UPDATE:
Had to get this off my chest…
I rent a 1 bedroom 3 person max in my own home where I live… Private bedroom and private bathroom.
Where to start. Woman who lives in my town books a place for 3 nights, IB. She has good reviews. First two nights will be with her only, last night will be with her two teenaged daughters. She booked for one person. Whatever, I charge additional for third guest, but not stressed about it. I agree to make up third single bed for the extra person.
@momof08 I am letting this go…wise words and I think I have, but still need to vent!
She turns up with garbage bags full or her belongings, says she’s moving and “her kids took all her luggage”. Ok, a little sketchy but no worries. She says she has to go back to her place and pick up additional belongings and lost credit card. She comes back with 3 bags of trash/recyclables. “is this okay?”. Ummmm, not really. My city has halved the size of our trash cart and instead replaces the full sized trash cart with a (small) bear safe cart and a (small) compost bin. Enough trash space in the trash cart for two kitchen sized bags, weekly pick up. We get charged extra for “overflowing trash cart” for anything that goes over the brim of the cart. She knows this, she lives here. Recycling picks up (now) once every other week, alternating weeks are compostables. Long story short we cannot dispose of guests’ trash! Still I say, “sure, no problem”. (I want to tell her pay 25 bucks and take it to the dump.) Me, all the time smiling politely.
I say, do you need extra towels? She says, “yes”. “Will your daughters?” (who will be there for one night) She says, “yes”. I provide her and her daughters with six bath towels/hand towels/washcloths. Still no problem on my end. Unbeknownst to me, they help themselves to my “private” linen closet (in house rules as off limits & pointed out as such when I give the “tour”.) and take three more towels and two wash cloths once teens show up. These are cotton bamboo blends that I do NOT share with my guests, they stain like crazy, and cannot be bleached. I guess six sets of Egyptian cotton towels were not enough. I have more guest towels, but state in my rules that they must ask for more if they need them, but I always offer at beginning of stay and during anyway. Long story longer, Self tanner on almost all towels. Black face mask on two towels. Somehow bleached one of my blue bath towels and hand towels, big time. I guess it’s those acne cleansers that @cabinhost was talking about because I leave no bleaching products anywhere that guests can get to without a key. After two days of soaking, scrubbing, soaking and finally washing, I was able to salvage the white towels. Three (3 personal towels and 2 blue guest towels could not be salvaged) Thank you to @Kenh and @jaquo for recommending the cold water treatment with oxyclean. Lord, what a process but it worked with the white cotton, sadly not the bamboo blend, or obviously the bleached blue towels.
And more. Teenagers show with this huge pick-up truck full to the point of heaping with junk. Looks like one of those “we take your unwanted crap” type trucks. They completely block my neighbors driveway….unsightly, to say the least, neighbors and all. I have them move the truck to my driveway, blocking my car into the garage. Oh well. BUT, they also show up with a dog. I love dogs, so very much, but have “no pets” policy on my listing. Mom says, “oh, we brought our dog, is that OK?” Me: “ahhhh, yes I suppose that’s ok, but no dogs allowed on any furniture or bedding in the house. I have a dog bed stored in our garage, would you like to use it?” (My beloved german shepherd mix has recently passed and I have very nice/oder absorbing dog beds that were his.) No, that’s ok, he will sleep on the floor. Sure he will. Well, he piddled and pooped on the three extra blankets I provide in the closet that they made into a dog bed on the floor! I’m sooo not kidding here. They didn’t walk him once, or even let him out back, that I saw. But whatever, I give guests a lot of privacy and free reign in my house. As I mentioned in previous post, they left the dog after checking out. I walked the dog, who clearly had to go! Fed him (didn’t see that they did that either). When I wrote my oh so kind note to her I joked that we could just call the towels a “wash”, forgive the pun, and I would keep her sweet dog. She said I could! He was too much trouble “while they were moving”. What!!! Who DOES that with their pet? Sadly, there are plenty of shelters full of these dogs.
What else. Kids go through all of my toiletries in VERY organized linen closet that is now been dug though and trashed. My personal items and linens qualify for the dewey decimal system of organization. (Anal I am.) I think they used some of my self tanner, probably expired, never use it, maybe that’s why they wiped it all off? They helped themselves to my Clarisonic electric facial brush scrubber - kind of a personal item -, took a box of Sensodine Pronamel tooth paste, My back-up supply of Aveda shampoo/conditioner, and probably more items that I haven’t even searched for.
I have a large stand alone jetted soaking tub. I told them all about it and it’s in the “how to use tub” manual that sit’s on the ledge of the tub. I guess this tub is a real selling point of my place. Who knew? Everyone so far has been considerate. But NO, not these folks. There is no bubble bath or bath products with oil allowed in this tub. It screws with the jets and filtration system! Would you put this sh*t in a hot tub? I provide epsom salts for guests, which are ok. “can we use our bath bombs?” NOOOOO! I say. Well, they use them anyway. Needless to say, disgusting film on the tub, which I have to scrub anyway, but have to completely flush out and clean the jets/filter system. Gross.
No smoking, loitering, drinking, 4/20 products EVER in front of my house. Made very clear in house rules. I sweep my walk daily because of the pine needles/cones and leaves…guess what? More than 20 cigarette butts from these guests on my front sidewalk and under my tree, even though I have a huge backyard, deck, umbrella table and ashtrays provided for this! 24/7 guest access. Again. This is something I verbally tell guests during the tour. A couple of snarky comments from neighbors. Not good.
Ummmm what else…
• I was reaching into their trash bin in their room to sort out the recyclables. Fingers strike VOMIT. Yes vomit all in the trash bag. That will teach me forever to wear gloves. Oh the horror.
• Sratched the tops and dinged my solid wood night stands. What the heck are they doing in there?
• Lot’s of “Monthly” blood on both beds/sheets/mattress pads, on sofa and on towels. No huge deal, I can get this easily cleaned, but this is a lot! Sorry to be crass, but girl, you are leaking! (Apologies to forum members who may find this offensive.)
• Feather pillow soaked with spilled cola beverage. Remainder of said beverage from McDonalds (still leaking) found under bed. Trash bin in your room? Anyone? Oh wait, that’s for vomit…
• I buy Andes chocolate mints in bulk and put them on guest pillows first night of stay. Whole box stolen.
• They used towels for bathmats but didn’t touch the three clean fluffy one’s I provide. Why???
• Still trying to get rid of their bags of trash and recyclables and not get charged extra.
• Stolen bag of cotton balls out of linen closet.
OK, thanks for listening. Now that I have it down on paper, I’m officially over it. I will follow up on my airbnb resolution and the guest review of me & mine of her. I have had only 28 stays to date, everyone was nice and polite and respectful (including these guests, to my face, that is). “Give ‘em an inch….”