Charging Guests for clogging Sinks & Toilets and

[Diane15]

So some Guests continue to clog the sink (kitchen) and toilets (various throughout the home) and it's costing us money.

Here's the deal.... We live on the property for months on end during the slow season, and NEVER have issues with the toilets or sink. But it seems that about every 3rd or 4th Guest we get a call for a clogged kitchen sink (it's ALWAYS something the renter has put down the sink drain that they're not supposed to, potato peels, STEAK BONES [yes, steak bones], etc.)

Should we put in our "RULES" section that Guests will be charged for clogging sinks and toilets, etc.?

I noticed some listings have this same exact notice regarding this issue: (They describe the Renter as the "RESIDENT")

" RESIDENT shall be responsible for keeping the kitchen and bathroom drains free of things that may tend to cause clogging of the drains. RESIDENT shall pay for the cleaning out of any plumbing fixture that may need to be cleared of stoppage and for the expense or damage caused by stopping of waste pipes or overflow from bathtubs, wash basins, or sinks. "

The couple of listings had do have this exact worded "warning" in their house rules, DO tend to get booked less (and they are both nice listings and have excellent reviews, are fairly priced , just booked less than other rentals).

Does anyone think adding this "rule" to my house rules is ...off putting ?

Should I add it to mine?

I don't want to turn Guests off, but then again, I'm sick of paying Plumbers!

Thoughts....

[David-and-Fiona0]

If this is happening a lot I think you need to look into ways to fix the problem for the long term. Good plumbing should be able to cope with this type of use. If your house/plumbing is to old to rectify the issue I think you need to accept that this is part of ‘doing business’. Sure you can ask the guests to be VERY careful. Charging guests for stuff like this is really hard as it could be embarrassing and in some instances not totally their fault. (backed up drains etc). If I was a guest and asked to pay for a plumber I wouldn’t be very impressed. Cheers David

[Diane15]

Hi @David-and-Fiona0 Thanks for your comment. The issue appears to be Guest centric, as it NEVER happens when we stay in the home for months at a time, or has ever happened since I had the home built and moved into it 12 years ago (so the home is only 12 yrs old and the entire neighborhood [and it's sewer system] is new as well)

Mind if I ask your opinion on adding that 1 rule a couple of the other listings in my area have? (The one I copied and pasted and put in quotes in my original question) ?

If you were a potential Guest looking at staying at home on Airbnb, would you find it "off putting" or "intimidating" ?

Thanks so much for your time !

[David-and-Fiona0]

Hi. I fully understand your issue. We have lots of Asian guests with VERY long hair who seem to like showering several times a day. Our maid is constantly taking out fur balls...We could almost start a wig factory : )

Re your rule. I am sorry but I would find it both intimidating and off putting as I feel that the plumbing could be outside of my control even if I followed the rule. It also would ‘flag’ it to me as a pre exiting problem. Cheers David

[Diane15]

@David-and-Fiona0 Hello again,

Yes we just had a top of the line (strongest disposer one can purchase) installed about 2 years ago. Interestingly enough, the several plumbers I've had come over and unclog the sink (NEVER had to get it unclogged until we started to rent the home out), have all told me to remove the disposer to disencourage people from putting anything of substance down the drain and then add a notice that their is no disposer so Guests aren't tempted to put anything down the sink/drain.

One of the plumbers I've used twice said plumbers have a "love-hate" relationship with disposers. They hate them because they are fairly useless and they have to unclog them so much. But they love them because they bring plumbers a lot of business!

He told me a disposer should be thought of as a "decorative" item...lol.

Thanks again for your helpful tips !

Btw, your listing is lovely.   🙂

[Douglas239]

Airbnb does not cover clogged toilets. 

They will claim it is an issue of maintenance. They will screw you as a host, i have 18 listings (had) and ate about 15,000 in damages caused by guests, in 2018 alone. The host guarantee is misleading and plumbing is excluded. However if the guest actually floods the toilet, call a water remediation company immediately and keep a great paper trail and you have a 50/50 chance of some type of resolution. 

I just removed, unclogged a golf ball, and put the toilet back on, and the guest had admitted his son put the ball in there. Airbnb (despite overwhelming evidence and invoice from plumber) denied my claim. This company plays dirty and although they did make me fast money, they are not an ethical company. 

[Marge46]

What? Unbelievable.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Diane15 - Does the sink have a garbage disposal?  If not, I would suggest installing one or a much stronger one - a few hundred dollars now will be a savings later on.  

As for adding something to your rules since it's a problem, I would refer to the people staying in your home as "guests" not "residents".  As a guest, things do break from time to time, but they should be aware of how you want your home to be treated as your guest.  I might leave a nice, laminated note near the sink and/or toilet of "approved" and "unapproved" items to go down.  This would be more as a reminder to your guests that they need to be thoughtful in what they put in the sink or toilet drains.  Then in your listing I would put something in the rules such as:  "Professional service to remove any foreign objects found in the plumbing will be charged against your security deposit."  This will put potential guests on notice but you aren't likely to be able to charge for it unless you come up with a way of to test this between guests which won't be easy - think of the tampon issue that can take weeks to show itself.  And then for your whole-house listings, I would up the deposit to at least cover several hundreds of dollars of damage.  

Good luck. 

[Diane15]

Hello @Alice-and-Jeff0

I think you are correct about changing the word "RESIDENT", I thought it was an odd term myself. But I'm fairly sure the Hosts just copied it off a standard issue rental agreement they found online, as the wording is exactly the same, word for word.

As for the disposer, see my reply to Alice and David for the explanation as to why we are going to REMOVE it.

Thanks for your suggestions !

[Andrea9]

@Diane15

If you don't have a sink garbage disposal, then I would suggest installing the kind of sink hole fixing that is normal in Europe (we don't have garbage churning sinks - very water wasteful!). They have a kind of grid or at least there is a sort of crossbar installed to stop larger bits from even getting into the plumbing system. Of course the stopper then fits on top of that to close off the drain when needed.

[Diane15]

Hi @Andrea9 You are 100% spot on regarding the metal "crossbar" thing. We have them normally installed on 1 side if the sink, but they leave the other side open for garbage disposal use. We actually want to REMOVE the disposer (see explantion above in my reply to @David-and-Fiona0)

Acutally, we just added a new, 2nd kitchen to our lower level and we purposedly did NOT add a garbage disposer and are having one of the metal cross bar things to the single granite sink we put in. 

Thanks for your advice !

Best regards,

- Diane

[Heather255]

Yeah, it is best to do this. Otherwise, tenants would keep on doing this awful job. Same happened with my landlord friend. He was fed up with this problem. Also it is important to repair this. For drain cleaning to be done efficiently, it is important to identify where the blockage is and the nature of the blockage. This will enable the drain cleaning company plumber to use the correct approach to clean the drain.