Help me with this (very delicate) review

[Kim87]

OK so i'll try to make this a short story.

This guest stayed one week, everything was fine, good communication, out most of the day, friendly and respectful of house rules. He asked to leave his luggages the last day because he had a late flight. I live upstairs and accepted to take his luggage in my home.

He was at my door the next morning, mortified, telling me right away that he had been sick all night and the the bedding were stained, that he was so sorry.  I didn't know what to expect.

He in fact had diarreha. I managed to save the sheets and duvet cover by washing them twice. Mattress was saved by the mattress protector but the mattress protector was stained after 2 washes and the duvet i put directly into the garbage, it was not a machine friendly duvet. I messaged him, explained, he apologized again and accepted to refund the new ones i had to buy the same day for my upcoming guests.

I can't really blame him for being horribly sick, even if a part of me wonder why he was not able to make it to the toilet. I have no reason to think he was wasted or drunk or anything. He apoligized in profusion and i already received his money through airbnb. I do want to blame him for leaving things as i found them. I mean, why the hell didn't he undo the bed, put the sheets in machine ? Thing is, i suspect he forgot about the machines, wich are behind folding doors. He didn't use any room except for the bedroom and bathroom, i could tell, and the bathroom was cleaned by him as it was much cleaner than i usually find it after my guests (no need to say i disinfected every inches anyway). Has it been me, with no machines, i would have prefered to throw everything away and offer the host to buy replacements or pay right away.

This guest has no review, new member since 2018. He arleady left me a review. I don't know what to do. Can't be factual without him being humiliated. Can't really recommend him either, but if my instinct is worth anything, he really was unlucky and very sick.

What would you do ?

[Sarah977]

@Kim87  No way I would mention this in a public review, as he did what he felt was the right thing in notifying you right away and didn't balk at paying for the damage. Had this happened in the middle of his stay, judging by how he dealt with it, you could have just advised him to please put the bedding in the washing machine, set on cold water (so as not to give it an opportunity to stain) and start the machine. If you had to treat it afterwards to try to remove stains, and rewash, at least you or your cleaner wouldn't have had to handle the bedding in it's "fresh" state. But as I read your post, he had to catch a flight when he told  you about it, and probably spent the day agonizing over how to admit what had happened, and dreading having to talk about it.

As @Kimberly54 said, if it's never happened to you, you don't realize that sometimes there is no way you can get to the bathroom fast enough- it can happen in your sleep if you're sufficiently sick with food poisoning. In fact, the exact same thing once happened to me, and also to one of my guests. When I got up in the morning, she was standing at her bedroom door looking mortified and told me right away what had happened, that there was no way she wanted me to have to touch the sheets (she had whipped them off the bed right away, so it didn't go through to the mattress pad or get on the blanket), and asked if I'd show her how the washing machine worked (which is normally not part of guest amenities). I told her to relax, that it had happened to me once and that I totally understood.

[Kim87]

@Sarah977i never considered mentionning the details in a public review. He told me about it around 10 in the morning when maximum check out was at 11, but we had agreed for him to drop luggages and pick them up around 5 PM for his late flight. In between i've cleaned the place, then talked to him when he came back to pick up his bags. Everything went well from there. He agreed to pay for replacements and did so.

My only concern was the way i've found the bedroom. Your guest didn't want you to touch the sheets. He just left everything as it was even tough there were a washer and dryer in the apartment with soap and everything you need to do laundry. I had to put gloves on and dig in. I was wondering if this deserves a low cleanliness rating. Or if he was just messed up and tired and sick and couldn't think of this.

[Sarah977]

@Kim87   Thanks for clarifying the timing. So when he told you about it at 10AM, is there some reason why you didn't request him at that point to please put them in the washer on the cold water setting, or ask him if he'd done that? Maybe you assumed he'd already done that?  

Yes, my guest told me there was no way she wanted me to have to touch them. But she was a 50 year old woman, and a mother. Plenty of experience dealing with cleaning and bodily fluid issues. And she still had 3 more days of her booking to go. Some guys, or young people in general, might not have a clue what to do about it. One thing I've learned in life is that what might seem like common sense to me, might not be so obvious to others.

[Kim87]

@Sarah977yes, i assumed. At that point i didn't even know what i would find or what kind of sikness he had.

And it was much worse than all the scenarios i imagined during the five minutes before i got downstairs. By then he was gone for the day.

[Sarah977]

@Kim87   If this had happened to him at home, he very well might have just stuffed all the bedding in a garbage bag and taken it out to the dumpster. So he may have assumed that you would do the same, especially since he was forthcoming about paying for damages. It might never have occurred to him that you or your cleaner would actually handle the stuff and try to get it clean.  It's hard to second guess what goes through someone else's mind.