Hi @Sarah977
I think we are pretty much on the same page really. Your thoughts were my inital thoughts when I read the guests message. Although if you read my first response to Rob, I DO understand why he might question if he had to share the washing machine - after an experience we've had, I'd be wary of sharing with a host too, if I was travelling for an extended period of time with my family .
And I can also sort of understand ( maybe) the washing powder. It's not necessarily that you mind buying or brinigng your own, it's just that you do want to know in advance, and don't want the hassle if you dont' need it. If he's flying and only bringing cabin luggage for example, I can just see those dreadful airport security people saying "step aside please sir while we check out this little zip lock bag of white powder".
Conversly, when our family went overseas, all of our stays supplied dishwashing liquid. Great, one less thing to have to plan and think about carting 5 people across the world - don't want white powder OR liquid travelling internationally with airport security across multiple flights and borders. Only late one night in our final ( only overnight) stay, I discovered there was a smidgin of liquid, but no plug for the sink, and a huge stack of dirty dishes and pots and utensils from 5 people. Oh so sorry said the remote host, use the diswasher - no tablets provided. So roaming around at 8 pm in a foreign country at negative 5 trying to find a supermarket, everything was shut, after 45 mins got a little grocery store, they only sold them in packs of 72, cost me 15 euro or something outrageous and we left 71 of them behind as we were flying home the next day. And I could SO easily have brought a few tablets with me, if I'd known in advance
And then there was this - most of the homes we were staying at didn't have a hairdryer. Fair enough, I went out and bought a compact travelling one which was quite expensive, and took up precious space, and weight in our international luggage allowance, but them's the breaks. Only, the four listings that said they didn't, DID have a hairdryer - they'd just forgotton to tick it in the amenities. I was pretty exasperated at the time. I remember thinking, well that was $60 of my hard earned cash needlessly thrown down the drain. And how would I handle this next time around? Write to hosts and say 'I know you say you dont' have a hairdryer, just wondering if maybe you do? cos I don't want to pack one if I dont' need to and I've had previous bad experiences? ( They'd think I was maniac and I'd probably get a response like Rob sent out!!!)
I KNOW none of this is probalby what was motivating this guest, but it COULD be. I think it's highly likely he would have been one of those difficult, demanding guests. I'm not trying to defend him. I didnt' really disagree with anything anybody was saying, and I realise everyone was just letting off a bit of steam, but, collectively, all the comments just made me a bit uncomfortable, because we were all making assumptions ( which were probably spot on, but assumptions never the less). And I couldnt' help thinking, what if some random guest was reading this thread ( or worse the guest himself), what impression would it give them? So I piped up.
Interestingly, when my husband, who is very laid back as a guest and never complains, read the email he didn't find the questions at all strange after the experiences we've had - he's interested in brands of A/C for example because he used to be an A/C engineer and has strong opinions on what's good and will do the job properly and what's inadequate, regardless of age or working order. He wasn't ruffled by the tone either because he works in a pressure cooker environment where people shoot blunt abrupt emails like that to each other all the time.
Having said all that though, he'd never send a query like that himself and nor would I. So really, I agree with you and everyone else!
