What a nice thing to say!
We have just received such a nice email about their stay from our last guests plus a photo of their dog, Florence.
These were repeat guests, who a year ago helped us so much by arranging the rehoming in England of a tiny puppy, which was unceremoniously dumped on our doorstep. That puppy is now fully grown and is owned by our guests' next door neighbours. It is best friends with Florence:-
These were repeat guests, who a year ago helped us so much by arranging the rehoming in England of a tiny puppy, which was unceremoniously dumped on our doorstep. That puppy is now fully grown and is owned by our guests' next door neighbours. It is best friends with Florence:-
Yes, the stains came out after I soaked them in Lidl stain remover, but there's nothing we can do about the dent. Looks like a sutcase corner maybe, about 9" off the ground. We have so much other cr**p going on in our lives at the moment that I really don't have the will to start battle over it. We're hoping to gut the kitchen before next Summer anyway so it will have to do until then. Such a shame though that they didn't think to mention it! 
Sorry to hear that kyrenia. Some people seem to revrt to child like behaviour instead of just fessing up and taking the consequences. I suspect you wouldn't have mindedas much if they had told you and apologised.
Bunnie, sorry to hear about your woes too. Hope the painted dressing table can be brought back. I manage it with mine. Had to do it a few times over the years.
The oak windowsill though is unforgiveable and I would retain their DD to pay for trying to get it to look halfway decent again.
Mouse
x
Bunnie, sorry to hear about your woes too. Hope the painted dressing table can be brought back. I manage it with mine. Had to do it a few times over the years.
The oak windowsill though is unforgiveable and I would retain their DD to pay for trying to get it to look halfway decent again.
Mouse
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
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Beachcondo
- Posts: 760
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- Location: Anna Maria Island, Florida and Sweden
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After having spent a wonderful week near Biarritz, where we rented a house, I have started to understand the guests a bit more.kyreniagirl wrote:Yes, the stains came out after I soaked them in Lidl stain remover, but there's nothing we can do about the dent. Looks like a sutcase corner maybe, about 9" off the ground. We have so much other cr**p going on in our lives at the moment that I really don't have the will to start battle over it. We're hoping to gut the kitchen before next Summer anyway so it will have to do until then. Such a shame though that they didn't think to mention it!
The day before check-out I found a scratch on the bathroom door. We had the window open to let out the damp, and one night it was very windy, so I suspect that they collided because of the draft.
I was going to tell the owner when we checked out, but there were so many other things going through my mind that it just slipped.
Pessimists only get positive surprises.
I was pondering this thread earlier as I painted over a long, black scrape along the bedroom corridor wall, probably caused by a guest (I know which one ) turning round with a rucksack on their back.
What is "fair wear and tear" and what isn't?
I don't know how big the dent is in your fridge door, Kyreniagirl, but (and I've probably said this before on here so sorry!) people don't have the same subconscious spatial awareness or innate sense of how things work that they have in their own home. It isn't necessarily carelessness that causes these minor damages... and spills, breakages, etc - it's just not being aware that your elbow is that close to a bedside table... when it isn't that close at home.
Beachcondo's door scratch, for eg: s/he'd have known about the wind causing a draft in her own home so it would be less likely to have happened but even so, that's usually learned from previous experience. In a different place... accidents happen through unfamiliarity with the space.
As a b&b, there's no damage deposit here and with a frequent turnover of guests, there are all sorts of marks, scuffs, spills, breakages and stuff but it goes with the territory. Even if I did take a dd, I know I wouldn't charge for any of them.
If a balcony railing or wood surround was damaged because someone repeatedly kicked it (I saw a visiting, not resident, child kicking a balcony surround last week
) then that is not fair wear and tear but that's different to many of the minor inconveniences and damages that just happen*.
As a guest, if I got blood on bedding, I hope I'd remember to say but to be practical about it, I wouldn't think it a big deal because as any woman with irregular periods knows, blood on bedding is just one of those things and it's easy to remove. Here, as the resident laundry maid I don't even think twice about it.
* Excluded from fair wear and tear are events like the almost fires that several Hatters have described. Those are serious problems which are easily prevented and not (for eg) a moment's miscalculation with a piece of luggage.
