How to deal with unexpected situations?

[Stephanie]

Hello everyone,

From time to time, unexpected situations are always going to crop up, such as your washing machine taking one look at the huge pile of washing and deciding to give up the go or your guests arriving much later than expected! You can’t prevent these from happening entirely, but there are some things you can put in place to minimise the risk of them happening and ways to help deal with them if they do.  

Things like great communication and doing regular home maintenance, along with some handy lists of emergency support numbers for local repair companies or plumbers are just a few examples. 

What things do you have in place to help you deal with unexpected situations?

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Stephanie

[Sally221]

Sarah

you are not just doing preventative maintenance, you are doing landfill diversion & preventing unneeded consumption. It's amazing how relatively easy it is to fix old school appliances- our washer & dryer are almost 26 years old - 3 kids, one construction contractor spouse, one mother in law with dementia & 2 years of BnB. Both still work well & have had all sorts of belts, timers etc replaced & why not? I personally fixed the fan in our refrigerator (okay, you tube helped)  Our fabulous old vacuum has been fixed several times over the years-it's one of my 3 favorite machines- old Skutt kiln-old Subaru station wagon  & old Miele vacuum-long may they run! Sally

[Ange2]

You tube is great for how-to, as is Wiki how-to.  I have a Miele vacuum, pricey but made to last, definitely an investment worth making. I have repaired it myself and it is as good as new. Luckily I also live in a neighborhood where there are many stores that will repair just about anything and to a high quality so it looks brand new, even if dated in style. I don't like adding to the mountain of waste on our planet either.

[Sandra2017]

I had a problem today. Guests arrived and asked me to wash the 3 tshirts and 2 pants. She said just put in machine at hand wash program. But when the machine end her tshirts were blue instead of white colour. Not I have huge problem. She want that I give her money for her clothes which is too expensive. Dont know what to do??

[Sarah977]

@Sandra2017  Why did the guest ask you to do her laundry,  does she think an Airbnb comes with a personal laundress?  And that she can bring her dirty clothes along from somewhere else to wash at your place?

There was probably something in one of her pockets, like a pen, that turned everything blue, or some of her clothes were blue and the color bled. Or it's some scam she pulls at airbnbs to try to get the host to pay for new clothes.

If it was me, I'd tell her she should have done her own laundry. No way I'd pay for them. Maybe she can run the tee shirts through the wash again with bleach and they'll get white again.

[Sandra2017]

I paid her 40 euro for dry cleaning. And everyrhing is fixed except one casmere tshirt which is only for dry cleaning not wet.  Bt the problem is that she treat me with bad review. 

[Nina593]

I had a guest who came and decided to open a bottle of wine with a knife.  she pushed the cork in that hard that wine shot up the ceiling was dripping off the cupboards all over the floors stained everything.

She offered to pay but we felt that under the circumstances it just needed decorating and we were just happy for her to leave. 

Another guest scored me a 4 because the ashes in the pizza oven were damp after it rained!!!!  

[Anne-And-Brad0]

We live in an old 1850 home that is lovely but persnickety. Our Airbnb is in an attached two-story in-law apartment that backs up to our kitchen downstairs. This summer, we had a plumbing clog that we discovered in the middle of a mother-daughter pair's two-night stay. According to our guests, the clog wasn't presenting itself anywhere in the apartment and they happily went about their visit. However--and I will leave a lot to your imaginations--everything that happened over there ended up in our shop vac that my husband rigged under our kitchen sink to be a "catch-all." So, for 24 hours we played the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain (or behind the wall), to make sure the duo were unaffected.

Then, after the mother-daughter departure and before the arrival of our next guest that afternoon (early evening), our plumber zoomed into the apartment to cut a pipe under the flooring in a closet, only to discover that his replacement pipe didn't fit. As he raced off to buy the properly sized pipe, we messaged our in-coming guest for her ETA, who had been traveling across Canada from the Northwest. In her return message, she apologized that she was going to be later than expected because she had gotten held up at the Canadian border. We expressed our sorrow for her hold-up but secretly thanked Canada because it bought our plumber time to do a proper fix and for us to get the apartment back in order before graciously greeting her at her arrival as if we hadn't a care in the world! And both she and the mother-daughter duo both left glowing reviews of our "peaceful cottage." Phew!!

