We just had our water go out in our rental. How do people handle this scenario with the guests staying in the house?
we live in a small town and plumbers aren’t available tonight. Hopefully can find one tomorrow.
Also, there is literally no rentals within 10 miles being Fourth of July weekend and living in a hot spot for the holiday weekend.
We have guests that checked in today. Here is the message I received:
Hi We are Turing in for bed and we just heard a loud train come through with its whistles. We were very surprised by this as I didn't read anything about being close to a train track. I am a light sleeper. Do these trains run frequently at night?
Honestly we’ve hosted over 100 people and have 5 star rating - no one has ever mentioned the train. We never really noticed ourselves - although if we are outside we hear it off in the distance. Its probably 1/2 mile from the house - so it makes sense that it would be heard - it’s just not really that noticeable with all the wooded are around our house.
I would just offer them a full refund just not to deal with it - and we could definitely turn around and rent it for the weekend. The problem is we live in a vacation destination and there aren’t any rentals with it being 4th of july week - absolutely none within 15 miles.
Is there a good way to handle this so they are happy?
I’m curious what people’s opinions are on this. We’ve been hosting for a few years and currently charge a cleaning fee. I could easily remove the fee and build it into the nightly rate, which would work out to about the same total cost for guests for most stays.
The reason I ask is that (from what I’ve read in this forum) some guests seem to view the cleaning fee as covering things beyond normal turnover cleaning. For example, leaving piles of dirty dishes with burned-on food, toys and games scattered throughout the house, or garbage left in multiple rooms. To me, the cleaning fee covers preparing the home for the next guest (which includes a deep clean that can take our cleaners most of the day), not excessive cleanup from a stay.
We‘ve been lucky - had over 100 guests and have never had a problem with any of them - they always get 5 star reviews and we have 5 stars as well. We ask (but don’t require) that they take out garbage, food and run dishwasher (we live in the country and don’t want to attract critters) - most people do these tasks some don’t - but we don’t ding them if they don’t. I am just curious what people’s opinions are because maybe my guests are thinking the cleaning fee is unfair and maybe we should change how we are handling this.
Do you think having a separate cleaning fee changes guests’ expectations about what they can leave behind, or would folding it into the nightly rate make no difference?
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to plan a trip to Belize and after reading a lot of posts here, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.
One of the people I'm traveling with is a professional fly fishing guide. We were thinking about staying on Ambergris Caye and hiring a local guide for some days, but I'm wondering whether there are also opportunities for him to get out and fish on his own. Are there accessible flats or areas where experienced anglers can have a worthwhile DIY day, or is most of the best fishing guide-dependent?
I also have a question about conservation and guide ethics.
The person I'm traveling with is very serious about respecting local laws and protecting fisheries and wildlife. Nothing frustrates him more than seeing fish handled improperly, pressured into long photo sessions, or harvested illegally. I've come across a few posts mentioning things like poor fish handling, shark interactions that seemed questionable, and even reports of lobster being taken out of season. If he witnessed something like that during a trip, it would definitely put a damper on the experience.
Can anyone recommend guides or operations that have a strong reputation for:
Also, what's the current situation with conch shells in Belize? Are there restrictions on collecting empty shells, or are conch populations protected to the point where visitors should simply leave them where they are?
Thanks in advance. We'd love to support guides who are helping preserve the fishery for future generations while still having a great experience on the water.
We rent the house we live in on AIRBNB (we then travel to see family). we are very strict if someone doesn’t have 5 stars we don’t rent to them. I realize people may get a review from a crazy host knocking their rating down but we don’t want to ever take a risk and we have enough interest in the house that we can afford to do this. we have NEVER had a problem in the 60 plus guests we’ve hosted and we get a lot of repeat guests and we love going beyond what is expected for our guests.
Yesterday we had someone request - they had seven good reviews and one that was bad. To paraphrase - It said the guests left the house a disaster and that it was bad enough that they couldn’t understand how the person had so many good reviews. They went on to say how this person got defensive when they were asked about what happened and the guest assumed that cleaning fees covered any mess they made.
I instantly declined. I knew I could reach out to guest to see what their perspective was but I don’t like to have any doubt about who’s coming into the house. Needless to say today we got another request - I think from her husband same city and same guest count. He had a few reviews five star and if he was the one to originally request I would have accepted it. Now I feel like I have to decline - but can I do this without an explanation? Will I get dinged declining two in a row?
Would love to know how others would handle this?
For the longest time the path light to our near fire alarm was turned off. recently I noticed it coming on again at night. I checked the app settings and the setting are set to off. Any idea of why this would be?
Also, on another alarm the batteries were chirping to be replaced. I thought it odd that the app didnt notify - I looked and there was never a notification that they were dying or dead. I took the batteries out altogether and my app is showing the alarm is still activated and working - even when I test the system. I am at a loss as to why this would be happening.
an ideas would be helpful - thanks in advance/