Guests just left and place is a mess! popcorn, wrappers, sand all over floor; water bottles (not all empty), red solo cups on furniture and in rooms; stains on one set of sheets; wet towels on the floor in all of the bedrooms. They also broke something.
I plan to get a quote for what they broke to be repaired and cleaned up most of the garbage myself and cleaner coming in to clean and will be a second set of eyes for me. This is the first time this has happened to me- do you suggest i reach out and contact them and let them know what they broke and the cost or contact air bnb? Let them know how messy everything was and that I am cleaning sheets and mattress pad now and hoping to get the stains out? and do I give a bad review? No review? They had 3 excellent reviews - there is NO way that the same group got 1 good review, never mind 3.
I appreciate all of your advice in advance.
You should review all guests. You should think of reviews as honest, not âgoodâ review or âbadâ review.
Some hosts would consider guests leaving the place messy as part and parcel of hosting, those who are used to getting respectful guests may be shocked at what others would consider normal. I donât consider anything on the floor, unless itâs damage, to be a big deal- Iâm going to sweep, vacuum and wash floors anyway. But I do understand that what you encountered shows a general lack of respect.
What did they damage? Depending on what it is and if itâs repairable at low cost, it may or may not be worth pursuing for a damage claim. And you have to ask the guests to pay for damages before putting in a claim to Airbnb. But donât expect people like this to care about creating extra cleaning work for you- if they cared, they wouldnât leave a mess behind in the first place. So if you do try to get reimbursed for the damage, just state factually what they damaged and what it will cost to repair or replace.
thank you - I appreciate your reply
review
Well, the guests have left their mark, quite literally. The floors got a makeover with popcorn, wrappers, and a touch of sand for that authentic beach vibeâinside. Their innovative placement of half-empty water bottles and red solo cups as decor truly caught our eye, a true nod to modern art. Wet towels strategically strewn across bedrooms provide a unique take on interior design, combining comfort with, well, more wetness. The artistic stains on the sheets and the broken item left behind are like the signatures of their avant-garde stay. Kudos to these guests for redefining our understanding of hospitality and leaving us with memories (and messes) thatâll surely last.
Why rock the boat? Be nice. Didnât your parents tell you âif you donât have something nice o say, not to say anything.â?
Let the next Host deal with it.
Please tell me that you know better than that. Youâve been a member for a year and. half!
- Leave an honest, factual review, something like: âLeft their trash, water bottles, etc. all over the house, did not leave things in tidy condition, broke [fill in blank]. Do not recommend.â Be sure to include things they did well, like whether they followed house rules not pertaining to cleanliness, whether they communicated appropriately.
- You must seek payment from guest before going to AirCover, and must do so within x days (14? of checkout). Include some kind of documentation of cost to replace, like a receipt. Be matter of fact in your request, like "Hi ! I hope you enjoyed your stay. I understand that accidents happen. Iâm writing to ask for reimbursement of $X for Y, broken during your stay; receipt and picture attached.
Also, the cleaning required after your stay went beyond a standard cleaning (trash and recycling were not put away but littered throughout, not in accord with our house rules and Airbnb ground rules for guests, resulting in an additional cleaning fee of $X; altogether Iâm asking for $Z. Thank you for giving this your earliest attention." [You might need to edit this further IF the stains donât come out.]. FYI: Airbnb guide rules for guests, state in part: * Litter: Guests should put their trash in designated trash receptacles and be mindful of excessive amounts of trash.
3. If you need advice on getting the stains out, Google it, and also consult with folks here â many are expert at getting almost anything out.
4. I donât know if you have a time-stamped video showing the condition of things. You might want to consider making that part of your routine.
5. I imagine you feel disrespected by the condition in which they left the property. I would. But without knowing what broke and the expense of that, candidly this doesnât sound that bad to me. Youâd have to clean up anyway, though I understand that this is more expensive â for which you can charge an additional fee (do you have pictures to show the mess they left?). See here.
6. Use this unfortunate but not at all drastic situation to reflect on your house rules, communications (e.g., do you ask that the guest alert you to any stains or issues that require your attention?) and procedures to consider whether thereâs anything you can do going forward that might help avoid such messy and destructive behavior or, if it happens, put you in a better position to receive reimbursement.
