Sorry! My “Friend” Threw up in Your Vacation Rental

Today I spoke with a vacation rental owner who owns a property in North Myrtle Beach, SC. We were discussing disgusting (say that five times fast!) rental stories.

She told me a story of a particular guest whose “friend” did some nasty things in the house. NOTE: Might want to bookmark this article for later if you’re enjoying a meal right now.

We’ll protect the identity of the renter and call her Polly from here on out.

The owner did some background checking… Polly was over 25, seemed pretty normal, and was traveling to Myrtle Beach to go see a Darius Rucker concert.

Wait a minute. Darius Rucker is still relevant?  Who knew?

So there were no red flags for Polly. Our owner had no reason to believe she would be a problem renter. And how crazy can somebody get at a blowfish-less Hootie concert anyway?

Apparently it’s possible.

When the cleaning crew entered the property after Polly left, they discovered broken glass on the balcony.

OK, not a big deal. Something was dropped and it broke. It happens.

The cleaning crew then discovered blood and mustard stains on the carpet.

Hmmmm…. The broken glass may have caused the wound that resulted in blood stains. But the mustard?  Well, it’s a little known fact that mustard has antiseptic properties. Polly may have applied mustard liberally to the wounded area. So I guess it’s excusable.

Now for the worst part… there was vomit in the bed.  And over the side of the bed.

Ugh. I think most would agree that the line had been crossed . Damn Hootie fans. They were crazy in the 90’s. Apparently, they’re still crazy now.

The owner placed a call to Polly to discuss what was found in the condo. Embarrassed, I’m sure, Polly blamed everything on an un-named “friend” who came over to visit during Polly’s stay.

Friend, huh? The owner has a no-pet policy… so Polly couldn’t blame the dog. Whatever works…

All joking aside, the owner said Polly was very cooperative, so it made dealing with the whole situation easy. Polly did try to clean up the mess herself and left a polite note for the cleaning crew explaining that she had done her best. She was also completely agreeable when the owner informed her that proper deductions would be taken from the security deposit – The owner had to have the carpets professionally cleaned and had to replace a bed skirt and pillow sham that disappeared.

Aside from being gross, this situation wasn’t too bad. Everyone involved (except maybe for the guilty “friend”!) cooperated and properly fixed a bad situation. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Kindness is king. Everyone played nice in this situation. Polly owned up to the damage and was cool about it. And the owner kept calm and wasn’t confrontational about it. It’s tough to get mad a polite, sincere people (and their “friends”).
  • Always collect a security deposit.  I don’t think Polly would have refused to pay in this situation, but it was great insurance for the owner to have that money already in-hand.
  • Blame your friends if they’re not around. Real or imaginary, your friends come in handy when there’s a difficult situation.
  • Mustard can work as an antiseptic in a pinch. Really. It does. Google it.
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