Guests took something - I contact - then no apology just a mouthful!!!

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

duckworks

New member
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
I'm so very annoyed,99% of our guests are lovely - but then there is somone who just spoils it all!
Guests left the place in a real state, and then I realise a beautiful Onkaparinga wool tartan picnic rug is gone..... I ring nice as pie on the answering machine asking if they may have taken it by mistake or perhaps they may know where it was put.
Well she rings back no apology whatsoever even though she says she has taken it and that SHE is annoyed and frustrated!!!
All this and I was being completely lovely !!!!!!!!!
The house B.T.W. was really left super dirty - well and truly above what is normal - and well outside policy, and a shocking changeover......... I didn't charge the excessive cleaning fee - I never do - even though I most certainly could have in this case !!!
Antimaccassars (armchair arm protectors) were draped over the corners of lovely antique paintings on the wall. Grease and dirt everywhere.
Items moved room to room, furniture moved, a silver teapot broken (we don't even mind breakage but you think they could leave a little note mentioning it ....)
Bags and bags of smelly rubbish left in the house.
Anyway my husband and I got stuck into it and worked for 5 hrs solid to get it back into shape and just as we finished the new guests arrived.
Luckily all is back to normal and we have nice guests again
Anyway just thought I would vent!!!
Julie
 
Geez. Thank goodness you do not deal with the likes of these people often. Now I would hold off on this letter until you have recovered your poperty. If the property has not been returned within ample shipping time I would send a certified demand letter.
I wish you luck in the safe return of your property and hopefully you will never see that woman (loosely put) again.
 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki.
egoodell said:
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
I know a couple of towns that have their own little 'hit' list of unwelcome guests.
 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki.
egoodell said:
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
I would love to see a 'Guest Advisor' website... reviews, stars, ratings, the whole shebang.
devil_smile.gif

 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki.
egoodell said:
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
I would love to see a 'Guest Advisor' website... reviews, stars, ratings, the whole shebang.
devil_smile.gif

.
I have registered a blog named innkeeperrant but have not got it going yet. It's a good idea but no time.
There is a website in the UK from a real hotel in Cornwall, home of Fawlty Towers.
 
You could call it GuestAdvisor. Waitstaff have their own rant site for bad diners and tippers.
 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki.
egoodell said:
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
I would love to see a 'Guest Advisor' website... reviews, stars, ratings, the whole shebang.
devil_smile.gif

.
I have registered a blog named innkeeperrant but have not got it going yet. It's a good idea but no time.
There is a website in the UK from a real hotel in Cornwall, home of Fawlty Towers.
.
muirford said:
I have registered a blog named innkeeperrant but have not got it going yet. It's a good idea but no time.
There is a website in the UK from a real hotel in Cornwall, home of Fawlty Towers.
Thanks for that link.
If our aspiring with the Mark Twain connection is reading this - I would have this framed or a mural across the wall of the Lodge -
[FONT= 'times new roman']Saint Francis of Assisi said, "All saints can do miracles, but few of them can keep a decent hotel." - Mark Twain's Notebook, 1898[/FONT]
 
