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Could use some advise and perspective on this guest review. Here are the details.
Young (22), local guest books room in our home for a two week stay. We don’t allow full use of the kitchen or offer use of our laundry, so I contacted the guest to make sure they were aware of this since the stay is longer. Guest replies - “no problem. I am out most of the day looking for jobs and plan to eat out,” However, that was not the case. Guest never left our home. Guest would sleep all day, wake up around 5-6pm, make coffee and be up all night. This was disruptive for us because the guest was constantly leaving room to use the bathroom all night. We have an old victorian home, so the noise would wake us up throughout the night because of the opening/closing doors, old squeaky floors using the kitchen, etc. We offered to clean the room, change towels, during the stay, but guest declined. The day before check out, we sent a very friendly reminder about the time being 11am and that we have a same day check in and need to clean the room. Guest thanks us for the reminder and assures he will be leaving at 1030. This was not the case, he checked out over an our late.
The guests room and bathroom were disgusting. It appears as if the guest has/had some type of GI issues because vomit/feces were caked into the toilet. The sink had some odd substance all over it and towels were left with what I think is feces on them?
Overall guest was friendly, but was not totally honest with us in terms of using our space. I should mention that guest did say that they were in a state of “transition” in life. I’m not a doctor and only mention to offer some more context, but I got the sense guest is a very depressed person with social anxiety and possibly struggling with some other personal issues. Other reviews left by hosts were favorable, which is why I approved the booking.
My question: Is the above just “part of hosting” or would other hosts like to be made aware of this behavior in a review? If so, how to write this review?
Would something like this be ok? “Guest was friendly. Upon checkout, bathroom was left very dirty. Despite a reminder about check out time, guest overstayed by one hour. Since guest rarely left room and kept nighttime hours, guest may be better suited to a hotel.”
I might say everything but the last line. Totally not sure. Or just clarify it by saying, Guest kept night time hours, which woke all of us up. Eliminate the part about stayed in room all day? The rest sounds good though.
Did they assure you they would be gone all day or just not using the kitchen?
We sure have been getting a lot of poopy guest stories lately, gross!!! You could even find a way to say it wasn’t just dirty, it was soiled with bodily waste that was caked everywhere and which required hazmat level of cleaning.
Don’t be afraid to leave an honest review. Do it at the last second though.
I think you can avoid this in the future by vetting guests and weeding out those who appear local or down on their luck.
Yes, guest assured us they would be gone all day looking for jobs and doing interviews. I’m usually very skeptical of local guests. In fact, this is the first one I have let stay with us. I did ask some follow up questions after the booking to vet and got a hint that the guest may be going through something, but agreed anyways. Lesson learned!
“Cannot recommend. Guest was friendly but hardly came out of the room after saying he would be gone most of the time. Left the place a disgusting mess, and abused our checkout policy.”
In your shoes once I realised the guest was keeping me up all night I would have spoken to them and let them know that you accepted their booking on the basis that they would be keeping normal hours and that their night time habits were keeping you up and this would need to change if they wanted to stay .
I would also have been knocking on their door at 10.30 to confirm they would be out promptly rather than letting them check out an hour late.
Having said that the guest behaved appalling in the way he left your place and you should reflect this in the review.
Thanks Helsi. Agree that a discussion should have happened during the stay. I was out of town most of the time and my husband is less direct than I am with guests. Thinking about it a bit more, we own some of this for not addressing the problem and communicating with them as soon as the behavior started.
And regarding staying past the check out time - I was on a conference call for work, not able to break away. I think the reminder notice the night before along with us stressing the importance of being out on time should have been enough.
Appreciate the feedback! I’ll definitely mention the way the bathroom was left and the check out time issue.
