How to handle extremely messy guests - stained linens/towels etc

[Emily882]

We just had guests that checked out - 2 people who stayed for 4 days - that left our guest house extremely messy. We just started hosting in the Spring and this is our first experience of this kind. Curious to how other hosts handle situations like these. First off the house was left with a strong off putting odor - maybe something they cooked - which I can get over. Then there were stains on everything - towels, sheets, quilt, blankets...basically every textile in the house. Some of the stains looked like blood, but could be makeup not sure. We also ask our guests to do their dishes before leaving and I found dishes put away dirty - lipstick on a glass - so everything had to be re-washed. There was also hair and debris everywhere and it appeared someone had shaved their body hair in the living room. We even found clumps of hair (from a razor) in the shared front yard. We took some pictures but not extensive as we just needed the house to get cleaned before the next guests. Would you charge the guest for extra cleaning? Or simply leave the extra cleaning needed as part of the guest review? Thanks in advance for your input!

[Sandra856]

Hi @Emily882 🙂

I'm sorry to read about your messy guests. 

I do have had guests like that occassianly. It is so rude to leave a place like that. 

The bloody stains you can get rid off be rinsing them in ICE cold water. If the water is warm or even lukewarm the stains will set forever as the protein in the blood binds to the fiber in the fabric. If you use cold water and oxy action spray it is very easy (gross!! :-)) but easy to get rid off.

I wouldn't personally charge for extra cleaning because it will probably leed to a bad review. I would make sure to mention it all in the review though, as it is important info for future host. I always wait till the last hour of the review period to leave my review. In the app you can now see how many days and the final day - how many hours is left to leave a review. My own experience is that guests that leave a mess do not leave reviews unless they suspect a bad review.

If you leave a review they will get a notification that you left them a review and it is then more likely that they will leave you one aswell. If you wait and leave your review the very last minute it is very unlikely that they will have the time to leave you one before it is to late.

[Emily882]

Thanks @Sandra856 

Appreciate your advice as a fellow host. Hoping the stains will come out during cleaning. 

The guest actually already left a review. They did not have any reviews when they booked our place via Instant Book & it seems they treated our Airbnb like a hotel and not someone’s home. Will definitely make note of this in my review of them.

[Sandra856]

Okay, @Emily882 🙂 If they have already left you a review you can try an request money through resolution center. They do have 48 hours from when they left the review to make changes to the review unless you have left one/or leaves one in the meantime. I don't know if you know this? If you don't I guess it is nice to know. That is why I'm telling you 🙂

Make sure to take pictures of it all. Maybe the guest will pay or the deposit will cover if you got one? You can always try and please tell about the outcome 🙂

Best, Sandra 

[Sandra856]

I do apologize for all the wrong words and mis-spelling. My phone has a danish vocabulary, so strange danish-english words and endings appear sometimes.. haha 🙂 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sandra856 

can you please tell me where on ABB application you can see exactly how many days and hours you have to leave a review?  I don't see it on desktop version

[Sandra856]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Yes, when using the chrome version webpage on my phone (that review page we talked about, where I was able to leave a response to a guest, I didn't review). It looks like this below. It now says 9 days. When there is less than a day left, it will say hours left instead of days. 

[Sandra856]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 When using the App : When I get a notification that I can leave a review of the guest there is a green link attached to the message. It looks like this in the app inbox. 

If I follow that link I will get to the review page and it looks like this telling me how many days/hours I got to leve the review. It says 9 days left in danish 🙂 

[Sandra856]

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

thank you @Sandra856 🙂

[Sally221]

To add to Sandra's excellent advice- you can set instant book to disallow folks with no prior positive reviews- they can still ask for a booking date but then you will at least havethe chance to have some conversation/set a tone before they book, Sally

[Christianna1]

Oh how this has happened to me! I LOVED the brand new beautiful, fluffy towels I so carefully picked out for my guests. So when I asked a guest to pay for the towel she destroyed after she dyed her hair BLACK in my tub, she came back at me with such venom that I almost cancelled the rest of her stay. The amazing Air BnB case manager told her she was in the wrong and that I had a right to kick her out if I wanted to. He basically schooled her on being a good air BnB guest. I was straightforward with the girl and I said, “It may be best if we both refrain from reviewing one another and chalk this up to a learning experience.”  He told me I had the right to charge her for the towels (I took photos.) But I didn’t. Now I leave black makeup towels that say “makeup” on them. I leave extra “grungy” towels that have a sign that says “for life-staining events” and I will only buy white towels in the future.  People are generally great and I’ve sort of abandoned the idea that the towels are going to stay hotel perfect. I don’t charge hotel perfect prices. As it turns out, people don’t notice or care about a faint aqua stain from God-knows-what on the towel as long, as it has clearly been washed.

[Tim2882]

We are new to hosting and have recently starting a B&B for room in our house with a hot tub.  Having read a large number of conversations around stains, it seems there is a 50/50 split on whether you contact the guest about the stains left.

In our case its fake tan, left on white Egyptian cotton sheets, pillow cases  & duvet cover, towels, dressing gowns and even in the hot tub 😞   I'm not exaggerating when I say the bed linen is now a shade of orange, what makes it worst is they spilt prosecco in the bed which has had some odd reaction with this fake tan product and soaked through the sheet onto a mattress topper. 

So the stain on the sheet has not come out after 2 x 90 degree washes, so tomorrow I am attacking with stain remover, which is what I will have to use on the rest of the items robes and mattress topper as they cannot be boiled.

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement, its seems some people have little respect for peoples belongings, so I want to contact them to politely say that in the event the stains do not come out I will be looking for reimbursement, as I cannot use stained items for my next guests and ALL these items are only a month old, as we started in the new year.

The young couple also littered around the hot tub, by leaving left drinks cans dropped around the outside 😞  At least I can just pick that up and there is no damage done.

Advice please, thanks in advance, Sarah

[Sarah977]

@Tim2882  "So the stain on the sheet has not come out after 2 x 90 degree washes"

Putting stained linens in a hot wash is not the way to deal with stains. That will cook a lot of stains in so they will never come out. Many stains are removed with cold water, not warm or hot. Stains need to be pre-treated before washing.

The internet is full of stain removal hacks- pages of them. Just Google it.

Here's one of many for fake tan.

https://www.mollymaid.com/practically-spotless/2018/april/how-to-remove-fake-tan-stains/#:~:text=col....

[Tim2882]

Thanks Sarah977 I did read similar afterwards and some still suggest washing on as hot a wash as possible, so again mixed views on this.  Unfortunately, I had no stain remover and we cannot use bleach as we are on a septic tank.  Tomorrow, I will try Dr Beckmann Stain Devils Pre-Wash Bleach Free Stain Remover on the other items, as that is supposed to be good.

Would you contact the guest about damaged items, if the stain does not come out?  As the duvet cover is stain free now, its the sheet which had the mix of drink and tan on it.