My guest took a couple of towels and now won't reply to my messages. What can I do?

[Fran95]

Hi All, 

I have a guest last week that upon cleaning the house, we noticed they had taken two large towels - easy to do so I sent them a message. They have not replied to my messages and now I've now had to replace all the towels in the house (£279!) or the new one's would've stuck out like a sore thumb next to the older ones. What can I do since they won't reply to my messages?

Thanks

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

I am not sure there is much you can do besides replacing them at your cost. You could talk to Airbnb customer service & see if it's worth making a claim but am guessing it's not worth it. I have had a few towels go missing in my Airbnb too & I just replace them like you did, it's unfortunate that some guests are disrespect. If you think this may happen again & become a problem you could make a house rule kindly stating that all linens, towel ect are to remain at the Airbnb or tell them a spot to leave them for you to clean so it gently reminds them to not take them 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Andrea-and-Francis0  I don't recommend putting any fluff in the House Rules - including things that are already illegal ("no illegal drugs") or self-evident to reasonable people ("don't steal my linens or towels or refrigerator or sofa"). You run the risk that all the fluff rules will bury the important rules that you really need for people to heed.

It's really not all that easy to steal towels by accident, unless perhaps you're in a beach destination. Guests who are either careless or untrustworthy enough to run off with your belongings are not the kind of people who pay attention to your House Rules.

[Eilis2]

You can take  a deposit from all guests, which is returned if they leave the place as they found it. You probably would charge less than260 Euro -  about 100 is normal.  But that is a disincentive to careless oupeople and gives you some protection.

[Emilia42]

@Eilis2 Unfortunately, there is no deposit taken from the guest. A host should not and can not rely on this.

[Luana130]

You can send a money request. But it will have to be for the towels they took, you can't charge them for the other ones. If they refuse, then contact airbnb to see if they can charge the guests or if you can use the insurance for that. You will need the receipt.

And make sure to put that on the guest review if they refuse to pay.

[Fran95]

Thank you! Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of having to charge them for all the towels I've bought as a result haha, that's just me not wanting to mixer older and new. But yes i'll give it a go. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

@Fran95  You can go to airbnb.com/resolutions to request that the guest pay for the cost of two replacement towels. Considering that the missing towels were old and used, a reasonable amount would be something around £10 (about the cost of getting 2 towels in equivalent condition from a secondhand shop). 

If the guest refuses your request, the resolution process allows you to escalate the claim to a case manager, who will insist on documentation.

If you try to insist that you're somehow owed £279 because you chose to replace every towel in your house, you'll have a losing case and will be laughed out of the proverbial room. It's an altogether separate matter that you wanted a full set of brand new towels, and it would fatally weaken your case if you mentioned it in conjunction with your claim.

[Fran95]

Yeah that sounds about right. Thank you. Don't worry, I would never try to say they have to pay to replace them all when that's just me not like mixing older and new towels. 

Thanks!

[Emilia42]

@Fran95 

It's unfortunate but it happens. If they took two towels why do you have the replace them all? This will likely happen again so you may need to come up with a better strategy if a hand towel goes missing. Buy your towels as singles and replace as needed. It's the cost of doing business. It doesn't hurt to set aside a small portion of each reservation (or add a cleaning fee) which will go toward replacing items and making small repairs. 

[Fran95]

I have no problem with small repairs and general replacements, like an odd smashed glass etc. I let those go all the time. The reason I've replaced them all is because they've taken one of each of the types of towels, and the one's I bought are no longer stocked, therefore if I just replace the one towel nothing else will match with it, and I can be a bit of a perfectionist with things matching. I had spares that I've had to use as the odd one has been stained and I can't remove it etc. 

[Susan1404]

@Fran95You probably need to expect this from time to time unfortunately.  I hope you purchased towels that are easily replaceable.  I chose beige towels for that very reason - the color doesn't change much with laundering and if I need to add one here and there - the new one(s) will blend in.  Most of my guests are very respectful, but there is always going to be a few who will steal one or ruin one and dispose of it so that you don't see what they did to ruin it. 

[Fran95]

Haha, that is true! It's more of now I've used all my replacements, and the pink ones are not easy to get the same colour for (the place I got them from don't sell them anymore), and the white ones had a certain pattern to them so I need a full set to make them match, just me being me. It's just a shame when one of the bad guests ruins what almost all others respect! They also left a lovely, large pink stain on the carpet. 

[Sarah977]

@Fran95  You might want to consider in the future (I know you've already bought new towels which should last for awhile) to use things which can be easily matched. This could be using towels that are always available, like sets of white towels from Costco or Ikea, or instead of trying to have them all exactly match, go with a color scheme that you can mix ad match. You could have towels in many different colors of green, for instance. Some could be solid colors, some could be patterened, but all in the green scheme. A guests lost one of my towels when she went on a day cruise- I had 2 matching bath towels, in green, a hand towel in a different color green, and a wash cloth in yet another green. I was able to find another bath towel with a bit of a pattern in it which went really well with the bath towel that wasn't lost.

Same with dishes- either get standard stuff that you can just replace a piece of it's broken, or do a mix and match. My dishes are all solid colors, and there are about 6 colors- if something breaks, I can easily find something to replace it. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Fran95 

As @Sarah977  and some others said - choose simple mass-produced towels like IKEA. I have only white ones (Haren) and I have to buy a few new ones at least 1x a year, sometimes they go missing, or are broken or stained... or just become hard. They are not expensive so I don't worry about them too much.

There is a reason why most hotels have simple white towels 🙂