This guest and their family arrived very late and then proceeded to cook outside of the designated hours. They booked for three people and four people arrived. Just about every rule was broken by the family. There was not supposed to be eating in the bedrooms; the extra guest did so. We have a policy of no air conditioning on in the daytime and these are specifically written in a set of do’s and don’ts in each room. The option is to pay additional money during the daytime if air conditioning is required. We did not charge despite the violations.
What alarmed us most was the number of cartons of beers that were brought into the property, filling my spare fridge completely. I could tell we were in for a champagne holiday on a beer budget. We are a no-smoking home. The guest’s parents said they only smoke a couple a day, so I allowed them to smoke on the deck. Biggest mistake ever because a couple means two packs a day where they are from and I spent days trying to rid the house of the awful smell.
The rental was for two rooms, a bathroom, and toilet. They received use of the kitchen and other areas at our discretion. The problem was the guest’s party considered the whole house their domain: like I said, champagne holiday on a beer budget. This culminated on the next to last night when the guests decided to turn my entertainment deck area into their very own ‘footie pub.’ This started at 5:00 PM and went on well past midnight. No consideration was given as to whether I wanted to use the deck or watch anything myself. They were watching footie and b*** the rest was the attitude. By now they must have thought they owned the deck.
There I was thinking my home had been invaded; these people are unreal. They went out the following day and upon their return, they expected a repeat performance of Footie Pub 2. I told them that the deck was for my and our family friends’ exclusive use that night. This outraged them and they said “but you haven’t booked the deck!”
I almost fell over laughing and informed them that I don’t book any areas of my home ever and that as guests they fit in around what we are doing, not vice versa. Undeterred, a contingent of them marched out onto the deck and sparked up the ciggies and glared at me. They then asked that I watch something different outside so that they could watch their footie inside in the lounge. I said they had individual TV’s in their rooms they could use to watch there.
This did not fit the Footie Pub 2 mentalities of booze and ciggies. Realising they were on a losing wicket they staged a walkout (just like small children stomping their feet) at 10:00 PM at night with the mum staying on to say “if you had just let us watch our Footie and use the deck then things would have been fine. Things have been great up until now.” Well of course they had been great because they had full use of the house for a third of what they would have paid for a full house.
I am starting to think the expectations of some Airbnb guests have moved beyond a sharing experience and wanting a full-service hotel or apartment. If you want exclusive time and space then book with the corresponding prices would be my suggestion. I hope people don’t make the same mistake of allowing these people into their home. I tripled my prices and we have a nicer quality of guest staying now.