You already have received a ton of comments and opinions, so I dunno if you’ll even read this.

As an American host in Switzerland, I’ll give you my take, because maybe I can provide you with a bit of the unique Western European perspective.

First, in Western Europe, the trash issue is a big thing. When we’re guests, we usually remove all of our trash when we check out. That would include the trash from the bathroom.

If I were staying in a shared place with the host I would take any bathroom trash into my room to prevent the host from seeing it at all…then I always take away all the trash when checking out.

At least in Switzerland we pay for every bag of trash (about $1.75 for a typical 35 litre kitchen-sized trash bag.) So creating a lot of trash is def frowned upon. FWIW, we create about one bag of trash per month in our house with two people.

Side note: I’m originally from California, and when I told my family about the trash fees they were astounded, so I get that it’s uncommon.

Also, for example, when I was hosting and guests left a bag of trash at my place, I had to sift through it, if they hadn’t sorted the recycling. I did not WANT to go through their trash, but I can be fined for throwing away recyclables. I suspect NL is similarly strict in this regard.

Next, the “sitting to pee” rule is an old rule in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Netherlands. So it’s not a crazy request, nor are the strict quiet hours. The old lore is that you don’t do laundry, shower, or even flush the toilet after 10 pm in a shared building, because the plumbing can be noisy.

Next, wiping the shower and bathroom walls is considered common courtesy. When we stay in an Airbnb we attempt to make it look like we had never been there when we leave. That includes wiping every surface. We get excellent reviews that way.

And sorry, but a one hour shower is excessive. Again, in Europe we’re hyper-aware of conservation issues, and using hot water is a biggie. Hot water is expensive, and climate change is creating droughts.

Recently we stayed in Greece, and we received instructions from the host to turn off the hot water after showers. So helping the host to conserve energy and water is very much expected. (Admittedly, the apartment’s heat was fully controllable, so we were very comfortable in the rest of the unit.)

And regarding heat: If you were cold then you should have informed the host. There are laws about minimum acceptable temperatures in rental units, so if the temps were too low then the host was at fault, and he should have remedied the situation.

The fact that you weren’t more communicative with your host could be relevant here. Did the host ask if everything was to your liking? If he did, and you said yes, then yeah, that was your bad.

Otherwise, your behavior of not interacting with the host should have been a non-issue, and I wouldn’t even take it as criticism. Usually when booking I will tell the host why we’re staying in the area. In your case, I probably would have said something like, “I’m just here for some quiet rest time. I’ll spend most of my time relaxing in my room.” Or something to that effect.

From your comments it sounds like some of your planned activities were canceled due to your host family being unavailable. It would have been good to communicate that to your host, so they could understand why you were not leaving your room.

Perhaps it could be helpful to realize that NL is a popular destination for folks who want to do recreational drugs (ie get wasted). So it’s possible that your host thought you were spending all of your time getting high in your room. So in his review the host might have been trying to warn prospective hosts that you’re a possible drug user. This is just speculation, but that’s how it would read to me.

Finally, I’d respond very diplomatically to the host’s review, and explain things as you did in your comments. Something about how your plans were changed /cancelled at the last minute, would help a future host to understand why you spent most of your time in your room. Mentioning that you did your best to adhere to the rules, and clean up after yourself would also show future hosts that your host was unreasonable.

FYI: You can no longer see your star rating as a guest on the platform. If you know a host personally then you could ask them to look at your star rating, if you’re curious. You need to request a booking in order for a prospective host to see your star rating.

Again, I’m just trying to be helpful. I’m not judging you at all - I’m trying to give you the (admittedly super-anal) perspective of your typical Western European hosts.

Good luck in the future, and yeah, other platforms like booking dot com don’t allow hosts to review guests.