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

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62 Replies 62
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

Not sure what you mean by damage, but most would look upon it as a cost of doing business. Something you include in your price.

David
Carissa4
Level 3
Buenos Aires, Argentina

hello david, thank you for your response!

by damage, i am saying sheets and towels that are damaged and no longer able to be used such as with tears or permanent stains.

if a guest is supposed to leave the property & its contents in the condition they found them, should that not also be the case for sheets and towels?

 

i have had long term guests that were super careful, & returned everything as it was let for them. recently, i am having a lot more short term stays with people that are leaving a lot more damage particularly with sheets & towels. 

 

 

@Carissa4 hm... we have white sheets 50% polyester/cotton and thin, white cotton bath towels, they are cheap, easy to wash and they dry quickly. Blood and make up stains will go away with Vanish especially if washed on high temperature 90 C (194 F) or with bleech.

Bleech also works for kitchen towels

Ikea has it all 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

hello branka & silvia,

thank you very much for responding!

unfortunately there is no ikea here in argentina, and even bad quality linens are pricey.

 

 

hm... can you shop via ebay? 

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

@Branka-and-Silvia0 having anything mailed to argentina is very risky. most likely it will never arrive, or when you go pick it up at the post office, there is a huge tax.

 

i try to stock up when i travel, but its never enough.

I am not sure there is an easy answer, just need to make sure your pricing is adequate.

David

A host should not be expected to launder  biohazardous body fluids, such as blood. 

I agree.  I had a guest that must have had dental work. The pillow was stained with blood, as was the sheet, mattress pad, and mattress. I was able to wash the stains out of the pillow, sheet, but had to toss the pad, and accept the fact that the mattress has a permanent stain until I can replace it. I've tossed sheets stained with blood in the past.

 

I always use white sheets, but I buy dark colored towels. I also provide extra wash cloths for removing makeup, which of course they don't always use (some people do though).

 

I've often wondered what other hosts do when towels are taken or thrown away. Do you request money from the guest?

what is Vanish?

I advertise my space saying I never use harsh chemicals like Bleach - and I've just had a towel and 2 washcloths ruined.  Now what?

@Carissa4

 

I guess I am looking at it from a more practical point of view, I have certainly noticed that sheets, towels etc suffer much more when you are renting short term, and some seem to disappear.

 

AirBnB I would expect except maybe in the most extreme of circumstances will look upon it as a general wear and tear issue and not as something exceptional.

 

So yes you could ask your Guest to remiburse you but I am not that surprised with the responses you have had. You can of course escalate the issue within the AirBnB system but I think you will hit a brick wall.

 

So that leaves making sure your charges are enough to cater for the expense.

David
Carissa4
Level 3
Buenos Aires, Argentina

@David126, thank you for taking the  time to respond to me.

i have been hesitant to make any claims with airbnb regarding these sorts of damages, especially because of the comments i got, because i expected that those guests would go from having a great review for me to one that is not so positive.

 

i have heard of some peolple charging a fee every week for the lines to be changed/cleaned, and also to help with the costs of replacing damaged or worn out linens, but i am not so crazy about having hidden, or extra costs. also, this would not help with short term stays.

I've had a bad run of luck this summer, but today's sheets hit an all time low 2 ladies 55+ 4 night stay, didn't want me in to change towels, take out garbage, replace toilet paper.... etc. I'm never falling for that again, when I was a maid we went in daily during extended (more than 1 night) stays. Anyway they broke tons of my house manual rules that I explained were to prevent them from being charged extra fees. I was disgusted to find that one of the beds sheets (& 2 of the e mattress pads are stained as well, luckily the third one, yes 3! protected the foam topper so it wasn't ruined as well. $250.00) are literally a biohazard mess & stained & ruined even after I spent 2 hours working on the stains. I called AIRBNB after thoroughly documenting the evidence. They (he) wants me to request the $ directly from the guest (I did this last summer for $65 the guest refused to pay wrote me a nasty reply, but AIRBNB reimbursed me. I told the guy.... "She'll give me a bad review". His response "If she slanders you we'll remove it." me..."What if she doesn't say anything just gives me 1 * across the board?" him "You have such a high rating it won't affect you."

I'm calling back again today to talk to someone else. BUT I am going to charge this guest for the sheets and the extra cleaning that I had to pay cleaners for because she broke several other rules, they left my listing gross & they're in the medical field....scary.

Don't back down charge the people, give them a bad review. Don't let people continue to do damage without consequences they'll just do worse things to the next place! Ignore anybody who tells you differently. Maybe they can afford to keep buying sheets & towels but it sounds like you're like me & can't afford to, if I could afford to I wouldn't need to do AIRBNB to make money.