Yes, I would call if the bathmat was filthy, and yes, I would do it immediately. Waiting until the rental is over is foolish - why deal with a crappy bathmat for a week when the owner should replace it immediately?

If this bothers you as much as it sounds, perhaps the rental business is not for you. Also, if you have to wait 2 hours to return a call, you're not giving very good customer service. There's no excuse for that long of a delay, unless you were physically unable to call her back - which doesn't sound like the case. Doesn't matter what your price is, when you provide a service you are responsible to take care of whomever is paying you for that service in a timely fashion. And I don't think they should have to go shopping for a new bath mat - you're onsite cleaners/manager should take care of that.

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Hi Cheri,

Since we have 3 vacation rental homes on the Cape and I run them, I have some experience with bath mats and the like. My approach is to stock 2 or 3 of everything in the house so the housekeepers can take one item to wash, replace it with a clean one and keep a spare in the house in case something happens. Ths applies to bath mats, linens, towels, tableclothes, slipcovers, shower curtains, etc. Since we live 2 hours away from the Cape I am not there to welcome guests in person (although we do drive down many times during the season to check on things and make sure everything works as expected). But I call on the day of arrival, to make sure they found the house, got in with their set of keys and everything is to their satsifaction. This way, if something occured to displease the guest and I was not there earlier to detect and correct it, they get a chance to tell me right away and I correct it to the best of my ability.

As far as cleanliness goes, I have our housekeepers wash everything during each changeover (including bathmats) - it's doable because I have spares. And a few times during the season we wash slipcovers, shower curtains, window curtains, etc.

RE: A/C. I make a point to explain to all guests that we have A/C units in the bedrooms and there's no central air. If someone called me and inquired about A/C in a different area in the house, I would not feel compelled to provide it as I go out of my way before the booking takes place to describe everything that is provided. However, I might decide to drive down and bring another A/C if the week is particularly brutal and the guests were pleasant enough that I don't feel being take advantage of.

As far as whether I would complain about the dirty bathmat - no I won't, but I will never return to the property or say a good word about it either. That's why I believe an opportunity to correct an issue (or even a perceived issue) is a blessing and not a curse. I'd rather take care of whatever's bugging our guests (if I can) and even try to compensate for an inconvenience than have them leave negative comments or feel that they did not get a good value for their money staying at our vacation home.

There's no denying that running vacation rental homes is very time consuming and not without its share of hassles. But if there's one thing that can not be ignored under any circumstances is the impeccable cleanliness of the property. Everything else may be forgiven, but not the skanky bedding or bath items...

Gee, Jersey is a lovely island, as is Guernsey. What on earth could someone object to because a person comes from there? Were you offended by the British accent maybe?

ttt the original message.

This past weekend it was unbelieveably hot and humid here in Brewster and maybe your renter was "feeling the heat". It's beautiful today and hopefully they are enjoying the beach and all that the Cape has to offer.

I also am from New Jersey and didn't care for your comment.

The accommodations in your website should accurately reflect what the unit has to offer. To do otherwise is false advertising. Personally, if the bathmat was dirty but the rest of the cottage was clean, I wouldn't complain. I would remove the dirty one and either (1) buy my own and pack it to go home or (2) go to the dollar store for a bottle of disinfectant to get the tub to my level of satisfaction (for a bath) or use an extra towal as a bathmat. I would certainly note this when I check out, but would not let a cruddy, $5 bath mat ruin my vacation.

Oops, I hit Post instead of Edit. For any of you entreprenurial types out there, how about some disposable bath mats for us travelers?

Regarding the issue of the air conditioning, I'm still curious what your website says. Does it say "air conditioning" or does it clearly say something like "one of the two bedrooms has an air conditioner"? If it wasn't as clear as the second, then I'd think the renters had the right to complain about renting a place that was advertised as air conditioned and found it not to be so. I'd be upset too. To me this is no different than arriving at a place that says "grocery just around the corner" and find the nearest grocery to be two miles away. That's false advertising in my book. And like these people who "managed" without the AC (the kid who says he did sleep fine), the point still is they have a right to complain about your not being honest in your description.

Just read some of the replies and I took the I'm from Jersey comment as the owner Cheri is from NJ and is not exactly around the corner to replace things like the bath mat. I believe it is a five hour drive to the cape from jersey. That is how I took it. (I am an original Jersey girl transplanted).

Okay reread the original post and I guess I was wrong. That is insulting about the they were from Jersey comment.

I guess Jersey people like a clean enviroment. That is just awful. Cheri people won't take you seriously with jabs like that.

bugswife1 nailed this one. With high humidity the mildew can grow rapidly.

I had first hand experience with this last weekend. My mountain place is normally fine upon return. With all the rain this year and high temps the mildew in the bathrooms was absolutley gross. I was shocked. It's my own home - and not rented out, but I now better understand what probably happened with your renters. Even if you've never seen the problem before doesn't mean it wasn't as the renter described.