CHILD BED WETTING

[Cheap-Sleep0]

Ok, so I had another local host from the north, book a room of 4 for 3 adults and 2 babies, aged 5 and 2.
the 5 year old peed the hell out of the bed. WHY did they not night diaper him???!!!they only diapered the 2 year old.

The customer kept telling me he had 3 cabins that he sold online airbnb and other platdforms, so he knows the airheads that cause problems.

When they left, the customer kept telling me, his child made " an Accident" like 4 times.. I was not sure... i thought he spilled his juice or his food, so I did not check immediately, then when i was cleaning, he had folded the told mattress layer in a roll and pulled the bedding out. the blanket, the pillow and the top mattress was in alot of PEE!

So what can I do, he informed me as he left about the accident, I did not charge him straight away and now I have 11 days to leave a review.. what shall I even write in his review.. can anyone write a sample review for me?? and shall i request for compensation?

WHY would you go to someone elses property as a host and not put a night diaper on your infant child that is too small to wake up and climb down from a bunk bed and pee on his own?

I am so confused.. this sucks.

[Kate867]

@Cheap-Sleep0   This is a dreadful situation for several reasons.

 Beyond a doubt you should ask for compensation for this as although the linens can be washed, the mattress and pillow will either need deep cleaning or replacing.  

However, I note that your ratings are dangerously low for Airbnb and a request for compensation and/or leaving any review now for this guest will inevitably prompt him to leave the dreaded ‘revenge’ review in return as he will be well aware that your review of them will be somewhat less than ‘glowing’.

If he does leave a review for you first, you should be notified and then you can leave a short and honest review, giving them the star ratings as appropriate.. I would certainly give fewer stars for communication as well as cleanliness and perhaps something like ‘X were nice guests but unfortunately their elder child had an ‘accident’ in the night and they failed to notify me of the nature of this’ .. then tick No to Hosting them again.  At this point, also put in your claim for damages etc.

if he does not leave a review, then personally I would leave it to the last moment (14 days) and put in both your review and a claim at that point.. and hope he does not have time to respond.   

I know it all sounds horribly sneaky but until Airbnb address the very real problem of ‘revenge reviews’ then as Hosts we have little choice.

[Cheap-Sleep0]

Wow! thank you. it is so hard to host, and have a high rating or be taken out for the CUSTOMERS stupidity. The HOST has no rights.. this star rating is so degrading and inaccurate and even in schools they have thought that is not accurate in valuating the actural child due to faults in the system.. and here we are giving people 1-10 or 5 stars ratings..

it is totally inaccurate and insulting when you work very hard to keep things nice and stupid people who have no common sense come and fault you for nothing, but their own stupid wrong doing.

Thank you.

[Kia272]

@Cheap-Sleep0  A situation easily resolved by having mattress protectors. Why didn't you have one on the mattress? It's a sanitation issue, not only when a kid wets the bed, but for many other reasons. Mattress protectors are waterproof (and therefore pee-proof), and washable. 

[Cheap-Sleep0]

Yes! Kia we are looking into it. we have never had any problems in the past, nor do we have just one room with one or two beds. we are a proper guesthouse with 12 rooms thus we have 50 beds a mattress proctor here in Iceland is around 6000 -10000ISK, so around 50-80USD each proctor for a fitted one.

So it is steep. We had two incidents in 20 years. one is an old man that peed and he paid for the bed. and a french guy that spilled booze on the bed. it stuck like Burbon for days! lol..

so he paid 200 Dollors for cleaning fees. But they were booking.com clients.

What should I do with AIRBNB clients, charge them or not? what do you think.

[Cherie71]

Definitely charge.  If the guest refuses to pay, then you can make a choice to bump up for Airbnb 'help' ;0 or not.

[Kia272]

@Cheap-Sleep0  I really think that this is your responsibility. I understand it's expensive to outfit the number of beds you have with mattress covers, but it protects you as well as the mattresses. The covers are supposed to protect from liquid (obviously), but also bedbugs, lice, etc. Putting the money out for mattress covers can actually save you money in the long run, by not having to buy new mattresses when incidents happen. 

Honestly, I'm not any kind of germaphobe or clean freak, but the idea of sleeping on an unprotected mattress that has just been used by a stranger- eeewwww. 

If I came to your AirBnB and realized that the mattress didn't have a cover, I'm probably not going to want to sleep on it. Seriously. 

Maybe you can purchase them 10 at a time, and slowly build up so that eventually all of your mattresses have covers. It's the cost of doing business. 

But I also think that this is on you, and I would not charge the guest. 

[Laura2592]

@Cheap-Sleep0another reason we don't host little ones.

I would definitely invest in mattress protectors and probably would not ask for compensation. It really does depend on how much you invested in bedding. If its not hundreds then I would let it go and mention it in the review.

"So and so were generally good guests but left our linens damaged. We would not have them back due to the extra clean up and costs involved."

[Cheap-Sleep0]

Beds were fairly new ikea bunk bed mattresses from the beginning of January 2022.. so they are like 4 months old now.. been used every day since it was bought..

