Be glad it's only water. I had a dude here several years ago who used some greasy stuff which ruined a whole set of sheets - pillowcases, top sheet and bottom sheet. I think maybe it wasn't just on his head..
muirford said:
Be glad it's only water. I had a dude here several years ago who used some greasy stuff which ruined a whole set of sheets - pillowcases, top sheet and bottom sheet. I think maybe it wasn't just on his head.
We're lucky that we haven't had this massive of a problem. We've had some minor stuff from medications or lotions on sheets and towels that we've been able to get out.
Have any of you ever attempted to charge the guest for damages? I know most of us have a clause in our policies about this AND we've also discussed that it's sometimes difficult to recover losses.
p.s. The absolute best thing for removing oily stains is GoJo. It's the hand cleaner that mechanics use. It will remove oils, makeup etc.
If a stain lingers, we spritz it with Oxyclean.
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Accidental damages, stuff that occurs due to body care product choices by guests are really tough to add charges for and NOT get a disgruntled guest in the process.
If you feel that damage is non-accidental and want to charge them extra, get in the room ASAP and take photos with your digital camera. Document everything you can, have a copy of your damages policy that should be available to all guests and you'll usually never have the CC processor overturn the charge.
We do have a non-accidental or malicious damages policy and have had to enforce it a few times, but I'm talking about maybe three or four times out of over 1,200 sets of guests in four years.
I complain a lot but when one actually counts up the number of really bad events versuses the total number of guests we've had its pretty low.
One was pretty hilarious though. The sheets were shredded in very obvious five fingered stripes like a cat would do and you could see the red fingernail polish at the begining of the shreds. That is one helluva good grip! LOL
What was funniest was the fact they never said a word, never thought that would be untoward behavior, checked out and thanked us for a wonderful time.
A really malicious one was the self-proclaimed geography major and his girlfriend who despite calling here at noon on their arrival day for directions, having a cellphone, a Rand-McNally atlas and a GPS unti in their car, took the ONE wrong turn on the High Road from Taos I warned them not to take and ended up adding two hours to their drive.
Arrived incensed, argumentative and hostile. It was our first few months of being open and in hindsight, we should have refused them and been done with it. By being so passive, we probably turned off the other guests, who we now have learned are far more valuable than the hurt feelings of some jerk you rescind your offer of lodging to.
They were weird, purposely late for breakfast each morning because we could hear them chatting it up loudly in their room while we served the others, rude to us and the other guests and then on the last morning they were sitting there at the crack of 8:00 for breakfast and so insincerely friendly we knew someting was up.
Each of them kept going back in the room and we just didn't notice they had their full coffee cups with them each time. So they finish breakfast and get out of dodge like the sheriff is chasing them and I go open the door to the room.
The room they stayed in is very light and pretty in its color scheme and linens. They had each dumped several cups of coffee on the bed and its cream colored down comforter, then took the little fireplace shovel and threw scoops of ashes around the room.
Can you imagine if even one ember had still hot?
After getting the advice of well respected colleagues, I called them on their cellphone and they actually answered. I played dumb as instructed and asked if the plumbing or fire sprinkler had leaked on the bed or something.
They were totally indignant and remarkably truthful about it. They claimed we didn't treat them as well as we did all the other guests, our directions sucked and we deserved a trashed room.
Oh, and they made sure we knew that they weren't going to come back with the young woman's three year old for a return visit. We still haven't recovered from that revelation. LOL
For really oily stuff we've found Citru-Solv works really well, but one must be careful on certain fabrics with it. Its pretty hot stuff if not diluted.