Security camera caught male guest peeing in pool

[Ash3391]

I have external house security camera which we declared on our house rules and we have signs noting that there is recording. Our cameras normally auto arm after midnight. It caught one of the male guests going up to the pool, unzipping and peeing straight into the pool. 

Not sure what to do about it. It will certainly cost more cleaning fees as I have to shock the pool and leave it unused for at least two days.

Any suggestions on how to handle this? Approach the guest, or airbnb?

I am always afraid to alert the guest about our concerns because we manage this property remotely and don't want any retaliatory action. 

[Donald28]

@Huma0 - @Sarah997 and @Anonymous obviously have never owned a pool. Taking advice about pool maintenance from them would be like asking a baby how to change a light bulb. 

Not only is this gross and disgusting, it's a blatant disrespect of your property and a slap in your face from a stranger you trusted to use your pool for swimming, not a urinal. 

If someone did that in my pool, they'd all be asked to leave immediately and I'd mention exactly what they did in my bad review for them. 

[Anonymous]

@Donald28  Who peed in your cornflakes this morning? That rudeness was unnecessary.

I agree that the guest's behavior was gross and disrespectful - both to the host and to his own friends who swam in his urine - and it's one of those things that if you catch it at the appropriate time would justify terminating the booking. My bigger concern would be that people drunk enough to behave this way would also present other dangers to themselves and others - broken glass in the pool area, risk of injury or drowning etc. At the first sign of terrible pool conduct, it makes sense to at the very least retract pool access. But @Ash3391  was not asking about whether to let the guests complete the booking, as they seem to have already made the decision about that.

What @Sarah997 and I were saying was not in any way assuming to be experts in pool maintenance. Rather, the simple fact is that anyone who has used the pool may very well have urinated in it from inside the water rather than above it. Or for that matter, they may have failed to shower before swimming, or recently had diarrhea, or any number of health conditions that may contribute to contamination. These will not be visible on the cameras, but if you intend to offer a pristine pool to the next guests you'll have to consider these possibilities. I'll leave it to the pool owners what the appropriate cleaning measures between guests are, but it's pointless to deny that most of the problems are not ones that would be visible on the cams. That's a matter of human behavior (40% of adults claim to pee when they swim in pools according to one CDC study) rather than maintenance.

[Alexandra316]

@AnonymousCouldn't agree more. People do what people do. Go to any resort in the Caribbean with a swim-up bar and you will be inevitably presented with a row of barflies who don't move their arses from their seats all afternoon. It's gross, yeah, but no one is dying, nor is the bartender publically shaming them. 

Also, I don't think there is any chemical that turns water blue when someone pees: pretty sure that's just something they say to try and get people not to piss in the pool 😂. Kind of funny that some grownups still believe it exists. I have some bad news for you about Santa and the Easter Bunny...

[Debra300]

@Alexandra316.

I found this online. I think putting up signs claiming the dye exists may be a good preventative measure:

No. There is no chemical which changes color when someone urinates in a swimming pool. There are dyes which could cloud, change color, or produce a color in response to urine, but these chemicals would also be activated by other compounds, producing embarrassing false-positives.

Though there is no such thing as a urine-detecting dye, you can purchase signs that prey upon the misconception that a urine indicator exists. The signs, which warn the pool is being monitored with a chemical "wee alert," are believed to be an effective deterrent against urination in a pool, particularly with adult swimmers.

[Alexandra316]

@Debra300Yeah, it's definitely not a thing: it's just a deterrent.

[Donald28]

you and sarah obviously dont have a pool and have never owned one but you're telling pool owners what you think about how they should be maintained and the level of annoyance they should feel for someone blatantly peeing in their pool? No one peed in my cornflakes. **

**[Inappropriate content removed - Community Center Guidelines]

[Sarah977]

@Donald28  What is "obvious" to you is like you saying that a photo of a woman welcoming a guest to her home means that she is "presumably single". You do an awful lot of presuming.

No one here suggested what level of annoyance the OP should feel. Everyone was in agreement that it was disrespectful and boorish behavior. The issue was whether or not to act on what she saw on camera, but you apparently have a hard time with reading comprehension.

And name-calling is the stuff of elementary school playgrounds. 

[Huma0]

@Donald28 

Really? 

Did you actually read my posts here on this thread?

Before you bad mouth someone, why don't you try READING?

Firstly, I never offered any advice on pool maintenance because, like you say, I have never owned a pool. I live in London, so that's not very likely unless I own the Mandarin Oriental.

Secondly, I expressed repeatedly that I thought the guest's actions were not okay and frankly disgusting (pretty much what you are expressing), so why are you having a go at me? Is it because I questioned what you posted on another thread and therefore you see the need to disagree with me without actually knowing what you are disagreeing with?

If you're going to argue with something, at least try to do it intelligently.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0 That's what these types of posters do, on any internet forum I've ever participated in. They get a bee in their bonnet about a response you made to one of their posts, then they stalk you around the forum, berating you for responses you post to others.

[Ann72]

@Ash3391 Sorry you had to witness this, um, spectacle.

But it's exactly why I have no cameras.  I just don't want to know.  I even hate their profile pictures.  I don't want to hear from them at all, except three times:  make the booking, pay the money, leave a 5-star review.  LOL right?

I charge a lot so things that go wrong will be absorbed, somehow, over the course of the season.  And experience has shown me that guests who pay more without complaint behave better.

[Ann72]

@Ash3391 @Sarah977 @Huma0 

Wait - may God strike me dead.  I just heard from a guest.  He was writing to say he had solved a knotty problem that arose last night and couldn't be solved by a professional until Monday morning.

I was very happy to hear from him.

So everyone please leave me alone while I go off and eat my humble pie...

[Katrina79]

@Ash3391This brings three points to mind:

1) The pool should be shocked after a checkout anyway, there is no additional loss of cost or time to you.

2) Bringing up camera footage to Airbnb may in fact get this escalated to Trust and Safety which could backfire against you. Why exactly do you want Airbnb involved?

3) Use the power of your review, this is pretty gross and definitely disrespectful, mention the disrespect but don’t get into details. 

[Ash3391]

I do shock and test the pool routinely. Pools are not meant to be treated as toilets in a restroom, with Adults emptying full bladders of urine after a full night of drinking. 

As far as "Trust and Safety", I have no idea what you mean by that. Can you elaborate? 

[Donald28]

@Katrina79 you can't shock a pool after every guest checks out. LOL 

I have cameras pointed at my pool too. As long as the guests are made aware of it in the listing, there's nothing trust and safety could say or do. 

How could you mention the disrespect without mentioning the act? 

Some of you hosts are crazy. 

[Colleen253]

@Donald28  "As long as the guests are made aware of it in the listing, there's nothing trust and safety could say or do".

There are many posts on this forum of hosts who have had their listings suspended, when they didn't even have security cameras, simply because the guest complained to Airbnb and suggested they did. 

@Ash3391