Guests left big stain on sofa

[Theresa-Quynh-Tho0]

I'm renting out a room with a queen size bed, apparently the guests were siblings and did not want to sleep together in the bed, so I noticed the guy sleeping on the sofa...When they left I see this big stain....I dont know if he peed himself judging from the location of the stain.

What should I do?

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Theresa-Quynh-Tho0 

Hello Theresa, sorry that a guest has left you with this problem, unfortunately this does happen from time to time! If the sofa has removable covers take the cover off and wash in cold water with an enzyme laundry booster which you can obtain from any supermarket. This will remove any stain that looks like the one you have screenshot!

If the cover is not removeable get yourself a spray can of upholstery cleaner and use on the affected area as per the instructions on the can. 

There are not many stains you cannot remove with domestic cleaning agents, and if you are in doubt ask your local dry-cleaner for advice. 

In all my time hosting there was only one stain I was not able to do anything about, and that was created by the careless use of a bottle of nail polish remover.

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Theresa-Quynh-Tho0   If I had a sofa in a guest space, I'd make sure to have a removable, washable slipcover for it.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Theresa-Quynh-Tho0 Then why did the siblings book your space instead of a space that could provide them a bed each?! Did they intentionally arrange to use your sofa as a bed?

Judging by my belief that the stain was made by your recent guest, you have clearly been victimised here and it should'nt be your responsibility to repair the damage. I feel that the difficulty might be in proving the same against the claims of your guest and this should be raised through AirBnb customer services initially and then maybe issuing a payment request to the guest for cleaning?

This, and many other guest transgressions against House Rules and damage makes hosting such a risk. Having a rule "No sleeping on sofa's" might be nit-picking and that wouldn't have prevented the stain happenning - only it would have happenned somewhere else instead!

I'm considering more an arrival contract itemising House Rules and expectations of behaviour as well as penalties for your such scenario. This might involve a car hire type contract with damage illustrated or listed before acceptance and keys being provided. Car hire companies manage this quite well but they retain either a credit card or hefty deposit, I've not explored this type of arrangement fully, but I wonder in light of your experience whether any other host has such an arrangement like this in place they could offer advice on?