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I think @Brian_R170 's theory is correct - that long term guests gradually feel that they are more and more at home. My neighbour had a guy who painted the white walls of the bedroom green and the white wicker furniture dark brown.
Most of my bookings were 1 month plus. Everyone was in for work. They didn’t have time to get acclimated. At least one, a thoracic surgeon, slept when she could at the hospital for 3 nights at a time.
The problems came with shorter stays at a low price. I was rabidly pursuing 5 stars to compensate for a punitive 1 star. Oh well!
Well I am in the middle of this situation now. I knew the wife was having a surgical procedure and they wanted to stay closer to the hospital just in case something went wrong. Well- the husband who is extremely well educated and bored with nothing to do is finding things to bring to my attention. He saw a palmetto bug in the house so I immediately sent exterminators in who sprayed both the outside and inside of the home. (I have a report from the company which lists all areas they addressed and also shows no activity found). The next day he sent me a message “not a quality of life situation” but the gutters were in need of cleaning because they were overflowing. This was after a hard rain and wind and the trees dropped their blossoms on the roof. OK-so I thanked him for his concern and let him know that I would get it taken care of. On day 12 one of my cameras stopped working but another one picked up that he loaded one of the suitcases back into his van. He left @ 7:00 a.m. this morning so I went over to fix the camera. It appears the birds nest with babies that was behind the camera had been removed. Guess this is a wait and see situation. Any advice? Oh they also asked for a discount and went to see the home prior to booking.
Thanks,
Lynn
I suspect they will want to check out early and then ask for a refund. Guess this is a wait and see. At least I have a detailed exterminators report which shows no activity anywhere in the house. They only had 1 other review and it was a 5 star so I figured I took a chance.
I was concerned about his wife who had just gotten out of the hospital and wanted to make certain she would be at ease something was being done. Anyhow I like the 4 page detailed report of zero activity in the home. Since I rent the entire house it could be another guest left the patio door open and critters came in.
Having just gotten out of the hospital, it was far more dangerous for her to be around insecticidal chemicals sprayed than a lone palmetto bug which posed no danger whatsoever.
I agree and I did ask both her husband and the pest control company about it. After her husband and the technician spoke they each said it was fine. They placed traps in her room. Even so I was not comfortable with it.
This. The last time I had a palmetto bug complaint it was when the guest had photographed the bug and knocked on my door to show me. I said 'wow, a palmetto. I haven’t seen one of those for ages. Thanks for showing me. Goodnight". And yes, she left a great review that said nothing at all about bugs. You have to take charge.
If bugs are a problem where you are, get a monthly contract with exterminators. Ours leave a receipt every time so if necessary (it never has been) I can show guests exactly when the place was last sprayed.
Yes we do this too. Even for our leased tenant homes we have the bug guys come by once a month.
General practice is to leave a paper trail of preventative effort on your end. And if something still happens, well, accidents and freak incidents do happen. But at least you’re off the hook.
I also tend to agree that nitpicky and whiny guests are generally unhappy people and will do this regardless of length of stay. A quick search online for one of the worst guests we ever had revealed several articles she had written about being a terrible mother that dreamt of abandoning her child because he didn’t do as she said.
The problem is they will never be as self aware as you want them to be. The easiest way to deal with terribly unsatisfied guests is to just offer to refund them and re-home them asap. It usually brings them back down from their high horse.
I just recently had a demanding and difficult guest. He requested four extra parking passes. He requested a check in five hours before the usual time of check in. He requested a late check out which my housekeeper had to change her schedule for. I did all of these things with no acknowledgement on his part. He wrote to me at 4:30 in the morning saying that the air was blowing cold. I did not see the message until 7:30 am but asked if he had turned the heat to ON. He explained that he did not but showed me a photo of how he turned the fan on and not the heat button. This was a group of college alumni having a reunion and not one of them was able to figure out that one must turn the ON switch to get heat. He then asked me for a partial refund because they were cold all night. Generally, I will offer a refund of some sort but not this time.
100% of the time that I’ve had to resort to this they have chosen to stay. And the rate of whininess decreased substantially.
However, I will say there is still a risk that you will receive a bad review. But it is what it is. We are Super Hosts with an overall high rating and 100 reviews. The best way to combat an unreasonable person with a bad review is to respond professionally and competently in the public response.
A bad review can be buried over time. But bad guests will have to live with their horrible personality forever.
Do they really just make statements like that? Just telling you what they are doing vs asking permission? That’s takes some !
Do they ever come back w/ a response?
Me…I’d take the “HINT” (I feel this is an appropriate use of “” @JJD), but I’d never presume to just tell someone what’s what at their own place either.
Yes, quite often. But I ignore what they want (unless it’s possible for me to do so) and I just tell them about the reality.
Of course they can’t check in at 11 am because the previous guests are still packing.
Of course they can’t bring more than one vehicle because there’s one space.
Of course they can’t check out 2 because the next guests will be here two hours later and I need to prepare the place.
Once guests are told, they seem to just accept the reality.
I don’t do this often and I will have to see if it has any impact on the reviews.
My most recent experience when I did this was it didn’t impact the review. This guest wanted late check out. I explained to him that I can’t because another guest is checking in. He wanted to come back to the property to shower in the gym. I said sorry, that won’t be possible.
), but I’d never presume to just tell someone what’s what at their own place either.