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I’ll never forget about the guy from Florida. He checks into one of the units I manage in San Francisco, CA, with his wife and 2-3 year old son.  It’s mid summer, but if anyone knows San Francisco, it only gets above 85 degrees 2-3 weeks out of the whole year!  It was one of those 80 degree evenings and not very many people in SF have air conditioning.  We laugh here because our air conditioning is literally to open a window and get air flow. 

He checks in, he’s not happy, asking where the A/C is and we told him to open the windows in the front and back of the building, it was 8pm and already cool out, it would have cooled down within an hour had he done that.

That was not good enough for him, he demanded that we get A/C for him.  I explained multiple times that SF is usually not very hot and not very many homes in SF have A/C but that I would be happy to get him a couple of fans.  The neighbors below his unit called me to say this guy was yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs for the past 15-20 minutes as well as stomping up and down the hallway and now they are pissed.

I called the guest back to ensure he opened the windows and let him know that I would be dropping off a few fans, he proceeded to yell at me, call me names, and threatened to sue me and the home owner.  ONLY so that I could say I did it, I grabbed a few fans, asked a male friend to come with me for protection and dropped the fans off in front of the guests door. 

The downstairs neighbors went up to talk to the guest who was still apparently yelling and throwing heavy items about the apartment which caused the guest to get even more threatening! At this point the downstairs neighbors are scared for their life so I had to get Airbnb involved to get this guy and his family out of the unit.

After several hours of going back and forth with the guest and Airbnb, the guest finally checked out at 11pm!! It was a huge ordeal, I had to go over with my male friend after 11:30pm again to ensure the guest was gone, the apartment was OK, and that the keys were there and to change the lockbox code. 

He was one of the worst guests I’ve ever dealt with!

As hosts, we’ve had our fair share of unpredictable moments — but one stay several seasons ago taught us more than we ever expected.

We welcomed a recently widowed mother who was trying to give her teenage kids a break after losing their father to cancer. The trip was emotionally charged from the start, and we truly wanted the stay to be a chance for them to breathe, heal, and smile again. We left a bottle of prosecco in the fridge, stocked the home thoughtfully, and stayed ultra-responsive.

From day one, though, we began receiving a steady stream of messages:
• A plastic toaster “too plastic.”
• A coffee maker that self dispenses “too confusing.”
• A wine opener “too flimsy.”
• A missing-in-action muffin tin.
• And, our personal favorite — the blender was too loud to be acceptable. (We are still searching the earth for a whisper-quiet blender.)

Every minor inconvenience became a crisis — including a few ants that arrive every summer on the entire island, rusty bicycles (salt air is undefeated), and pool toys that, unbeknownst to us, had been taken by a prior guest.

We empathized, we explained, we supplied, we clarified, we guided — daily. By checkout, we had done multiple rounds of remote problem solving that most guests would shrug off.

The review?
Our first and only 4-star review ever at this property.

The lesson we walked away with:

Even when you pour everything into the guest experience…you cannot control what a guest brings into the home emotionally.

Hosting isn’t just about amenities. It’s empathy, patience, and knowing when feedback is about grief, not grout.

We quietly upgraded what we could (including that notorious salt & pepper grinder) — but we also learned to protect our own mental health as hosts. Sometimes you can’t please everyone, and that’s okay.

If nothing else, we’re forever humbled…and still laughing about the loud blender. After that week, we realized monitoring noise isn’t the hard part — monitoring expectations is.

The only one that comes to mind is that one time one of our guests in Lanzarote called us saying there was “a small problem” with the house.
We went over thinking something was broken — but when we arrived, they just wanted help turning on the washing machine, because they thought it was a dishwasher.
Still don’t know how you could confuse a washing machine for a dishwasher, but it was really funny.

🤣🤣🤣

When a homeless person tried to check in through my Airbnb profile in Happy Rock, I knew my August Locks were in jeopardy.

being that I am merciful, slow to anger, and a missionary of charity, I let him enter (John Michael) took his name, prayed with him, and asked for a review.)

this was in 2015 when I lived in an ADU in Gladstone, OR nicknamed Happy Rock. He found me on google, stalked me, and decided to take his chances. All good came about it in the end.

Our first STR was (and still is) a beachfront condo on the 2nd floor of a 5-story building, in Ocean City, Maryland.

