I just read your gifts for hosts and it is so over the top. 
AC? Could you just use it and bring it back to the store? One of our guests was asking us to put Central air on 70F and when we said we will freeze and refused, she bought portable AC that you put on a floor for 300$ and then brought it back to Home Depot.
Out of 40 guests only 1 bought for me 2 muffins. I as a guest when travel never do gifts but might replace items I âborrowedâ, like once in Ireland after having few drinks with. Host, I bought a bottle of Whiskey for him.
The pervert host you described is just unreal. In US? I thought you were in Egypt somewhere. Washing underwear is just scary.
Yana, you do know that store returns arenât just so people can have free rentals? This exact mentality is why we have people treating our homes the way they do and asking for freebies and discounts.
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Let me say I loved your tales. You could be the David Sedaris of airbnb. Iâve met many jerks in my life and you certainly donât sound like one of them. Please go ahead with your plans to become a host. Your sense of humor and your understanding of what makes a place comfortable will serve you well. Since the sorts of places you stay are very different than my little guest room in my home I canât offer much advice on managing awful hosts. All my hosting experiences have ranged from ok to delightful. I hope you wonât give up on booking with airbnb as you are overdue for a âreversion to the mean.â
And I had a questionâŚyou said there were cigarrette butts in an ashtray in the kitchen. That would disqualify a place as being clean in my opinion. Even if I were a smoker. Thatâs the equivalent of turds left in the toilet. We all do it, but leaving it there disqualifies the house. LOL.
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Yana, I clean myself and charge a cleaning fee because this is a JOB, and I spend 5-6 hours getting everything spic and span. It does not deter bookings, especially in the high season.
I feel much less resentful of guests when they have paid me for the cleaning⌠AND I think it makes them leave things a little nicer. Otherwise they tend to think of you like a hotel, where they can leave it as is, maybe tip the maid but that is about all.
Of course whatever feels right for you. I was commenting on what is the guests responsibility as far as cleaning . To my opinion if they donât misplace things, donât smoke, donât leave garbage behind and donât damage anything- their job is done. But I donât think itâs their job to wash floors, dust and so on. Especially if they charged for cleaning. I donât think they have to leave appartment how they found it: with everything meticulously cleaned
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Absolutely agree⌠When I ask them to leave the apartment as you found it, I mean, take your trash, do your dishes. Donât leave a mess on the stove. They are not expected to do an escrow clean like I do!
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Some things are just unexplainable. May be she now has her AC on?
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maybe - her reply to my inquiry about the a/c was âitâs is not currently availableâ. Maybe she thought the end of season would bring cooler temps and it wouldnât be needed - the air coming up from the basement reeked of damp or mildew or something, so I suspect she had a flood and equipment got ruined. She never told me. Only said âno one has every complained beforeâ repeatedly.
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Thatâs my policy, too, in fact I specifically tell my guests (especially the nice ones!) that I donât want them to spend the last precious day of their holiday cleaning!
In some ways Iâd rather have a mess to clean than something that looks superficially clean and tidy - I like to bring order out of chaos - and since Iâm always going to do a thorough clean anyway, whatâs the point of it being done twice over?
And Iâve never had a guest that can create as much chaos as my darling children and grandchildren when they visit âŚ
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