Guest ruined mattress

[Evan34]

We accepted a reservation for three adults to stay at our house this past weekend. Today, when we got back into cell range, we had a message from one of the guests saying that their child peed in the bed and they were sorry and to let them know what it cost to get it cleaned. Now, this is a $2000+ organic, natural latex and wool mattress. When I have kids coming on a reservation, I get out waterproof mattress pads for them to use... BUT there was NO CHILD on this reservation.

Upon inspecting the mattress, he had left the soaking wet mattress pad on the bed, under that was the soaking wet mattress, when I unzipped the mattress cover (how the mattress is constructed), there was the wet, pee smelling latex layer. I am concerned the mattress may be completely shot. AND I did not have a security deposit from the guest.

Has anyone else gone through this?

Thanks!

[Cormac0]

@Evan34

Let it dry out in the sun, and take it from there, a child? Should only produce a small amount of urine, unless there were angels involved.

Reach out to the guest and politely ask them to pay for a cleaning charge, I doubt you get the price of a new mattress.

Regards

c

[Annette33]

so sorry this has happened @Evan34 , I cannot imagine how frustrating this must be. As it is, with no security deposit in place, and nothing in your house rules about children, I'm afraid you're on your own and won't get any help from Airbnb on this.

Your choice if you will try to get some $$ as compensation from this guest, or if you will take it as a learning experience for the future. As @Cormac0 has suggested, I would first try to rescue the mattress, it will take time and perseverance. How come it was still soaking wet when you got to it?

For the future, I would put something into your house rules that guests must tell you about children coming, and their ages. Then, if children are there without you knowing, those guests then broke your house rules and you have more leverage with Airbnb. And/or emphasize it in your pre-arrival messages with guests.  Good luck!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Evan34

They didn't mention the baby bc Airbnb do not charge for infants so they probably wrongly assumed they don't have to mention it. But it is nice from them that they told you what happend and offer to pay for cleaning. Our guests didn't even told us 😞 

So, If I were you , I would call cleaning service to come and clean it and I would send a receipt to guests. 

I don't know if you ever had to done it before, but they come with a machine, shower the spot with water-detergent mix, scrub it with a sponge and then extract the water with a strong vacuum cleaner. It works great.The only problem is it needs 2 days to completely dry out.  

[Aaron112]

That sucks! Personally, I leave my waterproof mattress pad on for every guest and no one has complained or even noticed yet. I am in Vegas so the drunken partier is more likely here.

for reference this the pad I use:

https://airbnbhostshop.com/collections/mattress-toppers-pads-protectors-for-short-term-rentals/produ...

[Evan34]

Thank you -- yes, the first thing I did after ordering the parts to fix the mattress was go to a store and buy waterproof pads for all our beds. We have guests coming this week and will see if they even notice.

[David126]

There is the Host Guarantee provided by AirBnB.....

[Nina204]

@Evan0  go to a pet store and buy natures miracle.   It is an enzyme formula that is a urine destroyer!    My clientele is mostly adults but I have waterproof protectors on all our beds.