I hosted a mother and daughter at my apartment in Sydney February 17th-20th, 2017 for the entire home. I returned to the apartment upon check out and went to change the bed as is my usual practice after guests. I noticed my sheets were missing. After twenty minutes of searching I found them scrunched up at the bottom of my laundry basket under my washing. I pulled them out to find them splattered with blood. I also found my quilt underlay had been turned over by the guests and it also had blood on it. I opened a Host Guarantee claim for the damage. The guest admitted via Airbnb messages that the damage was done by the mother and they didn’t think they had to clean it, something I still find remarkable. I told Airbnb I refused to clean it because I am not touching someone’s blood as it’s unhygienic and unsafe. They refused to compensate me for the damage as they told me I had to attempt to clean it to show that it had been permanently damaged. Unbelievable!
It’s not great but, this is going to be part of hosting. I have formed a relationship with a local dry cleaner and they have given me many good tips for dealing with stains. I have had to cope with blood, red wine, make-up….even vomit on one occasion. Guests can be a bit thoughtless, they consider that home hosting is a bottomless pit with the resources of a hotel chain to make up for damages. In many instances they don’t realise that the host is on a tight budget, and small things like this can be the difference between making money and loosing it!
You have to accept that someone else is not going to pick up the pieces for you and you have to be ready for these sort of occurrences when you are going to host.
What you should have done is shame the guest in your review. Something along the lines of…”It was unfortunate that the guest had an accident of sorts during their stay which was compounded by the hiding of the evidence. Although difficult to remedy all is ok now. I wish the guest well but, would be reticent to accept a booking from them again in the future”!
You have made your point, warned other hosts and, you have dealt with it!
Cheers…..Rob
Wash the sheets in cold water and add a couple of tablespoons of salt to the wash cycle. Blood will come right out. If you wash them in hot water, the stain will set and the dryer will make sure it never comes out.
You don’t have to touch the blood.
Hope this helps.
I’m going through something similar. The case hasn’t settled yet but I’m putting this down as just part of doing business. Luckily for me it has only happened once amongst hundreds of guests so it’s not a major issue.