How far would you go to cater to a lucrative demanding repeat guest?

whats next? asking for allclad pots?
if you want excellent quality knives go to estate sales. usually they have japanese or american ones from back in the day when there still was manufacturing in this country. these knives might need a bit sharpening too but will last a lifetime.

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Nearest Sur La Table is 112 miles. Ditto Williams Sonoma.

Nearest sharpening service doesn’t do knives; they do saw blades. This is West Virginia, see? Not a place where you find many gourmet kitchens. I don’t advertise the kitchen as gourmet, just as high end since the finishes are high end, the stove is a gas, 5 burner with a oven, and so on.

Nearest knife sharpening service I can find on google is a half hour’s drive from here and requires dropping off the knives and leaving them for 48 hours minimum. I just found a website called truhone where you can mail them the knives to sharpen. Does anyone have experience with them?

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I check and sharpen my knives on a sharpening rod after every guest. It’s part of my cleaning routine and takes 10 seconds per knife. If you don’t touch them up regularly and let them go until they’re really dull, it takes a different kind of sharpener and several minutes each.

I spend significantly more time wiping water spots off of the silverware than I do sharpening knives.

Do you have maintenance person? If so, see if he’ll do it or if he knows somebody that will? It’s a common skill for a good handyman. Mailing them anywhere is going to be prohibitively expensive compared to the cost of the knives.

Did you ask about having knives done? They should be able to do it. It’s just that sharpening saw blades fetches more money. Maybe if you mentioned you had a few to sharpen?

It would be less trouble to mail them off.

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I don’t find any of these suggestion/demands particularly expensive. And she certainly likes your place. But now is a good time if you have specific requests of her, too. Is the glass half empty, or half full? Looks like the basis of working out a long termer. Think positive.

With regards to the cloth in the kitchen, be prepared to make a sacrifice. And I like to spray Pam on stovetops, etc. where I know it’s going to be just awful.

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I have these entitled Drs stay as well. They don’t pay for the stay and they don’t care because it is all about them! Last week i walked in to one of my places at 10:05 and find all his stuff still there. Rang the hospital- get a message back that he “forgot”. I started the process and when he showed up 45 minutes later he tells me that he was coming back at 3 to get his stuff as he didn’t want his stuff in his car in the car park.
Looked him in the eye and said Check out is at Ten, check in is at two, the turn over window is very small…would you do this at a hotel? If you wanted a late check at 12 it is an extra fee.
Blank look at me - took his stuff and left. I don’t think he lives in the real world because HE is a DOCTOR!

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She sounds like an okay guest to me. Not fantastic, but okay. You say that you tell her why you can’t go with her suggestions so if you haven’t already, do the same with these. Her suggestions aren’t unreasonable ans they are only suggestions and she does politely say ‘please consider…’

You can buy a folding chair and table from Ikea for next to nothing that your ‘mower’ can move in seconds. Tell her that you’ve instructed your cleaner to sharpen the knives at every turnover but that the cleaner is on a tight deadline so you’ve provided a steel so that she can do it if the cleaner doesn’t have the time. (The cleaner should take about five seconds per knife with a steel and I don’t think she’s unreasonable for wanting sharp knives).

My thoughts about duvets rather than germy blankets are well known. Get a duvet and duvet covers; your cleaner will make the bed in a fraction of the time and the guest will be assured of its cleanliness. If this is an American she probably means duvet when she says comforter. Again they are dirt cheap at Ikea.

I can’t comment about the waste disposer as she hasn’t said what was wrong with it.

Your cleaner sounds a bit moany - she has to clean the stove every time regardless of its state. I clean both our apartments and it takes about five minutes more to clean a dirty one than an average one. And as for teatowels, they cost pennies.

The guest probably means well and her suggestions seem to be quite reasonable things that would enhance your place for future guests?

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If they’re decent knives then that’s the worst thing you could do. Get a steel, or maybe something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Sharpener-Sharpening-Tungsten-Straight/dp/B07F7RPPSB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=UL56IO8NOP92&keywords=sharpening+steel&qid=1568068188&s=gateway&sprefix=sharpening%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-2

Here’s a steel:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wusthof-Hanging-Sharpening-Steel-Black/dp/B00009WDT8/ref=sr_1_6?crid=UL56IO8NOP92&keywords=sharpening+steel&qid=1568068188&s=gateway&sprefix=sharpening%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-6

I’m sure prices aren’t much different on the .com site.

JF

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I clean the stove after her. It takes about an hour. She gets it so dirty and grease encrusted that I have to take it apart and clean it.