One of our very first guests got locked out due to dead batteries in the keypad. Luckily he was a fireman, and had the resourcefulness to call the local fire department for help. They brought a ladder so they could access our unit from the beachfront balcony (which he luckily left unlocked). It all got solved with pretty much no intervention on our part.

From that point forward, we knew the importance of keeping a spare physical key in a lockbox!

Fast-forward a few years, and the same thing happens again! (This was before we had Hospitable Devices to notify us when batteries are low!)

No worries, this time we've got a spare key!

Except .. we don't. Because we had replaced the keypad the week before, without remembering to replace the spare key that goes with it! 

With our guests waiting impatiently, we remember the fireman's solution from years earlier. My wife drives down the street to the Ace Hardware store, figuring on buying an extension ladder. Instead, she crosses paths with a roofer in the parking lot who happens to have a ladder on his truck! 

The contractor lent us his ladder, and this time it was ME scrambling up the ladder and over the balcony railing, to access our unit from the outside! 

I open the main door from the inside, to greet the guests who have been locked out. They're in their swimsuits because they were on their way to the beach. I had tried to encourage them to go enjoy themselves while we worked on getting inside, but they insisted on sticking around until it was sorted out.

The wife realizes she forgot sunblock, so she goes back into our unit, then comes back out, pulling the door closed behind her, and pushing the "lock" button.

Mind you, this is BEFORE I've had the chance to replace the batteries.

And wouldn't you know it, the batteries decide they have just enough juice left in them, to lock the door one last time, before going completely dead again. 

I watched her do it. I was speechless for a full minute. I bit my tongue, and suppressed a fair number of obscenities that tried to escape me as I calmly called a locksmith.

Oh, the joys of hosting!

Just over one year ago, my newest house -- perched on the steep side of Mt. Mitchell, NC -- received 31.5” of rain in just 36 hours. Hurricane Helene had arrived and dumped more rain in my tiny town anywhere else in this storm. While the house stood strong the only road in and out of the neighborhood was completely demolished by several landslides that left mountains of trees and mud. 

We knew a storm was coming, warned our guests and they assured us they were hurricane-hardened south-Floridians and wanted to stay put. What they got was 4+ days of being completely trapped on the mountain without running water or electricity, no communications whatsoever (cell towers and land lines went down) and extremely limited food for themselves and their yellow lab.

I was, naturally, beside myself -- I didn’t know if they were alive, okay, and if the house was standing. For 4 days!

I am forever grateful for a lot of things from that time but two of the biggest are that my guests were tough, resourceful and intrepid and that my neighbors are incredibly kind. My guests - a lovely couple - had actually prepared and filled the tubs and whatever they could with water. Used the propane grill for cooking what they had for food and just made do. My neighbors came up and checked on them, brought them dog food and human food and after 2 days invited them to a neighborhood “pot luck” to use up the food from everyone’s defrosting freezers. One of my guests of was a retired fireman who spent a day with other digging one of my neighbors out of her house. Another neighbor climbed to a nearby mountaintop to send an SOS text to me sharing that my guests were okay (I’ve never been so relieved).

After four days, my guests walked out -- with bags and dog -- leaving their car in my driveway to be dealt with later. Once they were down the mountain, another neighbor was able to take them by 4WD out of the area and eventually to Asheville to the airport. 

I talked to the guests a day or so later, hungry to hear how they were, what had happened, how they got out, what they’d seen. They were just wonderful -- it was clearly traumatic for everyone but she’s a nurse and he’s a former firefighter and so they just kind of managed through it as they would any emergency. 

Helene was an extraordinary and unexpected blow to the Appalachians and the losses are immense but it’s incredible to see the areas come together and recover. I think we’re all a lot more aware of the realities of what CAN happen and hopefully a lot more prepared for emergencies as a result -- I know I am and all my houses are!   

I had a guest that called to tell me that there was a rat in the toilet. A rat swam up the city sewer pipes into the toilet and now it could not get out. I start calling pest control places, but it is 9pm and no one is going to come out to help. One pest control person tells me that they should just flush it back down. So, I tell them this and they give it a try but it won’t go down. Pest control then says to use the plunger and hold it in the hole so when it flushes it will go down. Still no luck. Pest control then says to put bleach in there to subdue it and then flush. The guest won’t do it. By this time the guest is getting upset and demands we do something about it. I drive over to the house and go into the bathroom. This “rat” is more like a cute mouse. I try flushing it down but sure enough it won’t go. I decide I’ll just capture it in a tupperware container and get this over with. I grab a plastic container with a lid and come back into the bedroom. The husband and wife are waiting in the bedroom and very nervous. I shut the door and proceed to go after it. After some commotion, I’m successful! I open the door and the husband and wife are huddled clinging to each other on the bed. 🤣 I show them the prisoner and exit. On my way home I pulled over to let it go on the mountain. All in a day’s work.

