Jump to content
Complete France Forum

Damage caused by guests


Recommended Posts

We had an incident this weekend, first in 10 years, where a young couple had booked in for 3 nights and on arrival I was told they were going to a local Brit wedding (thats when my heart sunk).  They went to the wedding came back around 1.15 am which was no prob with us.  No show next morning for breakfast (somewhat expected).  Finally came down around 1 pm with suitcases and announced they were moving on as they had an invite to stay with friends and would pay for 3rd night so no problem there either.  However the look on the girl's face sparked alarm bells and the fact they had been up in their room all morning as if they were waiting for us to go out so they could disappear.  I shot upstairs as they were loading their luggage in the car and found the bedding with huge stain on which went right through to the mattress (he had obviously wet the bed in a drunken state).  We immediately went out to them before they drove off and asked for money to clean the mattress.  Neither of them had any money on them, surprise, surprise.  We had little choice but to let them go, although looking back on hindsight I should have held onto their luggage in some way and told them to go and return with cash so they could have their luggage back.   Obviously the stain cannot be sorted so we wrote to the couple with a Paypal request for a large contribution to a new mattress and thankfully they have done the decent thing and just paid us.  All upsetting and unnecessary.  Sadly with a B&B there is no security deposit held, unlike a gite.  Hopefully this will never happen to us again but just wondered if anyone else had experienced damage to which they had to try and get a reimbursement. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Russethouse"]Time to investigate good quality mattress protectors ?[/quote]

Yes quite right. In my case it was sheets and a quilt. You will find that if you are inspected they will check the beds and specifically look for protectors. Personally I hate the things, they always make me sweat at night but the rules is the rules as they say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At home I have waterproof breathable mattress protectors. France sells really good ones, I bought a new one in Carrefour when I was there last. Soft, make no noise and do the job.

Not just bed wetting, what if a woman's period starts and that can go straight through, sheets and onto the mattress and make a bad mess.

I initially had them on my children's bed's for obvious reasons when they were little. And then we had a friend coming to stay and I knew that when he is on holiday and not drunk, he can either wet the bed or pee in the wardrobe. Something he never does at home, but somehow this does happen when he is away, so I bought them for the spare beds too. After all the interior of a wardrobe will wash down. Still he always said he felt at home when with us and he never had an accident.

And then I started using them on our bed after I took our old mattress to the tip. With the hot summers and sweating so much, it looked like the police had traced two dead bodies in yellowy stain, onto the old mattress and I was mortified. Now, even if our mattress has had it, at least it looks decent.

Frankly, I wouldn't like to be sleeping on other people's old sweat/body fluids. A protector washes easily and for all the decent ones are not given away, are a very small price in comparison to a mattress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Russethouse"]Time to investigate good quality mattress protectors ?[/quote]

Of course we use mattress protectors but unfortunately we did not have the waterproof one on this bed at the time.  They do tend to make people sweat when it is hot, but agree the Carrefour ones are the best and no noise.  Will probably now always put the waterproof ones on (possibly with another normal one on top), if they moan they sweat then too bad.  Sometimes you just have to try and safeguard yourself against people who just have no idea that it is your home they are abusing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm, not convinced about the 'hot' thing. I always bought, breathable and waterproof. We probably had them on for the last 20 years of our time in France and lived through at least 2 heat waves and no 'clim' at home. I put an extra sheet on top of the waterproof cover and then the everyday sheet and we were fine. No extra sweating and no disgusting mattress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...