Lay My Hat

As you may have seen from some of my other posts, we've just had (survived?!) our first booking. All of our towels, bedding etc. we're new. Our teatowels have all been stained quite badly (turmeric, I think) and it won't come out after repeated washes.

There are also 2 bath towels with make up stains on them. Just waiting to see if that comes out in the second wash.

Do I just accept this as normal wear & tear or would it be appropriate to make a deduction from their security deposit? Seems a bit petty for £10 or so of tea towels but I'd bought decent one & there's no way I can use them for other guests.

Advice appreciated.

Em

Hi Em,

I think a lot of this is wear and tear and a learning process of what wears well. We often get towels with bleach marks and bedding with fake tan marks.

We did once retain some deposit based on this sort of damage but that was a combination of nail varnish on brand new bedding, bleach on new carpet and other issues.

We also find that the house keeper may miss some of these issues when they first happen so it is difficult to be 100% who did the damage.

Hello, I can't comment on your bath towels, but for my own sanity, I now regard tea towels as fairly disposable: they get used for everything and often end up with soot or burn marks, or food stains. I tend to get patterned ones so that light stains don't show, giving them a longer shelf life.

Try Vanish on the make up stains before you give up on the towels. As a holiday home owner you will get very good at stain removal!

That's why I now use black tea towels!

Turmeric removal - wash as normal then the important bit is to dry in the sun!

Totally agree with Kathy. Black tea towels all the way......and turmeric will come out in the sun, I've done that at least twice.

Regarding the towels...I would charge, and do. What colour are your towels? I'm thinking if theyre colour the marks may be bleached spots.

Mousie
x

Possible tea towel solution? Various colours and work out at £0.71p each...
https://www.nisbets.co.uk/vogue-wonderd ... wels/cc596

The staining on tea towels infuriates me when one would think they should only be used to wipe clean dishes dry but I'm learning to grit my teeth on the matter.

Make up on bath towels. If the stains don't come out after a bit of stain remover (Vanish) soaking I would charge. I would explain I had tried but the towels were not now of an acceptable quality to give to other guests.

When we had on site gites and I found stains on the interim week linen change I would often ask the guest what they thought the marks might be so that I could treat them appropriately. People were usually very matter of fact about what it was and I'd know how to deal with it but at least they knew I knew it was them! It made me feel a bit better.

greenbarn wrote:Possible tea towel solution? Various colours and work out at £0.71p each...
https://www.nisbets.co.uk/vogue-wonderd ... wels/cc596

I've got the red/white version of those at home from Out of Eden, they're anything but wonderful at drying!

I'm another one that's given up on good tea-towels for guests. I get loads from IKEA and replace regularly.

Martha wrote:I'm another one that's given up on good tea-towels for guests. I get loads from IKEA and replace regularly.

Me too - they aren't too expensive but are mainly white so do show the stains. I would never charge for them, once they are stained they go in the gite cleaning cloth bag. I've got hundreds of them now!