How much damage to bedding is considered acceptable??

[Luis3823]

Hi,

I'm new to hosting and would appreciate some advice. Some guests spent a night with us and left blood spots on the comforter and bodily fluid stains on the blanket. Should I consider that "normal" ? It created more work for us obviously and felt careless.

Thanks for your feedback.

[Luis3823]

Also want to add that these guests have 5 perfect reviews. Do they still deserve a good review from me?

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Luis3823  Yes, it's normal. Dealing with bodily fluids on bedding, unless it looks like an axe murder took place, is part and parcel of hosting. You are dealing with human beings- they have sex, women have menstrual periods, people get nose bleeds or a mosquito bite they scratch in their sleep. 

Hosts become adept at stain removal techniques. Blood is actually one of the easier things to deal with. Soak in cold water (hot water cooks it in so it never comes out), pour some hydrogen peroxide over the spots, when the stain is gone, wash as normal.

This is not something to mark a guest down for, and never mention personal things like this in a review.

[Luis3823]

Very thoughtful answer Sarah. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

@Luis3823 I agree 100% with @Sarah977 there - blood and other icky stains on linens are most likely a consequence of normal use of the bedding, and shouldn't be taken as careless. When things go really wrong is when guests try to hide the remnants, either with a bad attempt at stain removal that makes it worse, or even by hiding the sheets in some closet or the garbage. These guests did the right thing by leaving the linens in a normal place for the pros to handle, and sparing you the painfully awkward dialogue about how the stains got there. 

[Nanxing0]

One thing I want to add (and possibly ask @Sarah977 and @Anonymous ) is that if you think makeup stain is normal on bed linens? This is one thing I get sometimes and I personally think it's the guest's ignorance that cause makeup to land on bed linens -- by not removing the makeup before going to bed. To me it's completely different from some blood spots caused by nose bleeding or lady's period.

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0  Yes, it's pretty lazy for women not to remove their make-up before going to bed, but it's also pretty common. There are products which will remove most make-up from fabrics, though. 

It might help to put a note in the bathroom asking to please remove makeup before going to bed so as not to stain the bedding, and provide make-up wipes. You can also order washcloths online that are black and have "Make-up" embroidered on them.

I don't seem to get the type of guests who slather on make-up, my female guests tend to be the more natural types, so I've not personally had this issue. 

One stain I've heard is pretty much impossible to remove is acne medication, but I haven't had any personal experience with that, either.

[Anonymous]

@Nanxing0 it's mostly through forums like this that I've heard about the ravages of makeup, acne creams, tinted shampoos, hair dye, and other cosmetics on linens. Personally, I haven't encountered these issues frequently enough to cause any significant expense. But then again, if the fabric is still in great shape aside from a stubborn discoloration, I'm not inclined to think of it as damaged. Either it gets shifted to personal use, or dyed a new color that masks the unwanted markings. 

I don't use makeup and I don't have hair, so I'm in no place to judge how preventable their stains are. But if someone comes home from a night out so tired that she falls asleep in her makeup, I'll just be satisfied that she got safely to bed and not passed out on the sofa or toilet or outside the front door (all of which have happened and were much more of a pain than a marked pillowcase).

I'm sure most higher-end hosts are using more expensive linens, but the pricing for each stay should allow a cushion for the predictable kinds off wear and tear. 

[Nanxing0]

@Anonymous Honestly I have had a whole bunch of bed linens and towels like this that got shifted to personal use and I'm using some of the bath towels to wipe my floor.... 

Honestly it's not simply a cost thing. I buy those towels from Costco with each hand cloth around 1 dollar, each hand towel costs less than $2 and the bath towel costs $4 each. It's not a lot of loss if the guest only destroys 1-2 hand cloth and/or hand towel. But I feel some guests simply do not have the sense that it's not a good thing to do to color/dye the towels even if the cause is excusable. They simply think anything they get onto the towels can be washed off by us, mysteriously.

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0  "They simply think anything they get onto the towels can be washed off by us, mysteriously."

You're giving them too much credit. They don't think you can get the towels clean- they don't think about it at all, nor do they care.

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

I used to have more of a problem with make up stains on bed linens, but more often on towels. Some come out easily enough, e.g. foundation, but others, like mascara (waterproof maybe) can be tricky to remove.

Following advice from other hosts here on the CC, I started leaving make up wipes in the rooms with little stickers on them asking guests to please use those instead of towels. While some guests use them and others don't (make up wipes are becoming less popular both for environmental reasons and because they are not that great for your skin) but they act as a reminder not to use towels for this purpose, and perhaps even encourage guests to remove make up before they get into bed. I am not sure, just guessing, but I rarely get make up stains since I started doing it and luckily I don't get this anymore!

Effective stain removal products are a must in your Airbnb laundry arsenal. Most stains are easily enough to get out. Occasionally though, you just have to write things off as wear and tear. Early on, I had some very lovely guests who left black stains all over brand new towels. Nothing would get them out. I think it was shoe polish!! More recently, I had some very luxurious, new towels ruined with what I assume must have been hair bleach 😞

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 A towel as you showed in this picture is exactly what I was talking about, which I encounter sometimes (not too often but enough to draw attention), probably around 5% of the reservations I host. This just makes me feel that there are some guests who really don't understand how to respect the hospitality. 

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

Make up stains on the towels used to be quite common when I was hosting short term guests (until I started supplying the wipes) but, yes, this level of staining is unusual. I would also say around 5% leave stains that surprise me. 

I learnt early on to tell guests not to eat in the bedrooms. Some still ignore this rule, but prior to that, food stains on bed linens (grease, red wine, egg, all sorts) was common. One guest spilt coffee all over a cream rug but didn't tell me. I only saw it after he left and when it was too late to get the stains out. I even found what looked like pasta stains splattered on silk curtains and INSIDE a silk lampshade. I don't even know how they managed to do it.

Accidents do happen of course, but leaving that amount of make up on someone else's pristine white towels is for sure disrespectful.

[Gordon0]

Thanks to the way things work here (in Europe) this is less of an issue as we don’t ordinarily have blankets/comforters. The duvet cover and bottom sheet is washed after every stay. 

When in North America, anything like cushions, comforters and other grime collectors are swiftly banished from my bed. 

[Sarah977]

@Gordon0  Well, some of us who use top sheets and blankets actually do wash the blankets in between guests. 🙂 

In the winter here where I live in Mexico, it does get cool enough at night for a duvet, and I do use them, but in the spring and fall or on summer nights when it's been raining, a duvet would be too hot and just a top sheet not enough. So a light cotton blanket over a top sheet works well.