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I’ve had hundreds of guests over the past five years. I’ve got this hosting thing down to a fine art, even made superhost the past few quarters. Oh yes. And then tonight I did the stupidest thing. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t checked whether the radiator in the room was turned up. For some reason I was sure the guests were still out so I just opened their door to see if the room was warm enough. Why did I do that without checking first? Why, just why??? Normally I will check to see if the lights are on and knock just to be sure. Not this time, though. What was I thinking?
Of course they were in and getting ready for bed. Aaagghhhh!
I apologised profusely and they have been great about it (No worries, it’s fine, we understand etc.) but honestly, I feel such an idiot.
Anyone else got stories of stupid mistakes? Please? Just to make me feel better!
I once burst into the guest room to run to the front window and peer out seeking the source of a suspicious noise (their window has the best view of the area I was trying to see). As soon as I saw their stuff in there I immediately shut the door and again and pretty much thought the same as you. How can I be so absentminded. Lucky for me they were out of the room but I thought the same…what if I just forgot. After that I realized that a lock on the guest room door isn’t such a bad idea. It still took me a long time to get one on there.
Another mistake was writing a guest about their check in but I had the wrong Monday. They weren’t coming tomorrow but the next Monday. Luckily I was able to play that off as well because my message was still just generic enough.
I’ve definitely made enough mistakes to try and make myself forgive guests when they make them.
I was the same. In fact, I think I once rather pompously declared “This is my home and the day I put locks on the doors is the day I quit”. Mmh… Now they get a key but most of them don’t use it. I think this lot will, though
Couple booked in when we had the B&B, after breakfast I saw the car going up the drive, thinking great I can get that room turned over. Walked into the room, pulled the duvet off, and the lady was still in bed. I don’t think I will ever live it down.
After relating my incident to my son, he said ‘Well, it could have been worse - they could have been already in bed and you switch the lights on and just stand there staring at them’. Ha, he’s right I suppose.
Oh golly, I agree, the duvet for the win!!
I have a huge placard I leave on my placemat when a guest is due “OPEN DRIVEWAY GATE. CLOSE DOG DOOR” so I see it at breakfast before I go to work. No disasters yet, but I have had to madly dash home from work in the middle of the day because I didn’t follow my own instructions when a guest messaged “On my way.” And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done “one last check” of the suite and found things like the vac left out in the middle of the floor, bag full of garbage by the door, my wadded up dust cloth on the table, and most recent 3 expired date yogurts neatly stacked on the microwave cart. Airbnb gods, please continue to be kind.
Oh yes, I recognise that! A few times I’ve swiftly stuffed that thing into my pocket with a ha ha ha! when showing guests round. And then trying to surreptitiously retrieve my specs that I left on the bed…
That is so funny!!! I can’t think of anything too dumb I’ve done except once I sent a message to the wrong guest and once i referred to the wrong check in day. Also I’ve sent my generic “thanks for booking with us” message without adding their name to personalize, in which case the message reads, “Hi , thanks so much…”. You can tell it’s a form letter. :-(.
Ha ha ha. I have an internal staircase I only use when going down for cleaning after guests have left. I also have a problem with my pants falling down when I am carrying stuff down stairs (stop laughing it’s a real problem). Guess what happened when I didn’t realise the guests had arrived and were inside. Oops!
Our very first guests last June. The Husband had done some last minute flexi-filling around the base of their shower tray the day before they arrived. He cleaned up, or so I thought, but I didn’t check the pedal waste bin. After they left two days later, I found the bin full of the old filler and paper towels, and it really looked like shit. That’s how I felt too. Bless them, they did not say a word, either during their stay or in their lovely review but I was utterly mortified.
I do that, actually - their lovely clean towels were on the bed. But i open the bedroom door wide when i clean… And (at the time) i forgot to check behind it and just carefully closed it behind me when i was done.
I’ve left my sticky roller sitting in the room a couple of times which isn’t bad at all, unless it has hair stuck on it. I once forgot to put a bath towel, there was only the hand towel in the bathroom. They guy didn’t say anything and gave a 5 star across the board. After that I started putting the towels on the bed instead of in the bathroom. Funny how some guests will be fine with a mistake and others apparently feel entitled to a refund.
I once barged in on a lovely non-English speaking couple, thinking they had checked out. Turned out I had the date wrong on my clipboard and they weren’t checking out until the NEXT day. Much apologizing on my part. They were wonderfully forgiving.
I think the worst was just a month or so ago. I got a text around 3am from the guest stating “I think something is leaking. The white rug is soaked! We will be heading out around 10” I was completely confused - I don’t have any white rugs in the flat. Thinking it was not too serious and they wanted me to come by AFTER they left for the day (they were staying for a week) I sent them a message saying something like “So sorry, I’ll be by at 10 and take care of it”. I get there and the flat is FLOODED - probably 3 inches of water in places. Some of their items are wet, their luggage is out in the living room. Turns out the boiler had sprung a leak in the middle of the night, and the bedroom is right next to the boiler room. What a mess. I apologized profusely, they left for the day and I went about cleaning. I must have vacuumed about 30 gallons of water out of the bedroom (thank goodness for concrete floors), replaced the area rugs, got the boiler fixed, paid for their drycleaning, and left an apology note with a gift card to a local restaurant. By the time they returned that day, all was back to normal. The guy even felt the need to apologize to ME, saying he didn’t think to look into the boiler room for the source of the leak - like that was HIS responsibility. And they gave me a 4 star review. Best guests ever. You can bet I’ve read that message a hundred times, wondering how I thought a leak could wait until 10…I won’t make that mistake again.
They were too nice for 3 am. LOL. They should have said, “there’s 3 inches of water in the room, come right now!” So what was the white rug to which they referred?
I still have no idea. My guess is something misspelled that auto corrected to white? I mean, it WAS 3am…they likely spent the evening at one (or more) local drinking establishments. Which probably influenced my casual attitude. Drunk people exaggerate. They probably spilled a water…
Guests park in my driveway to the side of the garage door.
One night I backed my car out straight – well no, it must have been just a wee bit crooked –into their parked car. Not just any old car, but a brand new Volvo. $2000 damage to their vehicle.
Mr. Guest was most gracious, apologized for not parking more carefully, accepted my full payment at the body repair shop and a refund for their two-night stay.
It was Ms. Guest who had made their booking and when I broke the news of their damaged car she twitched, squawked, and acted as if I’d just gutted her beloved family pet.
I expected a scathing review from her, but no, it was a full five stars. Her public review didn’t mention my deranged driving, but instead stated I’m a host with integrity and take great care of the guests.
People are amazing, eh?