I'm new here, so forgive my naivete'. This is a great resource and I've already learned morte in one day here than in years of pouring through the B&B.com message board which is a waste of time and energy.
So this guest admitted on the phone to having the rug?
I'm so fed up with this type of guest regardless of if its only a couple a year. And of course they usually know about TripAdvisor and try to blackmail many of us into not enforcing our policies with the threat of bad reviews whether they tell us that, or we self-censor our actions by believing that's what is coming if we stand up for ourselves.
Perhaps my approach is a little harsher, but just putting a thief and a slob who disrepsects you and your place on a PITA list (here we call it DNBA, Do Not Book Again) wouldn't cut it with me.
Do you not have this person's credit card info on file? How did they hold and then pay for the room?
They can go bash you wherever they like, the kind of guests you want to attract will read right through any bad review and most venues including TripAdvisor allow a management repsonse. We're not punching bags for all the creeps of the world. A corporate hotel chain with millions in reserve wouldn't put up with it and would go after them for recovery.
My final point is that if you enable the behavior by dismissing it with no consequences or accountability to the offender, then that empowers them and one of us somewhere in the world gets to deal with them the next time.
We all didn't get into this to gnash our teeth over the handful of rotten guests we get. We invite people into our homes and give them a lot of latitude to enjoy themselves, that in of itself is deserving of some respect. If some cretin like that won't afford it to you, make them pay.
A piece of advice to everyone, get a little digital camera and always have it in your pocket when you first enter a room after someone checks out, especially the ones you've had any issues whatsoever with during a stay. Document every bit of damage, excessive mess, etc. We've recovered the cost of multiple sets of sheets, towels, etc. by simply tacking on charges AFTER the jerks have left.
If challenged by the guest or their credit card company, we email the photos and a copy of our printed policy about property damage, non-accidental damage, excessive dirtiness, etc. The credit card companies have always backed us up when we explain that our reservation confirmation contains language that clearly states that by requesting a reservation, the guest automatically agrees to abide by all policies. Everybody gets one and even walk ins get it handed to them upon check in and must nod or say yes that they agree.
 
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki.
egoodell said:
Don't forget to add them to your PITA list so you will never book them again!!!!! Warn others in the area. I would love to see eventually bad guests have trouble booking in the future because we all have them on our PITA lists!!!
Riki
I would love to see a 'Guest Advisor' website... reviews, stars, ratings, the whole shebang.
devil_smile.gif

.
I have registered a blog named innkeeperrant but have not got it going yet. It's a good idea but no time.
There is a website in the UK from a real hotel in Cornwall, home of Fawlty Towers.
.
muirford said:
I have registered a blog named innkeeperrant but have not got it going yet. It's a good idea but no time.
There is a website in the UK from a real hotel in Cornwall, home of Fawlty Towers.
I totally missed this comment earlier. Thanks! My hero...Basil Fawlty!
 
Welcome Tim at HLB! Jump right in any time any place - your feedback is valuable to this forum.
welcome.gif
 
I'm new here, so forgive my naivete'. This is a great resource and I've already learned morte in one day here than in years of pouring through the B&B.com message board which is a waste of time and energy.
So this guest admitted on the phone to having the rug?
I'm so fed up with this type of guest regardless of if its only a couple a year. And of course they usually know about TripAdvisor and try to blackmail many of us into not enforcing our policies with the threat of bad reviews whether they tell us that, or we self-censor our actions by believing that's what is coming if we stand up for ourselves.
Perhaps my approach is a little harsher, but just putting a thief and a slob who disrepsects you and your place on a PITA list (here we call it DNBA, Do Not Book Again) wouldn't cut it with me.
Do you not have this person's credit card info on file? How did they hold and then pay for the room?
They can go bash you wherever they like, the kind of guests you want to attract will read right through any bad review and most venues including TripAdvisor allow a management repsonse. We're not punching bags for all the creeps of the world. A corporate hotel chain with millions in reserve wouldn't put up with it and would go after them for recovery.
My final point is that if you enable the behavior by dismissing it with no consequences or accountability to the offender, then that empowers them and one of us somewhere in the world gets to deal with them the next time.
We all didn't get into this to gnash our teeth over the handful of rotten guests we get. We invite people into our homes and give them a lot of latitude to enjoy themselves, that in of itself is deserving of some respect. If some cretin like that won't afford it to you, make them pay.
A piece of advice to everyone, get a little digital camera and always have it in your pocket when you first enter a room after someone checks out, especially the ones you've had any issues whatsoever with during a stay. Document every bit of damage, excessive mess, etc. We've recovered the cost of multiple sets of sheets, towels, etc. by simply tacking on charges AFTER the jerks have left.
If challenged by the guest or their credit card company, we email the photos and a copy of our printed policy about property damage, non-accidental damage, excessive dirtiness, etc. The credit card companies have always backed us up when we explain that our reservation confirmation contains language that clearly states that by requesting a reservation, the guest automatically agrees to abide by all policies. Everybody gets one and even walk ins get it handed to them upon check in and must nod or say yes that they agree..
Welcome aboard! Altho we have had some damage that required reimbursement by the guest, most of the time damage is part of doing business. I would have loved to charge the woman who sprayed grape soda all over her room the price of completely replacing the carpet. Ditto the guests who spill Proactive on the carpet and completely remove the color from it. I doubt any signed agreements would get me the money to replace $2000 worth of carpet. But it is nasty that all of the subsequent guests have to put up with the stains because I can't afford to replace carpet every other week.
 
