Guest damage pipes

[Tina11837]

Hello Everyone,
I have a guest that is staying at my place for 3 weeks, she is leaving on Sunday and yesterday I got a message saying the toilette is leaking. As our pipes are from the 60s we and use a septic tank, we don’t throw anything into the toilette which is not human waste. There is a notice on the toilette. I asked the guest what they were flushing and she said “we flushed minimal toilette paper these past days”. As I am not on the island my friend went there to handle the situation. It seemed the blockage was gone. However today the issue happened again and we had to call in a professional who had to drill and suck out the blockage. Which cost us 200 euros. Do I charged this to the client? I feel I should as they said they flushed toilette paper, which there is a notice not to and on the entire island it isn’t allowed. They’ve been probably doing so since the beginning of their stay…. I am worried they won’t pay and will give us a bad review. As we can’t prove 100% it was toilette paper because the machine sucked it out…….
so is it worth getting a bad review for the money?
also one reason why I feel I should not charge them that this is just the risk of having an Airbnb….

[Paul11400 · Accepted solution]

Hey Tina, I think you are right and you should go with your gut. I wouldn’t charge those guests the $200 euro but I would put it in my policy that we have a $200 fee if any paper towels or toilet paper is flushed down the toilet, because we will have to call a professional to fix the septic tank and flush it out. I would also highlight and mention that in your house rules if you have a printed out binder at the house. That way the guest is fully aware of this and is not blindly charged for the mistake 

[Tina11837]

Thank you! Yes, I think I will go with my gut. At least we will know what to do in the future. 
thank you!