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Shared accommodation:
“I would like to move my X Box into your living room.”
“I have no problem with your WiFi. But I want to run a dedicated cable off your modem (up 16 stairs) to my room.”
“I used your address for my bank account. I had no choice.”
(Direct booking) having parents ream me out because I evicted their non paying the balance 20 year old after 2 weeks.
I eventually found solutions to all of these, but if it wasn’t for this forum I wouldn’t have the gumption! Thanks!
How did you handle the person who used your address for their bank account? And how have you been able to weed them out before they stay at your place?
Put it in your house rules, that guests must not use your address as a mailing address and return anything delivered as ‘not known at this address’.
Bank Account Man was one of my first guests. I learned later that he used my address for a number of things. I did call Air about it, but they didn’t have an answer, even when I pointed out that this was illegal in Canada. By then my guest was long gone.
All mail was redirected to the source including " whereabouts not known".
A few guests have asked about parcels during their tenure, no problemmo. Others have asked to use my address on government documents, etc. And that’s a hard no.
Hi, As per my experiment the best way to avoid guest is tell them you are not available and if they are already at your home tell them you already have plans to go somewhere!!
Lol
For us, because our properties are either set up for Work or Leisure/Play, our guest to avoid is families with young children that plan to spend 100% of their time in the house. I’m sorry to say, the mothers (and fathers!) are usually nightmares that need AND expect twice as many amenities than listed, produce 3x as much waste, mess with all your electronic settings, don’t respect House Rules (we’ve had families who have let their children pee in our vases, order shows on our Amazon account without telling us, take advantage of our cleaning staff, and use up all our toilet paper and paper towels in the course of an hour).
I also avoid Millenials (I am one myself) that specifically want to argue over a couple of dollars. Look, I’ve been broke before. I know what that’s like. But when I was broke I wasn’t trying to take bourgeois vacations and stretch every dollar that I had. I don’t care how many cheap empowered vacays you’ve taken through Airbnb, you don’t get to pay less because you’re pretty.
And last, if there was a way to predict which guests would be the ones to demand 4-6 hour free early check-ins, I’d avoid those too.
This is the quote of the day…week…no, year.
In fairness, I have no problem with “Millenials,” they are probably my favorite demographic for my rental. Your description of some problematic people is priceless though.
Yes! 
I love Millenials too! It’s truly painful for me to argue with these people over an extra $6 per person so I can heat the pool. Then I see them show off the house in their Instagrams like it was effortless and I can feel my eyes physically roll back into my head.
Because my place is set up for couples (the second bunk room only gets used about 10% of the time) I tend to get young couples before marriage and kids and older couples whose kids have scooted. I find both to be good. Younger people may not leave the place quite so clean but are enthusiastic when I ask if someone can help with some heavy lifting (I live separately upstairs but play the disability card if something heavy needs moving). Older people have interesting life experiences. And better wine and home made cakes. I think if you live on the property, albeit detached, you get a better class of guest or at least it puts off the worst kind.
The guests I get that don’t read the listing are just as unlikely to read that request. How do you get them to actually read it??? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanx!
For those “inquiring minds”:
I find that most experienced ABNB guests (those with reviews) typically provide information about themselves and their trip. Those who are new and/or don’t have reviews, I’ve added the highlighted section to my house rules. If I get an inquiry that doesn’t provide the information, I ask them politely …
“Thanks for your interest.
ABNB is a review based business and as such I do my best to ensure that my guest house and my guests expectations are in synch. Since you are new to ABNB and have no reviews, I would appreciate it if you would provide some information about yourself, your 2nd adult, and what brings you to Phoenix. I’d also like to confirm that you have reviewed the listing and house rules. In addition to the information about yourself, let me know what questions you have for me. “
This is so funny and true! Agh…the early check-in free-loaders…too annoying for words!!
Spot on! I’m nervous now as so many of my guests this coming year have made the dreaded ‘special requests.’ You never get a good - if any - review from them, they’re never appreciative…oh gawd…why did I submit to them in the first place?!
I’ve only been hosting since August 2018…so not even 6 months. I have three listings—all of them entire single family houses. Here are my experiences with bad guests:
Worst guest yet. 20 something from South American country. Made reservation for 5, showed up with 9–all the extra guests were family members coming with him to spend Christmas at our historic house, one of them was a child still in diapers (listing is not suitable for younger children). In addition, he or members of his party did the following:
Smoked cigarettes (not allowed on the property).
Broke a trash can (he paid for a replacement).
Checked out late.
Left the house unlocked.
Left for 36 hours to visit elsewhere and left the heat on 72 degrees in this huge house!
Took an new afghan of mine with them when they left.
Left the house a mess, with cookies crumbled into the living room upholstery, and dirty dishes everywhere.
Next to worst guest. Group of 5 who were all in their 20s. They drank all the alcohol (3 bottles of wines, several beers) in the house in one night, wiped out my generous coffee supplies, and left the kitchen a rank mess. Worse than that, a guest decided to dye her hair bright PURPLE while they were staying at the house, staining the towels, shower curtain, and bathtub.
Third worst guest. An older woman (my age—60s) who snuck a dog into my “no pets” listing.
I must say, all the damages I’ve had have come from 20 somethings…
Have you guys considered that maybe your guests are being more thoughtful than you think? Maybe they wanted to list those perks, but, especially with the older couple, they realized it may not be something you do for everyone so they were trying to avoid the conflict for you of having future guests say “she didn’t bring my bags to the door” or “they didn’t leave me any chocolate” Just a thought.
I have had just the opposite response. People over 40 are do a lot less damage than those between 18 and 22. My major problem is either smoking in the house or sneaking pets in.
I have had young people consistently ignore house rules, have large numbers of people over, trash the place, smoke and leave broken glass and bottles all over the place. This is for a no smoking, no events, and no pets rental too.
I cannot generalize by age. And there is no way of screening with 100 percent certainty. But I invariably aim for people who are working. Almost all are a week to up to 4 months. They answer questions and sound reasonable. I look at previous reviews also.
I have had sixty year olds and teens. Nationalitywise everybody has some experience, although from all accounts Latins never sleep.
Visible, conspicuously placed cameras are worth their weight in gold. Adding a significant fine and reservation cancellation for smoking, uninvited pets, extra people (and possible eviction by law enforcement for parties) into the house rules can also prevent some bad guest issues. They need to sound just stern enough to thwart the problematic guests before they even book…so they choose somewhere else [to trash].
Welcome to the forum @CREITER
In terms of your guests having large numbers of (presume contrary to your house rules), is this happening because you host remotely and can’t monitor those going in and out. If so, do you not have CCTV or similar to monitor those coming in and out of your listing?
And the same goes for those sneaking in pets against your house rules.
Every successful remote host that I’ve ever known, or been aware of, has only managed to be successful thanks to two things.
Airbnb is not a ‘landlord’ thing. There is a whole host of splendid technology available to help a landlord keep a virtual eye on his/her property and guests but technology can only go part of the way. (It’s also not infallible).
Many people will react in a ‘wet paint’ or ‘don’t walk on the grass’ way. Tell them not to do something and it’s so tempting. Many people will react to the way in which they are treated. Landlords who run an impersonal, faceless STR run the risk of being treated in an impersonal, faceless way.
