Unusual Chinese guests

[Neil408]

[Update Feb 19th, 2020] This thread has now been closed in line with the Community Center Guidelines. 

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Hi guys. 

I'm writing this as recently I've had some unusual experiences with Chinese guests. I am based in the UK.

The first one I had was with two mid 20's girls who stayed, they made lots of noise at nights and also washed their dirty underwear in the sink in the bathroom. They were due to stay for 4 days but after breaking many other house rules they left after 2 nights.

The second issue I had with another guest - they blew up a kettle after boiling rice in it and refused to pay - it was only after contacting airbnb halfway through a 4 night stay that they then offered to pay for a new kettle.

Thirdly and finally - a Chinese guest stuck a metal spoon into a 240V 13amp toaster and thankfully had not injured or kill herself. In 2017 I rewired the property and upgraded the electrics to a modern RCD protected fuseboard (I live in a recently renovated 18th c. period property) and this likely saved her life by tripping the RCD protectors on the fuseboard. I did not find out about this until after she checked out. I came back from work to find my keys posted through the letterbox as requested but none of the electrics working. On further inspection, I found a metal teaspoon jammed inside the toaster. I asked her what had happened and she said she didn't know what I was talking about. I then asked her if she was okay because I had found a metal teaspoon jammed inside the toaster and she didn't reply. All I can assume is that she did NOT get electrocuted.

How far do I go in writing my guest rules? Do I have to treat everyone like children? 'Don't stick your fingers in plug sockets' 'Don't wash dirty underwear in the sink?' 'Don't stick cutlery or metal objects into a live 13A toaster?' 'Don't boil rice in a kettle?' I can't think of every possible eventuality where stupidity might occur?

Help and advice needed!

[Jim472]

No advice needed, write an honest review. Not knowing how well their English comprehension was I suggest you use simple sentences that can translate easily. They will understand the learning experience and English readers won't care.

There's a lot of new found wealth in China and those who were normally limited in travel are now able to go further a field. What seems normal at home needs to be learned that it's not usually acceptable abroad, forks and toasters is just Darwin in action. Maybe a label or two or a sign, water only in the kettle, no garments in the sink, etc. Funny story though, thanks. 

[Maia29]

I need a sign like that in my bathroom!

[Sarah977]

@Neil408  Certainly write an honest review re not following house rules. And no, there's not much you can do about people so clueless they''d stick a metal teaspoon in a toaster (hence the annual Darwin awards).

The only thing you mentioned that I don't understand what the big deal is, is the girls washing their undies out in the sink. Many women will wash out their underthings in the sink when travelling, or even at home. Plenty of my female guests wash out small items in their bathroom sink. Why would you care?

[Helen350]

@Neil408 @Sarah977 I read Neil's previous post where he was struggling with multi-problem guests, who washed underwear in the sink (I made a joke guessing they were Chinese, & Neil confirmed!) I seem to recall the issue was the DRIPPING underwear, left draped  in a shared bathroom.... Other threads have commented on how this is a Chinese thing,  & personally, having once been married to a man ethnically Chinese, with Singaporean Chinese parents, Yes, I think it's a Chinese 'thing'!  (- Ever heard the expression 'like a Chinese laundry'?!)

- I will now search the existing threads on this subject - & post! 🙂 

[Helen350]

P.S. @Sarah977 You've got a nice balcony in the hot TROPICS for guests to hang undies on.... Poor @Neil408  lives in an apartment in the cold, wet, North of England... Go figure! (LOL)

[Sarah977]

@Helen350 @Neil408  Then hanging dripping wet clothing up to ruin the floors is the issue, not the washing in the sink, correct?  Since it's been reported many times on this forum that Chinese guests are used to the bathroom being a "wet room", with concrete and tile construction, doing this isn't an issue where they live, but I would think it's pretty crucial to explain to Chinese guests that house construction is different in the UK, or other places, and if they flood the bathroom, it will rot the sub-floors and buckle the walls.

Helen, I in fact, tell guests not to hang their wet clothes over the balcony rail , which is solid brick, because scorpions love crawling under things like that 🙂 Better they hang things on the clothesline or the metal stair railing.

[Helen350]

@Sarah977 Ah well, my point was your climate & drying conditions! 🙂

[Maia29]

All bathrooms should have waterproof flooring, honestly. 

[Neil408]

My flat does have a waterproof floor in the bathroom, tiled and sealed but it's more that the standing water they left from washing their clothes left water all over the floor which is a slip hazard. 

Plus there was no need for this - I have a washer dryer in my kitchen which they saw when I showed them the kitchen.

[Helen350]

@Maia29 Many, many UK bathrooms DON'T have waterproof flooring. Mine is stripped wooden floorboards with gaps which widen in winter when the heating is on, & the boards shrink, then in summer when the heating is off the boards absorb more damp from the bathroom environment with no heating, & so the boards expand. 

[Maia29]

Helen350-Wow! Didn't know that.

[Michael956]

That's not possible in the 18th Century home I grew up in nor in the19th Century home I currently live in.

[Sarah977]

@Michael956  I don't really see how any floor in a house with wood subfloors could be truly made waterproof unless the floor was made of some one-piece flooring that extended up the walls a ways, but I've ever seen such a thing. Water has its way of finding any tiny crack or hole to run into. Even a tiled and grouted floor can have dampness soak through the grout if the water sits on it for too long.

[Neil408]

Perhaps I'm weird but I just wouldn't want to wash my hands in the same sink I've just washed my dirty underpants in.....