urine soaked linens

[Jon2600]

Hi All,

Our last guests were four young guys who left the house in good shape, but one of them peed one queen bed heavily.  Fortunately, not through to the mattress.  It was a pretty gross surprise for our cleaning person, but wasn't a tremendous amount of extra work. 

The guy has no reviews as yet.  This is the review I plan to post, along with some degree of fewer than five stars for each of the three categories.  Is this too harsh for his first review?  Too soft?  Appreciate any thoughts.

"Overall (Guest name) and his three friends took good care of our home. That being said, one of them heavily soiled the linens on one of the queen beds with urine.  Our cleaning person discovered the unpleasant surprise. If they had been considerate and laundered them, we wouldn't have known.  Even If they had put them in the tub and given us a heads-up, we'd have understood and not mentioned it in the review.  Otherwise, (Guest name) seemed like a nice young man and the group was respectful of our place.  I hope folks will give him the benefit of the doubt in the future, but I think it only fair to other hosts that this be mentioned."

[Sarah977]

@Jon2600  You should never mention bodily fluids specifically in a review- not only might it cause Airbnb to remove the review if the guest complains, it is just way too personal and humiliating a thing to do to the guest. Nothing wrong with saying the linens on one of the beds required extensive cleaning, and that the guest failed to mention the accident.

[Emilia42]

@Jon2600 Airbnb will likely remove that review. Follow @Sarah977's advice.

Based on your initial review, I would tweak it to say: 

"Overall XX and group took good care of our home. Unfortunately, extra cleaning of the linens was required and we were disappointed that XX did not give us a heads up so we could have altered our housekeeper before the surprise. We have given XX some private feedback and we would like to believe that he will be a good guest to future hosts."

[Trevor243]

I have to ask, is that really necessary? Sure, you get the satisfaction of venting (politely) in a review, but it's the kind of thing that can really embarrass someone, especially if they have medical problems. If I read that a host had posted that sort of thing, and if I had young children, I wouldn't want to book with that host.

Best to just use a waterproof mattress protector on every mattress and if accidents happen, move on ....

[Mark116]

@Jon2600   Waaaay too much detail.  I would not want to host a group who left a urine soaked bed.  The end.  So my review would be more along the lines of while XX were polite and did not do any damage to the unit, they may be better suited to a hotel environment.  At most I would say that one of the guests had an accident that required extra cleaning but failed to mention it.  

[Ange2]

@Jon2600  I think it is too harsh,  bear in mind that the reviews are public for any and all to see the world over, with guest's name and other information readily available. Also,  I would never book a place that made intimate remarks about their guests. There are other ways leave an honest review while being respectful of guest's privacy as suggested.

btw: This forum is also public. To post a question that is private for hosts only use this link: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/bd-p/host-circle

[Jon2600]

Thanks everyone.  You're responses were very insightful and helpful.  I've never asked a question here before.  I decided to leave no review.  Thanks Ange2 for the heads-up  regarding the private link for hosts.  All the best everyone!

[Sarah977]

@Jon2600  So after reading all the responses here, you decided that not leaving a review at all was the way to go? Pretty much every host here would tell you it isn't. If you don't leave any review, you have failed to let other hosts know about these guests in any way. Not helpful at all. I don't want a guest who leaves a urine soaked bed, and neither does anyone else, but now we won't know and some other host will have to face what you did. Just because the advice was not to mention the bed wetting specifically doesn't mean you can't write a review (and you were given examples) that makes it clear that there was an unreported accident which increased the cleaning time.

[Emily487 · Accepted solution]

@Jon2600

Please leave him a review. Please. 

When you don't leave a review or if you leave a neutral review, you are encouraging this kind of behavior and total lack of guest accountability. Running an AirBnB requires hosts to put an enormous amount of trust in both guests and past hosts (like you) who are open and honest. When you leave an honest and fair review of your guests, you are helping future hosts by giving them enough info to help them make informed decisions about who to host or how to best host these particular guests. You don't have to even mention the bed- just say Jack was very nice but the linens required considerable time and effort to clean and sanitize. 

Peeing in a bed is not typical, not acceptable, and certainly not welcome at my place. Is it really acceptable at your place? Would you like another Undercover Urinator to book with you? It's very possible he has managed to piddle and pee his way across the country and he is headed on to a new plush pillowtop  to soil this very night....but all of his past hosts have just failed to leave him a review. I hope he's not part of the group of nice 20-something guys who are at my place tonight. 

[Anonymous]

@Emily487  Do you actually think this guest deliberately, maliciously whipped it out and peed all over the bed for fun? I guess there are some people out there who would do that sort of thing, but surely they're overwhelmingly outnumbered by those who accidentally wet the bed in their sleep. It could happen to anyone, and it wouldn't reflect well upon a host to make an issue out of it in the review.

It's not at all surprising that a young man who wet the bed chose not to speak up and risk being utterly humiliated by his mates. 

[Emilia42]

@Anonymous @Emily487 

As someone who has first hand witnessed this embarrassing and very unpleasant experience, twice, it is a realistic assumption that the young man was probably so intoxicated that he could not control himself. It is extremely humiliating, but then again, it doesn't take much effort to strip the bed and push a button on the washing machine. No one would ever have to know. And you hope to god that if there is another person sleeping in the bed, that they can keep a secret.

[Anonymous]

@Emilia42  If I had to choose between discovering urine-soaked sheets in the guestroom, and discovering linens damaged by being incorrectly washed (like the time a guest poured bleach into a mixed-colors load), I'd personally choose the former. 

I believe in washing everything that touches a guest's body as though it were saturated with bodily secretions, even when it looks clean, so for me this wouldn't even be a matter of "extra cleaning."

[Mel131]

@AnonymousPeeing the bed in someone’s home isn’t acceptable behaviour regardless of whether it was accidental or not! Especially when it’s covered up for the person who has to clean it up to find. I speak from experience - a guest we’d hosted many times before without incident, got drunk one night, peed the bed then didn’t bother to mention it. Unfortunately my mattress protectors failed and a nearly new mattress was ruined as a result. We tried to handle this sensitively with the guest but we were met with shrugged shoulders.  Any adult should a) be conscious that this is someone else’s home if they have bed wetting issues, and b) at least strip the bed/let the host know. 

[Jon2600]

Again, I have found this conversation very helpful  Thanks.

@Emilia42 gave a great alternative review option which will be helpful should similar situations arise in the future.  If the young man had a few good reviews on his account instead of zero, I probably would have gone with @Emilia42's with a tweak or two.  I could tell by the responses here that if I said anything remotely similar to what most of you suggested, that someone had an accident and the linens needed extra cleaning...everyone would know exactly what I meant anyway, without mentioning urine.  Several of you said you would really want to know that, since you wouldn't want to rent to bed wetters.  Hence, no review.  Most of you were simply concerned I was being too harsh, which I appreciate.  I still may send him a kind email after the review deadline encouraging him to wash the linens or give the hosts a heads-up if it happens again in future travels.  That'll be my decision..don't need advice on that.

As I mentioned, this was my first question here and I must say I didn't appreciate being scolded by @Sarah977 and @Emily487 for essentially letting the whole Airbnb hosting community down for thoughtfully opting not to review someone in this instance.  I take hosting and reviewing very seriously and we love our guests!  That is why I came here for advice before making a mistake by posting the review I shared at the top. 

All the best everyone...