What to do about damages that make items look dirty?

[Mark116]

 I'm not talking about nicks and chips or things that look 'worn' but about damages that would read to a guest as if an item is dirty.  My real life examples:

1. Tiny black spot on the shower faucet.  It looks like a tiny spec of dirt, but is really a chip in the chrome finish.

2. Very light greyish stain on the bathtub enamel [thanks to a guest who spilled some type of ink/paint/dye and despite using every cleaner and solvent in the house it still only reduced to a light grey stain], which looks like its dirty.

3.  Two small 'drips' on the stove, but in reality, whatever burning hot oil was dripped there damaged the stove enamel and the finish was ruined, after using several cleaners including oven cleaner on these 'drips' I ran my hand over them and realized the finish had been dripped off.  WTF?  Oh and by the way, never ever buy a Samsung stove, ever.

It isn't really feasible to replace the bathtub or get a new stove, but I do worry that a picky guest could take photos of these things, especially the grey tub stain and the enamel ruining drips on the stove and claim the unit is dirty.  It would seem strange to point out these imperfections to a guest when a lot of people will never notice, the drip damage is only visible in certain angles/lights. 

Any ideas?

[Emiel1]

@Mark116 

Our homes and the items in it are subject to wear and tear.

Nothing is perfect, unless it is brand new from the box (hopefully...)

If it is clean and in normal condition, then it is OK.

A really picky guest will always find something (or will even create it !)

But luckely they are a minority and the best way is to spot them before they book (reviews....)

[Mark116]

@Emiel1  Yes, but these 3 items 'look' dirty even though they are clean.  It looks like someone missed a section of the stove or didn't use a strong enough cleaner, same with the tub stain.

[Emiel1]

@Mark116 

I personally would not bother about it. WYSIWYG as a guest, our homes are not prefect and any guest with normal common sense is happy to cook on a stove with two "small drips"

[Diana1747]

Need help! An Airbnb employee changed my reservations and made a serious mistake that hurt me. Bruno B, problem solver, got in touch with lies trying to deceive me and didn't offer a solution. The service channels do not work and no one helps me. Airbnb is disrespecting me as a customer. I will take the situation everywhere. diana.hideiki@gmail.com

[Emilia42]

@Mark116 

I worry about these things too. My listings are in great shape but because they are old/historic there are plenty of small areas where a guest could take a close-up photo and report me to Airbnb in hopes of getting a refund. And I have no doubt that Airbnb would give them one. I try hard to portray myself as a real, caring person who is trying their best, to each individual guest. My hope is that they will overlook the little things. I think most reasonable people can tell the difference between dirty and worn. Then again, there is the whole psychological aspect like white sheets feeling cleaner than colored ones, etc. Ugh, it's a hard one.

P.S. My save-all cleaner is Softscurb with bleach. Squirt a little on the grey spot in the bathtub, let us sit for a few minutes, and then use a skrubba to buff it out. I hope it works for you. It has saved my white countertops, tiles, and bathroom sinks. Have you tried it?

[Mark116]

@Emilia42  Yes, for the bath tub stain we have used: regular spray cleaner, scrubbing bubbles, old fashioned powdered comet, bleach cleaner, soft scrub, nail polish remover, magic eraser and paint stripper.  When it first happened I think we put soft scrub on it and left it over night.  The only thing we have that I haven't tried is the bar keeper's friend cleaner which I recently bought based on people's recommendations here.  Insane and I still don't even know what exactly the stain 'is' since the family claimed no knowledge or recollection of leaving a quarter sized black spot of ?  on the bathtub rim.  Yes, I'm still bitter!

[Debra300]

@Mark116,

You might want to try to repair the enamel imperfections.  Keep Cool drop a heavy towel hook on the brand new tub we installed, and it chipped off a large coin-size piece of enamel.  We purchased this enamel repair kit from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fiberglass-Porcelain-Biscuit-Odorless-Bathtub/dp/B07VR1RR86. It worked very well, the repair is almost unnoticeable.  For your items, you would need to sand down the stained enamel, and then apply the repair kit.

[M199]

@Mark116 

For the grey bathtub stain, try making a paste out of baking soda, vinegar and water.  Then, spread over stain, let it sit for a few minutes and then scrub the stain gently.  My daughter left black hair dye in the antique, white claw tub.  I didn't figure it would ever come out.  This formula worked 99%, even the real estate agent didn't notice anything.  Good luck