FIRST UNHAPPY GUEST

[Amanda1469]

I have been a super host 3 times now.  I have had some complaints about appliances breaking and I have always replaced them while the guest was still there to ensure they enjoyed their stay.  This guest arrived late last night.  Her father in law actually booked the house even though I told him they needed to book it themselves.  He assured me they were very busy and didn't have the time to book it themselves so he would communicate back and forth for them.  I gave him my phone number because they may need to contact me if they had any questions or concerns.  They called me this morning and told me there was trash all over the yard, the house was moldy, the tubs were dirty, the bathroom doesn't drain well, and there is a hole in the wall.  She sent me pictures... There was trash in the yard.  It looks like someone dropped off their garbage around our garbage can and someones dogs got into it.  My husband went out within 2 hours and cleaned the yard up and took the trash to a dumpster.  She sent me a picture of the dirty tub... We are on well water and the iron in the water stains the tub.  I assured her it was cleaned and that it was stained because of the iron in the water.  In December we had someone decide to turn our house into a club, because of this a cleaning company came out and literally cleaned everything including the air vents.  There is no mold in our house.  I told her I was sorry for any inconvenience and if they wanted to stay somewhere else I would happily reimburse them.  She told me she would talk to her husband and let me know. She told me they would stay there and her son, who has CF, would stay with someone else.   I went ahead and lowered their price by $10/night because they were unhappy.  5 hours later the father in law sends me a message complaining about everything I have already talked to the woman about...I told him exactly what I told her.  My question is....if it is so gross ( and I have great reviews on how clean the house is) why would they continue to stay?  What should I do in this situation?  I have offered to go by and clean the shower again even though I know I can't get the stains out.  Has anyone else had a similar situation?

[Sarah977]

Not going to address all your post, aside from saying these guests are a real pain and that yes, if they continue to stay, they can't continue to complain. Opting to stay, when the've been told they are free to leave with a refund indicates that the place is acceptable to them.

But as far as the hard water stains- I have that problem as well, except its calcium, not iron, so it builds up a ring in the toilet. The only way to really remove it is to put on a rubber glove and scrub it with a scrubby and muriatic acid, but I can't use the acid too often because I am on a private septic system. I home-share, so I always assure my guests that the toilet has been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized, that if there's a bit of a ring, it's only because of the calcium in the water here. I pour a splash of bleach in the toilet before guests arrive, so it smells "clean".

Since you're an off-site host, you might want to put a note to that effect on the bathroom wall. I assume you've explored products that might remove those iron stains, but if you haven't, you might want to. I think they do exist.

[Sally221]

From my days in Santa Cruz Ca. - a place of incredibly hard & nasty municipal water  I learned to use a 600  piece of wet dry sandpaper on crud build up in the potty. It really works!

[Sarah977]

@Sally221  Yes, a pumice stone works well, too. Although I just recently read that newer toilets have a shiny coating on them and you aren't supposed to use sandpaper or pumice stone at all on them, or it damages the finish.

The problem with the pumice stone and the sandpaper for me is that while I can use it on the ring, I can't get down in the flushing area, or the flush hole at the front bottom of the bowl- it's too small for my hand- so the muriatic acid, left to soak for awhile, deals with that.

[Mark116]

@Amanda1469  I'd assume what happened is that they saw the garbage strewn around the yard and that tainted their view of the place, so when they came in they were expecting it to be dirty and they found a couple of items to re enforce that view.  I think you've done all  you could do, but I'd expect a bad review from them.

[Debra300]

@Amanda1469,

When you have phone conversations or email/text exchanges with guests, send a follow up message via the Airbnb message system recapping what's been discussed.  State that you will process the booking/rate revision after they have confirmed what you have stated is correct and they agree to the terms.