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Hi, I’ve just joined and looking forward to being a part of this community. I’ve had a mixture of lodgers and Airbnb guests for some time now, but recently decided to focus on Airbnb and by mutual agreement my last lodger has just moved out. I’ll call him Mark for the sake of this thread. The question I have concerns Mark, so not strictly Airbnb, but It could have happened with an Airbnb guest on an extended stay so I hope it’s okay to post.
Mark was suffering I think with some personal/ mental health issues and one of the ways this manifested itself was in extremely poor care of his living environment. He did not wash his bed sheet for the duration of his time here (six months), and left behind a body shaped mark on the sheet, the mattress is badly marked too, not acceptable for a new guest at all. It’s now been professionally cleaned (they spent three hours on it), but this can’t be rectified.
I didn’t have a mattress cover. So my question is should I take this from the deposit or should this be on me because of lack of the mattress cover?
Your choice but I’d be inclined to say that he should be responsible. But you realise already that you should have had a cover. Just think of the state that mattress could be in now.
To avoid this in future, insist to your guests who stay for more than a week that you will provide weekly cleaning services. Most hosts give clean bedding and towels at that time too.
It depends upon what you mean. If it’s “indented” then it’s not his responsibility. If it’s stained then I’d withhold to replace for the staining but maybe 50% of normal as it was remiss not to have a cover. I have waterproof, bed bug proof covers. Not crinkly. Highly recommend.
Regarding the sheets, if you didn’t say you required regular washing for long term stays then it’s just a loss.
This is why I can’t bring myself to do long term furnished. Too much wear and tear.
Thanks for this. I try to keep the cost down and so provide plenty of linen and they are responsible for changing their beds which has worked so far.
This would be one solution but I do wonder about the increase in price. We are in London and cleaning and ironing of sheets would significantly up the price. I tend to get lovely guests and a good standard of guest, professionals. Drs on work placement etc, and i know they are on tight budgets and I don’t think they’d want to pay dor sheets ironed. Or do you provide unironed sheets?
Definitely unironed. I do iron the pillowcases though because I think they look so good when the guests first arrive. Our rentals are both one bedroom (queen beds) so ironing the pillowcases takes only a few minutes.
Five years, 4 listings, 17 beds and have never ironed bed linen yet and don’t intend to!
Never have the unironed sheets ever been mentioned.
You didn’t notice that the bed linens wern’t being changed…?
No mattress protector?
The room must have reeked.
Sorry - my view is that this is all on you.
You allowed the misuse of the mattress and linens.
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
The mattresses (zip and link unfortunately so harder to find cheap) have been cleaned and so I’m asking re replacing them…
Yes, your mattress and pillows should all have protective covers. And YES charge him from the security deposit for the additional cleaning.
. Make sure that you comply with your state’s rules regarding properly documenting the expense against his security deposit. Make sure you DO THIS PROPERLY. We have been landlords a long time. In some states, you can get penalized 2X or 3X of the ENTIRE deposit, if you get it wrong and he takes you to small claims.
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Regardless, Short-Term rental is SHORT TERM. Set min 2 days, max at maybe 14 days.
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By going with STR, you are presumably looking to maximize REVENUE? If yes, that is usually 2 - 14 days (most often like 2-7).
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AVOID TENANT RIGHTS - no concurrent stays beyond 28-30 days (state dependent). And all the BS that comes with it. IMO, Never host anything long term on Air in particular. We have done long term rentals for a long time and that is ONLY direct, with big deposits and an iron clad contract.
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As a new host on Air you get a VISIBILITY BOOST for only 4-6 weeks. Don’t waste it with any big bookings. As a new host, you want stays of 1-5 days or 1-3 days, to build up reviews.
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If you have not yet listed with Air be smart - READ A LOT FIRST. Do not just “jump into it”. Be very prepared and informed.
@Bosty64 If you are going to do str, you need to give the guests clean sheets amd towels once a week, and you need to wash them yourself. If you let guests do that laundry, they will.just throw it in a hot washer, setting in any stains so they will never come out. Linens need to be inspected and stains or marks pre-treated before washing.
You can’t give str guests stained stuff, and you can’t afford to be constantly buying new stuff. The laundry is your job.
No, you don’t need to iron. You aren’t a hotel.
I can’t imagine letting a guest or lodger in your house go 6 months without washing the bedding. That’s just gross.
If you want beds and bedding to last, YOU (or someone you pay) need to change and wash the bedding every week, in part to prompt room cleanup. This gives you the opportunity to make sure that they haven’t introduced any insects, and that they aren’t leaving food in the room (I don’t allow food in rooms, only in the kitchen).
I have a seven day limit partly for cleanliness, partly because the upstairs was on yearly lease for the first 10 years I had the house and I prefer having fresh faces every few days.
I think this is just the cost of doing business and a somewhat expensive lesson for you. Re: the ironing question, ironing pillowcases and the edge of the top sheet is a good compromise if you don’t have wrinkle free sheets.
Muddy, thanks for your advice which I am fully taking on board and will now be washing guests sheets myself. Good advice.
Re the lodger who didn’t wash their sheets for six months - if you had ever hosted lodgers you would realise that laundry is not part of the service for this kind of arrangement. So I am not sure why your message states the obvious (I think we are all aware of how unhygienic this is), and implies that it is I who is gross!
Christine Shirtcliff, thanks for your feedback. Yes, potentially a very expensive lesson.
May I ask your opinion on the deposit money then? If it is the cost of doing business, then what is the deposit money for?
Thank you this is very informative and I will bear in mind for the future.
This person was a lodger, not an Airbnb guest. I have had lodgers for around ten years, and for those years long term guests worked best for me.
No I am not looking for advice re where to buy mattresses. I am looking for opinions on whether or not I should use the tenant’s deposit to replace the mattresses (since the stains have not come out in cleaning). Bearing in mind my own part in not having a mattress cover on the bed. Clearly this was remiss of me, however also this was a avoidable damage that came about for no reason other than laziness and lack of care from the tenant. He could easily have washed the sheets but chose not to. Hence a gray area, it seems to me.
Do you think fair or not to keep deposit to put towards a new mattress?
Yes I do. Deposits are for damaging your things which this lodger did. Jefferson seems to have missed where you said you were in London, he thinks you are in the US. The laws around lodgers in the UK may be different than tenant law in the US.
