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I’m fairly new to hosting - we just had our fourth set of guests. I have a query about leaving the latest guest and his party a negative review.
Here are the facts. It was a party of five and there were no previous reviews. The house initially looked clean and tidy but on going to get my daughters jumper from a baby changing table in our master bedroom (off limits as per the house rules - we only let out the non master bedrooms) it was wet and covered in urine. It transpired that all the clothes on the two bottom shelves of the changing table were urine soaked and they were still wet.
My toddler is too small to reach the table to wee there (and in any case wasn’t in the house). I can therefore only think that a member of the party drunkenly went into the room and used the table as a toilet. I’m aware this sounds like a pretty wild accusation but it’s resulted in a lot of washing and is just pretty gross! I’d rather other hosts weren’t exposed to the same behaviour.
I was thinking of writing something like ‘Communication was good and the house was left tidy. A vase was missing from the bathroom and a number of urine soaked clothes were found in a bedroom that as per the house rules was off limits’. Does this seem ok? I’m worried they’ll reply and say i’ve gone mad.
Leave an honest unemotional review that reflects your experience. So it seems okay to me.
If part of the home is off limits then put a lock on the door so they can’t access it. Some guests will go through every closet and room either out of malice or curiousity or even parasomnia.
I think that is not only OK but useful information. Your review is balanced, factual and strikes me as unemotional.
I agree that getting locks on the doors to rooms that are unavailable should be added to your ‘to do’ list.
Thank you for your first post!
P.S. It’s the guest who was mad, if anyone. How gross!
I do feel sorry for the booking guest in these situations, thinking that they probably didn’t do it and know nothing about it. Yet they are the ones who set the tone and invited the others. So they must bear responsibility.
If I were the booking guest I would be sure to say to my group that my reputation (and checkbook) is on the line here, that they need to be respectful of the property, follow the rules and that if anything happens/breaks/accident to be sure to let me know so we can deal with it in an honest, straightforward and proactive way. [Of course, it’s possible that the person who did this is unaware that they did it. But then this is very useful feedback.]
Urine soaked clothes were found in my bedroom - a bedroom that was off limits as per the house rules. A vase was missing from the bathroom. Communication was good and the house was left tidy."
Excellent, Rolf. One possible tweak: "Urine-soaked clothes belonging to the host were found in the host’s private bedroom, off-limits as per the house rules . . . "
Definitely get those keypad locks for off limit spaces. We have a pocket door that separates our kitchen from the entryway and the stairway going down to the unit. - be friendly but separate.
