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Although I’m not hosting through airbnb yet, we have tried renting to a few people we know. I’m considering it sort of a rehearsal, and meanwhile I am concentrating on updating the space, which needs some things like a new TV before it’s truly airbnb ready. So we had someone come in the other day, and they were very considerate guests. They cleaned up after themselves, they packed out their garbage to the dump, they stripped the sheets—
Which I couldn’t find. I turned the place upside down. I was ready to swear that my first hosting experience had been sheet thieves, and I was completely mystified as to why they would steal the sheets and not the very nice lamp I just bought for the place—
Until I found the sheets neatly piled in the shower.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that they stripped the beds, and I’m delighted that they were eager to help me out. After the fact, I’m sort of amused by the whole thing. I just don’t get the logic behind it.
Have you guys ever had something similar? Guests doing something harmless or intended to be helpful, but it just turned out sort of weird?
Oh no! When guests strip the bed it becomes far more difficult to check for staining and marking. In fact, the few times I have had guests who did this, I had to put the linens back on the bed since it is the only place I have big enough to see the complete sheet.
p.s. There are quite a few cultures that do seem to leave linens and towels in the bathtub. Doesn’t make sense to me, but I have seen it too often when I worked at B&Bs to think it is random.
Be sure to have your required check out procedure in your house manual. True, a lot of guests won’t read it, but it’s good to have, Intersperse the information with info they really need like the wifi user name & password - then it’s more likely to be read.
I tell guests in the manual that there’s no need to strip the bed but some do. I also tell them to leave used towels in the laundry basket in the closet, which they rarely do.
Most guests leave used towels, bathrobes, wash cloths etc. in a neat pile in the bathtub - the equivalent of the shower in your case.
Why in the bathtub I’ve no idea, like @anon67190644, but it’s better than leaving damp towels on the mattress or wooden floors/furniture so there is a certain logic.
P.S. Welcome (in advance) to hosting! Believe me, you’ll find things in much weirder places than in the bathtub. I’m still trying to figure out my famous tomatoes-under-the-ottoman
But honestly, our rentals are really small - 450 sq ft - but I’m always find that things have gone missing and then find them in odd places.
A good thing to know is that I’ve been doing this for several years and only lost one thing - a beach towel. So if you find things missing, look in the strangest places and they’re probably there!
Most of our guests leave the beds simply pulled up but leave used towels hanging in the bathroom, unused in the closet.
I did have an odd one this weekend though. After the young couple left, we found one of our large double handled saucepans in their room, looking as though it had been rinsed out. As we don’t offer kitchen access, they must have rooted about after they arrived, whilst we were out. My mind has been racing along unwelcome lines to work out why/what for. An improvised bidet??
A lot of hotels, even high end 5 star ones I’ve stayed in, ask you to leave the towels in the bathtub if you want them changed during the daily clean. Otherwise they will just tidy them up and leave them. Usually with some statement about saving the planet. But I appreciate it as I don’t want a new towel every day. Presumably this idea has caught on. I ask guests to leave all used towels, sheets etc in the shower/bathtub because it is close to the washing machine and means I don’t have to worry if the bed has been used or not if they make it up which some people do out of habit (my mother would do this) and then need to decide if it has been used or not (the smell test, no thanks!). It suits me so I ask guests to do that rather than “don’t make the bed up if you’ve used it” but then get towels rolled back up again as sometimes 2 people will only use 1 towel.
Possibly an improvised bucket as one of them was expecting to, how do you say, upchuck, either due to illness, pregnancy or inebriation, or some combination thereof.
All thought of, but swiftly discarded. No illness; cheerful of demeanour. Def not pregnant; condom in bathroom bin. Came back from dinner sober, didn’t go to the pub next door. Bidet? Shower next door, with hand held attachment for such ablutions. Bedside piss pot? Loo next door in their shower room. I think what bothers me most is that they searched our kitchen to find it.
Maybe they needed to soak their feet? I did something like this (in an entire apt rental) when I had part of a sea urchin spine in my foot. I had to soak a long time so I didn’t want to be stuck in the bathroom.
We also instruct guests to please not strip the bed due to our cleaner’s routine.
Ouch! I’ve never done it, but have seen children in Portugal who have. It’s a possible soak-episode but they didn’t hike anywhere, simply zipped about in an open top mini cooper. Our other guests the same night hiked from Dover to Deal and back again; no blisters or foot soak.
I hope it’s not something embarrassing like: “we like to soak our used sex toys overnight in cleaning solution before drying them and putting them away”. I guess if they refuse to answer then it is definitely that.
