As a guest, I recently had an experience that left a sour taste despite the stay itself being perfectly nice. Let it be said that the host was not a master of communication - I got no response from a post-booking message asking for check-in instructions, but when we turned up at the property at the listed check-in time his assistant was there to give us a proper (though unmasked/undistanced) tour. There were no follow-up messages, which was totally fine with me because our needs were all accounted for. And anyway, given that there was no internet access, I wouldn't have received any correspondence from Airbnb messenger anyway.
A few hours after checking ourselves out and leaving, I received just one sentence from the host: "Where's the grey blanket?" A bit abrupt, but hey, it's Germany. I explained in detail how we'd left our used towels and linens to separate them from the unused ones, and assured him that we didn't take any house items out of the property. He followed up with a more accusatory message insisting that the blanket was missing. The item in question had been a topping for one of those modular sofa-beds that tends to swallow things when it's pulled out. After a bit of back-and-forth I suggested that he check the crevices of his sofa. No response. It's a pretty small and sparse space, so I presume that the host eventually found his blanket in a sofa crack but was too embarrassed to say so.
For some perspective, we're talking about one of those thin synthetic fleeces they sell for €2 at Ikea. The host might be frustrated because they keep getting lost or damaged by guests misusing them as beach blankets. It wasn't unreasonable for him to ask. It also made sense that he reached out before having enough time to do a thorough search, because there might have been a chance I was still in town and able to return something I'd mistakenly packed. And I'd rather clear it up in messaging than get a surprisingly bad review. But still, from a hospitality perspective I was struck by how the entirety of the way this person represented himself to a guest was through hot pursuit of a bit of polyester. It's a minor issue that I won't downrate the host over, but it definitely ended any consideration I'd had of re-booking the place later in the autumn or recommending it to friends. It's hard to feel at ease in a home knowing the host believes you're out to fleece them for their fleeces.
This got me thinking about the delicate etiquette of approaching missing items in general. Hosts, when you can't find something during changeover, how do you communicate with guests about it? Is there a minimum that the item would have to be worth in order to say anything at all, or would you still ask about the washcloth or wine glass out of principle? If the results are inconclusive, do you mention it in the review?