[Susan1404]

@Anne-And-Brad0  Loved your story!  I think that is called "not caving to the pressure."  🙂

[Drew140]

I like the idea as its really great alternative that we can spend our time in cleaning or sanitizing other useful things. As we all know that dirty windows or devices may give bad impact on our physical activity. 

[Albert281]

Drug manufacturing, distribution, trafficking, drug use. Haven’t found a solution for that without invading someone’s privacy by adding cameras which would lead to less business. No one wants to think you are watching them, especially when you are intimate 

[Terri38]

There was a major storm in Auckland  a year or so back which blacked out the city for days (over a week for some areas). I was one of the lucky ones and my power was back on 3 days later but remained dodgy for another few days.

Oh yeah, and those new pipes the water board were laying (the ones that should have been finished a week earlier) were now at the stage of waist high ditches where the footpaths should have been and no vehicles were allowed in the street.

Guest family A were out to dinner when it all went dark.

I txted them and said I would leave a torch (switched on) in the letter box for them.  They took it all in their stride.

Guests B and C were due to arrive from Australia the following day.

Mobile internet was sketchy.  Cell phone bill sky high that month as I keep guests in the loop and suggest they cancel.  They declined - correctly assuming they were not going to get a powered-up option elsewhere.
The flight was delayed... I knew they were taking a shuttle, so I contacted shuttle dispatch asking the driver to stop at the corner and I would meet the guests there.

0030 hours and with a bag full of torches and umbrellas (yes, the heavens opened up a few minutes earlier...) I meet the shuttle, ready to help them navigate their luggage through the darkness and around the ditches.

Every blanket and sleeping bag was taken out of storage and every item of warm clothing was worn or lent out.

The next 2 hours were spent boiling water on the camp stove (hot drinks and hot water bottles) and shuttling the gas heater from guest bedroom to guest bedroom...

[Terri38]

The family (Mum, Dad and baby) checked out on schedule 2 days later and were no problem.  Mutual good reviews were left.

The other guests however...
They were not satisfied with my efforts - especially with me not leaving the gas heater in their room with the door closed all the time (hey, I've only got 2 gas bottles, there are other guests - oh yeah, and that's not how to use a gas heater safely!)

Those guests eventually checked out - Yahoo! - leaving me a full page list of what was wrong with the room, with the house and with me!  Mutual crappy reviews exchanged.

[Melodie-And-John0]

First, some background, Bearpath Lodging (2 private suites and a glamper) is a 220+ year old Inn/ large farm home that we have mostly restored over the last 15 years but a property that old comes with issue's, becoming an Innkeeper only adds to that list things that could possibly go wrong.   The short list

-Well won't pump water, arriving early, no hot water, no heat, no Uber/ needs a ride to airport, air conditioner wont work, plugged tub drain, no power, leak in roof, arriving late, no internet, internet is slow, Guests upstairs were noisy all night and guest downstairs is angry,  guest from another booking found another guest from downstairs suite in their private bathroom taking shower, guest stuck in driveway, .... 

After hundreds of bookings over a few years in 3 different suites we list (and live in), Melodie and I don't get shaken up very easily by issues large and small, we have come to expect anything can and will happen any time of the day or night, our goal as always is to try to turn every imperfect situation into a 5 star stay (we almost always accomplish that).  Most customers care much more about how quickly and effectively you treat their specific uncomfortable situation than they care about being in one (many of their own making).  "Being right" as an innkeeper is less important than a happy customer leaving you a perfect review even after their bathroom in the Glamper was nonfunctional due to lack of water!  

Last tidbit of advice, if you cannot safely and properly DIY fix your own problems at the speed of light, assemble a team of professionals that are willing to go the extra mile for you that you must do for your guests or don't even think about becoming a host.  

[Michelle1834]

Hi everybody, am wondering what other people do in this situation...we have a large property and several times we have become aware after guests have left that they have had some kind of party. All the linens and towels used, rubbish everywhere etc. I don't want to bring it up with them-even though it costs me a lot in extra cleaning and laundry etc, because I don't want a bad review from someone who is angry about being asked to pay extra for mess they have caused! Seems like there is no way around this!??

[Ann72]

@Michelle1834 I looked at your charming listing, and I would suggest adding an extra-person fee.  You can accommodate up to 17 people and that many people will always take longer to clean up after.  My listing that sleeps 10 has a fee of $50 per-person per night over 6 people.  Just assume that when you list for accommodation up to 16 people you're going to get a party or at least a large group having a very high time and the extra-person fee helps cover the extra cleaning costs.