7. I donât know how much money weâre talking about in additional cleaning fees and for the broken item. Reasonable people can differ on this but donât sweat the small stuff. If weâre not talking, say, $75 or more in additional cleaning fees, and a broken item for more than say, $50 minimum, Iâd let it go as to asking for reimbursement but mention in review. But thatâs me.
If hosts live in a beach location, as I do, I consider sand on the floor to be normal. I just rent a private room/bathroom and do leave a broom and dustpan for guests behind their bathroom door and point it out, saying âI know itâs virtually impossible to go to the beach without bringing sand home, and I donât expect guests to clean the place, but you might not like walking around on a sandy floor on bare feet.â I donât know if that gives them the idea to sweep up before leaving, but most guests do.
thank you and that helps put things into perspective. I am not going to charge for my time and agree with you that they were slobs but that isnt against airbnb âlawsâ. this is why I am asking - trying to put things in perspective. If people tell me you have to clean floor anyway so picking up their items isnt a big deal, I dont want to give a bad review- hard to get a sense of what is part of doing business and what is something they should cover
No.
Their behavior is not consistent with Airbnb ground rules for guests.
Please leave a factual, honest review with both anything good they did, and their littering trash throughout the house, That is not OK. They need to be called out about it, and future Hosts need to know. Just be matter of fact about it, and accurate, balanced with anything good.
Nope, honest, unemotional review. The home should be left much as it was found. Trash and food and spills attract insects and vermin. Wet towels left around can mildew, depending on when they started piling them up. Also would not host again.
I think you misunderstood me. Just because something might be considered ânormalâ doesnât necessarily mean itâs acceptable. For instance, itâs ânormalâ for teenagers to leave a half inch of milk in a milk carton and put it back in the fridge, or to put an ice cube tray back in the freezer with one ice cube in it, instead of refilling the tray. But they need to be taught that it isnât acceptable.
And while it may be normal for hosts to have to try to get make-up or food stains out of sheets and towels, that doesnât mean itâs acceptable to use a nice towel to wipe off make-up, or to eat pizza on the bed.
As I said, you should leave an honest review. Just because thereâs no rule that says âDonât leave a messâ or âDonât call your host nasty namesâ or âDonât leave poop smeared on the toilet seatâ or that many guests might leave a mess doesnât mean that you shouldnât document it in a review. This is the sort of thing other hosts want to know. If itâs just some sand on the floor, itâs not worth mentioning, but there was obviously more than that- a general lack of respect for the space they rented. No need to go onto detail- âHouse was left in a state of disarray, with food and garbage strewn all overâ gets the idea across. And if thereâs anything positive you can say, mention that as well. Like, âCommunication was fine, house rules were followed, butâŚâ. (But donât just make up nice things to say if they arenât true.)
Iâm sure you would have wanted to know that these guests left a mess behind at their other bookings (maybe they did and those hosts decided not to mention it), so please let future hosts know. If other hosts consider a mess like that no big deal, itâs up to them whether to decline a booking from them on that basis. But itâs our job as hosts to let other hosts know what we experienced, so they can make an informed decision.
I agree. Even on the worst reviews I have written I usually start with âCommunication pleasant and friendly throughout, howeverâŚâ and then list, unemotionally, all the things which could have been better keeping it as brief as possible, saving âwould not host again and cannot recommendâ for the absolute worst
For what itâs worth, hereâs how I would react:
If it is simply a matter of sweeping /vacuuming sand and wrappers off a floor I am going to sweep/vacuum in any case, I have no complaint⌠they arenât creating any additional work for me.
If it is simply a matter of walking around with a bin for a few minutes picking up water bottles and plastic cups â in the larger scheme of things Iâm not even resentful. These are paying guests, not my messy teens whom Iâm trying to train to be tidier.
If the guests left damp towels in a pile, that would only be a problem if I specifically mentioned (as I do) in my welcoming walk-around that damp towels must be draped over the frame of the laundry basket to dry overnight before being put in the laundry basket OR hung up on a towel rack. If I hadnât specifically asked for towels to be handled in this way, then they havenât really broken any rules.
