Who was your best, your worst and your weirdest guest?

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Seeing as a lot of us now have some time on our hands, and no guests :frowning_face: to bug us, it got me thinking about past guests.

Our best guests for me is a bit of a tie as it depends on the perspective of “best”. There was a father and daughter from Catalonia who stayed for four days and I was expecting a major clean up operation post check out. Ended up the place was spotless, and I mean spotless! The daughter had cleaned the whole apartment, top to bottom, on check out morning and they even left a fridge and pantry full of goodies.

The other is a family from the Alsace. They initially stayed for a few days while their son did his entrance test for the flight school here, we got on well and shared more than one glass of wine on the patio! A couple of weeks later, they messaged us to say that H had passed the entrance test and could they book (direct) for when he started his course.

They’ve stayed with us several times when visiting their son, and are now considered friends. When they are here we will eat together and they are one of the few sets of guests we’ve invited into our home. They were supposed to be here next month for H’s graduation as a qualified pilot, but that obviously is now on hold. We were all looking forward to the celebrations, flight school (we have three) graduation week is a big thing here.

Worst guests is hard for me, we haven’t really had many bad guests so my worst, to some hosts, will be pretty run of the mill I reckon. We’ve had grumpy, we’ve had entitled, we’ve had rude, but the title probably goes to the pair of young hookers who entertained their single client for about twelve hours, but had only booked for two. Never did manage to get the extra guest fee from them and the clear up operation was immense! Bottles, half eaten pizza, and the sheets… don’t mention the sheets! My OH reckoned that the stud bulls at the Domecq ranch would have been proud of the amount of semen produced that night.

Weirdest has got to be the German couple who stayed for five nights and the only time we actually saw them was a check in and check out. Bear in mind, we live on the premises, in the apartment above our two rentals.

It got to the point where we were wondering a) were they actually there and b) were they OK. I sent them an SMS, which got no response and we were considering entering the apartment on the basis of a welfare check. I then heard the street door being opened, then the sound of their apartment being unlocked; by the time I got out to the terrace they’d disappeared inside and closed the door. OK, they’re still alive then :slightly_smiling_face:

To give this some context, it was summer and they didn’t use the outside space once. They didn’t use the AC at all, and it was close to 40C during the day and 20C plus at night. Weird!

That’s mine, none of them terribly interesting, what’s yours?

JF

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My “worst” guest was the Chinese national who was taking pictures in the neighborhood at 10 pm at night. Someone called the cops on him. For some reason I woke up and checked my cameras and saw cops on the clip. I went out front and the front door was wide open, lights on, luggage in the room but no guest. Also no car in the drive, none on any video. I panicked, my heart was pounding, I was wondering if I should get my dogs or maybe my gun. I called the police dept but of course they wouldn’t tell me anything. So I just sat up by the front window and waited. He returned after about a half hour and explained that he’d just been taking pictures and the cops came and questioned him. He had parked his rental car down the street for some odd reason. He was a thumbs down.

Wierdest or least expected was a local girl who said she was booking a night for herself and her boyfriend to enjoy a night away from their parents’ homes. She arrived shortly after check in with a female. I thought “oh she must think she has to lie about her sexual orientation.” She and the female went in and out a few times for dinner and other shopping. Around 10 the female left and around 11 the male arrived. She and the male went in and out several times through the night to the drive and I think they were smoking (probably weed). They checked out on time and I went in expecting the worst. Everything was fine. No sex stains anywhere. There were facial mask boxes in the trash, a wine bottle and a couple of tall boy beer cans in the trash. It appears that she had a girls night with her friend and then she and the boyfriend watched TV all night. She was friendly and communicative and left a 5 star review. They weren’t weird, it was just completely not what I expected especially given what some folks seem to experience.

I can’t pick a single best. I have several repeat guests, two of whom I’d say I became friends with. Maybe the best was the 3 night stay couple who left me a thank you card with a $25 PetSmart gift card. There was the Chinese girl who was mugged who I helped and she left me a nice gift and emailed me several times. She said we would meet for lunch if I ever made it to Shanghai.

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Best:

A lovely 83 year old American woman with her daughter, travelling around Europe for a few weeks together. Despite Mum’s two knee replacements, they spent a whole day at Dover Castle, having walked the two miles down the hill to get there, climbing 25 flights of stone steps in the castle, then walking down into town for supper and back up the hill to bed.

They were huge fun and such good company; we ended up spoiling them something rotten

Worst

Second ever guests, wife booked, including for 10 year old daughter. Arrived early while we were finishing lunch, with a 2 year old as well, against our HRs. Stupidly, we let them stay but did point out that they needed to supervise 2yr old carefully, both inside and out, on stairs and steps.

First morning, they came down to breakfast, saying the two year old was still asleep. Cooed and ahh’ed at having breakfast on their own together, meaning their ten year old was left with me in the kitchen.

Two year old wakes up and comes to find them. Thankfully I heard him falling down the kitchen stairs behind me, and caught him before he fell on the floor tiles.

I read the Riot Act and got a 2* review for my pains. Two sides of A4, variously complaining that the roads were too narrow, the house was too clinically perfect (in my dreams…), they had arrived early and we were still eating; they felt like they were intruding.

They were.

