damage to kitchen cabinets, guest not responding & unsure about leaving feedback

[Michela53]

Our most recent guests, 3 adults, a couple and their mother checked out on Tuesday 25 October.

I have a folder at the house with the T&C and it spells out how to leave the house clean and tidy, which they did.
Even though I didn't meet them in person, I had some phone communication such as touching base on check-in, offering advice about whale watching & offering them a late check out.

After their check-out, we found the edging under the wall kitchen cabinets beside the range-hood had curled and peeled away.

I sent this email to the guest:-

Dear Jerzy, thank you for leaving our home very clean and tidy, we really appreciated your efforts.
Just wanting to check with you as we found that the fascia at the bottom of the kitchen cupboards beside the range-hood (above the cooker) had curled and pealed away. They were very thick and solid trims and cannot be bent back. Though the kitchen is almost new, it has had some fairly good use over the last couple of years and this has never happened before. We were wondering if you used the range-hood fan while cooking? If not, we could only come to the conclusion that perhaps no one knew that it is a pull out, or slide out range. Maybe if we know what happened we can stop this from happening again, for example putting up a sign to let people know how to use it?
Kind regards
Michela

The guest has not replied.

We were diplomatic about mentioning the range-hood, the extent of the damage indicates that they may have left a pot on the the stove boiling away while they went to the beach?

We do charge a bond, but decided not to claim for damages as my husband was able to temporarily repair the damage, until we’re able to purchase new edging as it’s a 3 hour return trip to this kind of store, so until then we wouldn't even know what the cost would be.

The damage was very obvious and stood out like big curly snakes hanging from above, meaning there was no way they could have missed it. They didn't let us know on check out, and to make matters worse they have not replied.

I am new to Airbnb, so I only have 1 review. I offer a nice little beachside home, which the photos accurately represent, spotlessly clean, offer a lot of support to guests, I provide special surprise treats, such as local sourdough bread, or chocolates, or the weekend paper, fresh fruit etc, and pay close attention to details so I would be very upset if I left negative feedback and suffered negative feedback from them in retaliation.

I'm at a loss at what to do.

[David126]

You can not see what the other review is until you post yours. Or the time period for posting goes by.

[Michela53]

We received a reply in the early hours of this morning.

Guest claims he saw the curling trims/edging and said they didn't cause this as it was already there. They didn't confirm if they did or did not use the range-hood fan while cooking, and they agreed that a sign would be helpful.

They claim they didn't cook much at all, though we have evidence contrary to this, smelly cooking pots, general strong cooking smell throughout the house which needed airing most of the day and little bits here and there that they missed when cleaning. Though none of these are an issue, afterall a kitchen is for cooking, I guess I have to accept their response.

The kitchen is a quality kitchen, well built and strong, none of the trims or edging have showed any weakness, let alone this kind of peeling away. It seems to me that they didn't use the range-hood fan (we have since put up a sign). We don't like putting sign up everywhere, as it seems to make the house feel more like a hotel than a home, but each and every check out, we've had minor to moderate (such as this instance) damage of some kind. We've only had 5 sets of guests come through so for, I hate to think what the house will look like a year from now! Still not sure about this holiday rental...

[David126]

I have seen this sort of thing come up many times and I obviously have had minor issues that I have needed to fix.

I think a lot of the small stuff is just a cost of doing business, the things that would worry me are major items.