Well hopefully this particular guest of mine will be fine now considering she's booked for another 8 nights in August before she's even completed this current booking, she's here until Sunday.
When she made the booking via the instant booking, I welcomed her with a message outlining how I do things at home in response to her questions about cooking, washing & ironing. She responded with a long message explaining her situation as a breast cancer recovery patient so I offered to cook her breakfast despite my listing including only continental style breakfast which doesn't involve cooking but because of her health conditions, I accepted to cook for her for a fee. I already bought all the food I need for her daily breakfast, I even prepared her a menu (because she has special diet) so she knows exactly what she's having for the whole duration. In addition at a reasonable fee each services, wash, dry & iron her clothes to avoid infection because of her wound following her treatment in Istanbul for three months prior.
A week later, she messaged me asking for an extra pillow which is not a problem but then she mentioned that due to her wound that leaks she wanted extra towels for the bed to avoid staining. I responded saying she can have an extra pillow and that I will line the beddings to avoid staining my mattress. In fact when I prepared her bed, I put two fitted sheets on the mattress plus two thick towels in between. The two pillows have double pillow covers but the duvet cover was single as I figured, they can be washed in the machine easily but not the pillows & mattress.
True enough the day after her first sleep, when I was freshening up her room, I noticed the pillows are already stained and the duvet cover, too, though I haven't checked if the actual duvet inside is stained too.
I am due to change her beddings tomorrow anyway and wash her clothes at the same time then iron and fold.
These services are the first I'm doing and just for her because of her condition.
However, I didn't like that she thinks she can just come & go late at night and ask her friends to come into my house and inviting them to go up to the room without my permission. I emailed her via Airbnb (always) explaining that this is not a hotel, we live here, too so I expect my guest to respect our home and that no guest of my guest are allowed inside my house particularly upstairs because my contract is with my booked & paying guests only, the rest are strangers and have not been verified by Airbnb.
She responded saying that because the other places she's stayed at allowed her to come & go as she pleases so I reminded her that every Airbnb/hosts have different rules and these are mine and I am not changing it especially for her. I've already done more for her than my previous guests because of her case but it doesn't mean I will bend over backwards to every whim she makes.
She also mentioned that she may stay the night over somewhere else the night before but didn't confirm so I assume she's coming back to sleep in my house as arranged especially after she requested for her husband to have breakfast with her in my house, meaning I have to cook not just for her but for her husband, too. After careful considerations, I agreed because of their situation _ her husband & son lives in a caravan in a park but staying with me because she needs somewhere clean and to have a goodnight sleep - but I reminded her that the husband cannot go upstairs and hangout with her because he's not covered in my insurance and he's not my guest.
To cut a long story short, she didn't turn up last night and I waited for her until after midnight. Despite numerous emails via Airbnb and a text to her mobile number (which I also copied and sent to her via Airbnb) I never received any response. I was of course worried not knowing what happened to her, she never messaged me all day yesterday to inform me of her plans. So this morning I woke up as normal time but didn't know whether to prepare their breakfasts anyway or not! Then at 9am she walked in saying hello but no mention about her not turning up last night or receiving any of my mails which she didn't respond to. I was very irrate with her then she asked me to drop it because she's upset. She's upset? I was so worried for her last night because niether she nor her husband bothered to inform me or respond to any of my messages and I stayed up late waiting for her return and she tells me she's upset? She said she couldn't contact me becaue there was no signal where they live. Well she knew this but she didn't even bother to tell me! Did she expect me to have a crystal ball or read minds? It turned out she's got two mobile phones, one registered in Ireland which is the number she has on Airbnb plus a UK one but she didn't give me that. I found out today after she called me and I thought it was her husband's number but obviously not!
Anyway, I prepared her a quick breakfast even though she initially didn't want any. I chose from the menu the quickest meal I could prepare before she left again at 10am. I told her I have swapped that particular menu for another day's so she will still have the same menu as approved by her prior to her arrival.
Why do these people think they can just do what they want just because they're paying? This is my home, it's not hotel. I have therefore edited and updated my house rules reflecting some of these issues to avoid happening with any of my guests in the future. For some reason, I felt something unpleasant might happen the moment I saw them on her arrival on the first day. Do you ever get that with any people or guests you've had before? I know the saying "don't just a book by its cover" but my instinct told me otherwise and I was right. Hmmm... I hope this is the last case of this type as so far all of my other guests have been very happy and given me wonderful reviews hence my 5 stars & 100% response ratings which I'm very proud of. It'll be cool when I become a super host, too, one day 🙂