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?

For everyone saying "read the reviews", I did the same and still ended up in a place where they'd promised parking on the premises which didn't exist - and yes I'd double checked with them to be sure because I travelled with someone who wasn't very mobile

AirB&B were useless and my honest and factual review - which even emphasised how lovely the property itself was - was deleted

Just out of interest, are there any sanctions/fines for breaking the rules?

Well maybe its aimed at people who let their 5 year olds eat pizza on the sofa with their outdoors shoes on.& let them eat biscuits on the upstairs carpet.
I had some atrocious clients when I rented out. Including 1 gem where the clients allowed their "Small, well behaved, Labrador" ie. 50 Kg Cane Corso, sleep on my sofas. which were ruined.

Please cook what you want, (maybe not Sardines ?)

The problem is that some people are dicks who leave food stains all over soft furnishings and don’t clean up after themselves and holiday let owners don’t know that that’s not going to be you - so best to set draconian rules for all. I think these are all perfectly reasonable.

A prawn, crab and salmon korma…

I completely get not eating meals on the sofa (although it still feels a little dictatorial) - but what about snacks? It doesn't say no meals to be eaten on the sofa, it says no food, so I assume there's a complete ban on any kind of food, including crisps, popcorn, or a bar of chocolate etc. Are you saying that you wouldn't eat any of those on your sofa at home?

I don't know if I'm interpreting this too literally though (am autistic) - I assumed no food meant no food at all?

I also think it's unacceptable to tell someone at the last minute that they can't eat curries or fish - what if that's your main diet? OP is a pescatarian so that's pretty inconvenient. If they're going to insist on unusual, super-strict rules, it really needs to be laid out for people to see before they book.

Tbh, I’d just ignore 5 and 6 as they’re unreasonable.

Batshit rules notwithstanding -- we once stayed in a perfectly nice gîte in France, nothing special but fine. The owner had been very kind and helpful, telling us where to buy the best seafood, go for meals out, trips, everything.
We were cleaning the house on the last morning, it had been hoovered, dusted and comprehensively tidied and DH was mopping out the floors so that everything was at least as good as when we arrived, when the owner turned up.
(We had also left some 75 Euros on the side as a 'thank you for everything' gesture).
But the owner started to have a real go at us for not cleaning and polishing the leather sofa in the sitting room, with a special leather cleaner. He said he would have to charge us a special cleaning fee for this, an extra 50 euros. Just for a sofa! (And who cleans and polishes leather furniture when they're on holiday anyway?)
We paid him the extra and as we left DH smartly pocketed the cash we were going to leave for the guy.
So he would have been better off not mentioning the 'extra cleaning.'

The strong smelling foods like curries and fish is a ridiculous rule. So is eating on the sofa! You'd be frightened to move around in there in case you broke a rule 😆. But I agree with the rest of the rules.

Those type of people won’t read the rules though or if they do won’t follow them.

The type who leave the place filthy don’t care what the rule is. It’s their holiday.

I’ve had people say I don’t go on holiday to clean. Well neither do I but I leave the place ready so the cleaner only needs to hover since that’s normally not supplied and the standard anti back / bleach cleaning. Beds stripped, towels all together. But everything’s been swept and wiped already.

Be that a private rental or a haven holiday. Lest haven doesn’t tell me what to eat 😅

Ha! I don't blame your DH

Rules 6 and 7 would be absolutely fine by me!

I don’t eat curries or fish, DD likes a curry but is fine without one.

Having a house rule against illegal activities is a bit pointless when they are already prohibited by the law of the land. So I cannot believe these are reasonable people. Do they really think that someone planning to break the law will change their mind because of these rules?

Maybe that poster is the reason for that rule!

Looks like you have found my mum's Airbnb! Assuming she had one. I got sick of her endless rules living at home and moved out as soon as l could

That mostly seem fine and/ or just reiterating the same thing several times.

The only one I think is really unreasonable is the no fish or curry rule.

For people who are picky, there sure are a lot of typos in that. That in itself is almost as annoying as their excessively long list of rules (which could have been covered with a polite request to treat the property with respect and leave it as it was found…)

it doesn't say no fish or curry, it says no strong smelling fish or curry. So I think you'd be fine with a korma or fish and chips!

No problem 😀

This is why I don't use Airbnb. I'd rather stay in a hotel or a proper rental.

I'd prefer to smell curried fish rather than a dog.

Totally unreasonable to not tell you their rules before booking.

Speaking as a host myself I think those rules have probably been made based on bitter experience! I don't think there's anything wrong with them, other than the cooking one which is outrageous, you are right. I have to say though that it is my fantasy rule! If you'd ever had to wash all your soft furnishings and clean a carpet during a 4 hour changeover you'd realise why...

Eating in bed, I'd love to ban that too after a guest covered my French linen sheets in pizza!

My actual rules may look odd to you too.
No dyeing hair ( had a guest who dripped bleach along the landing carpet. Had to replace the carpet)
No candles ( it causes fire when people knock them over)
No smoking in the hot tub( it burns the lining if you are blind drunk)
No loud music outside ( neighbours)
We cannot provide medicine ( after a 4am call from a guest who had a headache.)

Some of the comments here! Yes, people flush tampons, nappies etc unless you tell them not to
Yes, people use holiday lets as brothels/ drug dens/ to film porn. Unless it's in the House Rules Air BnB won't support a host.

Sounds like to me they are preparing to keep your deposit for cleaning.

Airbnb rules give me anxiety and I have stopped using it unless I have no choice. Never seen a rule about cooking fish before and we anyway always take our shoes off indoors!
one Airbnb we were in had post it notes waiting for us… on the windows about not opening certain ones.. in the bathroom about squeegeeing the shower screen and mirror each time you had a shower… and ironically the property was poorly maintained ( missing door knobs, one doorknob fell off when we were there and so the toilet door couldnt be closed) an antique huge 50kg mirror just leaning on a wall, unsecured waiting to squish a small child…

So I can’t burn a smelly candle to get rid of the fish smell? <joking>
Who even dyes their hair on holiday? 🤣
Your rules are totally reasonable.