Guests arrive tonight after lots of hand holding en route, ie warnings about highly publicized road closures elsewhere in the state they didn’t bother to know about, giving them an escort up the driveway… Anyway, they get here and are under the impression they have rented the entire house ($89/night) when it is abundantly clear that we rent a (nice) room in our house. We are also clear about limitations in the (small) kitchen, but the first thing they asked for was a kitchen tour so they could get set up for cooking. We informed them that we have all that information in our house rules. FYI, Our kitchen rules are real clear and other guests always do fine with them and eat quite well. Anyway, drum roll here… “Oh, well, we didn’t read the rules.” Update: They have just rifled through the fridge when we have a designated small fridge for them in their room. Long story short… these guys are looking to be the guests from hell. Do hosts ever ask guests to leave based on them acknowledging that they didn’t read the rules? I am more than willing to refund.
Absolutely! I would have them read the rules RIGHT NOW and agree to follow them or terminate the stay immediately; AND if they decide to stay/you let them stay, let them know the stay will be terminated if they break the rules. NO WAY would I allow this situation to continue. I have guests respond back to me to confirm they AND every person in their group has read the rules. And, when I send the access code I clearly state that entering the house is firm confirmation that the rules have been read and will be followed. It includes what happens if they don’t follow the rules, including termination of stay with a $300 service fee (this is to encourage rule reading 
) as a possible outcome.
You rock. Thanks for making me feel like I’m not out of my mind.
You are definitely not out of your mind. People can be a trip. $89/night for an entire house - give me a break (I stand corrected below 
). Be sure to call Air & let them know what’s up. I wouldn’t count on any help from them but it can be good to have things on record, just in case. I had someone try to break a big rule a couple of months ago & I called them and gave them the option to comply or terminate the stay for a refund…I then later added that $300 service fee clause. I was nice…kindly stated that it had become clear my property did not meet their needs & they were welcome to look elsewhere. They chose to comply and actually ended up being good guests (clean, checked out on time & followed procedures & rules).
Actually, I have an entire house I rent on AirBnB for $86 a night…. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with kitchen, dining room, living room and tiny study, and a nice garden. I even give a discount for longer stays and it’s generally rented out for 2-3 month periods to people moving into or out of the area, or working here temporarily.
However, it’s in West Virginia (lower cost of living here), and the neighborhood is definitely rundown, working class.
This is the listing. There are actually cheaper houses on AirBnB in my area, but this one is the nicest for the money, I think. You can find one bedroom apartments for $59 a night, or studio apartments for as little as $45 a night in my area.
i do like that process !!
Different markets, different rates.
Off season here in the south of Spain it’s easy to pick up whole house listings (mostly apartments) for under $100 per night. In our neck of the woods desperation rears its head off season, and you see 2/3/4 bed properties going for peanuts.
Rather than join the race to the bottom, we now simply close for January and only open up at weekends in December. Our style of property is a bugger to heat, which means less chance of a poor review, no massive electricity bills and gives us a break to do maintenance and chill.
JF
Also, be sure to put in in writing via message to guest and also in writing to airbnb “customer service”.
WOW! I stand corrected…won’t find prices loke that where we are for a entire house to yourself like that. Your house is lovely!
I can see how a monthly minimum would make rates so low profitable but I’m with you on that seasonal deep-dive…I wouldn’t do it unless I had to (I realize some folks are in this position).
I haven’t but I would follow the advice to have them commit to the rules or leave with plenty of documentation. Not reading is common. I cut people a little slack if they are only using their phone since it can be difficult, but that is really their problem. I have a confusing home to park at and enter so I send very explicit directions with cautions about common mistakes. I found a man in my neighbors driveway looking confused. He said he was just reading my directions!
I have an upcoming guest - who used to be a host (coffcoff) - who told me flat out she didn’t read the rules (finally has after 3 days of back and forth about several things she didn’t read), didn’t realize the cat is here (is allergic, didn’t respond to "maybe this isn’t a fit, can’t control cat dander) even though cat is pics 4, 5, and 5. Still hasn’t followed basic instructions. This ought to be interesting.
People. Don’t. Read…
It’s funny that way, the reading thing. We offer a 10 percent discount to teachers and active duty military and place that info at the end of our rules. They usually find it. Well, coffee is brewing and it’s a new day. I’ll keep y’all posted. Give your kitties a belly rub for me!
What a sweet place! I would love to stay there. After reading your info, of course!
It doesn’t matter if they say they didn’t read the rules. They ticked off a box, in the booking processs, confirming that they have read the house rules, understand the house rules and will follow the house rules. It is not small print, it is a major part of the booking process, you cannot book without going through that house rules confirmation.
@Keugenia I mentioned earlier when talking about the old house I had in Canada that I wasn’t sure how to describe the style of it. But it looked a lot like yours, now that I see your listing. I never called it “Victorian”, because I always thought that meant the “painted lady” houses, with all the elaborate gingerbread-y decoration.
Lovely place. Looks like you may be leaving money on the table. The decent places in your area seem to charge $145 +. Up to you.
There are different styles of Victorian houses. As it got closer to the twentieth century they got more simple. Some of the styles are Carpenter Gothic (which is a sub category of Gothic Revival), Gothic Revival, Second Empire, Folk Victorian, Stick style, and Queen Anne.
This house was a Queen Anne Victorian but a simple one—no turrets or bay windows. Some of the exterior detail over the doors and windows was removed by a previous owner. We can still see the “ghosts” where they were removed. The house next door, which is a twin to this one, didn’t remove those details but merely painted over them. I’ve toyed with the idea of asking if I could take a rubbing of them and then have a carpenter jigsaw the pieces and reapply them.
I don’t think so. The occupancy rate is such that I think it’s about right. This is not a tourist area. People mainly come here to visit family or work. It’s not a high demand area.
Plus, you are forgetting the neighborhood. This is definitely one of the two nicest houses on the street. In a different neighborhood I could charge more and get away with it. The neighborhood is not dangerous or high crime but it is run down. The neighbors are either working families or retirees, most of whom struggle a bit financially so the houses suffer a bit from deferred maintenance.
I have a Gothic Revival that I live in and a Queen Anne that is one of my STR’s. Only 4 years between them.