I think having some key house rules is important but you also give yourself a headache if you don’t let little things go sometimes. Little things like leaving lights on or leaving minor messes that don’t take hours to clean. My most important rules are no unregistered guests and no parties, which are both relatively easy to enforce as we live in the home. From now on I’m going to tell people directly when they arrive about not bringing their own guests over since a lot of people have a ‘ask for forgiveness and not permission’ sort of attitude about it.
Yes, I think it makes a lot of difference for hosts who are actually on the spot (I am too) who can stop guests’ misbehaviour before it escalates.
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Yeah definitely. We have thwarted at least one fraternity party in our home just by being here, lol. Having a security camera and the threat of a high extra fee seems to work for some hosts who are not on site to discourage unregistered guests.
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I decided it does. You may recall my frustration about guests not parking in the proper area of my driveway. After trying repeatedly to change the guest behavior and not getting 100% compliance I changed things on my end. I put up security cameras so I can see their car regardless of where it’s parked. Its so wierd that when I quit caring where they parked they quit parking where I didn’t want them to.
One of my life mantras has been to try to focus on what I could control: myself. (given the caveat that I think a lot of control is an illusion.)
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We think alike 
I don’t like the idea of house rules because a) I expect guests to behave like civilised human beings who don’t need ‘rules’ and b) I don’t want to be given ‘rules’ myself and be treated like a six year old.
Admittedly I have a few basic rules in the listing (no parties, etc.) but nothing in particular that I reiterate to guests when they arrive. I expect them to be respectful of the quiet neighbourhood and mostly (so very few exceptions) they are.
If I had lots of rules I know I’d only stress over them if they were broken - even dumb things like taking out the trash.
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Probably not… you just hear about the crappy guests and not the good ones. 
My checkout instructions say to put dishes into the dishwasher and garbage/recycle into the kitchen bins. Basically, just pick up after yourself. I don’t need people to even start the dishwasher or take the garbage bags out to the street or anything like that. Just basic picking up after yourself after you use things.
So as I was cleaning, I just kept finding more and more things. They left a pan of oil on the stove that had boiled over. Oil all over the burner, under the burner, even a puddle in the drip tray. I had to take apart the entire stovetop to clean it properly. Spilled milk on the counter which poured over the side, onto the floor, and on and IN every single drawer. Had to empty the silverware and utensil drawers and rewash everything. AND, not only did they leave cigarette butts all over outside, they smoked in the house! I have spent thousands of dollars to get rid of the cigarette smell that was in the house when we bought it, and it was finally better. Now it smells again! I am FURIOUS. 
Oh my lord. Please tell me you took pictures and are charging them for all of that. Completely unacceptable behavior.
I did take a bunch of pictures. Just tried to call Air, but no one answered. Are they closed today?!
How much would you guys charge for something like this? The cleaning took me 5 hours when it normally takes me 2, so I was thinking $75 for extra cleaning charges (Air’s living wage rate x the extra 3 hours). But what about the smoking? I just paid for professional furnace and air duct cleaning to get the last bit of smell out of the house, and that was about $250. I had also just replaced the bathroom fans because that’s where some of the smell was lingering, and they smoked in the bathroom.
The $75 for the extra cleaning sounds very fair. We charged $50 for ours when we had to get food out of carpets and paint to cover food that was on the wall. Send the documentation for the air duct cleaning to air and hopefully they will reimburse you for that. If they aren’t answering the phone you can also send a message via the platform so it’s at least documented that you have a case open before your next guests check in. Give those people a 1 star review too.
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Oh I like this premise, it’s really interesting! I’m inclined to agree. But it so depends on what kind of listing you have, it’s hard to generalise.
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Yes, there are a lot of variables. It works for me though 
OMG. This guest just left me a 5-star review, gushing about how wonderful her stay was. 
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Same here. I have only 5 rules:
no smoking,
no pets,
clean up after yourself in the shared bathroom and kitchen.
don’t use the towels to remove make-up (you manky cow)
don’t put anything in the trash/recycling bins without checking with me first.
All other stuff is not under ‘Rules’, it’s about house maintenance/how stuff works, where they can put their stuff in the fridge etc etc,
That;s for my own place.
When co-hosting an entire property, it’s still the same principle: Rules are short and direct, no pets or smoking, no parties, no additional guests, respect neighbours with quiet times.
Everything else is under various sections of the House Manual, eg. what to do at check-out. They’re instructed to take rubbish/garbage and recycling out and where to put it. 99% of them do it. Some don’t. It’s irritating but not the end of the world.
The absolute MOST important rule for this entire property is RESPECT FOR NEIGHBOURS by keeping noise down after 11pm. We could get shut down if one neighbour complains, the way things are going. So, for me. it is best to keep rules short and simple and emphasise what it most important for that particular property.
If there is a long long list of rules, those crucial ones may get missed.
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That’s a very good point. And I agree entirely with the ‘respect for the neighbours’ thing. I find that 99.9% of guests do that automatically. This place is so quiet that the atmosphere is sort of contagious! I can’t really enforce the quiet rule unless it’s after 11 pm but I do go outside and glare if necessary
I don’t know if it’s restricted to the guests I tend to get but I find that most are anxious to fit in to our little community and not to do anything to incur my wrath - or a bad review. I think hosts sometimes forget that guests don’t want bad reviews too.
I don’t know, some don’t care. Also, on most other platforms you don’t get to review guests so there is no incentive there! I live close to the property I co-host but not so I could hear noise. I’ve spent a LOT of time sweet talking neighbours in the tenement block and making sure they have my contact details if there’s ever a problem. It seems to be working so far. Honestly, I think some hosts are just too hands-off and relying on cleaners to manage things.
edit not saying any particular hosts on here are too hands-off, just thinking of things I’ve read over the years
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Talking about reviews… you know that feeling when you have no idea what kind of review they’ll write so you leave till the last minute? I just got the ‘see what X wrote’ notification and it’s all in Korean. But there’s a smiley face at the end - yay!
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