) turning round with a rucksack on their back.What is "fair wear and tear" and what isn't?
I don't know how big the dent is in your fridge door, Kyreniagirl, but (and I've probably said this before on here so sorry!) people don't have the same subconscious spatial awareness or innate sense of how things work that they have in their own home. It isn't necessarily carelessness that causes these minor damages... and spills, breakages, etc - it's just not being aware that your elbow is that close to a bedside table... when it isn't that close at home.
Beachcondo's door scratch, for eg: s/he'd have known about the wind causing a draft in her own home so it would be less likely to have happened but even so, that's usually learned from previous experience. In a different place... accidents happen through unfamiliarity with the space.
As a b&b, there's no damage deposit here and with a frequent turnover of guests, there are all sorts of marks, scuffs, spills, breakages and stuff but it goes with the territory. Even if I did take a dd, I know I wouldn't charge for any of them.
If a balcony railing or wood surround was damaged because someone repeatedly kicked it (I saw a visiting, not resident, child kicking a balcony surround last week
) then that is not fair wear and tear but that's different to many of the minor inconveniences and damages that just happen*. As a guest, if I got blood on bedding, I hope I'd remember to say but to be practical about it, I wouldn't think it a big deal because as any woman with irregular periods knows, blood on bedding is just one of those things and it's easy to remove. Here, as the resident laundry maid
I don't even think twice about it.* Excluded from fair wear and tear are events like the almost fires that several Hatters have described. Those are serious problems which are easily prevented and not (for eg) a moment's miscalculation with a piece of luggage.
What Normandie said.
My overly simple summary:
Accident = fair wear and tear or insurance if it's big. A running cost of the business.
Irresponsible behaviour ≠ fair wear and tear.
As children are below the age of responsibility their parents have to take full responsibility for them, so any damage done by a child is irresponsible. (Dons flak jacket and tin hat and leaps behind sofa )
Nothing like a bit of controversy.........
My overly simple summary:
Accident = fair wear and tear or insurance if it's big. A running cost of the business.
Irresponsible behaviour ≠ fair wear and tear.
As children are below the age of responsibility their parents have to take full responsibility for them, so any damage done by a child is irresponsible. (Dons flak jacket and tin hat and leaps behind sofa
)Nothing like a bit of controversy.........
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AngloDutch
- Posts: 727
- Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:25 pm
- Location: Netherlands
Our guests who left last Friday told us before leaving that their child had had a nosebleed and that there was a bit of blood on the bed sheet. Actually, there was blood on the undersheet, mattress protector and a huge amount of staining to the duvet which did not come out in the first wash.
We are currently out of biological powder which we stock up on when we are in the UK (as that is unavailable here), so we used one of those little bottles of specific stain removal powder/solution on the blood marks on the duvet and washed it again. It came out as good as new..
We too decided to try and 'de-dent' the fridge but it's quite difficult. Even tried one of those suckers that you can use to pull out certain kinds of dents from car doors, but that didn't work either.
The group that left last week also had left something wet on the pine dresser in our downstairs bedroom. This had left behind two thick highly-visible white rings.We managed to get them both off with first spraying the marks heavily with furniture polish and then using metal wool. Some of the varnish is of course gone where the marks were, but at least it's back to pine-colour now!
Before our current guests arrived last Friday, we painted the wall in the kitchen for the 4th time this year. We can wash off the chocolate milk sprays, it's just oily spaghetti sauce that leaves behind marks which you cannot wash off. We are using the exact same original paint but as we only have time for touch-up work, the wall unfortunately appears covered in splotches, but only noticeable when the light shines across it. It's a huge wall and took us a whole weekend to originally paint with two coats at the beginning of the year.
I'm sure that many of you share our frustration at continuously trying to redecorate/repair/cover up damage/replace things in order that the following guests don't get the idea that the property that they're staying in is in need of renovation, especially when you are trying to keep up the standard or even improve on it all the time.
Some people of course just don't have respect for other people's property (or maybe their own either!) Because as we all know what keeps us busy in our holiday homes is not all down to wear and tear!
