Linen issue

[Kevin504]

We've been hosting for over a year now- from that experience we're finding out that cleaning our linens is a big issue with most of our guests expecting spotless new linens. The issue is that most of the guests treat our linens like there staying in a cheap hotel- our linens end up getting trashed to the point that we can't get the stains out. We're in a very competitive area for Airbnb listings, so putting up the price isn't option. The worst is when the guests have a young child that's not potty trained yet. We've come up with a strategy to use the lightly stained linens for the guests with young children and explain to them about the soiling issues we've had in the past with children. Which also brings up the question why young children don't count as guests? When in fact they put the most wear and tear on our homes? We just had some guests that didn't inform us on their booking that they would have their 3 year old boy with them. If we would have known we would have prepared the house differently such as the linens. This young boy went to town on our cleanest linens and peed all over them amoung other things- the majority of our cleanest linens are now soiled with permant stains of one sort or another. I blame the parents for this not the child- they just let him run wild and have his way with our home for the 4 days they were there. We don't have a cleaning deposit policy yet, but it looks like we're going to have to put that into place now with a note about them being responsible of damaged linens. 

[Robin4]

@Kevin504. 

Yeah Kevin....stained linens can be a problem but there are a  couple of ways around this!

Don't use white linens!!! The days when guests expected starched ironed white sheets have long gone!

Choose nice light pastel shades of yellow, grey, green and blue for your linens....the grey and yellow for the winter time and the green and blue for the summer. They look more welcoming and it is much easier to keep coloured linens new looking that white ones.

Secondly, form a relationship with a clothes dry cleaner in you area and you will find they will be able to give you lots of tips and maybe formulations that will enable you to remove just about anything!

I have had to suffer red wine, vommit, make-up, urine and these days the only stains that represent a reall challenge are the oil based or dye based stains. But thanks to the help of others I have been able to keep my linens looking like new after 30-40 guest nights each.

You are not going to educate guests to look after your costly bedding but, you can take steps to make sure you can cope!

What threw me the other day, a guest said to me......"You need to sack your cleaner"! I looked at him in a puzzled way. I go over the polished concrete floor with a steam mop before every guest arrives...I make sure everything is spotless!

He said his wife lost and earing and as she lay down on the floor and fossicked around under the bed to find it, she found a used childs nappy!!!

Ok, just another thing I need to vigourously check before each guest....make sure that the previous guest didn't just use the under bed space as a nappy disposal!

Coloured linens Kevin....you won't regret it!

Cheers......Rob

[Kevin504]

Thanks Rob- Great advice- we really appreciate you sharing your expertise on this!! 

[Fred13]

Not only colored, but with attractive patterns!

As to children, if the guest doesn't have the curtesy to pre-inform you, when they arrive change the mechanics on the spot.

[Kevin504]

Thanks for your input too Fred- we appreciate it! 

[Kevin504]

More good advice- Thanks!

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Kevin504

Actually it is up to the host to decide whether or not to charge for children and/or infants - you just need to clearly state this (preferably more than once) in your description.

I host a single occupancy private room in my home so no one except the guest that made the reservation is allowed but if it were me I'd charge the same for any additional people regardless of age. If any parent wanted their kid(s) to stay for free I would make it clear that they are more than welcome to book a room at a nearby hotel, not my ABB private room listing 🙂 

[Kevin504]

Thanks for sharing your experience on this- we've been a bit perplexed with guests that have young children running around out of control beating up our home. One group we had actually let their child have stones/ rocks to play with inside our home. Sometimes I get the feeling that our guests don't really understand or appreciate that we're welcoming them into our private homes and communities as personal guests of our family. There are those that seem to use Airbnb as the most economical accommodation option they can possibly find... I really feel that what we're offering is something completely different and way better than what their going to experience staying in a hotel. It's wonderful when you have conscientious guests that realize there being given the opportunity to have a unique experience through the insight of their hosts extensive expertise on the area their staying in. Isn't this what the Airbnb concept is all about??

[Sergei--and--Larina0]

We had problems with oil soiled linens and towels before ,to a degree when I was about to trush all my linens ,until I started to use my grandmom recipe-I  bought a huge 20-25 L pot and boil linens  and towels in a mixture of dishsoap and oxyclean.First take this to boil and than continue for 20 min on a slow,need to turn your linens around in a pot.you can also look for this recipe on the youtube.Everything come out spotless and smells sooo good.This is the way they did it in ancient times and it works in modern times.Hope my post will be helpful for hosts like us.

[Sarah977]

In case you didn't know this- do not use hot water to wash your linens. Hot water sets stains in so they never come out. If you have guest bedding that looks like they ate their dinner on it, or worse, put the linens in the washing machine with the soap and cold water, let it agitate for a few minutes, then turn the machine off and just let it soak for an hour or so before turning the machine back on. This will take care of a lot of what looks like it might stain.

