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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be MORTIFIED?

81 replies

Jix · 23/07/2012 20:04

On holiday in a rented cottage and as we were there for 2 weeks we had the sheets changed in the middle. All good and fine. Until a few days later the owner approaches me with the washed sheets and asks me what I think the STAINS on one of them might be????? Blush
She says she wants to know so that she can know which stain remover to use!!!
Blush
They were small blobs of browny red and were obviously blood. Blush
Arrrgh !!!

I just muttered ignorance and wished the floor would open up and swallow me up.

She definitely knew what it was and knew it was me and I think wanted to charge me. And we still haven't had the deposit back so who knows, maybe she still will.

Is she BU for showing a guest stained sheets or am I for being so upset about it???

Please please also tell me some holiday horror stories of your own so i can ( hopefully) realise im not on my own!

OP posts:
rainbowinthesky · 23/07/2012 20:20

There's a fab thread somewhere about menstrual stains that have been very public. Very funny thread.

Krumbum · 23/07/2012 20:21

If its old blood it's browny so easily could have been makeup or chocolate or some other kind of food, and if it were you'd use differentl methods to remove it.

IslaValargeone · 23/07/2012 20:21

As the landlady of a rented holiday cottage, I'm sure she must be pretty familiar with various stains and their bodily origins. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use a bit of vanish and a half decent washing powder. These things happen and I can't believe she was so incredibly rude.

Original poster
Jix · 23/07/2012 20:22

Sounds like that's the one I need!

OP posts:
goodygumdrops · 23/07/2012 20:23

I think she was very rude to ask you this. Don't be embarrassed, she should be but you shouldn't. It is not hard to wash out at all.

maybenow · 23/07/2012 20:24

i think it's very rude, all those people who think she was reasonable would you expect a hotel to bring your stained sheets into breakfast and ask what the stains were?

Original poster
Jix · 23/07/2012 20:25

Sorry cross posted -- I meant its the funny thread about menstrual blood I need! I could do with a bit of cheering up!
Thanks everyone for your comments too- from those that empathise (thank you to those especially!) And to those that have told me to basically just get my act together - you're right I know. Worse things happen at sea etc etc.

OP posts:
PicklesThePottyMouthedParrot · 23/07/2012 20:29

I've never had a problem getting it out of sheets!

GnomeDePlume · 23/07/2012 20:30

What a dreadful woman (her not you).

YABU to be mortified, she should be.

I would be tempted to write a review warning others that.....

'The owner will be interrogating guests on the source and precise make-up of any stain left in the property so that she can select the precise chemical to deal with the offending mark. If a satisfactory explanation isnt provided then she will be asking for a sample that she can use for her own chemical analysis'

cakeismysaviour · 23/07/2012 20:31

The owner is being a bitch.

She should have used some common sense and just washed them and if the stain wouldn't come out, she should have just taken it from the deposit.

She sounds like a nightmare to me. This is what Trip Advisor is for. Wink

Noqontrol · 23/07/2012 20:35

That was pretty mean of her. If it was me and I'd noticed them then I'd of probably scrubbed them off in the sink. But as you didn't, well its just one of those things that happens when you rent out a holiday cottage. I wouldn't stress yourself about it.

maandpa · 23/07/2012 20:35

my mattress looks like a butcher block!!!

IslaValargeone · 23/07/2012 20:37

You can over share maandpa.

whois · 23/07/2012 20:37

She was being unreasonable to approach it like that. You are being unreasonable to be mortified. These things happen.

A few months ago at my DPs and realised my period had started, and a few drops of blood fell on the white carpet in the flat (rented!) on my way to the bathroom but it was dark so didn't notice until the next morning on my way out of the door when I was leaving for a train to go to work and not returning for a week. So had to be like "uh oh, blood on the sheets, blood on the carpet, you'll want to clean that asap""

Nothing to be embarrassed about, bodily function accidents happen.

KittyFane1 · 23/07/2012 20:37

What a hidious woman.
I wish you had told her what they were and added Are you f'ing stupid? Use any stain remover, biological washing powder, hot wash and your precious sheets will be pristine again
Horrible woman.

minceorotherwise · 23/07/2012 20:38

Oh she was just mean. Don't let it ruin your holiday, and don't re-book!!!

susiedaisy · 23/07/2012 20:38

The cottage owner sounds rude petty and completely unprofessional IMO Blood comes out of sheets, soaking them followed by a hot wash and a long cycle was all that was needed!

