How should foolproof house look like? :)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

" Never in the history of the human race people were so incapable of performing simple life tasks as they are today."
(A quote from a documentary film )

And it is so true!

Is it just an "holliday brain" or people are present in reality only physically and their mind is somewhere in the virtual world? ... I don't know. I've heard somewhere that today we receive more informations in a week then people in 17th century in their entire life. Maybe it's just to much for the average human ?

Since we started hosting 2 years ago we had to put instruction and remainder labels all over the place.  I hate it but it was neccessary and it is still not enough! Our check in process is longer then ever. We replaced some simple items for other, more simpler ones... but our guests still suprise us to often. I feel like a big mama constantly trying to predict what is the next dangerous or silly idea our guests could come up with?

Just to give you few examples:
- one guest wanted to dry his socks on the radiator but couldn't reach the top so he climbed on the toilet seat. Result: toilet seat broke, toilet bowl and water tank were displaced,
 bathroom floaded and he was lucky not to breake his leg.
(we do have a drying rack in the bathroom but he used the radiator instead)

- one guest wanted to put something on the top of the 2,20 cm high closet , opened closet doors and step into the closet. Closet overturned and fall on her, her leg was hurt, the wall was scratched. ( We replaced the closet with clothes rack.)

- guest make a shower but leave the shower curtain outside the bath tab. Result: bathroom floaded, laminate flooring in the room damaged, towels used to wipe the floor stained...

...and so on... the list is endless...

What changes did you make at your short term rental to prevent damages and guests killing themselves ? Should we decorate it like kindergarden? I'm thinking about IKEA Mammoth collection  😛

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

PS

All examples above are perls of middle aged and older gusts. Not kids, not teenagers.

[Kelly149]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

yep! these folks figure: why read?

I'm a functioning adult & I know how everything works at my house.

Of course, this isn't their house, the stuff is all different...

my favorite is when they then complain: I got lost, the stuff didn't work

I'm sure you've now added to your house rules: The Toilet is not a stepstool, please do not stand on it

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Kelly149

no I didn't , but I do have a picture above the toilet showing where to throw toilet paper and where to throw cotton balls, wet tissues and everything else 🙂  And a note " do not wipe the floor with bath towels" on 6 languages .  It really helps 🙂

[Robin4]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

Yes, yes...... we know Branka, you have shown it before!

It looks like this......

Cheers......Rob

[Doug-and-Tiffany0]

I have had two instances recently where my guests could not use a key to save their lives. There is nothing strange or difficult about this particluar key or lock. All of my other guests and myself use the key all the time to enter this room with no problems. The first time there was trouble, a pair of girls were returning from a wedding and woke us up at midnight because they couldn't get the key to work. I figured they had just had too much to drink to function. The second time, another pair of girls phoned that they had been trying "for an hour" to get the key to work. I rushed over and demonstrated right in front of them how to put the key in the lock and turn it. I was wracking my brain on my way there to figure out what could have gone wrong... Did I leave the wrong key? Had the lock jammed? Nope! I'm wondering if I need to put on a keypad only lock so all they have to do is press numbers, but then again, I don't want to have to cater to the lowest common denominator at my expense!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Doug-and-Tiffany0

uh.. our ordinary , simple european key- lock is also a rocket science to many guests from other continents and they really struggle with it so now it is part of our check in process. I show them and explain them and then I give a key to one member of the group to try it in front of me 🙂

[Rosemarie9]

European locks bamboozle a lot of them, and I too demonstrate. I just had someone private feedback their review saying the lock wasn't working. Really? I had two sets of guests come and go in that time. Guess what, lock is fine. He also stated that the location was lovely but the hill hard to walk with a bad ankle. I felt like writing, did you tell me when you were booking? I even said to him that driving down to town would take less than 2 minute and parking was free on that Sunday. What is a host supposed to do? Follow them around all stay to check they can function in the real world?

[Ange2]

Ah! the memories. I have three locks, two are left unlocked and taped over with hard to remove duct-tape when I have guests.  I also make them take a key test ( focus: middle lock, no duct-tape, you have one key, try, test passed–or so I think).  One guest removed the tape from the top lock, jammed the key in, forced it and somehow managed to not only lock it but also break the key in the lock. I had to call an emergency locksmith to drill the lock, remove it and replace it, $250 including new lock and of course I wasn't reimbursed!  Just pressing numbers is going to outsmart someone, why bother.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

lol @Ange2 😄 😄 we also have duck tape on our second lock after one group of guests lock it from the inside (using a handle) andThey  the second group of guests couldn't enter in the middle of the night. They ringed and banged on the door to wake up the first group but they only scared them (2 young ladies) who called me on the phone beging to help them 😄 I told them to open the door but they were so scared that they didn't want to open it for half an hour. In the meantime the second group of guests were freezing outside furious, yelled and woke up the whole neighborhood 😄 😄 😄

[Ute42]

.

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0 ,

we have come to a point where my husband screwed closets onto the wall using huge screws and dowels.

2 results:

1. The closet can't tip over anymore when opening the doors.

2. Guests can't move the closet around in the room anymore.
   
   

Never in my lifetime did I have a closet fall on me when I opened the door, but I had guests and it happened to them. Now not anymore.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ute42

I also thought of fixing the closet on the wall ... but maybe it wouldn't be safe enough 🙂

This is our solution... on wheels so they can drive arround  hehe

[Ute42]

.

@Branka-and-Silvia0

make sure to provide a map of Your dwelling so that guests

don't get lost when driving around their clothes.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

haha @Ute42 we have 2 of them  😄 😄 😄  in our listing's photo gallery  and in our house manual (in Croatia is obligated to have "evacuation plan" at all public places) It is basicly a floor plan with arrows pointed to the door  😄

[Ute42]

.

@Branka-and-Silvia0,

You should also put up street sings in Your rental:

- kitchen place

- hallway avenue

- living square

So if they park their clothes some place they can make a note of the street name in order to retrieve the stuff easier.  GPS may also help.