Guest urinated on mattress

[Kitty104]

I had a guest checkout yesterday that urinated in the bed. Based on the multiple rings left behind it looks like he urinated multiple times in his 10 day stay. Almost the whole mattress cover was soaked top to bottom, so it wasn't a small amount. I sent him a picture through the Airbnb app and he admitted to it. But my question is how do I go about leaving a review. Because he has multiple 5 star reviews so it seems weird that he would leave the mattress a mess. I'm also fustrated because he's isn't paying for the extra cleaning fee I'm charging ($50) to steam clean the mattress. I'm worried that Airbnb won't help because he originally booked for 3 nights (my minimum length of stay) but he kept needing to "stay another night" 7 times which I had to keep doing as a money request each time. 

Sorry if this post is lengthy but I just don't know how to handle this situation. I want to leave an honest review but I'm afraid that I will come off as unruly because he has some many 5 star reviews and I would be his first bad review. 

TLDR: guest urinated bed multiple times, kept needing to extend stay, poor communication, checked out late, and not accepting cleaning fee.

[Emiel1]

@Kitty104 

Extending a stay must be done via the "change" option on the reservation, not via resolution centre.

If the guest admits the damage in the Message System (so Airbnb can check) you can sent the guest a damage claim:

What-do-i-do-if-my-guest-breaks-something-in-my-place

A guest having only 5 star reviews should not be a reason the give a less then 5 star review.

[Sarah977]

@Kitty104  Leave the review he deserves. Be honest. Too many hosts don't leave honest reviews, which is why some bad guests have 5* reviews. 

There is zero reason to consider his past reviews in writing yours. 

Do not specifically mention that he urinated on the mattress, mention of bodily fluids is quite personal and embarrasssing and can lead to your review being removed. Just say he caused damage to the linen, didn't mention it to you, and refused to pay for it. Plus his poor communication.

That he kept asking to extend isn't really something to criticize- it isn't against any policies to do that, and you accepted the extensions.

If you can mention any positives that are true, like if he followed house rules, or left the place relatively clean and tidy apart from the bedding issue, do that as well, which makes your review come across as fair. 

[Kitty104]

That's a good point to mention about the positives inorder to remain fair in my review.

I only mentioned the extended stay because I had to extend his stay 6 times, 1 day at a time. He waited until after check-out time to extend his stay, which ended the reservation. That is why I had to use the resolution option. 

[Eilish--Elizabeth-0]

Thats how he does it Kitty so that he has something over you and so that you wont tell!!! Once a bedwetter always a bedwetter.

[Anonymous]

@Kitty104   The only thing I see as truly worthy of mention for future hosts here is that the guest refused to pay for the damage that he admitted to. As @Sarah977  said, absolutely don't mention the nature of the damage. And in this case I wouldn't even fault the guest for failing to confess to wetting the bed prior to his checkout; obviously it's a humiliating topic for someone to bring up to a stranger, and if it's attached to a serious health issue, the guest may already have some trauma associated with it.

The main concern is just that the guest disputed your request for expenses for excess cleaning. It's well worth mentioning that and leaving whatever star ratings you deem appropriate. Also be prepared to post a response to his review, if he leaves one - embarrassment has a tendency to calcify as anger and spite.

[Brian2036]

@Kitty104 

The history of 5* reviews merely indicates that either he is using someone else’s account or that other hosts are not doing their jobs.

Waiting until checkout time to decide to stay another night is NOT normal or excusable, especially when it happens six times.

People who are incontinent know it and they also know what to do about it. 

Peeing in other people’s beds is unacceptable behavior regardless of the excuse. I doubt that he sleeps in a urine-soaked bed at home.

If he does you would smell him six feet away.
 
I would say something like:

” I found this guest to be inconsiderate, unsanitary and too irresponsible to pay for damages he admitted to causing. Would not host again.”

Although you didn’t ask, I think your prices are probably low. Any motel at that price would likely be horrible, and would not include kitchen access.

At $33 a night you may attract people with worse problems than incontinence. 

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Although I plan to raise my price a bit when I open back up to bookings in a couple months, I have been charging $28/night for a private room with a private ensuite bathroom and full use of my kitchen since I started hosting and pretty much all my guests have been delightful and I've never once had a bad guest. 

There's more factors to getting good guests besides price.

Obviously if someone's pricing is the absolute cheapest place around, to the point where they aren't barely making any profit at all,  it might attract bottom feeders, but it really disturbs me when I read hosts saying "Low prices attract low quality guests", because it's quite discriminatory and simply not true.

[Brian2036]

@Kitty104 @Sarah977 

The cheapest semi-decent hotel in downtown Spokane is $60. Motel 6 is $80.

The cheapest place in Sayulita on booking.com is $23.  There are several listings for less than $30.

With the current housing situation on the US West Coast I most definitely would expect to get guests who are unwelcome elsewhere if I were charging half the price of a 2* motel.

 I’m not going to debate the moral benefits of providing housing to disadvantaged people, but I’m just not going to compete with the Salvation Army, the YMCA, or the Seaman’s Church Institute.

At our prices we aren’t attracting rich britches nor are we bringing in people who normally sleep in cardboard boxes. It’s working out quite well.

When I was foolish enough to listen to Airbnb’s recommendations regarding price, discounts and occupancy we got a variety of dirtbags.

Coincidence? Maybe…but if you walk around with a sign on your back that says “Kick Me” don’t be surprised if someone does it.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Your pricing comparisons are off-kilter. You are comparing the price of a semi-decent hotel in Spokane with the cheapest listing of what in Sayulita? Certainly not a semi-decent hotel. My friend who runs a hostel here charges $25/ night for a communal room with 4 beds and a shared bathroom. She charges $40-$50 for a private room with a private bathroom. It's clean and comfortable, but there's nothing fancy about it. My neighbor across the road charges $80/ night for a self-contained, open-air palapa casita that sleeps 2. Sayulita is actually one of the most expensive towns in Mexico.

Of course I don't, nor should anyone, follow Airbnb price tips, which insultingly suggest $19/night for my listing. At that price, yes, I would likely get some unsavory guests.

All I was saying is that people who don't have a lot of money to spend on accommodation, or to whom fancy digs are not priority, should not be assumed to be "low quality" people. 

As I said, there is more than price which determines the quality of guests one gets. 

[Brian2036]

@Sarah977 

No, I’m comparing what appears to be a rather nice Airbnb room with kitchen access in downtown Spokane at $33 per night with a somewhat shabby motel in the same area at $60.

I suggest that a price of $50-60 would probably be more profitable and less likely to attract desperate people.

In contrast your listing in Sayulita would appear to be more in line with local pricing.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Well, sure, she could probably raise it to $40, but just because someone paid $33/ night doesn't mean they're likely to leave a urine soaked bed behind them :-). That's abnormal at any price.

And actually, my place is really inexpensive for Sayulita. You should see the other private room listings that charge even more than I do. In person, not the photos. You'd probably turn around and leave. Or get woken up every hour all night long by 100 roosters crowing outside your bedroom window. 

I had a Canadian guest who stayed in Sayulita for 2 weeks. She had booked 4 different places, figuring if she didn't like it, she'd be moving on in a few days, she wouldn't be stuck there. They were all in the $30- $50/ night price range. She and I really hit it off in the 3 or4 days she stayed at my place, so we kept getting together for lunch, or to go to the beach even after she moved locations. Before she left town, she said she wished she'd just booked my place for the entire 2 weeks- the 3 other places just didn't cut it.