Damage, Aircover and unknown costs to repair

[Andrew2784]

Please could you help me?  I'm a fairly new host, live now for about 4 months and have experienced my first issue with damage. 

The most significant is damage to a bathroom floor, it looks like a soaking wet towel or bath matt have been left on a laminate type wooden floor which has caused water damage, discoloration and swollen joints in the boards. 

I've not got quotes to repair this yet as had back to back guests and the house is still very useable however it will need sorting at some point.  I've never processed a claim before and wondered if I need accurate estimates to fix before claiming?  Also any advice in the claim process. 

I also had a number of very badly stained bed sheets and towels that will not clean from the same guests.  Do people claim for towels and bedding if its quite new and can no longer be used due to such staining?

Really appreciate your help and advice.

Thank you

Andy

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Andrew2784 a few thoughts

Stained towels and bedding is, in our opinion, just part of hosting. Strangely we find sheets may get stained by a couple of guests in a row and then we go many guests with no problems. We buy 180/200 thread count pure cotton sheets and just chalk the cost up against tax!

The floor does sound like it is unsuitable for a bathroom. You would be better with a Luxury Vinyl Tile floor when you replace it as this is waterproof.

Any claim under air cover has to be made within 14 days of the guest leaving and if you go down this route write them a review first, hope they review you and then put the claim in otherwise you guarantee a bad review.

[Louise0]

It's not reasonable to expect compensation for water damage to a bathroom floor.  Unfortunately, the onus is on you to make sure a known wet area has a waterproof floor. Unless you specifically instructed the guest that the floor is not waterproof and therefore any water must be mopped up immediately, you cannot expect them to treat it any differently to any normal bathroom floor.

[Nanxing0]

I agree with @Louise0 , that if your bathroom floor is not waterproof then you need to put multiple clear warnings to the guest about this. Most people assume bathroom floor waterproof and never think this could cause damage. You might get compensation from Aircover out of courtesy but this should not be your normal hosting protocol. Either get the bathroom floor replaced with a waterproof material or put multiple clear notice. 

I do claim towels and beddings against guests sometimes. I put statements in the house rule that coloring and staining our towels and beddings are not permitted and will result in claims. But lots of times it's just one or two small towels that cost only $1-2 to replace so not worth the time. If it's multiple sheets and towels that make up the replacement cost to be more than $30-40 I would do the claim. Other hosts might have different opinion on this but I think that coloring host's linens put additional work to the cleaning and hosting so it's simply disgraceful and should result in reimbursement.