Missing and stained towels amounting to about half cost of booking to replace - do we leave it?

[Kate-And-Rich0]

So, we're new to this. We've been providing lovely fluffy bath sheets. Guests checked out yesterday and we did a wash and have noticed that 1 of the bathsheets appears to be missing, and the other 3 bath sheets (value £20/$25 each) plus hand towel are covered in brown streaks and stains.

We're trying another wash with lots of stain remover. But what to do about the missing towel, and the 4 stained ones? Do we go to the resolution centre, and risk a nasty review when we don't have many yet? Do we message the guest to ask her if she accidentally packed a towel? Put it down to experience (even though the replacement costs are over half the cost of the booking)? The guests also left extensive scuff marks all along the walls from luggage which we were going to forget about but we feel quite fed up. 

What would you do?

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Kate-And-Rich0

Hi...not a great early experience and many hosts go for a very long time without any damage or accidents.

The scuff marks are wear and tear. Always a good idea to have a small pot of sample of your paint to quickly touch up marks like that.

The missing towel: I guess the question is will they post it back and what state will it be in?

You have two options - a polite email stating that towels are stained and damage and one is missing, and the cost of replacement, and see what the guest says. They may agree to pay up - or they may leave a negative review. You can alwasy reply publicly and professionally to their review.

Other option is to do nothing and hope it is a rare occurrence. 

As a suggestion, we put a small amount of money away from each booking to cover replacements, accidental damage, etc...it adds up over a year to a nice amount.

[Kate-And-Rich0]

Thank you so much for the reply. Yes, the scuff marks were annoying as the previous 3 bookings/groups hadn't made any mess but it is wear and tear. But the towels is actual cost. I guess we can use the towels ourselves now, and buy white ones we can bleach in future. The missing one is just weird, unless that was stained so badly they chucked it out. 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Kate-And-Rich0

Yes, white towels is a good idea.  There is a reason why white towels are standard in hotels.

Also, no need to provide luxury towels unless you charge luxury prices.  Nice, decent quality will do.

[Kate-And-Rich0]

Thank you, very useful advice. Yes, I think sometimes we're trying to be TOO generous... 🙂