I'm new here, so forgive my naivete'. This is a great resource and I've already learned morte in one day here than in years of pouring through the B&B.com message board which is a waste of time and energy.
So this guest admitted on the phone to having the rug?
I'm so fed up with this type of guest regardless of if its only a couple a year. And of course they usually know about TripAdvisor and try to blackmail many of us into not enforcing our policies with the threat of bad reviews whether they tell us that, or we self-censor our actions by believing that's what is coming if we stand up for ourselves.
Perhaps my approach is a little harsher, but just putting a thief and a slob who disrepsects you and your place on a PITA list (here we call it DNBA, Do Not Book Again) wouldn't cut it with me.
Do you not have this person's credit card info on file? How did they hold and then pay for the room?
They can go bash you wherever they like, the kind of guests you want to attract will read right through any bad review and most venues including TripAdvisor allow a management repsonse. We're not punching bags for all the creeps of the world. A corporate hotel chain with millions in reserve wouldn't put up with it and would go after them for recovery.
My final point is that if you enable the behavior by dismissing it with no consequences or accountability to the offender, then that empowers them and one of us somewhere in the world gets to deal with them the next time.
We all didn't get into this to gnash our teeth over the handful of rotten guests we get. We invite people into our homes and give them a lot of latitude to enjoy themselves, that in of itself is deserving of some respect. If some cretin like that won't afford it to you, make them pay.
A piece of advice to everyone, get a little digital camera and always have it in your pocket when you first enter a room after someone checks out, especially the ones you've had any issues whatsoever with during a stay. Document every bit of damage, excessive mess, etc. We've recovered the cost of multiple sets of sheets, towels, etc. by simply tacking on charges AFTER the jerks have left.
If challenged by the guest or their credit card company, we email the photos and a copy of our printed policy about property damage, non-accidental damage, excessive dirtiness, etc. The credit card companies have always backed us up when we explain that our reservation confirmation contains language that clearly states that by requesting a reservation, the guest automatically agrees to abide by all policies. Everybody gets one and even walk ins get it handed to them upon check in and must nod or say yes that they agree..
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
 
