Guest review recommendation following event.

[Denis130]

Below is the message sent via Airbnb following the stay of two young ladies in my home who had checked-out in less than an hour before.

It's now 10:50am and just finished sopping up large quantity of water on bathroom floor following shower(s) you and (second guest) took this morning.

There are two shower curtains in the guest room shower/tub enclosure.  The inner is a liner, is intended to always remain inside the tub during a shower as it prevents water from a shower from spraying directly onto the floor during a shower.  If bathing only in the tub, it might be placed outside of the tub.

When I entered to bathroom right after you both left,  to begin my cleaning process, I found this curtain hanging outside the tub and a large puddle of water on the floor in front of the tub, and surrounding the toilet area.

The tub's floor mat (towel-like material) was completely saturated with water and was laying atop the edge of the tub.  I had to wring it out in order to be able to move it without having it drip all over the floor, which would have added to the already saturated wet floor.   Was it used to sop up the water or was it just exposed to a stream of water from a shower that didn't have the inner curtain remaining inside the tub during such shower?

The outer curtain is decorative and always stays outside of the tub enclosure whether bathing or showering.

Since some time (half hour to an hour perhaps) had passed since you both showered/bathed, I have no idea how much water may have seeped past the flooring and into the wood sub flooring below.

I hope that I was successful in sopping up all the water prior to it doing damage to the sub-floor.  This event has given me significant anxiety about offering my home for Airbnb because I have not always been around to witness and rectify issues such as what I encountered this morning.

As I am unsure which of you may have been the cause, I urge you both to discuss this matter with each other, so as to prevent a reoccurrence in the future.

------end message------

no reply received until around 4pm after I had already contacted Airbnb for advice at around 2pm, since they had just sent me a request to submit a review for these two guests.

Airbnb recommended waiting to submit guest review until near end of 14 day suggested review period, as under normal circumstance a review by the guest would have already been submitted, and hopefully would provide an honest review of what had occurred.  If I provided a negative review of this guest, my Super Host status might be in jeopardy, if the guest was somehow able to refute what I claimed.  

I did not submit a guest review as of today.

Around 4pm of the same day, the guest finally responded via Airbnb messaging with an apology.  In her reply she indicated that the floor mat had been saturated, and that she had wrung it out and placed it on the tub ledge.  The wet mat she apparently infers is what dripped onto the floor.

In reply to her message, I asked how the floor mat had gotten so saturated with water.  She said she didn't know.

Now coming up on a week following this event, the guest has yet to do her own review of my home.

Those of you with more Airbnb experience than I, what course of action do you recommend I follow?

Cheers

[Mohammed134]

I would for sure look into reviewing an honest review with this specific feedback and also let Airbnb of the feedback for this particular guest, in return the guest can leave you a review weather thats positive/negative that's dependant on the guest. You can always reply to the review that will be shown on your page to identify the points raised.

Thanks,

[Denis130]

The Airbnb agent had reviewed my message sent to guest prior to recommending waiting until the end of 14 day review period.

I had already prepared a review, but deleted it following the Airbnb agent recommendation to not submit at that time, and to wait until around the 14th day.

[Sarah977]

@Denis130  The only reason to wait until the nth hour (i.e. day 13.5, as after 14 days total, you'll no longer be able to leave a review) is if you think the guest will submit a bad review (either because you sensed they were just that type during their stay or because you sense they might fear a bad review from you so write one themselves). If the guest doesn't get a notification that you've submitted a review until day 13.5 or after, they may decide not to leave a review themselves but if they see you've submitted one, they likely will. But if you get a notification that the guest has submitted a review, there's no reason to wait.

If these girls were young, and they were otherwise decent guests, I really wouldn't slag them for the water issue in the review. Sending them private feedback was a good thing, and I think it's admirable that she apologized. I don't think there's further need to chastize them in a public review. Hopefully you taught her something she never thought about and she won't repeat that behavior. But if you downgrade her for it, she may think "Well, what was the sense in apologizing if he was just going to bad mouth me anyway?" And that could lead her to lie about being responsible for something in the future, instead of responding as she did.

