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This appeared in the MSN feed today. Articles like this make me so irritated. I wanted to respond but need to “sign-in” to do so and I won’t do that.
My issues have to do with the author dinging guests on nitpicky things - like not emptying the dishwasher.
Atricles, and hosts, like this, are damaging the reputation to those of us who treat their guests as, well, guests! And have reasonable expectations - especially if we charge a cleaning fee. (I don’t and I also don’t have a list of chores for the guest.)
Great article! Telling people to read the house rules is a no-brainer, and letting guests know that ‘sorta following’ the house rules will get them dinged on star ratings is needed. Too many folks think that the rules ‘are negotiable’; that not emptying the dishwasher is ‘good enough’. However, hosts like me are pretty hardline on things in the house rules, since the results of lax guests can affect the stays of my other guests - and that is a nonstarter for me.
@Terryathome Not sure what you found so objectionable about that article. You said nitpicky things like not emptying the dishwasher, which I agree is something I wouldn’t even ask guests to do in the first place, but I think the point is that a guest who doesn’t do what was asked of them should not necessarily expect a 5 star review.
Because if a guest does do everything on a check-out list, earning themselves 5 stars, why should a guest who ignores what they were asked to do earn the same?
To some extent, I think it’s not fair to judge what are reasonable clean-up requests without knowing the circumstances of the listing and the price point.
For instance, for a rural cabin located in an area where there are bears or rodents, that don’t take back-to-back bookings and where the cleaner may not come in until it’s time to prepare for the next guest might reasonably ask guests to sweep up crumbs, make sure there are no dirty dishes with bits of food on them and that the household garbage be taken out to a critter-proof container.
What I think is unfair to guests is when hosts charge a hefty cleaning fee and then expect guests to do more than tidy up their own personal messes, just to make the actual cleaning take less time, asking guests to do things like strip the bed and start a load of wash, vacuum the whole place, etc.
And check-out chores need to be made clear in the listing info, not sprung on guests after they arrive, so guests who don’t want to have to do those things can choose not to book there.
I also cannot identify anything that would make a guest feel like that they aren’t “well, guests”…
I think that guests who feel like leaving the accommodation in a different state than it was at their arrival they should probably book a hotel or inform the host upfront that they will not be doing X,Y and Z.
For me as a guest, putting away dishes before I check-out the accommodation is the bare minimum. If the dishwasher would take too long in the morning to finish, I’d wash the dishes by hand. What’s the big deal? To me this is a matter of respect towards the host. We always sweep and wipe down any high traffic surfaces like kitchen counters or the dining room table.
I consider this being civilised and don’t expect someone else to act as ‘my mom’ because I don’t feel like acting as a responsible adult.
Apparently, there are many opinions or expectations what a ‘good’ guest may be.
While some consider a good guest to be someone who leaves the accommodation in a state that allows the host to rent it without having to replace anything (nasty mess but nothing broken) - when others expect guests to mop the floors before leaving the place.
The house rules should clarify the expectations of the host and according to those, the rating of the guest will be made.
It is well overdue time for AirBnb to have an educational campaign that teaches guests how to be “appropriate guests”. This rash of entiltled guests is their fault for not imposing parameters. Here are some starter points: 1. Read the listing thoroughly and follow all rules that are in the listing. 2. Communicate with host if asked questions. 3. No extra guests or visitors unless specifically given permission by host. 4. No animals without notifying host. 5. All noise should be appropriate for neighborhood rented. 6. Follow departure instructions 7. Leave house in the same general condition as it was when you entered.
That’s all very nice, except for the fact that it has no teeth. It says in that Airbnb policy “We are committed to enforcing these ground rules”, when we know that Airbnb does no such thing. And that if a host is so foolish as to report guests throwing a party and trashing the house, the result is Airbnb suspending the host’s listing.
