Charging guests for damaged sheets & towels.

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Carissa4
Level 3
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Charging guests for damaged sheets & towels.

i have been having a lot of damaged sheets & towels lately, & when i mention to the guests that they will need to pay for them, a number of times the respnse is: "if i were to stay at a hotel, they would not charge me for such damage."

 

after a comment like that, i am worried to charge them for the damage out of fear a getting a bad review, but i am also losing a tremendous amount of money having to replace damaged sheets and towels.

 

can anybody advise me on this matter, & also share how they handle this sort of situation?

 

thank you for any help!

1 Best Answer

hm... can you shop via ebay? 

anyway... try to wash it on high temperature or just use bleech or vanish

View Best Answer in original post

62 Replies 62

Any blood must be immediately thrown away due to blood borne pathogens and disease. You cannot treat blood stains. It's a biohazard. Exactly why there needs to be standard cleaning practices for Airbnb hosts. 

Katie316
Level 2
Gainesville, FL

Hey Carissa! 

In this situation I would defintely try your best with bleach or whatever cleaning materials might do the job, if that doesn't work I would definitely ask the guest to cover the cost to replace the items. Perhaps send them a link to the items and charge exactly what it's worth so that they can see you're not trying to make a profit on it, just replacing it (and if possible provide a photo of the item). I feel like most hosts have a fee for keys that are lost so you should be able to have other items covered as well. My guests have always been amenable if something has been broken or damaged but I do understand the fear if you receive push back to the matter. It is a tough call though either way because every guest is different and might have a different response. 

Hollie6
Level 10
Page, AZ

I am also having the same problem. I have charged guests for ruined sheets when they were brand new and their child used a marker on them! I've also had stains left on older sheets and knew it was time to replace and the guest had no bad intention, just an accident. For me it depends on the circumstances wether or not to charge. Problem is you may get a bad review and that is always my dilema. 

What I have learned to do is immedietly when the guest leaves ask them if they enjoyed there stay and tell them I strive for 5 star reviews and would love any feed back from them on how I can improve guests stay. Then I go do the review. This way there is nothing negative and if they decide to leave a review it will most likely be good. Once they leave their review then I charge them for the items before the 14 days are up. Seems the best way to get reimbursed and to avoid bad reviews. Airbnb needs to improve review system in my opinion.

it only works if you don't have a next guest coming before you charge the guest. i.e. If guest leave on monday, you have a new guest coming on the Monday. You can't charge the previous guest after tuesday, since you need to file it before the next guest checkin. It happened to me and airbnb decline my claim. 

This needs thought doesn't it?

Someone else seemed to think we exchange reviews THEN SUBMIT CLAIM. aS WE HAVE 60 DAYS (is that correct???) to file a claim.

So review

then AFTER 15 days make a claim?? But how does this fit with making a submission before arrival of the next guest? Unavoidable that Guest will become aware of a claim prior to reviewing... thus retaliation possible.

Anne591
Level 2
Holden Beach, NC

I have had "damaged" sheets and towels from make up removal and one guest actually spray tanned herself and then got in bed- all of the bedding was orange.

I now tell guests they may bring their own sheets & towels or for a fee I will provide them.  I charge a flat fee and have a service do this for me as I am out of town for the majority of my rentals.  

It is a seperate charge like a cleaning fee and easier to track then if you include it in your pricing.

Unfortunately it's the couple of bad apples that made me put this in place.  I provide many other items as my added value for my place- like a starter "kit" of TP, PT, dish soap, dishwasher soap, hand soap.  I also have laundry soap/dryer sheets, toiletries and basic condiments, spices, coffee/filters.

 

This is the first year I am doing this and so far it's worked out fine.

We’ve recently found single use makeup removal wipes and placed them with a note to “please use for makeup removal.” So far, no more ruined washcloths.

Just recently did this as well and it has helped on the makeup on towels issue. Cheap Dollar General makeup removal packages left at sink area.   Seems to do the trick. @Ben-and-Melissa0 

Pat331
Level 2
Ubud, Indonesia

I found this topic because I also had a tenant that damages items in one of my unit and the damages were made because the tenants were careless and disrespectful with my place.
The bed sheets, pillows and decoration pillows were full of sperm, allover. One of the rug on the side bed was socked wet (i do not want to even say what it was it), smelly and made the entire place stinky. Another small item that was damage, is a $1 rice-maker spatula in plastic that they used to fry... Its only a dollar but proves how they were careless and disrespectful.  There were other things that I am not going to list. However, I request to pay for the damage and surely I do not want to host them again in my place.