Last summer, a guest asked late at night if he could check in earlier. I didn’t have time to reply before he decided to let himself in… using the entry code I’d sent the day before. The problem? The apartment was still occupied, and he walked straight in—greeting the sleepy, pajama-clad guests who definitely weren’t expecting company! That’s when I learned two valuable lessons: reply faster, and never keep the door codes active before check-in time.

We are still new to hosting, but our most surprising moment so far has been when one guest didn’t follow our instructions when using the spa heating and the water evaporated almost completely, almost damaging it. After that scare, they left a 4-Star review because they weren’t able to use it for their whole stay. 🫠

As mentioned in a previous comment, we still took the feedback and are upgrading the system to something more automated and “self-protecting”.
We were glad that they didn’t break anything, but were really upset with that review 😭

Using smart tech, we recognized someone at a property during an unbooked day. We became quite worried and discussed with the owner if we should proceed to call authorities - he agreed we should. Upon arrival at the property with the police, we learned that the occupant was the son of the next booked guest. His father sent him the check in details and an erroneous check in date. Since the property did not have a smart lock, they opened the lock box on site with the code provided and made themselves at home. They apologized for the error, made us whole on the early (2 days early) arrival and we all felt relieved. You can communicate all you like via the messenger apps, but if people don’t pay attention, anything can still happen. The owner now agreed its time for time-based smart lock! :) 

Last winter at our Cabin, we had a surprise visitor...a curious black bear who decided to check out the hot tub! Late one chilly evening, the bear wandered up onto the deck and spent a few minutes inspecting the steaming water, clearly tempted by the warmth.

Thankfully, no humans were involved...just a few paw prints and a great story to share with future guests. It’s one of those magical reminders that hosting in the Smokies comes with its share of wild experiences; sometimes quite literally!

This is our first year with a Short Term Rental property.  It has been a learning experience and we tried to make it so easy by putting up signs with how to find and use things around the cabin.  We thought we had enough signs in the beginning with about 5-6 strategic ones.   Well we are learning that people seem to need way more direction.

Recently, we had a guest stay and the loved the fire-pit area and used it a lot.  Our next guest arrives and sends us a note with pictures, showing 5 of our kitchen non-stick pots and pans all covered with black soot and the inside non-stick area all discolored.  Turns out our guests decided to have an old-fashioned cowboy experience and used our kitchen pans on the open fire and ruined all 5 basically burning off the non-stick.  We had to purchase and bring up a new set of pans that day.  And now, yes there is a NEW SIGN by the fire-pit to please not use the kitchen cookware at the fire-pit. 😳

Another guest went fishing and decided they were going to clean their catch and do a fish fry in the cabin during their stay.  First off cooking fish inside the house make it smell to high-heavens and not in a good way.  Secondly, they tossed the fish parts and left overs in the trash can. Now we have a very sturdy trash box around the cans as we are in the mountains.  Now we know how sturdy because in the mountains bears LOVE fish, so the next day they call and say the trash box is turned over somehow.  I saw on our camera that a bear came and slapped around our trash box that weighs like 250 lbs but thankfully did not get into it.  NEW SIGN:  No cleaning and cooking fish in the cabin unless you take everything and to the trash dump that day and cook the fish outside.

Anyway, we have loved hosting and most people are so great!  We are settling in but I am sure we will have more signs coming. 🤠

A guest mentioned the washing machine was broken 😭 so I sent an electrician and he just said she had to press the power button 😭

Thanks to everyone who joined the giveaway! 💜

Entries are now closed. The Hospitable and Minut teams will review all comments, choose the winner, and announce it tomorrow, so stay tuned!

P.S. Some of us are on annual leave today, so we’ll get back to you on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend ahead, everyone! 💜

🎉 Congratulations, ​@anthonyrallo ! 🎉 You have won the Minut Giveaway.

Thank you to everyone who joined our giveaway - we loved hearing all your stories, Rats & Bears to Super Hero Hosts. We will definitely be looking to do some more giveaways, so keep an eye out.
Thanks again to all who entered.

Anthony we'll be in touch.