What have been your biggest mistakes?

As you no doubt know, LLBean will replace any item that wears prematurely. Their sheets should last more than 18 months.

I found a really nice brand of microfiber that feels like cotton. Have had them over a year and still going strong. No stains or holes, also under 20 for a King.

@anon67190644 -
LL Bean used to replace any other their items anytime. They just stopped that policy less than 2 weeks ago, and now only take items back for one year. I missed getting mine back in time. They’ll “consider” replacing items if they are defective, but I suspect they’ll reject these.

I’ll probably try to patch them - the holes are fairly small and in the very bottom part of the sheet, so the patches should not be noticeable if I do them right.

@PitonView. You have misunderstood the new return policy. For defective items, the return policy has not changed. They are such a small and rather warm and fuzzy company, I would call them. I bet that they will do “right” by you. Seriously. The biggest change in the policy is actually that you have to prove you actually bought the item. 90% of the returns were items purchased at Goodwill and other thrift stores for pennies, and then returned.

https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/513705

@Hostymosty1 That’s an interesting take, and I kinda see what you mean. But white is notoriously the hardest colour to match, as there are so many shades - I know this from when my white car was crashed into, and the repair company struggled to match the new bonnet. I also had a chat with a laundry business owner about this, and she told me to NEVER bleach linen or towels. I do have white towels and bed linen, but find the colour is very unforgiving…

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@anon67190644 - Thanks! I will try that. Now to find the receipts - I know I have a copy somewhere (and I ordered online, so they should have a record, too)

Their POS system is very good at finding orders. You should not have an issue.

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Have you ever tried a bed fan? My wife and I got one probably 10 years ago and it still works great! We use it year round. It blows cooler air from the floor up under your sheets. We don’t have them in the guest rooms though. It’s a little more difficult to make the bed with one. This link is a newer model but I bet it’s still good.
http://www.bedfan.com/bedfan_description.html?_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuNTymo6y2QIVz7fACh23qgqiEAAYASAAEgKzz_D_BwE

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Thanks for that suggestion. I don’t think this would work for me for a few reasons. I do have a ceiling fan above my bed and in the summer the window AC is above and behind me so it blows out and then ceiling fan blows down. So that works well. The microfiber sheet on the bottom though feels hot against my skin, as does the memory foam I’m laying on. Due to occasional back and hip pain I trade off heat of the foam for comfort. Adding microfiber to the foam just makes it worse.

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Don’t let guests use your kitchen for cooking, Ask them to eat only in the kitchen not bedroom or living areas because of stains, let them bring food in to eat & use the refrigerator, but they can cook/burn some nasty smelling things & will never clean up as well as they should. Be firm on check in & out times & occasionally give yourself some days off, this was my best idea for myself. I do leave a bottle of water for each guest in the bedroom, this helps prevent them from drinking other things in the bedroom and helps prevent spills. I also went to the Chamber of commerce in my town & stocked up on brochures & maps as well as postcards etc., they offered.

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We also use all white and we never (maybe once or twice in the last year) use bleach. We use Oxyclean and almost everything comes out. White looks clean and fresh; it’s partly a psychological thing. We haven’t had any trouble matching whites.

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Blockquote
Be firm on check in & out times & occasionally give yourself some days off, this was my best idea for myself.
Blockquote

I have blocked out a day between most bookings so that turnarounds aren’t too manic. Although I’ve found a cleaner to manage these, I’m always aware that something can go wrong and at least this way if there are any disasters or she’s ill, we’re not in panic mode.

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We use a ceiling fan, floor fan and the bed fan year round! Plus AC in the summer! We like it cool when sleeping. We never turn on the heat in our room. The bed fan is nice because it brings the cool air up under the covers so the AC doesn’t need to be as cold.

Sounds great! I have dogs and board dogs and with all the dog hair and dust on the floor it would just be getting dirty and probably blowing dirt on me. Maybe at some point in the future I won’t have dogs and I’ll be able to get one.

Hmmm…bed fan. I’m getting tired of swinging the feet out from under the covers…waiting for a while, then bringing them back in, only to swing them out again in a few hours.

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bleach the only way to get spots out and there will be spots
so white all the way around for me
BETH
Florida

No kidding!
Reminds me of the time that we hosted a group of young men, all college students at the same school, who took a big trip for winter break. They went to Crater Lake first, which is a 5 hour + cruise from our place. They stated that they would arrive at the house around 8:00pm. We get a phone call at around 7:30pm stating that they were just leaving, and ‘by the way’…they have one extra guest (total of 9) which would now be arriving at the house around 12:30pm. Apparently, the primary guest had a flat tire, and the ‘first’ car group arrived at the house at 2:30am, and tried to enter the door code IN THE WRONG DOOR (instructions stated to go to the side door). What do they do? They call AirBnB (they don’t have our phone number), and tell AirBnB rep that they can’t get into the house. What does AirBnB do? Without even trying to contact us, they CANCEL the entire reservation. Meanwhile, my husband and I are snoozing away, until approx. 4:30am, when the OTHER car finally arrives, and calls us to let us know they finally arrived. (Whuuat?) So we wake up at 6:30am, to catch up to the news that the reservation (and payment) had been cancelled by AirBnB, and yet, there are 9 young men sprawled out all over our house, and they have dirtied every towel, and every piece of linen & bedding in our place. AND this was back when we were stupid enough not to have a 2 night minimum stay requirement. See anything wrong with this story yet? LOL
We finally got things straightened out with the payment, though the mystery of why it was cancelled in the first place without any contact is still a mystery to this day. The young men slept until 11:00, and were an hour late leaving after checkout time.
You live…and you learn.
BTW…we don’t use smart pricing. We were so upset over that issue (and another one a month later) that we purposefully inflated our prices for the summer, and enjoyed a fully booked summer primarily thru VRBO. I got over it around September, and readjusted the prices back to normal rates, but wow. Don’t we all have our stories?

Bob & Kim
B & K Farmhouse

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WE DID too. Best thing we ever did. Also have two night minimum. Would only break even if allowed one night only after paying the cleaners.

A big mistake this weekend - we told the guests to keep the heated towel rail on to warm the bathroom. We didn’t realise just how damn expensive this was, and the energy bill has been over £35 per day for a property we charge just over £50 for. Ouch! A big lesson there and we’re thinking of disabling the towel rail (there are plenty of other radiators in the house).

We haven’t had the guest’s review yet but fingers crossed it’s a good one after that!

@Chrissie I think there must be something wrong here. I would check your meters.

i have a heated towel rail in the bathroom, which I leave on all the time and they aren’t expensive to run at all.

It certainly wouldn’t lead to a huge hike in your electricity bills.

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