Guests stained our towels. Should I leave a negative review for that?

[Yannis21]

Hi! As a host I provide all the essentials and bed linens and towels to the guests. The towels and linens are WHITE. I have a small leaflet on the door stating that they should NOT use the towels at the beach or use them to clean lotions, shoes etc. I also write it on the house manual of the listing.

I just had two young girls as guests from Germany. They left the apartment in good condition but 3 towels were covered with stains (yellow and brown stains). The stains don't come off (I have washed them twice and used special whitening products).

I charge for cleaning fees (the guest does not have to clean the apartment) but does that justify staining the towels?

Whould you leave a bad review as a host to this guest? Please advice.

[Alexandra316]

@Yannis21  Reviews don't need to be binary of good or bad: you can mention all the good things about the stay, then say that there was an issue with towels needing to be replaced. You could also ding them on the cleanliness star rating. For me, it probably wouldn't be a dealbreaker if they were otherwise good guests, and maybe they'll learn for next time. 

No, I don't think that the cleaning fee should cover stain damage like this, but I do think that linens and towels do get stained over time and some loss is normal. However, because these guests damaged several towels in the same way, you could ask them to pay for replacements through the resolution center. Overall, I think I'd personally chalk this up to wear and tear and use the towels for something else (personal use or as rags). I've never chosen to charge guests for stained towels or linen: I just count on a certain rate of loss and cover it with my nightly rate. 

[Anonymous]

@Yannis21   One great thing about earthy, quirky homes like yours is that you have a lot of room to get creative with details like towels and linens rather than defaulting to hotel white (though I see you take some pride in your Towel Swan game). But if that's just your thing and you're sticking to it, maybe consider a rotation in which stained or damaged towels get pulled out of the linen service, dyed a dark color, and reborn as beach towels casually rolled up in a basket by the door. 

As for the review - it should only convey what kind of experience future hosts are likely to have based on what you observed. It's not helpful to other hosts to see a laundry list of specific grievances. If your towel stains were part of a pattern of these guests being careless with your furnishings, you might make a general remark about that behavior. But if I'm considering whether to accept a request, I don't need to know about towel stains-  those things are just the cost of doing business.

[Jillian115]

@Yannis21 I would let it go.  I think replacing towels and linens is an expense you should expect. I use white towels so I can bleach them between guests. They often get stained for one reason or another.  I expect it. When the stain doesn't come out with bleach I use fels-naptha soap  just rub it on the will sometimes do the trick. I don't know if you can get it in Greece. Do you provide beach towels? If not that may be something you consider to avoid guests bringing white towels to the beach in the future. 

[Yannis21]

Thanks for the info. I provide upon request. Its against house rules to get the body towels outside to the beach. I have noticed in the past some guests were whipping their shoes with the white towels. Since then I printed a small card no lotions, no cleaning your shoes with the towels.

[Sarah977]

@Yannis21  Leave a pile of clean, but stained towels somewhere, with a note on them, along with a note in the bathroom and the house manual.

"There is a pile of clean, but stained towels in the laundry room (under the sink, wherever) provided for anything which might stain- please use these for shoe cleaning, floor wiping, hair dying, etc, so as not to ruin the good towels and be charged for replacement."

That might help.