AirBnB/holiday cottage owners 'popping in'

[bringincrazyback]

Wondering what people's thoughts are on this. I'm talking about when the owner pops in on the first day to 'check you're settling in OK' (and, I've always assumed, to check the tenants aren't savages trashing the place 😄)

Also, if you own a holiday property, is it something you tend to do?

Will explain context later (longstanding member btw, not a researcher or anything 😄)

YABU = I like it/do it
YANBU = I don't like it/do it

It's fine with me if the owner likes to hand over the keys in person or pop in and say hello during the visit, though I might feel a little wary if they let themselves into the property repeatedly without good reason. I used to enjoy staying in old fashioned B&Bs where meeting the owner was part of the experience.

It drives me mad. I always pointedly ignore them so they get the message once I've got the keys.
I don't want to stand chatting to you, I'm not the least bit interested in you.
I'm here to relax on holiday, not entertain you.
We stayed at a place once where the owner thought he could just turn up when he pleased, until my husband angrily asked him what the hell he was doing, was he trying to catch our teenage daughter naked or something?
We never saw him again.

Ah this was a great thread!

Op, AirBnB has specific T&Cs that state the owner cannot just let themselves in unless it’s an emergency. If this happens, report them. If they need to repair something, they need to arrange a time with you.

I agree it’s really annoying if they knock on your door to chat to you.

I would message them if you’re at all concerned and ask them if there’s anything you need to know about the property as you don’t wish to be disturbed.

Take a 'do not disturb' sign with you and use it a lot

We own holiday accommodation and they are on our small holding - one is attached to our house. I meet everyone when they arrive with a quick hello, but otherwise we leave guests to it. Often we can go all week without seeing them, but if we do happen to pass in the yard we say hello & carry on our way - unless the guests instigate conversation. Everyone is given my mobile number so if they need anything they can message.
Each unit has its own hot tub so we do have to access the gardens every day, but whenever possible we wait until guests go out. I would never 'check up' on anyone, they know where we are if they need anything.

Our airbnb is on our property, we don’t do a welcome greet or anything, but if we’re leaving etc at the same time we might wave and say to let us know if they need help with anything.

Hired a cottage for the weekend with friends. We had dogs so I messaged before booking to check this was ok.

We'd been there an hour and were sat having a chat in the kitchen when I get a message from the owner saying....

"Hi looks like you have a dog in the group that wasn’t on the booking. Ideally I like to know about this in advance so I can remind guests not to allow pets on furniture"

I messaged immediately to remind the owner that we'd had a conversation about the dogs before I booked. He was fine then & remembered. It was in the notes section as proof anyway.

But then all of us felt completely spied on since we hadn't actually seen this person once!

We decided it was probably the ring doorbell and not that he had cameras hidden all over the hose. Bloody weird behaviour!!

Popping in when I'm out is NOT ok. So invasive!

My thoughts exactly 😳. We rent holiday lets every year, the owners popping into say hi at some point doesn’t bother us in the slightest. When did we become so unbelievably anti social? It’s sad 😢.

Chatting on check in and running into them into the street, seeing them out and about is perfectly normal to say hello too, them using their keys to pop in because of random reasons is not

How is it social when they are not friends? sure small talk is great sometimes but people usually want use the property the way they want hence paying money for it

Are they really entering the property for a chat? why?

Our holiday let is attached to our property. So we usually do meet guests on arrival to hand over key and answer any questions. We have a key safe if we aren’t in, but actually most guests say they prefer not using a key safe if hosts home.

We don’t ‘pop’ in, but obviously see them if we leave at same time outside. Our guests seem to like it tbh, most knock several times during their stay to ask questions about local area, or similar. It’s not uk though. And it’s actually pretty unusual for rentals to not be on someones
pro where they also live so it’s normal

We had the owner "pop in" when I was pumping breast milk 🙄

I run a couple of holiday lets and I don’t pop in because I think it’s intrusive. My manager suggested I pop in when I first started doing it but I knew I would hate it if it happened to me so I just didn’t.

I think if they were going to "pop in" they would knock the door and not just let themselves in.

In your situation I'd make sure all the curtains are closed and for extra security put a note on the door "catching up on sleep, please don't disturb".

We got a caravan so we don't have to put up with this.

My parents are having lunch tomorrow with the owners of a holiday cottage we rented 35 years ago and who lived across the road from the cottage. They'd left keys but there was an issue on the first evening so we had to go & find them and it just went from there. It turned out they had relatives who live near us in the U.K. so, whenever they visit the relatives, they visit my parents too.
Perhaps that has impacted on my outlook but I'd always like meeting the owner and find that they give you a useful nugget of information about the house or area or something.

I don’t like it to be honest. I once rented somewhere and the owner was to meet us on arrival. She asked loads of questions, had lit a candle and my SEN daughter tipped the candle over her kitchen counter. I would never have lit one around her because it’s predictable behaviour, in fact it still is I only use them when she’s asleep. Soon as she sees one she will want to tip the wax out and is not safe around them.

But you can imagine her face, I also arrived first before everyone else with three children all very young who were running around excitedly. It just made me feel very awkward about the property.

I am certain she must have thought she would come back to a trashed house. She didn’t though.

I like absolutely no contact. Key safe to let yourself in etc

God no please! We always go to self contained units with a key safe. I cannot think of anything worse than interacting with the host in person. I'll message if there is an issue. No! Just no!

We have a little cottage on our property and it's quite clear that this is the case when people book.

I am NOT a sociable person however If they arrive when I'm in the main house I knock to say hi and let them know how the garden spa works and to help themselves to garden fruit. Often I just do it out of politeness as it seems a little weird to be so close but not take the time to say hello If I'm not around I leave them to it.

Once I've said hi I certainly don't continue to 'pop over'!

I think I took my lead from other places I've stayed when the owner is close by. They've always been interesting and lovely interactions.

I take my lead from my guests. With some it's clear they want me to leave asap, others chat for literally hours asking me about how long we've lived here, best walks, restaurant recommendations etc. some guests seek us out for chats or drinks in the garden and I'm fairly sure they would call us rude if we weren't around to wave and smile and welcome them!

If it were me though I'd never rent a cottage on the owners land nor want to see them ever!!!

Exactly, could be doing a big shi*e on the toilet. Privacy please!

We rented a place in the lakes during which the owner continually 'popped' in regardless of whether we were there or not.
She also fertilised the garden when we were there without telling us - not great with a crawling child - and confiscated the bbq overnight as we hadn't cleaned by 9am the next morning having only finished using it at 11.30pm the night before.
The final straw was when she called the booking company she used and reported us for overcrowding which then meant we found ourselves justifying 8 people (4 of which were grandparents!) in a 10 bed house. She lost that one but still had the cheek to pop round to ensure we hadn't trashed the place on checking out day!

Hate it.

Worst is if they arrange for people to turn up and do a service on something! On holiday recently The owner sent around gardeners, boiler man for a service and a locksmith! Sorry. You don’t do that to paying customers. Holiday cottage had been free the week before and was the week after. No need to arrange them to come over when you having someone there.

OP, just message the owner before you arrive and explain that much of your reason for staying is to catch up on sleep and enjoy undisturbed peace.

Gorgeous cottage with regular visits from the owners ddog... We have ddogs at home but allergic to other people's.. Spent 3 days dosed up on pills and nasal spray.. It also stole all ds's stuff and destroyed it.