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 😞 

[Mark116]

@Emilia42  But it does all come from the same source.  So, unless you have faucet water purifiers, then the water from the kitchen tap is exactly the same as from the bathroom?  

[Emilia42]

@Mark116, it is not the water or the quality of it (we don't have good water in my town. A few years ago our water was not meeting EPA standards but I still drink it.) It has to do with the fact that is is coming from a bathroom. I don't want to drink water from a bathroom. I would stand in line for 15 minutes to fill up my water bottle at a water fountain (think of all those germs) outside of a gas station before I would go inside to fill it up from the gas station bathroom. 

[Mark116]

@Emilia42   To each his own, I honestly don't get that, you're not drinking out of the toilet bowl, but the water faucet, which is the same as any other water anywhere in the house.  And we're not talking about a gas station bathroom, but a bathroom in a house.  But, everyone has their issues, LOL.

[Emilia42]

@Mark116haha ... we can call it an "issue," that's fair. 🙂

[Amol8]

I m in same situation where guest wont have access to the kitchen. In earlier days guest had access to kitchen but they still bought water bottles. I was born in India and we dont drink water from bathroom and rather asking someone to do that considered highly rude. When I settled in Vienna it took me a good long time to get used to drinking water from bathroom. My point is drinking water from bathroom is very subjective and as we get guests from all over the world we can not expect them to get adjusted. But this is a problem I m also looking for solution.

[Tony-And-Una0]

Its not silly not to drink it from hotels and bathrooms unless it specifically says it is drinking water.. The water tanks can be contaminated by mice etc. Also the water is sitting in the tank stagnant - and how often are the tanks cleaned??

In hotels I drink bottled water, or fill up at the water coolers fonts. I would use the bathroom water for washing my teeth etc. In the UK most hotels have small electric kettles so I would use bathroom water to make tea or coffee because it has been boiled.

If the water in your bathroom in your home came from the mains supply, then of course there would not be any issue for me.

[Susan151]

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@Tony-And-Una0 wrote:

Its not silly not to drink it from hotels and bathrooms unless it specifically says it is drinking water.. The water tanks can be contaminated by mice etc. Also the water is sitting in the tank stagnant - and how often are the tanks cleaned??

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What tanks?

You turn on the cold water. It is drawn from the city water supply, going from the street, through the household pipes [the same pipes that feed ALL sinks, faucets, tubs, etc.] and out the faucet. There are no tanks.

[Ange2]

@Susan151     Not so in nyc's ancient infrastructure. It's a feature here.

Water tanks provide drinking and bathing water to residential buildings across the city.

[Tony-And-Una0]

Just to clarify. In the UK the water does come from the same source. But bathroom water is then stored in a tank usually in the loft. This is why most people in the UK will not drink hotel or bathroom water unless indicated that it is drinking water.

[Tony-And-Una0]

Also most water in hotel bathrooms is not run directly from the fresh mains supply. It is stored in tanks. Just did a quick online check for my sanity

[Vida16]

I have my Airbnb in Mexico. Merida, Yucatan Mexico. Here? The tap water is completely useless for human consumption. You can't fill your coffee maker with it or drink it at all. Tap water that is drinkable is a feature of Canada and the USA. Mexico you must provide purified water for any cooking, drinking or anything else that is important for potability in Mexico. People prefer purified water anyway because even in the USA there are states with horrible water quality. 

I would say that if you don't provide filtered water install a little sink charcoal or Brita filter so guests feel 'special'.  Otherwise you are going to get complaints. People don't like the taste of chlorine in the tap water in many cities. 

Calculate what some amenities cost you out of your pocket. Many guests hate used bar soap when the shower. Buy inexpensive shower gel. That way they don't feel some other guest's body has touched the soap and they complain less. There are a lot of details in hosting people. Details are critical for good reviews. 

Some guests are abusive people though, one guest wanted to cancel some days early because she wanted to visit another city and she wanted a refund. When we said no she said she suffered severe asthma and could not stay anymore there. The place was fine for many days till she suddenly wanted to change cities. One has to realize details are important but also what is the reasoning behind the request. 

[Sarah977]

@Vida16  It actually depends on where in Mexico- the water in Puerto Vallarta is tested on a regular basis and is totally drinkable. However one never knows if that water is coming through old pipes with lead solder or what, so unless it's new construction, one might not want to drink out of the tap. But I'd not drink the tap water where I live, it definitely isn't potable.

I provide bar soap as well as liquid. I can't imagine leaving a used bar of soap for guests, though. I found some travel-size bars which only cost about 30 cents each and they are left out for guests, still in the little box they come in. Some guests do use them, some only the liquid. The leftover bars, I use myself after washing off the outside layer.

In reality, there's nothing unsanitary about using bar soap that someone else has used, as the whole point of soap is that it kills germs, so there aren't any bacteria living on a bar of soap. But it definitely is a turn-off for almost everyone to use a bar of soap some stranger has used.

[Alice595]

@Mary1211  Different guests have different expectations. It is hard to meet everybody's expectation. When you host a guest who is an Airbnb host, it tends for that person to use her standard in her hosting to set the expectation. Probably she provides a kitchen access and she provides bottled water or purified water from a filtered water jar.

But a host left such a review to a fellow host is indeed hostile. I am wondering why I did not see that you left her a review. Were there any conflicts between you and the guest? I saw the reviews she left to other hosts were good.

[Dimitar27]

Water from the kitchen is the same as from the bathroom, but the feeling is different. It's a mind game. At first case you see a kitchen around you-a place where people prepare food. At second- you see a bathroom and probably toilet. And the mind starts to work different. It doesn't matter, that when you brush your teeth, you are using the same water-from the bathroom.

It's just a mind effect, instinct, our brain just keeps a memory from the times, when all mammals were dependant from the natural sources of water. The same is with the water jug. You know, that this water is there from the morning of from the previous day. For your brain, that means "not fresh". Again the same instinct, the same memory- people always prefer fresh, flowing water.

[Kevin1322]

I don't know if this is any help @Mary1211  but we do allow guests to use the kitchen, and so far the only thing any of them have used it for is to fill a kettle with tap water and take it back to their room.

Personally I have no problem with water from a bathroom tap,  actually if it's nearer my room that's where I'd get it from, like any sane person. 

I think you have had a few nutters.   Chin up.