I’m going to have to add a request that guests NOT make their beds upon leaving! 3 out of the last 8 have done a meticulous job of it, caused confusion. We think our cleaner was in, she thinks we did it!! Disaster has been averted so far but…
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So you have bad procedures in place, and blaming it on good guests?
I suggest you have a good look at your procedures, and communication with your cleaner. Instead of putting it on your guests.
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Oh My! You seem to be having a bad day! Procedures and cleaner work well, just a light post about the oddity of people going to the trouble of making beds after using them!
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Yes, I know, it’s so nice of them, isn’t it … but just what you don’t want! The way I know we/the cleaner didn’t do it is that since I learnt to make hotel-style Happy Pillows, no-one can make a bed as well as I can!
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I have had this happen several times, also - we have a double and a single bed in our unit and with the variety of couples travelling these days, we’re never sure if guests are jjust using the double or both. Easy for me because we have mosquito nets over them and there is a trick to tying them that only folks who live here know.
I thought of what I’d do in your situation, and I think I would “situate” something decorative on both beds that won’t be in the exact same place you put it if guests make their own beds. Have a super day, Martha!
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Do you and your cleaner both make beds, or just your cleaner??
I am the only one who makes the beds, and I can definitely tell if someone just remade the bed versus it is left exactly the way it was when I made it. Nobody can remake the bed exactly how I made it up. I pull the top sheet back, and the coverlet. It would be extremely unlikely that someone would pull them back exactly the same way I do.
The nice thing about people remaking the bed is that it easy to scan everything for stains before putting in the wash. If people strip the sheets, then I have to lay everything back out on the bed in order to look for stains.
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My cleaner’s full time job is as a chambermaid! LOL. She is superb, but her schedule is erratic!
And three of us do beds! Its a first world problem, but I just find it amusing. Do the guests really think we wont be stripping the bed?
Some guests won’t read the request or will decide that they are the exception. In our house guide we ask that guests not strip the bed so that we will be able to check the sheets for stains and/or wear and tear. We’ve had guests assure us that they didn’t leave stains so they should be the exception and other guests who apparently didn’t read the house guide.
I also ask guests not to strip the bed for that same reason…easier to see if I need to pretreat any stains.
I do this too. But I really don’t mind if the bed is made.
In another topic here on the same subject, I related that recently we stayed in a studio apartment for a few days. We are very early risers (pre-dawn) and checkout was noon. I DID make the bed on our last day because the neat-freak in me didn’t want to be staring at an unmade bed for six hours 
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@Chris, @cabinhost, @Martha
Recently a guest placed all of the towels neatly folded on top of the washing machine and I mistakenly thought she had washed/dried the towels. Much to my chagrin, as I was hanging the towels (thinking they had been washed and dried) I realized that they were dirty towels that had been neatly folded. Had I not sniffed the unmistaken smell of sex (does everybody smell sex?), I would have kept dirty towels for new guests…
I had two different guests wash, dry and fold towels – you’d think they were being nice but noooooo, they did it to hide the fact that they had stained the towels with make-up…and once the towels were dried, it was impossible to remove the stains…ugghhhhhhh
I feel you pain MissMiami - yes, I had guests also do this to hide stains. Sneaky shits! So now I had to add something to my house notes saying they are NOT allowed to do any laundry belonging to the cabin:
Towels and Linens: Please be respectful of bed sheets and towels. Makeup/foundation, face medications/creams, and tanning products will stain and/or bleach linens/towels. Rolled brown towels (stain resistant) are in a basket provided in each bathroom for removal of these products. Please avoid using regular hand/bath towels with all skin products. Guests are not to wash laundry belonging to the cabin in order to hide stains. Housekeeping will wash all laundry. Unsalvageable linens/bath towels will be charged to the guest.
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So sorry you had to smell their bodily fluids!! Once in a blue moon a guest will forget to start the dishwasher, and then I start putting the dishes away until I come across one that looks dirty - the I start sniffing all the dishes, and have to try to remember where I put the rest away. What throws me off is the rest of the place is usually spotless, so I just assume they followed the list that says to start dishwasher…ugh!!! - then I just go ahead and handwash them all.
@cabinhost I do place a pack of make-up remover towelettes so there is no excuse to stain my towels…but it pains me to leave detailed rules to grown, mature adults, it makes me feel like someone’s old cranky grandmother…and I think it makes guests not feel “at home”…am I wrong?
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You are not wrong. But it feels sooo good to not have to deal with stained towels/linens anymore. Once in a while I will get something stained but not so bad I am unable to remove. But until I became this clear, I was just ignored. Not sure if you read my thread “my guests no longer stain my towels and linens” - I discuss my adventure of how I had to tweak things in order to get the behavior I desired.
It is a shame that sometimes we have to tell grown ass adults how to treat someone else’s property. My guests still feel “at home” though as I provide them so many things they don’t need to purchase during their stay. I am more generous than much of my competition that rents out whole homes.
My guests who strip the sheets or wash the house laundry are trying to hide their stains as well. And they always was it in hot…
I took your advice – my new guests who arrived yesterday are the first ones to have a basket of salon washcloths with a sign saying, “please help save our linens. Use these washcloths to remove make-up, (and all the other things you listed)”. I hope it works!
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What irks me is when guests put dirty dishes back in the cupboard. This has happened numerous times. The tip-off will be a glass covered in fingerprints. Some hand-wash the dishes instead of using the dishwasher (usually older guests), and they never do a good enough job. If I see dishes on a dish towel on the counter, I know I have to inspect all of the kitchenware to cull out the semi-washed dishes.
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@jaquo, I think you’ve mentioned that you like using Barkeeper’s Friend cleaning products, right? Ross has currently several cleaning products of this brand for $2.99 each…