I'm new here, so forgive my naivete'. This is a great resource and I've already learned morte in one day here than in years of pouring through the B&B.com message board which is a waste of time and energy.
So this guest admitted on the phone to having the rug?
I'm so fed up with this type of guest regardless of if its only a couple a year. And of course they usually know about TripAdvisor and try to blackmail many of us into not enforcing our policies with the threat of bad reviews whether they tell us that, or we self-censor our actions by believing that's what is coming if we stand up for ourselves.
Perhaps my approach is a little harsher, but just putting a thief and a slob who disrepsects you and your place on a PITA list (here we call it DNBA, Do Not Book Again) wouldn't cut it with me.
Do you not have this person's credit card info on file? How did they hold and then pay for the room?
They can go bash you wherever they like, the kind of guests you want to attract will read right through any bad review and most venues including TripAdvisor allow a management repsonse. We're not punching bags for all the creeps of the world. A corporate hotel chain with millions in reserve wouldn't put up with it and would go after them for recovery.
My final point is that if you enable the behavior by dismissing it with no consequences or accountability to the offender, then that empowers them and one of us somewhere in the world gets to deal with them the next time.
We all didn't get into this to gnash our teeth over the handful of rotten guests we get. We invite people into our homes and give them a lot of latitude to enjoy themselves, that in of itself is deserving of some respect. If some cretin like that won't afford it to you, make them pay.
A piece of advice to everyone, get a little digital camera and always have it in your pocket when you first enter a room after someone checks out, especially the ones you've had any issues whatsoever with during a stay. Document every bit of damage, excessive mess, etc. We've recovered the cost of multiple sets of sheets, towels, etc. by simply tacking on charges AFTER the jerks have left.
If challenged by the guest or their credit card company, we email the photos and a copy of our printed policy about property damage, non-accidental damage, excessive dirtiness, etc. The credit card companies have always backed us up when we explain that our reservation confirmation contains language that clearly states that by requesting a reservation, the guest automatically agrees to abide by all policies. Everybody gets one and even walk ins get it handed to them upon check in and must nod or say yes that they agree..
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
.
Bree said:
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
Bree who are you addressing?
 
