I added a page to the house manual

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Recently I hosted 2 young (college aged) guys. They were ok guests – had to remind them about quiet hours when a video game apparently got very intense at midnight, but overall decent human beings who communicated fairly well and made a good effort to leave things in good shape.

Except . . . there was a massive toilet blockage which they apparently tried to keep flushing away, so there was overflow. Then they tried to push the mess away with the toilet brush and that was a foul mess. There was a plunger in the under-sink cabinet, but they didn’t find that, apparently. (I posted about leveling up as a host when I cleared the plumbing on my own using YouTube wisdom). Anyhow, the very next party staying included a young teen who had a period leak on the sheet, which she folded up and tried to hide under the spare blankets in the closet.

So this inspired me to add a page to the house manual (which I intentionally keep pretty spare and basic) It’s:

When something goes wrong

"Accidents, spills, broken dishes, clogged toilets . . . who among us hasn’t had unfortunate things happen? It’s never fun, and it’s all the more upsetting when you’re away from home. We hope that you’ll feel comfortable reaching out to us as your hosts to let us know what happened and how we can help.

We’re happy to address these mishaps quickly, and we’re not out to embarrass you or make you pay fines for honest mishaps. We do provide some basic cleaning tools and clean rags for your use in the utility room between the bathroom and bedroom.

When it’s something beyond what you can address on your own, please contact us explaining what happened. We have an arsenal of stain treatments and quick fixes we can break out to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Knowing about mishaps in advance helps us to use our cleaning time wisely as we prepare for our next guests. Identifying what made a stain is often key to successfully treating it.

Thanks so much for keeping communication clear and open. As you travel using Airbnb, you will find that hosts appreciate knowing about the spills, stains, and accidents upfront. That counts as good communication and allows us to offer our best service – so a win all around."

My thought is that it’s conceivable that some of my guests honestly don’t know how to manage a situation where they’ve made a mess. They’re embarrassed, they don’t want a potentially awkward interaction in person, and they would prefer to just pretend nothing ever happened. So I’m shooting for a teachable moment.

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I like the concept and think it’s a good idea- as you say, lots of people don’t know how to deal with things and just make it worse. So if I were to write up something like that, I would also get something in there about not trying to “fix” it themselves, as that can often make it worse, rather than say “when it’s something beyond what you can address on your own”. Because lots of people think they can address it on their own, when they really have no idea how. So you get things like stopped up plumbing, bleach spots on furniture or carpets where they tried to scrub out something they spilled, etc.

Some things you could actually give specific instructions for, like blood. Just matter of factly saying that you know those kind of things happen, it’s natural, if it does, to just put the item in a pail of cold water to soak right away and leave it. (tell them where to find a pail, and to just ask if they need clean sheets, etc.)

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It won’t hurt to add a page to your house manual.

I doubt the “guilty” parties you describe would be affected, i.e., they either wouldn’t read it or wouldn’t care. They were embarrassed and the last thing they are going to do is contact you. They’d probably rather pay extra money than tell you about the issue.

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I really feel that you could achieve your goal by including only this first paragraph. The other three paragraphs are not saying anything new or different, they’re repetitive. If your goal is to encourage open and honest communication, then you don’t want to go over the top and make anyone feel uncomfortable.

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In my welcome message after guests check in I ask them if everything is ok and if not, to please let us know because we want to make your stay a good experience. I even give them my private land line number if I am not responding to their airbnb message.

As for the stopped up bathroom. I purchased a very fancy decorative plunger that I leave next to the toilet. It’s covered and has its own stand. I really doubt that young folks have any idea how to use it but I know it has been used.

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I read somewhere about an Airbnb guest sitting on the toilet when he noticed a sign “If this toilet gets stopped up, you’re on your own!”

How’s that for hospitality?

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I kind of feel like there are some people who do need the further elaboration. I often plug my sons or nieces and nephews into a situation and think about how they would respond, what they would know to do, and honestly, I don’t think that college aged kids necessarily do know that it’s useful to know what caused a stain, for example.

But I do like a brief manual (the better to be efficiently Goggle translated) so I’ll keep honing the language with each edition (I do a yearly edit and print out a new version as things evolve).\

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oh I really love this! I have some wording about pet stains and urging guests to just tell me asap, as we have special enzyme cleaner and a wet vac. I will also add an entire page to my manual about stains and breakages and communication. I actually provide a sleep mat in each listing for women/kids’ use, and so far the only stains we’ve had have been baby poo, and the guest made zero effort hide it. [insert gripe about how free infants always end us costing us something]

I have no issue with stains or even wear and tear breakages, and if a guest is honest I will say ‘that’s ok’ and never charge them. I’ve had a few guests break wine glasses and use the phrase “it broke” which irritates me no end. It’s the guests who try to hide their damage, or say nothing that make my blood boil, and those guests find themselves slapped with an extra fee after checkout.

confession: stayed in an airbnb last year with my teen daughter and she had a period accident. I had purchased a cheap towel for her to put down as she is prone to accidents, and this is what we do at home until I found the awesome sleep mat thingys at Aldi, but she managed to leak onto the sheet as well (thankfully no further) and during the day when the hosts were out I soaked and washed the sheet myself. obviously as a woman+mother my skills at laundry are high so I didn’t see an issue with this, and i didn’t want to tell the host because my daughter would have died of embarrassment.

my manual is getting longer and longer, but it does include useful info and it’s pretty, with photos, so it’s not just 30 pages of Rules.

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Every time I decide to streamline my House Manual it gets longer. It is now massive. Fascinating, I’ve been told, but completely ridiculous. I suffer from a terrible syndrome called “too many words-itis”. I also suffer from extreme “CYA-itis” which I learned from this forum. I’ve addressed this by reading through many STR listings to see what sinks in and realizing that my brain flits away after one or two sentences as I want to see what’s next. My solution for these issues is a few bullet points and possibly some humorous graphics. If something is really important I find a place to post a laminated sign (I know, I know, I hate signs, too) such as the one in the laundry room begging the overly helpful guests not to wash the white towels (with a graphic of a Victorian woman swooning).

I have avoided many issues by making things very, very clear in my listing. It’s just that I use too many words.

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Sorry, I cannot at all relate to what you are saying. :rofl:

Bullet points are a good idea but not a silver bullet as I end up with many wordy bullet points. BUT it is easier to read and usually somewhat less wordy.

Signs and labels are a great idea because you really need to fit the words into a small space.

I’m working on a [lengthy] House Manual too. My approach is to develop a detailed table of contents and also an index, so at least it will be easy for the guest to find what they’re looking for.

Finally, I plan to take the manual and go to Upwork and just hire an editor to make it more succinct.

Hope one of these ideas is helpful.

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This both delights and scares me. I do appreciate a well-organized document, but I mean, like how many volumes is this house manual? Hardcover? :smile:

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Steeling. Thanks for sharing.

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Oh, I have an extremely detailed table of contents that is color coded and linked to tabs. It makes me so happy. I have actually seen people sit down with a cuppa, and settle in, to read through it. But those people are sort of unusual, like me, so I need to change to accommodate normals. No, I will probably leave it, but I need an alternative, something like the suggested QR codes.

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“It’s a bit of a sh*t-storm Mr. Lahey”

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When my sons and I were traveling in New Zealand, we stayed in a very quirky, charming, fairly remote place where the host had a hand lettered sign “If you wipe your @ss with baby wipes and flush them or flush yer female supplies, I will personally hold your feet as I lower you into the septic to retrieve your items. Got it?” I feel like he conveyed his message.

It was actually one of my favorite places to stay. The host was delightful, and very generous and fun to talk with.

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