When you can’t do a thing about it...

[David6]

2 night stay. Over years we got the whole ‘get housekeeper to take pictures once she’s finished  cleaning’ . Send on WhatsApp as date/time stamped proof. 

But today these guests outsmarted. Smoked but blew smoke out of window. The room has lingering smell but managed to clear it . But this damage to the window frame is new! But of course i can’t prove it, as I didn’t take a picture before they arrived.

Host zero!  Guests win again!

* Managed to remove the red wine  ‘ring’  stains, but the burns have actually melted the plastic window frame, and can’t get off 😞 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350 

Haha - yes! There's no guarantee that it would be read though 🙂

[Rosemarie9]

Hi David, I found a great range of paints by Rustoleum Universal. There is an all purpose small tin in a matt white which might do the trick- I purchased a forty year old bungalow and converted garage so call myself queen of the "touch ups". I was just buying a tin to touch up a scratched shower screen door today. 

[David6]

Thank you so much @Rosemarie9 

i did not ever know of this! Thank you 

[Yadira22]

@David6 

What a bunch of .... (don’t want to get reported for foul language). I am so sorry this happened- hope you charge and then block them!

@Sarah977 And you are right smokers will Smoke regardless of rules- at least some will take it outside.

I had a friend and her mum die in the horrible Grenfell tower fire (from 2017) and I am explicit when people check in, no smoking. Even I don’t smoke in the apartment (enjoy the casual cigarette). Heck I even get nervous with candles (birthday cake candles are lit for literally a second only, since this incident) and I threw out all the scented candles we have. Honestly- some people are so inconsiderate and arghh.... 

[Helen350]

@David6  Now I'm worried! Worried that someone will smoke in MY bedrooms.

- I'm wondering if I should  now adopt the policy which an ex-host near me used to have that smoking is not allowed inside, NOR outside, & that no-one who smokes at all should be allowed, because their bodies & clothes will cause contamination inside the house.....

2 weeks ago I had a guest (from China) light a cigarette at my dining table, flushing me out of my private room next door. He laughed when I told him not to, zero comprehension that he'd done wrong! I came SO close to throwing them out at 11.30 at night, but felt sorry for his wife. So I gave them 3* for house rules (because the guest DID appear to heed my instruction not to do it again.) I wish I'd gone with my initial instinct of 1* for house rules & 1* for cleanliness - the offence of smoking trumping all other aspects in which they were clean.

[Sarah977]

@Helen350  Just as there are many places in the world where smokers are now regarded as lepers, there are other countries where it isn't frowned upon and there is an "it's none of my business" attitude. I think this is what you encountered with your guest. You may have experienced it as disrespect that he laughed, but he was probably laughing at how rigid others outside of his own country are about it in general, not laughing at you or your house rules specifically. This is borne out to me by the fact that he did indeed respect not to smoke at your place going forward. 

It's quite common to light up anywhere in many areas of the world, and no one says a thing, even if they don't themselves like it.

Just offering a little perspective, certainly not suggesting that you relax your rules.

[Helen350]

@Sarah977 Yes, I think so! - Which is why I was lenient in the review! -I was nearly in tears when I discovered him smoking in MY private home. They never wrote a review - maybe the Asian sense of shame? I wrote them a LOVELY review, about how we sat around the table chatting ,& discovered we'd all dived in Borneo's top spot! THEN I said I'd had to tell him not to smoke - a day 14 review of course! Which meant their subsequent hosts were not warned...

[Sarah977]

@Helen350 Well, hopefully he got the message that it's not as acceptable in other cultures as it is in his own, and the future hosts won't need to be warned, he'll just be respectful. It will be interesting for you to take a look when the next reviews come in.