Sometimes we should cut guests a little slack, especially if they are polite, just as we would appreciate them cutting hosts a little slack if everything about the place isn't their idea of perfect. And young people have never owned their own home, so they don't tend to think in terms of what could happen to the wooden subfloor if they slosh water all over. In some countries, the bathroom is all concrete construction, so it doesn't matter at all if the floor gets wet. My house is like that- I don't even need shower curtains. I suggest you post a photo of how the shower curtains are meant to be used with a simple written explanation under it, in the bathroom, to mitigate this in the future.

[Denis130]

Thanks all for comments.  Does look like my house rules need expanding to include how to shower/bath.

My current home was move number 30 within the US, and except for apartment style homes, have never encountered concrete floors in a residential home.

A two curtain system relatively simple.  The interior curtain is the primary barrier to water leaving the shower/tub area during a shower.  They are generally just inexpensive plastic sheeting (think I paid under $3) with the standard shower curtain holes along the top to accommodate the hanging mechanism.  This liner/curtain remains inside the tub during showers, but outside during a bath.  Too much soap or water spot build up, just toss the inner liner/curtain.

The exterior curtain is purely aesthetic but definitely more expensive.  Some folks might only use a single curtain but you then invite extensive labor to clean it, and over time in spite of good cleaning practice the interior side will become clouded or water spotted, and at a higher replacement cost.

I have someone coming out in next couple weeks to give me an estimate, and if there is an ability to install glass sliding doors, on my rounded corner tub/shower.  Had corners been square would have been easier.  

Thanks all.

[Gordon0]

@Denis130, for those of your guests who live outside of the USA, perhaps you do need to clarify how these curtains (a personal bugbear of mine) work. Many Asian countries have wet room floors where the water simply drains away. 

I'd move on. There's nothing to be had for losing sleep over this. 

[Helen3]

Great advice @Sarah977 

@Denis130  I think you have got your point across to these young women and they have apologised.  I wouldn't publicly berate them in your review about this.

And take this as an opportunity to review your guest book and the information you provide about use of the bath/shower curtains.

Many who haven't used them before might be a little confused about how to use them and what goes inside/outside the bath.

[Sarah977]

@Denis130  Quite honestly, I've never understood the need for a shower curtain and a shower curtain liner. Just seems like more stuff to deal with and keep clean. When I lived in Canada, in a wooden house, where the subfloor definitely would get ruined if the bathroom was flooded, I just had a shower curtain. What's the liner for? To each his own, but I'm just curious.

Also, lots of people don't have a bathtub- they only have a shower stall- one of those pre-fab units with a glass door- they have no idea how shower curtains are supposed to be used.

[Helen3]

I have to say I have never seen a double shower curtain set up @Sarah977  maybe it is something that is common in the US?

[Sarah977]

@Helen3  Yeah, I see it in house decor mags but never understood it. To me, it's just more stuff, but maybe Denis or someone else can provide a reasonable explanation. Like "body wash"or shower gel, which you never heard of 20 years ago- it's just soap, but if the marketers can convince you that you need it, they've done their job. And you can buy body moisturizer, face moisturizer, lip moisturizer, foot moisturizer- have I left out any body parts? Then, of course, you have to go out and buy more storage units to hold all those "products" that are oh, so necessary to a modern day life 🙂

[Gordon0]

I hate shower curtains full-stop, but the double version just adds more faff to an already faff of a situation!

[Mark116]

@Sarah977  The double curtains serves two purposes.  1) You can have a nice more expensive shower curtain that looks pretty, which goes outside the tub, but it will stay dry and clean due to the inside the tub cheap shower liner, 2) two curtains are more likely to keep the floor dry.  It all makes perfect sense to me, though growing up we only had a shower curtain no liner.

[Julie143]

In some parts of the world, “wet rooms” are common. Everything is the bathroom is meant to be waterproof. There is a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor. Is it possible they come from one of these places?

[Denis130]

Canada

[Denis130]

Thanks for all your thoughts.