My first guest--a group of four fishermen--removed four bath towels, 1 hand towel, and 6 bath cloths. Because they were my very first guests, I priced the house well under fair market value and charged them only a $50 cleaning fee, even though the cleaning staff charged me an upfront cleaning fee of $99. These initial guests left rotting remains of the fish they caught in the rear yard, very close to the house, causing a big stench, and smoked indoors (in violation of our house rule). I sent several messages to the lead guest, asking him to reimburse me for the cost of the missing towels and the additional cleaning, especially because the house was newly renovated, and everything was brand new (including the roof, ac and furnace, septic system, most appliances, furniture, towels, bedding, etc. etc.). He simply ignored me. I was going to let it go, and told him I'd "gift" him the towels and bathmat he took because he obviously was desperately in need of some, and he could "pay it forward" when in a better financial position, but I just discovered this email from my cleaning lady: "Just wanted to let you know if all the guest are like the ones that just left, it's not humanly possible to clean, sanitize, do laundry and reset--not even in five hours! I have got to return tomorrow just to finish laundry and try and get the smell gone out of fridge and kitchen, smells like raw fish! Not very clean guys! They even took the duvet covers off...who does that? Anyway my rant is over but you do have less towels and bath cloths. No idea!" She spent 11 hours(!) resetting the house. I wanted to file claim, but my co-host and husband are worried about retaliation if I file a claim and strongly discourage it, since it's the very first guest. What would you do?
