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Hi everyone,
Last night at 2 am I received a message from the guest that they fell in the shower and broke the tub. (They are OK and this was my first concern). My husband surveyed the damage this morning and it is significant - like the whole side of the tub was cracked and there is now a huge hole in the tub (picture close up of the hole 2019-05-13|500x500 )
What sort of steps would you take in this scenario? My husband is looking into a tub repair kit or we are considering replacing the whole thing (let me know if anyone has an knowledge in this arena).
We’ve had this tub for less than a year, but it’s clear that the contractors used a fiber glass - foam infill, etc tub, so nothing overly fancy. This was clearly an accident (though a 2 am message makes me suspect they may not have been sober) and we clearly need to do more to create traction in the tub/shower. The guests did offer to pay for the damage, but I’m not sure if that’s really appropriate? Would you open this up through the resolution center? Go through insurance? Should we be worried about a law suit? Just thought I’d field this group.
On a second minor vent - I’ve been so surprised by the amount of weird damage that happens to the bathroom. In my prior history of renting, I’ve just never ripped out of the wall towel racks, toilet paper holders, hand towel holders or vomited on shower curtains - all of which have happened at various points in the last 9 months or so of renting on Airbnb. Sigh.
Wow! I’ve had a guest dye my bathtub purple from dyeing her hair…but never had any of the other things happen. Sounds like you get a lot of guests who either drink to excess or have small, destructive children—-or both! LOL! I’m sorry to hear about all the damages. How sturdy are the towel racks, toilet paper holder, etc? Were they installed properly?
stains from hair dye in the glazing (clear vinyl seals) around the shower door
towel rack pulled off the wall
broken pop-up drain in the tub
chipped toilet tank cover
I did not charge guests for repair of any of these things, but I do all of my own handyman work and the cost to repair was small (less than $20 each).
I don’t agree with that. I’ve never seen traction devices beyond grab bars in tubs in commercial hotels and this isn’t even a commercial hotel. This is residential grade. Trying to change your place won’t fix the real problem. The real problem is the people.
Yes absolutely you need to open up a resolution center case, document everything, get an estimate etc.
No. Short term rental insurance is very expensive in my experience. On your home owners policy, it would probably be cheaper to do it out of pocket.
No you have the host protection insurance. You’re insured up to $1,000,000 but only on your property, for invited guests etc. Make sure you read and understand what you are and aren’t covered for.
One a separate note, I use these lines for the tub (be sure to have a moist tub when placing and push down on suction cups). I machine wash with bleach after each use so that it’s disinfected. I keep 3 to rotate will cleaning. Makes tub cleaning so much easier.
My husband is working on a fiber glass patch. It won’t look pretty until we have the time to paint it (even then, I’m not sure), but it will be usable in the meantime. We have same day turnovers until May 26, so we plan to message the guests to let them know that we’ve made a repair. The incoming guests are a 7-day reservation, so we’d really rather not forgo that income so long as the shower is usable.
Please return and update us on the resolution. Many posts here say that the insurance and guarantees that Airbnb provides are worthless. I’m keen to hear stories otherwise.
We know the hand towel one wasn’t installed very well, but the other two were fine until people tried to put their weight on them. We have patched the walls and put stand alone toliet paper holders and towel holders out now, lol.
I’ve been in rentals that had no towel bars. I was frustrated as I had no where appropriate to hang my towel to dry. I thought they were clueless but maybe they just had this issue.
Since the tub install is so young, is there no warranty or anything on it? That may be a viable Road to getting a new one. I would love to have it fixed ASAP so that there’s no water leakage below causing further damage.
I suspect my guests have sex in the shower (no tub) because I almost never hear sex noise or see stains on the sheets. There are other explanations possible of course but I wouldn’t want to rule it out at my listing.
As a side note…we have a rental property (not ABB) that the tub broke in a similar way and we did find out that it was not installed property causing weak spots therefore it was a possibility of this happening again if we just patched it. We called In a professional who made the repair so that the stress was taken off the weak spots. Frustrating to be sure especially since it happened just out of the warranty period.
hahaha hmmm i wonder