I have no intention of buying bedding just for her. There is nice bedding and plenty of it. Quilts, cotton blankets and fleece blankets. They get washed. She prefers a duvet? Too bad. I have a torn rotator cuff (having surgery to repair next Monday) and I’m not about to stuff duvet covets for her.

I will sharpen the knives.

There is already a table and chairs outside; she wants them in the backyard rather than the front. I’m not paying my mower to move it.

Quite frankly, she may sound reasonable to y’all, but I suspect you didn’t read everything. She DYED HER HAIR black in our marble tile shower. She routinely SOAKS the bathroom which is not a wet room. She asks for special favors like leaving her luggage for the three weeks in between her stays.

I like the money, but dread hosting her.

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In that case, don’t host her. If you dread it, don’t do it.

As I said, her suggestions seem to be things that she’d like you to ‘please consider’. Your cleaner would be happier and spend less time if you had simple duvets rather than the blanket and sheet rigmarole. The laundry would probably be cheaper. It would possibly be appreciated by all future guests. But if you are against it, explain it to her.

Same with the table and chairs - explain to her that you’re not willing to pay your ‘mower’ to move it. While you’re at it, explain to her that you’re not willing to pay your cleaner extra to clean up after her.

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Seems to say alot about the situation … She isn’t paying, she doesn’t care. I’d either (1) Tell the agency that they owe you for the damaged items and additional cleaning, or (2) Take it up with her that she can’t treat your house in this manner.

They are paying, so she has no incentive to care or improve. The $2700+ is nice, no doubt, but if every single guest behaved in this manner, you’d be overly burnt out (and out extra expense) in short order. Why let her continue?

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Dish towels should last for years if not used as rags. I certainly would NOT expect to replace them as long as they looked good, and I would ask the guest to replace any that get damaged so that they can no longer be used.

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I’m sorry, this is simply your opinion. We tried duvets. My cleaner and I both disliked them. Lightweight quilts and blankets are much easier to deal with, in our experience. You like duvets—great. You can use them and I hope your guests like them.

I’ve tried them (several of them) and I personally hate them. They always look sloppy and messy, in my opinion. They are very difficult to stuff, in my opinion. I don’t like sleeping under them. They are not sold in stores here; I’d have to drive 2 hours to find them, or order them through the mail. Duvets are not gonna happen in my AirBnBs, period, and neither are comforters, if comforters are really what she meant.

I don’t think so. No other guest has ever asked for a duvet or comforter. If you check out the bedding in my area, it’s either quilts (which are usually more expensive) or comforters (which are like duvets but you can’t remove the stuffing so they are hard to launder).

I’m sorry, but the amount of her suggestions is excessive, in my opinion. For one person to make so many suggestions—while being careless with what is provided (remember she dyed her hair in the very high end spa shower with marble tile)—is over the top, in my opinion.

I’m hoping her rotation is over here. I’m hoping her agency sends me some other guests. I have explained to her why no table and chairs will be put In the backyard, when she made the suggestion. I told her I got the knife sharpener for her to use. I will send the knives out to be sharpened. I won’t get a comforter (and will explain to her why I don’t use them). I’ll ask her what the problem is with the InSinkErator (nothing, I suspect, just that she thinks it should be more powerful).

I wonder how many of you really do think these requests are reasonable? An outside table and chairs…even a cheap set from Walmart…starts at $120. A queen comforter from Walmart starts around $30…and one that would actually coordinate with the colors in the room is $65. Getting the knives sharpened will run around $30. I already bought a manual knife sharpener for her.

These are all things no other guest has asked for, nor expected. If you add up the cost, (not even including whatever she thinks needs to happen with the InSinkErator) does it still seem that reasonable to you? You’re talking about stuff that potentially adds up to 10% or more of what was paid to host her.

I will continue to host her because she is coming through an agency, and I hope they will send other business my way. But if all my guests were as unappreciative as her, I would not want to do this.

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I know she has given you all 5 stars with minor wording for public reviews. What have you been giving her, in stars, publicly and privately?

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again, I was mimicking Brians post, I know it’s not obvious, but just as weird. To bin towels every turnover would be staggerringly daft, wouldn’t it?

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I have a small gadget called “Blade-Tech” that a friend recommended. You can get them on Amazon. It sharpens all my Sabatier knives so well, I could take an appendix out.

there’s a lot of hosts suggesting to pay for whatever she wants, despite every other guest being happy and giving 5stars. I suspect if the opening post had been worded differently, most replies would have been ‘block her’, lodge a complaint with CS, etc.

There’s no end to tiny improvements that every host can make, whether it’s a laser honed knife, or renewing doorknobs, doesn’t mean they have to be done

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I saw it immediately…hence gave it a heart. But alas, sarcasm and wit are often difficult to detect and lost in text.

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