Dealing w damage

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Our last guest left a 3-day sink full of dishes including fat drizzling top down from greasy sausage. (I keep a can in the freezer labeled to be used for food drippings. It was empty). House rules say not to leave any dishes in the sink. Sink plumbing also got clogged w fat and needed to be addressed.

Before leaving, he sent a text saying they were heading out, and added that “the chair outside broke when I sat in it. Sorry.”

It was a plastic Adirondack chair, only $30 to replace. But… is it worth filing for damage and getting a bad review as a result? How have you dealt w the damage issue? Wait till just before the two week cutoff?

Oh and no worries… he will be getting a very honest review from us. I will most-likely also follow up w a private text to explain proper etiquette.

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Wonder how he broke that chair ? Just sat on it? I wouldn’t file damage report but would leave a review about dishes . It’s not ok to leave so many dirty dishes in a sink .

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No. Especially if it was an old chair with plastic that has degraded over time. In a case like that the review isn’t related to you filing a claim; you might have a bad review coming because the chair broke. And if he had been injured, you could be sued.

So you absolutely should let that go.

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I agree with others in regards to the broken chai, let it go and think of it as the cost of doing business. As for the dirty dishes and clogged plumbing, I would mention it in his review.

If the plumber was expensive, I would try to get the funds from Airbnb. If you try to get it from the guest, chances are he’ll give you a bad review. When you click on “would not host again” you should get a pop up from Airbnb that mentions something about damages. I can’t remember exactly was it was called because I didn’t file a claim. I clicked on wouldn’t host again because the guest was super needy and texting me all day, not because of damages.

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Thank you to all who have responded. I appreciate your thoughts.

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If you have to call in a plumber, then you should definitely put in a request for the guest to pay, and do not worry about the review.

The one good thing about the new ABB policy banning retaliatory reviews is that, from everything I have heard (one personal friend, and people on this forum), they are actually enforcing that. So putting in a formal request for plumbing fees with ABB will automatically protect you against a bad review because you can use it as evidence to have the review removed.

That said, I understand that you would have to put in the claim before the next guest checks in, so you’d have to move fast. More experienced hosts here will be able to confirm or correct this.

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