, not 5 star and not sparkling clean.
I would have a talk with the housekeeper.
RR
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I frequently have guests who leave unopened, unexpired food and leftover items like salad dressing & butter.
One guest complained there was a box of ice cream sandwiches in the freezer so the freezer/refrigerator wasnât clean.
My response, âIce cream sandwiches! Jackpot. Enjoyâ
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Never, ever lower your rates!!! You have to respect your property and make the guests respect your property as well. We would rather our VR sit vacant than worrying about some guests who disrespect our rules and our rates.
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Iâve been getting more of this but it has calmed down a bit six weeks of opening. Like you I operate in Brighton which is a British City. I had the security team out constantly in the first three weeks with these types of issues. Regarding the extra guests I have installed CCTV outside all my properties and they are asked very clearly before they arrive that as part of the covid guidelines any extra guests must be confirmed before arrival. In two weeks the CCTV system has covered its costs as every other group were trying to sneak extra people.
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I just started this year (great timing) but have had at least 75% of my guests do very weird things. My latest happened today.
I got a message from my guest checking out âhad a great time but you may want to invest in a new toasterâ
Weird since I just purchased a new toaster in June⌠so I get to my cottage and on the counter is this disgusting old dirty toaster!
I dont know if the last renters swapped my toaster and sent that message as a ha ha we got ya or if the guests previous swapped my toaster.
I have so many questions. Who travels with a filthy toaster!? Who swaps said toaster and steals a new toaster!? Why??? It was 10.00 from Walmart - buy your own toaster 
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Youâd drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why guests do some of the things they do. One host said she thought a guest had stolen a lamp, and was really glad she didnât accuse him of that because she eventually found it stuffed way in the back of a closet under a stack of blankets.
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