If the tenant will tell me that an Hotel would not request such damages, I would tell the tenant that Airbnb community is not for you and next time you better get an hotel room that cost 4 times more and there you can damage everything you want!

Lili1193
Level 2
Saint Martin

This is the problem «  hotel wouldn’t charge for such damage » the guest says?????  But Hosts ARE NOT HOTEL!!!! So that does give the rights to stain towels as they are please.  That is de respectful of them I will definitely  charge the guest for damages.

Actually, hotels do charge if you do damage. I stay in a lot of Marriott hotels, and one time they told me that there was hot chocolate spilled all over the bed and wanted to charge me $200 to clean. I had luckily taken photos of the room which I do after every visit to show them that this was not true. However, you should know that if there is severe damage, hotels do charge for it. 
One more thing folks when you wash white things make sure you have a washer that has an ultra white sanitizing cycle or a high high heat setting. Not all washers have this but if you have this and they usually are on front loaders, you said it to that and you add bleach into the tray  almost anything will come out. My son recently repaired his motorcycle wearing a white Nike hoodie and it had black grease all over it. I put it in the ultra white setting on my washer, super high heat, bleach and detergent, and it looks like new. Also, don’t use softening agents or those weird little beads. Those are unhealthy and they smell…. I have found gas do not like strong to charge and smell it messes with women’s hormones (otherwise known as hormone disrupters) as do air fresheners! Get a good washing machine and you’ll be fine!

Ps: I should add that these washers actually heat up the water more than your water heater does. In Europe, most washes will actually heat it up to boiling. So investing in a good washing machine can help! It goes beyond the highest heat of your water heater… and always do that with cotton - only…

Yinette1
Level 2
Belleville, NJ

Hello everyone hope everyone is safe, I m new and will be hosting soon and WOW! its crazy the situations all of you have been through.

 

Im reading and taking notes , Ive been thinking of charging a $250 deposit in case of damages to the property, $50 for each damaged or stolen linens or towels and $500 on damaged furniture. would this be to much to start?

 

The whole place is new, furniture , appliances, beds, linens towels, everything is brand new.

Yinette Scheker Garcia
Heidi-Donna0
Level 2
Kingsbridge, United Kingdom

Hi everyone,

 

It's very interesting to read everyone's experiences and see that you all share the same frustrations.

I was thinking to include a note to guests prior to check in to kindly ask them to bring their own towels if they wear fake tan, but it just does not seem like a very 'boutique' thing to do.

Has anyone else implemented something like this?

I am new to Airbnb this year and have been busy with bookings throughout the summer which is great. Generally guests have been pretty considerate of the house rules, but I have had issues with satine towels and linen. I like to have fresh clean white linen and fluffy white towels and I don't really want to change this. However I have lost one very nice duvet cover due to a black stain - they must have put something dark on the bed when it was wet and the dye ran out. I tried everything - even paid for professional stain removal but nothing happened - write off! I also had guests who word fake tan and I tried everything to remove the stains but I can still see yellowish marks on them - not the look I was going for for my guests checking in 😞 If I word fake tan I would take an old tole on holiday with me wouldn't you? In fact I dye my hair and when I go away I take a black hair towel with me. So I guess I was shocked at the negligente. They were great guests to communicate with and left the place otherwise clean and tidy - but my towels are damaged for good and like the rest of you, I can't afford to keep replacing items like this. I've also lost a tea towel and there's been the odd little dried blood stain here and there.

I always place a couple of dark face cloths by the sink with a notice to guests who love their make-up.

I now have a sign to kindly ask guests not to use the white towels if they wear fake tan, but I haven't provided any dark towels - that quite an expense to provide dark towels as well - not to mention the extra washing and ironing.

I haven't charged guests for these stains but to be honest I'm going to have to start doing so as it's just as bad as ripping stuff up - you can no longer use them.

Any advice is welcome 🙂

Heidicha DS

 

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