Help! I'm seeing a spike in complaints about guests "having" to drink tap water / bathroom water

[Mary1211]

Private room host, no guest access to the kitchen.

I've had 3+ negative reviews the past couple of months, and more guests who didn't say anything in reviews but did say things in person, complaining about effectively having to drink water from the tap. The most recent review said this -

" This means that if you want water it will only be from a pre-used gallon jug that is left in the closet or you can get some from the bathroom sink. "

Another guest used the phrase "forced to drink water from the bathroom," in their review.

Like... OK? I advertise myself as ecologically minded in my listing title.   leave a one gallon jug of filtered water next to the k cup coffee machine in the guest for guest convenience, both for drinking and for refilling the coffee maker. And since when is anything wrong with bathroom water? What do guests do in hotels? Should I just start leaving 14 dollar bottles of VOSS in my guest room?

I've also had guests go to the kitchen and when I was like "Uh what? That's a private area" they're like "but I need filtered water."

I'm seriously at a loss, what am I even supposed to do to manage these expectations? Does anyone else get this and how do they manage? It's really making me feel depressed and defeated as a host that I can't do anything right.  Even leaving the gallon of filtered water in the guest room was because guests were complaining about how it was hard to fill the coffee maker, and the coffee maker was because guests were complaining there was no coffee maker (even though I didn't advertise one), and then I've also had other complaints about the coffee maker like "It's broken," "Not enough coffee and tea choices," "it ran out of water," etc. It seems like no matter what I do, there will always be something wrong 😞 

[Sarah977]

@Mary1211  You poor dear. What a silly thing for guests to complain about. I think all you can do is mention in your ad that you supply a gallon jug of filtered drinking water for the guests and maybe re-iterate when they arrive, saying if they need it refilled, they can easily do it from the bathroom sink or ask you to refill it (for those who think bathroom water is different). Yes, it's absurd that people think that the water that comes out of the bathroom faucet is any different than the water that comes out of the kitchen faucet. It's just sheer ignorance. It's like people thinking that the water in the toilet tank is somehow gross, when all it is is the same water that comes out the faucets and has nothing to do with the toilet bowl itself- water comes into it from the water line, not the toilet, for goodness sakes. 

No way I'd provide purchased bottled water for guests- so ecologically unsound. I do allow guests use of my kitchen and have a large jug of filtered water, which I purchase in those 5 gallon jugs and guests are able to refill their water bottles, or use to make coffee or tea, etc. and none of my guests has had any problem with that at all.

What you might do, although it's an expense, is to buy one of those water dispensers with a faucet on it, that a 5 gallon jug fits on,  if you have water delivery of those jugs in your area. After the initial cost of the dispenser, I'm not sure that the water delivery costs much more than buying the jug filters. 

[Mark116]

@Mary1211   Tell them to F off?  I'd buy a brita pitcher and leave it for them.  Don't knuckle under to jerks and start leaving bottled water.  If they think that MA tap water is undrinkable, they probably should stay home.

ETA...I read that long rambling negative review from another host, and it just reinforces my feeling that hosting hosts is a losing proposition, but for another host to trash someone's listing like that, and I can only imagine what kind of stars she left for you, really sad, and very mean.  

[Sarah977]

@Mark116  I understood Mary to say that's what she already provides- a filter jug. Maybe I misunderstood and she fills the jug herself from her filtered water in the kitchen.

[Mary1211]

It's a 1 gallon Poland Spring bottle, with a wide mouth, that I fill with filtered water from my tap, from my 5 stage filter with a Ph Alkalizer. So I don't label it as such, but I never expected a guest to actually be upset by.. including a gallon of water in the guest room closet for convenience? 😞   And like, if you don't trust the water bring your own? 

[Sarah977]

@Mary1211  You're certainly not doing anything wrong, but it apparently doesn't sit well with guests. There are all kinds of water dispensers with faucets that you can buy that you can fill yourself that aren't expensive. Set it on a stool or something near the coffee maker, rather than putting it in the closet. Pouring water out of a wide mouth bottle doesn't sound that convenient.

[Mary1211]

It was a 2 star review, and thank you, it's probably been one of the most dejecting reviews ever especially given she is a host herself.  It's made me want to just delete my whole account and maybe start over in the spring. 

[Ange2]

 @Mary1211 

I am sorry about the review. I read it and it's a nasty, overbearing rant. I agree with  @Mark116   "hosting hosts is a losing proposition".  I have had 5-star reviews from most hosts BUT my worst ratings have also been from hosts:  2-stars overall,  yet they gave much higher stars for all the categories, even 5-stars!  Hosts know that overall is what Airbnb take into account and 2-stars means absolutely terrible, a path to warnings and de-listing. Both couples were horribly disingenuous, one couple lied. Neither read the description and one couple broke my rules.

btw: I just got another request from a host who appears to think I cook breakfast and dinner on demand.    Hosts don't read either!

[Sarah977]

@Ange2  I've only had one guest who was also a host and she was a lovely guest who left a 5* rating and a good review. But she also didn't fully read the listing description, as she asked some pre-arrival questions that were quite clear in the listing, like whether I allowed kitchen use, when it's in my amenities list and I also mention it in the written portion.

[Ange2]

@Sarah977     Thanks. I do the same but it sails right past some people. I suppose I should count myself lucky that they said in their message that they would take up the offer of a prepared breakfast and may ask me to prepare some dinner for them on some nights or I never would have known.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt in my reply and assumed it was either lost in translation or they had sent the message to my listing  in error.

[Lisa723]

@Mary1211 people are nuts... I have a similar situation (no kitchen) in our guest suite and provide a small Brita water filter pitcher, pre-filled. I've never had any complaint about it but if I started to get them I might add something like this to my amenities limitations: "We provide a Brita water pitcher and access to bathroom sink tap water, which is completely safe and tasty in our location. Because single-use plastic is bad for our environment, we do not provide bottled water."

[Sarah977]

@Mary1211 

[Mary1211]

I've thought of those, though the gallon container is also there to refill the coffee maker (the coffee maker container doesn't easily fit under the bathroom spigot). It's also not wide-mouth wide mouth, it's about the size of a silver dollar. 

[Sarah977]

@Mary1211  But if you got something along the lines of what I posted above, couldn't the guests just hold the coffee maker container under the water faucet of the jug I pictured?

[Mary1211]

They could do any number of things... I feel like I have bad luck with guests not being the brightest or most intuitive....  Remember the experiences I've had that started this convo (I also live 1 minute from a conveniene store that sells water guests could get water from). One of the other guest issues is that she bought too much food that wouldn't fit in the guest fridge freezer and her complaint was I didn't immediately just say "It's totally cool you can use my fridge."