If the âstainâ on the sheet washes out then itâs not really a stain, is it? In our property we wash all sheets and mattress pads after every guest so thereâs no extra work if thatâs the case. Once or twice a year we have to wash twice â that just goes with the territory of being an innkeeper. If there are real stains (canât be washed out even using our bag of Airbnb-host magic tricks) then I have to ask myself whether the guest was being careless, in which case they get rebuked in their review. However â if itâs just a case of âthe sheet was really dirty until I washed it,â it would be churlish of me to complain.
Breaking âsomethingâ depends on how expensive and whether it appears the guest was being careless. Earlier this month a guest of ours broke a wineglass â I told him I was sure he was being careful (he is pretty meticulous), and that the cost of replacing an occasional broken glass was included in the price. (Fortunately Iâve never had guests who threw all he dishes at each other during an argument).
On the other hand, if the guests had left turds in the shower and had mouldy rotting food stinking up the kitchen â then I would complain. But if all they did was leave a scene that offended my eye (wrappers, dirty-but-washable sheets) and created a few minutes extra work by leaving around water bottles and plastic cups, then I would not send a torpedo into their reputation with other hosts. Their review would be totally silent on matters of cleanliness and ârespected the propertyâ â an omission that might be noticed by astute hosts in future â but thatâs as negative as I would get unless, as I said above, there was evidence of carelessness, negligence, malice or other forms of assholery.
+1 to your sarcasm. this is why this ideology is bullshit and is actually harmful to society.
Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times"
ALWAYS REVIEW EVERY GUEST!!! Reviews arenât for them â they are for your fellow hosts!
Be factual, and to the point; not wordy. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle. All you need to say is:
"Guest left the place a mess! Food, wrappers, used bottles and plastic cups all over, stains on one set of sheets, and a GGGGGG was broken during their stay, Plus sand all over and wet towels on the bedroom floors. In spite of previous good reviews, I cannot recommend Guest and will not host again.
Get a quote for repairs and contact guests through resolution requesting payment. How was communication? If that was fine, then I would give 2 stars for cleanliness, 5 for following house rules (assuming he/she did follow your rules) and 5 for communication. I like the review written by Ken.
@Spark While I understand your attitude re not being resentful re paying guests leaving things messy (I also feel that way), if we donât mention it in a review, how do we differentiate between guests who leave the place clean and tidy and those who donât? In other words, if all guests get 5* reviews as long as they didnât really trash the place, that doesnât seem fair to the ones who are quite respectful.
Just because we accept guests leaving the place a mess as part of being in the hospitality business and donât resent a bit more clean-up than usual, it doesnât necessarily mean the guests who donât show respect for whoever has to clean up after them should get as good a review as those who do.
If they leave the place untidy in a way that creates no (or negligible) work for me, then I have nothing to warn other hosts about.
What does your check out list include? Did they follow those instructions? We ask our guests to load all dirty dishes and start dishwasher and to take care of their trash. For ourselves if those details are completed, and yes while itâs nice if guests sweep the floor and wipe down the counters, we donât make a big deal out of cleaning. The level of cleanliness our guests leave our cabin in varies immensely. If they followed your check out instructions then Iâd feel you just got yourself a good clean job at hand.
Items that are broke are a different story. My protocol is first access can I fix the item without any cost or will it need to be replaced? If the item needs replaced, we contact guests and submit to them replacement fee. Only once in the hundreds of guests weâve had, have we had someone that would not pay for their damage and so we turned to AirBNB and they took care of it. We use white towels and sheets; very rarely do we have stains that we are not be able to get out with treating. The occasional staining of towels and sheets, the occasional glass and coffee mug that breaks, we consider apart of the normal wear and tear and the expense of running an AirBnB. If itâs multiple pieces and items on one stay might look at a little different and send the guests a picture of the item damage and a reimbursement request for that item.
You mentioned contacting AirBNB. We got good advice when starting out to look at AirBNB as simply your booking/advertisement platform. Confront any issues that arise first with your guests. Most guests are workable when they know they are caught and in the wrong.
Why the big mystery about WHAT was actually broken? Did I miss where it was revealed in the thread somewhere?
I missed it too. I assumed it would be something members would blame the victim for being broken, (âI would never have one of those in my Airbnbâ kind of comments) so they just left it out hoping the scolds would leave it alone.