We are currently out of biological powder which we stock up on when we are in the UK (as that is unavailable here), so we used one of those little bottles of specific stain removal powder/solution on the blood marks on the duvet and washed it again. It came out as good as new..
We too decided to try and 'de-dent' the fridge but it's quite difficult. Even tried one of those suckers that you can use to pull out certain kinds of dents from car doors, but that didn't work either.
The group that left last week also had left something wet on the pine dresser in our downstairs bedroom. This had left behind two thick highly-visible white rings.We managed to get them both off with first spraying the marks heavily with furniture polish and then using metal wool. Some of the varnish is of course gone where the marks were, but at least it's back to pine-colour now!
Before our current guests arrived last Friday, we painted the wall in the kitchen for the 4th time this year. We can wash off the chocolate milk sprays, it's just oily spaghetti sauce that leaves behind marks which you cannot wash off. We are using the exact same original paint but as we only have time for touch-up work, the wall unfortunately appears covered in splotches, but only noticeable when the light shines across it. It's a huge wall and took us a whole weekend to originally paint with two coats at the beginning of the year.
I'm sure that many of you share our frustration at continuously trying to redecorate/repair/cover up damage/replace things in order that the following guests don't get the idea that the property that they're staying in is in need of renovation, especially when you are trying to keep up the standard or even improve on it all the time.
Some people of course just don't have respect for other people's property (or maybe their own either!) Because as we all know what keeps us busy in our holiday homes is not all down to wear and tear!
Yes I struggle with those marks too. I'm now on my 4th touch up too.we painted the wall in the kitchen for the 4th time this year. We can wash off the chocolate milk sprays, it's just oily spaghetti sauce that leaves behind marks which you cannot wash off.
Talking about nosebleeds...we had that once, only the child had decided to enter 2 bedrooms as well as his own to liberally spray blood everywhere. Looked kike a scene from CSI when I walked in.
The frustrating thing for us is that if we had anything happen like a dent in the fridge door then I would have to look at it every day as we rent out our home.
Mousie
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
I've just remembered something that was said to me a while back about car dent removal. I've no idea if it works, but might be worth a try on the fridge door: the idea is to heat the dent with a hairdryer/hot air gun then spray it with something to freeze it. Try googling "dent removal freeze heat" for more info - and do let us know if it works!
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AngloDutch
- Posts: 727
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- Location: Netherlands
greenbarn wrote:I've just remembered something that was said to me a while back about car dent removal. I've no idea if it works, but might be worth a try on the fridge door: the idea is to heat the dent with a hairdryer/hot air gun then spray it with something to freeze it. Try googling "dent removal freeze heat" for more info - and do let us know if it works!
Thanks, GB, I'll check that out. I've heard about heating the dent but not about freezing it immediately afterwards (always thought that it would buckle even more if you did that!)
Thanks - will give it a go next week.greenbarn wrote:I've just remembered something that was said to me a while back about car dent removal. I've no idea if it works, but might be worth a try on the fridge door: the idea is to heat the dent with a hairdryer/hot air gun then spray it with something to freeze it. Try googling "dent removal freeze heat" for more info - and do let us know if it works!
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Beachcondo
- Posts: 760
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Yes, things happens and especially when you have kids with you that you can't supervise 24/7. They certainly won't mention snags/spills/spots to their parents!Normandie wrote: Beachcondo's door scratch, for eg: s/he'd have known about the wind causing a draft in her own home so it would be less likely to have happened but even so, that's usually learned from previous experience. In a different place... accidents happen through unfamiliarity with the space.
But my main focus was:
I was fully aware of the scratch, and I was going to show the owner and pay for a repainting if needed, but it just slipped my mind in the hustle of departing.Kyreniagirl wrote:Such a shame though that they didn't think to mention it!
I have written to the owner now and told her. Another thing that I forgot to mention was the rat that we saw on the terrace one day.
Pretty good things to know for an owner, but as said - when departing my head was occupied by a missing wallet and a bus to catch.
So I can understand that when people miss to mention damages/snags, it isn't necessarily that people "miss"
to mention them.Pessimists only get positive surprises.