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 23/07/2012 20:38

I went to stay in a place in Coombe Martin with the DCs.
OH was at Carnival and drove down to join us a few days later.
The owner of the place was staying in the upstairs flat. Every single day she use to sit her leathery self right outside the front window and sunbath in a bikini.
She was ok with me and the kids.

When OH turned up she took one look at him and went upstairs. I didnt think much of it.
DS1 was really excited to see his dad they were mucking about, playing.
It was about lunchtime.

This woman came storming down the stairs screaming she was going to call the police on us. I was Shock because they were not making much noise.
I asked OH to go an apologise (just to keep the peace).
She told him he was a child abuser and she was going to call the police on him and was acting really weirdly.

It was horrible and really puzzling.
Her children and GC turned up the next day. Skinheads with a feck off big dog.

OH happens to be black.

That was a fun holiday Hmm

A caravan park owner from Delabole timed almost exactly the minute we would be arriving home. OH answered the phone but he asked to speak to me.
He ranted at me for ages about 'the state of the caravan'.
I had left it clean and tidy. I always do. I am manic about cleaning.
Apparently I hadnt cleaned the grill pan (I hadnt used it) and hadnt hoovered!
I pointed out that the only cleaning equipment was a broom with a head that kept falling off. He told me I should have asked to borrow a hoover.

This caravan cost us £500 for a week (about 8 years ago) and he expected me to go asking for a fucking hoover.

We also got a chalet owner trying to sting us for new carpets throughout a chalet because they had to 'fumigate them'.
By this point I had began taking before and after photos (I still do) and was able to show them exactly the state I had left the chalet in. It was spotless.
They backed off bloody quickly then.

All these years later I still take photos of accomodation when we get there and before we leave. I got sick of people thinking we were a bunch of witless chavs who could be intimidated into paying for damage done by other people.

It put me off going away for years.

I wouldnt bloody mind but I leave places cleaner and tidier than when I find them!

SrirachaGirl · 23/07/2012 20:40

Incredibly rude and incredibly inappropriate. IMO that's normal wear and tear if you are a hotel/inn or guest cottage and expect to have actual, live human beings sleeping in your beds.

WillNeverGetALicence · 23/07/2012 20:43

I think this woman sounds absolutely dreadful [and more than a little mad tbh].

I can't believe anyone here actually feels the proprietor was reasonable Confused

Ok, perhaps if you had had a major flooding you would have noticed and taken the sheets off to soak and should have quietly mentioned it to her and offered to pay... and I personally would then expect her to be very understanding and to say of course not, she wouldn't hear of you paying, accidents happen and for you not to think of it again and to enjoy the rest of your holiday. Then owner should have chalked it up as general wear and tear, you know the costs of running a place where people stay and sleep [along with babies vomiting on bedding, people wearing the carpet down, etc]

But to actually accost you like that and ask the origin of three small stains [which were probably quite obviously blood]... I am actually speechless. The rudeness and insensitivity of this woman, she should be mortified, NOT you!

Don't you give it another moments thought or feel you should have compensated her financially. She is a prat and only deserves a stinging negative review on Trip Advisor. Really, the nerve of her!

ImpatientOne · 23/07/2012 20:46

YANBU!!

But really what did she expect you to say? Confused

Polyethyl · 23/07/2012 20:46

There really are some mad cottage owners out there. Sometimes the pleasantest tenants chip a plate, crack a glass, or soil the bedding. That's life!

AKissIsNotAContract · 23/07/2012 20:47

She was very rude. It could have been worse though, at least you didn't shit the bed.

Noggie · 23/07/2012 20:50

Poor you! Surely she should just have put new ones on and binned the stained ones if they didn't come out perfect?!! I often leak despite wearing loads of san towels etc and it is embarrasing when it is at someone elses house. You were on holiday- what a rude woman to make you feel bad :(
I used to clean holiday cottages and had to deal with used condoms etc Yuck!! Didn't hold them up in front of departing guests though!

grobagsforever · 23/07/2012 20:51

She was in the wrong and very rude. How on earth do other posters think you were going to wash them? Blood comes out in the wash, what a cow.