High usage guest code

[Laura2592]

Any thoughts on how you would word a review for guests  to indicate much higher than average amenity usage? Otherwise good guests, just really cleaned out everything we offered and two loads of laundry,  two FULL dishwasher cycles from a 2 night/2 person stay? 

I only care because I have to plan to replace a lot more things for the next person and the cleaning crew can only stick around for the first cycles of laundry/dishes. As a host I would like to build in extra time for this sort of guest. What's some coded language that might help to convey this without blasting the guests? 

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  I doubt any hosts think that it's okay for guests to grab anything they can get their hands on. If it's obvious that guests walked off with a 24 roll pack of toilet paper or all your firewood or a huge bottle of shampoo, because they couldn't possibly have actually used that much, that is pretty clearly what any sane person would regard as theft.

Where it gets fuzzy is what guests might think is theirs to take, as they might take all the hotel shampoos even if they didn't use any during their stay. But I doubt they would walk off with the hotel room iron or hair dryer, and if they did, the hotel would dock their credit card.

So unfortunately, it seems like something a host needs to make clear to guests, or else lock up anything you don't want them making off with.

Just as when hosts leave vague check-out instructions, to "clean up after yourself", that is too open to interpretation. If a host doesn't give exact instructions, then at some point they will find that the guest's interpretation of "cleaning up" may be miles apart from the host's.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 

Maybe I should offer a firewood cutting, splitting and stacking “experience.”

They can rent a chopping axe, splitting mall, and a couple of wedges. Keep all they can produce before I get bored or they lose a limb.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Oh, that's been done, quite successfully. There is a retrreat center on an island near where I used to live in Canada that has retreats with accommodation and food provided on all sorts of new agey stuff like yoga (actually yoga is an ancient practice, but you know what I mean), couple's workshops, drumming workshops, personal growth, art, etc. etc.

At the end of their season in the fall they have a "Chop wood, carry water" retreat. Urban professionals actually pay to come experience getting the winter firewood in, and other country living chores that most of us would consider to be necessary chores but which we would happily pay someone else to do if we were rich.

Of course this is marketed as a spiritual journey type thing, being "in the moment" and Zen-like as the participants are going about these chores, and it probably is a worthwhile experience for someone who sits in a cubicle all day on a computer and goes back to their 14th floor condo at the end of the day. But it's pretty funny that people are willing to pay to do others' chores for them.

[Brian2036]

@Sarah977 

Sam Clemens had a typically witty and caustic observation about this phenomenon.

Unfortunately I can’t remember the exact quote, but he remarked that certain gentlemen would pay thousands for a carriage drawn by fine horses in order to drive around the park on Sunday afternoons, but would be grievously offended if someone suggested that they accept paying passengers.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  The whole Tom Sawyer cleverly getting his friends to do his fence painting chore for him episode was exactly this.

[Ann783]

Oh @Sarah977 thank you! Best laugh I’ve had all day.

[Sarah977]

@Ann783  I used to board high school girls from that island as there was no school there past 10th grade. The girls would usually go home on the weekends, involving a 45 minute bus trip and 2 ferries. They used to tell me they could always tell the people on the ferry who were going to or returning from that retreat center. They'd be all stressed out going in, checking their watches, busy on their smart phones, making last minute business calls, checking their hair and make-up, all dressed in their pristine, fashion-conscious, expensive "outdoor" clothing.

Then the girls would see them coming back after their retreat, looking a bit bedraggled, all blissed out, hugging and kissing and gushing about being "in tune" with nature and all full of new age phrases and enlightenment. 

[Ann783]

@Sarah977 don’t give me any ideas… I may have to host a “gardening” retreat to get help with my weeding 😂