AIBU to be a bit taken aback by some of these ‘House Rules’?

[Speckly]

So I’ve booked an Air bnb for a long weekend. Going on this break will be myself (F54) DH (58) and our two DS (29 and 27). Neither of them live with us any longer but will each be meeting us there. In case it’s relevant the price for 3 nights was £346, which I think is a good price. There was no mention of particular rules in their listing (the first image is the list of rules on the actual Air bnb listing) but today (the day before we leave), we were emailed another list of very specific house rules (the second image is the list received from the owner today).
Now obviously we’re going to respect their property and be careful (we always do when we go away), but I do feel like some of these rules are a little bit over the top: Rules 5 and 6 particularly. Out of interest, do you think it’s ok to tell people what they can and can’t cook in the property when they’ve paid to stay there? To not let people cook fish seems unacceptable to me. Personally, I also don’t think it’s acceptable to tell me where in the property I can and can’t eat. Surely as long as I look after the property and it’s left in a good clean condition, I’ve fulfilled my part of the hire contract? I understand the owners want to keep their property in the best condition possible and I will respect their space, but I just feel like I’m not going to relax now and will be overthinking everything we do while we’re there. So AIBU or are these very specific rules a step too far, especially as they weren’t stated upfront?

This is why we stay in hotels now. I can’t be arsed with all the rules. No eating on the sofa? Technically you’re breaking the fulls if you sit and eat snacks whilst watching a movie. I also love fish, so not being able to eat curry or fish would diminish my holiday.

I think the problem is that with the very high costs of heating, fans, cleaning, washing linen, insurance and increasing tax bill it’s harder and harder to make money. One bad guest can wipe out the profits for weeks or months some places. It’s not a very attractive business model anymore. So hosts are becoming more and more anxious/controlling.

Another vote for “This is why I have gone off Airbnb”. If you want to host but have conniptions at the thought of people eating on the sofa or tracking dirt into the hall, please either up your prices drastically, don’t list on Airbnb or go full-tilt Ikea so that your furniture (and plastering?) is robust enough to withstand ordinary life.

Then the best thing is not to host.

I understand that it's extremely annoying but surely that is the risk when you rent out a holiday home. And usually the price of renting plus insurance compensates for that

It's daft to have white furnishings in a rented place if you do , it should be treated to make it hard to stain. People are on holidays and won't be careful

Exactly. It’s very, very silly to whinge about people staying in and using your property when you invite them in to make money from them.

Airbnb owners aren’t doing anyone a favour, they’re running a business.

This thread is eye-opening about the unreasonable attitudes of some - perhaps many - Airbnb operators.

There’s loads of converted telephone exchange air bnbs, plus forewarned is forearmed.
banning ‘strong smelling curries’ feels xenophobic to me.

Hear hear . ‘…my French linen sheets!’ as declared upthread is a perfect encapsulation of this

You've paid for this place and I don't think they can reasonably tell you not to cook certain foods, where you can eat, or how soon you should wash up
It's funny that they single out fish and curries. Other foods smell strong too – are you allowed to cook with lots of Parmesan or blue cheese, I wonder? Or boil clementines for a cake? That smell hangs around a bit.

They're uptight. Wash up when you like/when you can, cook what you want and of course you should eat chocolates or crisps or whatever on the sofa.

But then she risks a bad review.

We once rented a seaside house on Airbnb. It was very clearly a deceased estate and the heirs were just hoping to make a buck while probate wound up. Ended up with a bad review for leaving rubbish in the kitchen (the bin had gone walkies and the host had no idea what to do to get another), two mugs upstairs (??) and damage to antique furniture (a very rickety chest of drawers whose handle came off in my hand when I opened it looking for a key to the window lock, which I was trying to open to air out the place).

And then I had an uphill battle the next time I tried to book an Airbnb, because obviously hosts read your reviews just as you read theirs. And I was hugely stressed the next time we used Airbnb, because I felt I had to leave the place spotless to ensure I didn’t get another bad review and make myself completely persona non grata.

Honestly - never again.

AIBU to ask for a refund from the Air bnb I stayed in?
When I arrived the whole house absolutely stank of fried food. I am very sensitive to smells and I honestly feel I can't stay. I can also smell a slightly floral aroma which is obviously the host trying to cover the smell.
As well as this the sofa is quite badly stained on one seat- it looks like tomato sauce. It was also a little damp so I couldn't sit on it- the host said she had was trying to remove the stains. Well, that's not my problem, I paid a lot of money for this break.
There are obvious footprints on the rug. The host says she has tried to get them out but will need to get a specialist cleaner in. She wants to send someone round while I'm here! I told her no, which is a complete sentence

I might knock up a batch of chutney while I’m there 😉

It sets the tone and potentially makes one on edge

Leaving washing up for a few days is hardly going to bring about a plague of vermin !!

I prefer your unedited post 😉

@MyrtlethePurpleTurtle , It's gross.

What have other reviewers said? Be as passive aggressive as you want, they sound far too dictatorial to be running a holiday let.

I’d be tempted to write (but probably wouldn’t as I don’t know how negative reviews are treated on AirBnB), Lovely area, accommodation nice but rules felt too constraining when you want to just kick back and relax for a few days. Almost felt like I might be given detention and an instruction to write ‘I must not consume tea and biscuits in unallocated areas’ one hundred times.

This is exactly the point I was trying to make earlier, would people be happy to check in to somewhere that has the after effects of someone else doing the things that so many think guests should be free to do?

Or have their check in delayed because it's been made not fit to stay in and needs extra time or cleaning to make sure it is?

A lot of these rules are driven by guests expectations of what they should receive.

It is indeed gross, ‘a few days’ would have fly larvae on it for sure.

Strikes me as perfectly reasonable and also why I never use an airbnb. I like kippers for breakfast and the secret of cooking kippers is to use someone else's kitchen.

If you can’t manage new arrivals’ demands against previous occupants’ wishes to use the property properly freely, then you shouldn’t be touting your property out as a business.

Agreed, but you'd be unlikely to have enough crockery & cutlery to leave the washing up for that long.

I like hotels so wouldn't use air bnb thry swem too stressful, but in the case the rules seem common sense and I am presuming if people used their brains in the first place there would be no need to have the rules

But having to read them seems like school work holidays or breaks are not meant to be this be complicated

Who the fuck puts white furnishings in an Airbnb?? Madness.

Tbh them saying they’ve refurbished to luxurious standard for an Airbnb is silly, as is expecting it to stay that way. As they said, accidents happen.