Torn about how to review guests...

[Allison2]

My guests let my indoor/outdoor cat into their side of the house before leaving for the day. She was separated from her food and water for 6 hours and showed her displeasure by pooping in 3 places (including on their bed. She doesn't mince words!)

They initially denied letting her in, so I reviewed the security camera and sure enough - they had the front door open for 3 mins during which time she wandered in and out, then finally in. One of the guests watched her go up the stairs, they discussed what shoes to wear, and then left.

They were very apologetic, and we had a warm-fuzzy conversation later, so all left the situation happy. I'd suppose I'd have them back since I can't imagine they'd do the same thing again. At the same time it's perhaps symptomatic of general lack of care/attention (they also left a stained blanket) so not sure how much of a heads up I owe to other hosts. If the cat had a say, she definitely wouldn't host again 😉

What advice would you all give?

[Linda108]

That the guest made a mistake by allowing the cat in is not as big an issue to me, @Allison2, as the fact that their initial response was to lie about it.  If you didn't have security camera you would not have gotten them to own up.  Stains happen, but did they mention that either?  As a host, I would not like to host a dishonest guest.  Sounds like you found a way to resolve your difficulty with the guest, but the purpose of the host review is to help the host community make a decision about accepting a guest.  With that in mind, could you include a statement such as, "guests need to understand the shared home experience requires complete honest communication between host and guest."  I am sure you would word it better. 😄