I'm new here, so forgive my naivete'. This is a great resource and I've already learned morte in one day here than in years of pouring through the B&B.com message board which is a waste of time and energy.
So this guest admitted on the phone to having the rug?
I'm so fed up with this type of guest regardless of if its only a couple a year. And of course they usually know about TripAdvisor and try to blackmail many of us into not enforcing our policies with the threat of bad reviews whether they tell us that, or we self-censor our actions by believing that's what is coming if we stand up for ourselves.
Perhaps my approach is a little harsher, but just putting a thief and a slob who disrepsects you and your place on a PITA list (here we call it DNBA, Do Not Book Again) wouldn't cut it with me.
Do you not have this person's credit card info on file? How did they hold and then pay for the room?
They can go bash you wherever they like, the kind of guests you want to attract will read right through any bad review and most venues including TripAdvisor allow a management repsonse. We're not punching bags for all the creeps of the world. A corporate hotel chain with millions in reserve wouldn't put up with it and would go after them for recovery.
My final point is that if you enable the behavior by dismissing it with no consequences or accountability to the offender, then that empowers them and one of us somewhere in the world gets to deal with them the next time.
We all didn't get into this to gnash our teeth over the handful of rotten guests we get. We invite people into our homes and give them a lot of latitude to enjoy themselves, that in of itself is deserving of some respect. If some cretin like that won't afford it to you, make them pay.
A piece of advice to everyone, get a little digital camera and always have it in your pocket when you first enter a room after someone checks out, especially the ones you've had any issues whatsoever with during a stay. Document every bit of damage, excessive mess, etc. We've recovered the cost of multiple sets of sheets, towels, etc. by simply tacking on charges AFTER the jerks have left.
If challenged by the guest or their credit card company, we email the photos and a copy of our printed policy about property damage, non-accidental damage, excessive dirtiness, etc. The credit card companies have always backed us up when we explain that our reservation confirmation contains language that clearly states that by requesting a reservation, the guest automatically agrees to abide by all policies. Everybody gets one and even walk ins get it handed to them upon check in and must nod or say yes that they agree..
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
.
Bree said:
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
Bree who are you addressing?
.
JunieBJones (JBJ) said:
Bree said:
OK, you didn't ask for this, but I have to ask, how the heck does any search engine find your website when it's all jpegs and no text?
Bree who are you addressing?
Tim Toad.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome. Let me be clear, we're not trying to charge guests for what we consider normal wear and tear, or accidental damage that occurs to all of us. I'm talking about the egregious, careless, vindictive, purposeful stuff.
The vast majority of the time we don't do anything but put them on our DNBA list, thank our lucky stars they didn't negatively affect any other guest's stay and nobody got hurt.
Like the two we had our first year that purposely took full cups of coffee back into their room after breakfast on their last morning and dumped them on the bed and took the spent ash out of the fireplace and threw it all over the room.
Thankfully, there weren't any live embers left, or who knows what would have happened with them getting the shower of a lifetime from our full house sprinkler system.
They were angry the whole time while here because despite the male being a geography major, them having a full size Rand McNally atlas in hand, a cellphone they used to multiple times while en route to call me and get detailed directions, they ended up taking the one wrong turn I warned them about anyway and added two hours to their drive here.
Or the newly married couple who decided that they would embrace the wife's Thai custom of spreading four dozen worth of wet, deep red rose petals on the bed and make love on top of them, grinding them into an amazingly gross bed-size red stain that looked like a crime scene photo.
These are just a few of our worst examples, and I won't bore everyone with some of the others.
As far as our website goes to Bree, there are hundreds of invisible to the viewer, keywords called "metatags" built into the code that are recognized by the search engines just like any html text you'd have in the body of your site. With our dozens of listings on B&B directory sites, 60 or so reviews on TA and other travel sites, etc. we don't seem to have any problem with folks using any part of our name in a search find us.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome. Let me be clear, we're not trying to charge guests for what we consider normal wear and tear, or accidental damage that occurs to all of us. I'm talking about the egregious, careless, vindictive, purposeful stuff.
The vast majority of the time we don't do anything but put them on our DNBA list, thank our lucky stars they didn't negatively affect any other guest's stay and nobody got hurt.
Like the two we had our first year that purposely took full cups of coffee back into their room after breakfast on their last morning and dumped them on the bed and took the spent ash out of the fireplace and threw it all over the room.
Thankfully, there weren't any live embers left, or who knows what would have happened with them getting the shower of a lifetime from our full house sprinkler system.
They were angry the whole time while here because despite the male being a geography major, them having a full size Rand McNally atlas in hand, a cellphone they used to multiple times while en route to call me and get detailed directions, they ended up taking the one wrong turn I warned them about anyway and added two hours to their drive here.
Or the newly married couple who decided that they would embrace the wife's Thai custom of spreading four dozen worth of wet, deep red rose petals on the bed and make love on top of them, grinding them into an amazingly gross bed-size red stain that looked like a crime scene photo.
These are just a few of our worst examples, and I won't bore everyone with some of the others.
As far as our website goes to Bree, there are hundreds of invisible to the viewer, keywords called "metatags" built into the code that are recognized by the search engines just like any html text you'd have in the body of your site. With our dozens of listings on B&B directory sites, 60 or so reviews on TA and other travel sites, etc. we don't seem to have any problem with folks using any part of our name in a search find us..
Not being argumentative, just pointing out that you might do better if your website had more than this for 'text':
Code:
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Santa Fe, B&B, New Mexico, Bed and Breakfast, Retreat, Las Barrancas, Hacienda, Santa Fe Opera,  Art Tours, Hiking, Skiing, Rafting, Birdwatching, Wineries, Los Alamos, Jemez, Sangre de Cristo, Pueblos, Pojoaque,  San Ildefonso, Valle Caldera, Horseback Riding, Whitewater Rafting, Pojoaque River Art Tour, Taos, Abiquiu, Georgia O'Keefe,  Full Breakfast, Chimayo, Rancho de Chimayo, Nambe', Bandelier, ruins, cliff dwellings
If the page itself had some text the search engines could read, it might be better for searches. Also, all jpegs can sometimes look fuzzy on different monitors and I can watch the photos 'unfuzzing' themselves as I wait for them to load. So, when I first see the page, it's a blur.
On the point of your guests...holy cow, you get some doozies!
 
Thanks Bree, thats it. I'm gone.
I thought this was a friendly place to exchange ideas and share stoires about our experiences. We're doing fine, thank you very much.
A little tip from my days in Psych 101:
When someone says "not being argumentative" that is exactly what they want to be.
Thanks for clueing me in on what to expect from you.
 
Back
Top