Lay My Hat

Well, we eventually received a long email from the guests explaing what had happened and apologising profusely. It seems that it was the grandmother who had an accident and not the young children after all. The couple that had booked said that they thought the wall was already discoloured and therefore had mistakenly not noticed the severity of what had happened to that part of the WC (the grandmother had tried to clean up a bit as well).

Also, it seemed that this occurred just before they were due to leave and that they tried to report it but I was not there at the time (correct, I was upstairs and didn't hear the doorbell).

As it seemed to have been an accident (and not done intentionally), and due to the fact that they have apologised and explained that it was due to their sick relative, we have decided to just charge for the cost of cleaning and painting, and therefore have deducted half of the security deposit in total, which we believe to be fair. Due to dousing the wall, loo and basin with chlorine, the following guests were none the wiser as to what had just occurred. We now have time to repaint the whole WC, as no guests due until the end of November currently....

Well, that's a reasonably happy outcome.

I do wonder though how granny/anyone can get everything in such a mess. Perhaps, along with all our other information and instructions in guest information we now need to include diagrams of how to sit on a toilet!

Grannies are always blamed!!

GillianF wrote:Well, that's a reasonably happy outcome.

I do wonder though how granny/anyone can get everything in such a mess. Perhaps, along with all our other information and instructions in guest information we now need to include diagrams of how to sit on a toilet!

That was an awful situation AngloDutch.
It should be remembered that when cleaning up human faeces and body fluids, vomit, urine, phlegm and blood there is always the possibility of contracting a disease such as HIV and Hepatitis from the spillage. Use disposable gloves and aprons if possible.
Perhaps holiday home owners should have a risk assessment and safe systems of work in place for such incidents. (I have not got one either.)

A good point. I have latex gloves here anyway as a minor cut or splinter during a changeover is a regular occurrence and plasters can slip when changing bedlinen - but it might be a good plan to start using them for the toilet too.

I guess the other reminder for us all (and for me, I would have been beyond hopping mad about this) is that sometimes even the weirdest situations can have a reasonable explanation. I'm really glad you were able to get everything in shape for the next guests though, what a nightmare.

Glad you got a reasonable response and came to a mutually satisfactory agreement.

I guess Grannie got a bit confused and probably flustered too.

We always have cleaned the farmhouse in sections. For the bathroom-WC section, the latex gloves go on for cleaning the downstairs and upstairs WCs. Gloves stay on in the bathroom as well, as we have to regularly remove hair and soap pieces from the shower waste otherwise it will block. Apart from the gloves to protect yourself, we also use a separate sponge scourer for cleaning the WC bowls/seats, etc., though that should be pretty obvious to anyone with even a basic sense of hygiene.