If something looks really bad after use, pre-treat the spots with a stain remover before washing as above.

As for kids, I have friends with rentals where the guests came with kids, were specifically asked if the child might possibly wet the bed, and did they want a plastic sheet underneath. The guests of course say, oh, no, my child never wets the bed (Just like people will claim how incredibly well-behaved their dog is, then it proceeds to scratch your doors, jump up on the furniture, etc.). The child may, in fact, never wet the bed at home, but sometimes in a strange place, they might.

So after having 2 brand-new mattresses soaked with urine, my friend now just puts a waterproof sheet under the other sheet if she knows that young (and sometimes even kids as old as 10 can be bed-wetters) kids will be coming. You can actually get waterproof sheets that are sort of flannel on one side and rubberized on the other, so they don't feel like there's a plastic, slippery sheet under the regular sheet.

[Kevin504]

Thank you for the great advice- we really appreciate it- fantastic to have community support where we can all learn from each others experiences.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977, 

Sarah, good on you, a couple of excellent points....and this is where the CC is so good, we have quality contributors who always give good sound advice....The faces of the contributors change over time but there is something to learn here every day!

Never, but never use a hot wash when washing bed linens and bath towels! As you rightly say Sarah, any untreated stain will be permanantly set into the fabric.

Your other point, a 'GOOD' quality mattress protector is essential. Really good quality protectors cost less than $100 AU ($80 US), whereas to replace that mattress can cost upwards of $2,000....it's a sort of 'no brainer' when you come to think about it!

Another really good point which these days is becoming more of an issue! Bed bugs will not penetrate the mattress protector so it's no good the guest saying 'the listing had bed bugs' when they arrived...simply not possible...they will not survive the washing process!

If the listing has Bed Bugs....that guest brought them!

I keep on 'banging on' about coloured linens but, over the scope of my hosting career I have hosted over 200 guests with close to 1,500 guest nights involved so I have got to know what works best. I consider 120 guest nights to be about the limit for a set of bed linens! That means (on average) they are going to have been through 30 wash cycles!

Sure, if there for yourself you will push them to double that figure or more but when paying guests are involved they do have to look new and fresh. 

I could never get that out of white linens....and I tell you what, if there is a small imperfection somewhere on that fitted sheet, a guest will find it!!

I use exclusively coloured linens now! they remain look great for more than double the amount of time a white set of linens will and most guest will speak of coloured linens positively.

This is a typical winter colour scheme for me......

On a cold night it looks warm and welcoming!

And this is one or my summer combinations......

@Fred13  has a good point I had not considered...patterned linens, although personally I would not like to sleep on patterned linens and I can imagine others may think that is 'pushing the choke' a bit too far!

Our bed does take a pounding though and if I had my time over again I would have to think long and hard about providing an electric bed! I have had guests sit on the pillows and push the 'head-up' option so they can feel what it is like to get that rising feeling. The worm and screw mechanism that does these functions was plastic and broke apart not long after I installed the bed. I have now have a set of metal worm and screws made up so the only limit now is when the guest gets tipped off the pillows.

It's an extravegance, but one that has paid off. A lot of my bookings come because of the bed....and, over the life of it, it has not cost me more than 50c per night to maintain.

And on that note, I allow $15 per night as a damage fund and that has now built up to around $2,300, so if a guest gets in there and creates a problem, I am not going to squark to Airbnb and get a possible knock-back....I will just fix it and get on doing what I do!

As I said before, don't think the only option is white linens, nothing in this world is just 'black and white'!

Cheers.....Rob

[Rick155]

What a great lot of ideas re sheet cleaning and the idea of plastic sheeting down first before normal sheets, you must have had experience in this area. Always pre spot marks before main wash. I use an ammoniated spotter for any body fluids etc and the results are spectacular. Product is called Amsolve from Agar Chemicals in Australia. 

[Yen12]

I'd like feedback on an idea I have about asking people with pets to bring their own linen.  It sounds extreme but I've had two different guests bring dogs whose fur has been impossible to remove from the sheets.  Being that I have a certain number of sheet sets to keep in rotation, it has been very costly to replace them.  I don't want to have to replace sheets every time a guest decides to sleep with their dog in my airbnb.  I think asking guests who sleep with their dogs to bring their own linen seems reasonable.  What do you think?

I would still charge a pet fee because the fur and the cleaning still take twice as long.

[Traci22]

Hi everyone, 

Here is my issue, in my condo we give our guests the option of using our linens or bringing their own sheets and towels. If they use ours, there is a $75 fee. This isn't a profit thing for us, our housekeeper charges this amount to do the linens. Our market is competitive and we haven't had the amount of reservations that we normally have by this time. I suspect the weather is the issue, but I am reluctant to raise my rates across the board and AirB&B hasn't added an additional column for linens to break the cost out. 

If the linens become mandatory along with toiletries in the rental, how can I charge this without raising my rates? Thoughts? 

Traci