Lay My Hat

Hi guys,

Looking for some advice....we have pod accommodation. Each pod sleeps two people max. We had a booking this weekend for two of our pods - I had assumed two couples but then noticed a fifth person.

I went up and spoke to them and explained as per their booking that each pod sleeps two max. They were quite intimidating and one of them said he would find somewhere else to stay later. They were drinking and their attitude made me quite nervous.

Of course the fifth person never went anywhere else and three stayed in one pod resulting in a broken coffee table, beer stains on a chair, the bed was soaked in urine and had lots of excrement stains on the duvet and sheets. Ive had to throw out all the bedding and duvet along with cushions and blankets.

The thing is - I dont take any damage deposit. Their booking was via bking.com - I am going to report misconduct with them. Do you think I am being petty if I look for compensation from the guest or should I just take it on the chin?

Sorry for the long winded post! Im just feeling at the end of my tether at this stage of the season. We have had a couple of weeks of humdingers of guests.

That is horrendous, irishgal. I am so sorry for you. Looking for compensation is one thing but getting it from scoundrels like that is another. The lesson to be learned, of course, is to take security deposits in future.

You can certainly try to get compensation, though I doubt you'll succeed. But you should certainly complain long and loud to bking.com in glowing technicolour, in the expectation that they'll at least refuse future bookings and maybe save somebody else suffering similar treatment

thank you guys. I will contact bking.com tomorrow to report these people. I didnt get a wink of sleep last night worrying about them staying on my property. My husband didnt either. The other guests actually moved their car to my own car port beside my dwelling house as they were nervous of leaving it in the guests car park beside theirs.

They were just full of drink and attitude and my husband was nervous to confront them.

Thankfully our other guests were very understanding.

Our place is one of retreat and relaxation mainly but rarely we have someone like this group. Sometimes I wonder why on earth am I doing this

Awful! I'm so sorry this happened to you. Good luck with the site, I would certainly report it but I'll be amazed if they do anything concrete.

I'm afraid the lesson I have learned is that no matter how much your property is normally a haven of peace, awful people may well arrive, especially (though not exclusively) when booked impersonally via a booking site.

And I suspect many of these people look out for places that don't charge a deposit, knowing they can get away with it.

If you don't have credit card facilities you can use Paypal and refund with no PayPal charges, that is what I do.

How ghastly for you and the other guests. Truly awful.
Agree with all advice given. Definitely take a Security Deposit in future.
Once in a while we all experience these unpleasant types. It’s important to focus on all the nice people we have met and not waste energy worrying about the horrible ones. Soon they will be a distant but valuable ‘learning’ memory.
Do hope your next guests are lovely and restore your faith in human nature:)

I’ve sent you a pm

Thanks everyone. We have decided to take deposits from dodgy types now. And we are also looking into getting cctv around the place which hopefully would deter any not so nice behaviour. I guess I need to accept that we will come across these types again and to just focus on all the wonderful people we meet.

irishgal wrote:We have decided to take deposits from dodgy types now.

How does someone qualify as a dodgy type?

Marks wrote:

irishgal wrote:We have decided to take deposits from dodgy types now.

How does someone qualify as a dodgy type?

Indeed. Some of the worst guests we had were the ones who were expected to behave, whilst some of the slightly worrying ones turned out to be gems.
Don’t second guess, take a deposit from everyone.

Mols

You really can't tell. I haven't had many problems, but they have universally been from people who were the picture of respectability and wholesomeness.

Yep, I agree. Only person we had problems with was a reader in a church!!! I always take a security deposit, even from those of my guests who are coming back for the fourth time.

As said, you can't predict who will be 'dodgy'. You also shouldn't discriminate one guest against another.

If you decide to take a damages deposit then it has to apply to everyone. How embarrassing/awkward would it be if someone found out they had been charged one and another guest/friend/whatever had not? How would you explain your rationale?

One rule for all.