Advice please!

[Daniela3300]

Hi all, 

I’ve had a problematic guest today. He had previously asked for a late checkout to which I had to politely decline as we had another guest checking in the same day. He then ignored this and still checked out 1 hour late. Meaning my cleaners were waiting to enter the apartment. I had to message him to leave and my cleaners had rung the intercom to try and speed him up. 
My cleaners have now reported that there are multiple stains on the sofa and they are rushing to attempt to clean them before the arrival of our next guests. 
What shall I do in this situation? Is it appropriate to charge them a fee? I would normally have charged a late checkout fee anyway if previously arranged. Do I charge for the sofa stains as well? 
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 
Thank you!

Daniela 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Daniela3300 review the guest immediately and hope they review you. Then put in a claim within the 14 day period. Any earlier for the claim and you will guarantee a bad review

[Daniela3300]

Understood, thank you for that advice. I didn’t even think about the possibility of a bad review. How much do you think I should charge for this? 
Also would you submit two separate requests for late checkout and cleaning fee? 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Daniela3300 

Sad to hear this happened to you and that you are left with the deadline and the puzzle of how to deal with it.

This happened to me awhile back. The guests waltzed out quite late, while my cleaners waited.

They left multiple strange stains on the couch, turned the cushions upside down to hide the stains. They also hid stained towels folded up in a cupboard. It was a challenge to clean after them, and a lot of stresw.

We deep clean every turnover which includes cleaning under cushions and in closets. We also have a day or two between guests so that we can deal with such surprises.

I pay my staffers well, and I paid them for waiting. I also pitched in and dealt with the situation.

I did not claim any extra money from the guests, and waited till the last moment to give them a less than stellar review.  I also blocked them from contacting me or requesting another reservation. 

Did they leave me a good review? The  best!

They are good people, just not a very good match for my high standards home. I definitely do not need the stress of them returning. It was less of a problem for me to just deal with it, than to start a fight with them over money. 

[Mary1523]

Sorry this has happened. I think your response depends upon how you view these things. These things are going to happen, so it's a matter of having an approach to deal with these inevitabilities.

You are probably going to get a bad review because you were hassling him at the end - not saying it wasn't warranted, because you needed to, but the desperation of getting guests out in time doesn't code well with many guests. It is all they will remember. In this scenario, I would review just at the very end of the 14 day review period so that it minimises the guest reviewing you.

As for cleaning charge for stains on sofa, that's your call but I'm not sure I would bother. You might get into a he-said/she said situation and you have to prove what the sofa was like beforehand. Some good fabric cleaning spray or a small upholstery cleaner machine might get the majority of it out. 

With all of the above, if you can charge a late checkout fee, sure, because I think it probably doesn't matter at this point. Take that as your additional cleaning charge, but don't try for both. I think that's the cost of doing business to be honest. 

I avoid these situations by:

1. don't do back to back bookings. It's not the guest fault you choose to turnover faster basically for more money, so if something goes wrong, you are wearing more risk. I give my guests a late checkout as a result so no issues anymore.

2. have an small upholstery cleaner machine on standby - you can get one for less than $100 usually

3. don't have fabric or light coloured sofas to minimise any issues, or put on washable covers

4. I stayed in an airbnb recently where checkout was 11am and checkin was 4pm so you could just adjust your hours

5. I've had ink stains on light carpet, dog pee on carpet, shower gel leaked on carpet, all denied by guests after I ask kindly, "Do you know what might be spilt so that my cleaners can treat it accordingly". I just take the hit and they give me a good review. Sometimes the good review is worth more than worrying about stains. Damage is very different....

Take it all as learnings and adjust as you go, good luck!

Best, MK