I could go on, including details of how I would, had they been British, have raised a Safeguarding Alert with regard to the emotionally abused and neglected 10 year old.

But I enjoyed leaving a factual account of why I wouldn’t host them again and a 1* review.

Weirdest

Pretty similar to yours @JohnF . Canadian Mother and 21 year old daughter starting post grad something or other in London. Stayed in their room for four days watching TV, or coming down in pyjamas to fetch drinking water. The daughter had a problem around crockery being clean, and washed, washed and washed everything several times before using. Then we noticed that she was showering every two or three hours. Neither spoke to us except to grunt a greeting when forced to. Mr Joan described it as being under a passive aggressive siege.

On their fifth day, we had a party of four arrive; two friendly, jolly couples who broke the siege with their levity. They suddenly got up, dressed and fled the house, who knows where but not to the pub. We didn’t see them for the next two days, or indeed again, not even when they checked out. They left early morning and came back very late, checking out on their last day at 7 am.

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My worst guests were three guys that rented the house for three nights. They lowered the house temp to 50 (summer month) and then used every single comfortable stored in the armoire. They broke two refrigerator drawers, one dining chair and there was black powder all over the white kitchen. I was never able to determine what that powder was! Neighbors complained that the friends blasted their car radio till midnight everyday and just sat out on the driveway eating junk food, drinking booze and giving the seagulls Cheetos.

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We had so many stellar, respectful guests! There was a couple here from the East coast, they were visiting their adult son who worked at the famous 'Little Farm" from the movie. The shower drain got blocked and they took it in stride and were happy to use the bath suite inside our house. They were friendly, appreciative and wrote a note saying they felt they had friends here now.

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A little funny were the 3 soccer player/ coaches from Real Madrid! They washed out their jerseys and shorts daily to lay out in the sun everywhere to dry!

By far the worst was the lady that tried to blackmail us and got Air on her side and double refund until I got them on my side for my money. I hope they beanoed her really good.

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Best was a 28 year old guy and the reason I say he was best, in spite of pretty much all my guests being wonderful, is that I had anticipated something quite different. His profile said he’d been a member for 3 years, yet he had no review. The photo was of 3 guys holding up wine glasses, the written profile said he was a student and liked a mix of partying and quiet times. So I’m thinking yeah, 90% party and 10% hangover quiet?
Turned out he hadn’t updated his profile since he joined, he was no longer a student- he was the manager of 10 Dominoes Pizza outlets. He was so quiet I never heard him come in or go out, although he did a couple times each day. When he left and I went in to check the space, my jaw dropped- aside from the used towels hung neatly spread out on the towel racks, it literally didn’t look like anyone had been in there since I had cleaned for his arrival 4 days previous. He had wiped down the bathroom counter and sink, swept the floors, even made the bed perfectly. He had also brought down his small bag of garbage before he left, asking where to put it.
I’ve never really had a bad guest- my second guest ever sprang her boyfriend on me the second day, but she wasn’t pulling a fast one- she was young and new to Airbnb and just didn’t realize that wasn’t okay. She and her boyfriend left the room/bathroom a disaster, but didn’t damage anything and were otherwise super sweet, quiet, respectful, and friendly.
Another gal brought a guy home her first night and they woke me up stumbling up the stairs loud and drunk at 3AM and kept me awake for about an hour. I didn’t make a scene in the middle of the night, but told her the following morning that wasn’t cool and it wasn’t to happen again. It didn’t, and we got along fine for the rest of her 5 day booking and we never spoke of it again. She also took a towel of mine on a booze cruise and somehow got it switched with someone else’s towel (not even the same color), which was too thin and scratchy for me to ever use as a guest towel. Strange things in her garbage after she left- drug paraphenalia and a working iphone with a cracked screen. So if I had to pick a “worst guest”, I guess she’d be it, but really, she wasn’t bad at all compared to the guest horror stories I read.
I’ve been really lucky- Aside from the couple cases of “not exactly perfect” I mentioned, all my guests have been really fantastic and left their space quite clean and tidy. Many have brought me little gifts, brought home a bottle of wine to share, asked before arrival if I needed them to bring me anything from where they were travelling from, a lot really put time and effort into writing a lovely review, and one insisted on taking me out for dinner.
At this time when so many hosts are wringing their hands and complaining loudly about their financial devastation, I have to say, I miss having guests simply because I’ve enjoyed hosting and meeting so many great folks from all over the place- US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and New Zealand.

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This has been fun to read but I am somewhat hesitant to describe guests in a public forum. As mentioned in other posts, we never know who is lurking and I would hate to have identifiable guest information show up on a more widely read site or used against hosting in some STR basher blog. Anyway the topic created some interesting discussion at the dinner table with my SO. We agreed on the worst and weirdest but couldn’t decide on a best.

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Worst - a prostitute who rented my home to use as a brothel -but I caught her first!
2nd worst - multiple guests from a particular entitled area.
Best - recent Xmas guests who left it perfect and said I undercharged.

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You just gotta love guests like that. I had 2 separate guests who both arrived a day late, one because her flight had been overbooked and the other because her plane had some technical problem and had to turn around. I offered each to refund the first night they missed, since they had 10 day and 2 week bookings. Both said “No way- it wasn’t your fault and your place is great value.”