[Amanda660]

@Cheap-Sleep0  if your market will allow it it may be an idea to up your rate a little, build up a slush fund for anything that’s damaged, put towards protectors, etc.  

[Mark116]

@Cheap-Sleep0  Zippered mattress protectors are a must for many reasons, as you found out.  If you don't want the expense of buying them all at once, you could do it over the course of a few months.

I would say something similar to what @Laura2592  said in the review, XX were [something nice] but unfortunately due to significant damage to the linens and one mattress, we cannot recommend them to to other hosts.

I probably would not ask for damages, but it depends on the cost of a new mattress.  You can probably wash the linens, possibly with an enzyme cleaner like is used for cat/dog pee.

[John2406]

@Cheap-Sleep0  During the pandemic - which, incidentally, has not yet gone away - it was a requirement (here in the UK, anyway) that mattresses, duvet covers, and pillows should not only have protectors on each item, but that they should re changed and laundered at every changeover.

Whilst many might feel that that was a step too far, we had been doing all that before Covid-19 struck, and to be perfectly honest, it's like many other things, in the sense that to begin doing something not done before seems rather onerous, once one gets into the rhythm of regularly doing it, it's just part of the job.

OK, so what happened in your case was nothing to do with Covid-19, but the principle is basically the same, inasmuch as each person who sleeps in a bed doesn't really want to believe that between that freshly laundered pillowcase, or the duvet that's on top of them, or the mattress that they're lying on, has not long had someone else (maybe sweaty, maybe with impetigo, maybe who.... well, hopefully you get the picture) sleeping there!

I mean to say, sheets, duvet covers, pillows are laundered after each Guest has left, but everything I mentioned does - to s certain extent - filter through those products, and whilst the protectors do do what they're in place to do (so the pillows, mattresses, and duvets are protected, I wonder how many Hosts ever give a second thought to the protectors themselves?!

And then of course, there's the wees - and it's not just the age-groups you mentioned that might have a leakage, however small, but there's always a chance that babies might have the nappies/diapers changed whilst lying on a bed, or there's younger aged individuals who sometimes have problems with pelvic muscles - but none of your Guests' would usually disclose such information to any Host, after all, quite often even their partners' aren't aware of such, as it's not something people in general want to talk about!

So the best answer - and the "cheapest" one as well - is for a waterproof protector to be put on each of your mattresses.

What you will also have to consider however, is that not only did the child exude a lot of wee, and that it soaked the mattress, but with the child moving about on the bed (or even if it didn't) the duvet will also have been affected by the urine, whilst if the child's hands became wet, then it's more than likely your pillows were also affected!

Yes, I appreciate that cost does come into the equation, but so does the wellbeing of all of your Guests, and to my way of thinking, it's far "cheaper" in monetary terms to purchase and put on the correct type of protectors to do just that; protect the components of a bed; protect your Guests from anything "nasty" or "not-very-nice"; and/or protect you from any bad comments/reviews or, worse; - than not.

I noted the price you mentioned per protector, and o appreciate you are in Iceland, but is there not one of those worldwide Companies with the name of a famous river in South America, in your Country, or are you not able to access one, or is it that even they charge that much for waterproof protectors?!

Hope some at least of the above will be of help.

[Cheap-Sleep0]

Hello,

love all the advice. and yes! we wash covers everyday, and also already wash the actual feather duvets and feather pillows after 10 or 15 uses from guests, How do you launder a mattress? not sure if Mattresses are meant to be laundered... we have fitted sheets that is washed but we do not launder our mattresses.. Does anyone wash their mattress? we air dry our mattress and rotate our mattress once every 3 months. Does anyone here actually wash your mattress with hot water and how long does it dry? in the sun or the heater? will that not ruin the metal springs in the bed to rust.

Thank you again for your suggestions.

Does every host actually have waterproof covers on ALL their beds they sell on airbnb??

[Gillian166]

@Cheap-Sleep0  you can vacuum your mattress, and air it when you can. I don't know if washing would do much good, but you could do a wet vac "wash". I have a small Bissell vacuum where you spray on some cleaner, let sit for 5 mins, then suck up the liquid and the stain. You could do your whole mattress this way I suppose. 

When we have a few days break we leave mattresses with nothing on them to get some sunshine and fresh air time. 

[Helen744]

@ helen744 absolutely , one of the most sensible things you will ever do.All people and you ought to know this  shed bits. Sometimes they bleed pee ,puke , or hello holy batman crap. They shed skin nails hair and I swear some have never washed until they come to my house. People all people are grubs. One lovely giant of a man sweated so much that it invaded the house and the sheets had to be thrown out . So if you know this and you should then mattress protectors are a must. Some are very expensive but not necessarily the best . The ones that attach with elastic grips and with a cotton cover or a skirt are the best . They do not squeek which makes for unpleasant sleeping. They will never protect like a fully enclosed one but those are very expensive and not nice to sleep on at all. All the feather stuff is maybe a bit problematic for some guests.I find wool to be best but maybe your feather ones are better. We dont use them much in Australia anymore. No you cannot wash a mattress not as far as I know . send it to the tip and look for another . all the best H