Does anyone suffer...

[frigilux]

Yeow, after reading some of the above anecdotes, I am relieved that my friends and family (which, in this country means my sister and her two sons) are gracious houseguests. People stay at my house fairly regularly (for the food, no doubt) and I've never had a bad experience. A few incidents with caterwauling infants/toddlers, but that's to be expected. I've said many times that if babies were rational and self-cleaning, I'd get one, myself.

I put an amenities basket out in the bathroom for guests---shampoo, a lint roller, toothbrush, mouthwash, deodorant, hand cream, etc., etc. To keep the inventory moving, I jokingly tell people I'll be insulted if they don't take a couple of items for their use. When my friend Doug and his son stay here, his son loves to stock up on items from what he calls the 'manatee basket'.

 

[mixedup]

BTW Austin

Take that broken craftsman wrench back to Sears & they will give you an new one!

 

[Cybrvanr]

I deal with this mess all the time maintaining confrence rooms and such. I have found that typicaly the richer and higher profile the client, the more they trash a meeting room.

One of the worst ones was a fortune 100 company's executives who shall remain nameless came to use the chamber of commerce room here. I got a call from my contact at the C of C to come help him clean up and check out the system. They totally destroyed the confrence room! Two of the wireless hand-held microphones had dents in the tops of them where they had been dropped on the table. One of the lavalier microphone heads was dropped into a coffee cup, and didn't work period. They had written all over the video screens with dry-erase marker (which won't erase from a fresnel) They had their meeting catered, and were told specifically NOT to have food in the confrence room. The table tops have all sorts of stuff on them from laptop video connections, to boundary microphones, internet an d power etc. They had moved all the tables around and not bothered to disconnect the cables, so likewise, all the connectors were broken. The microphones had food spilled all in them, along with the carpeting and other stuff. They even had the nerve to leave the multimedia system running after they were finished, and the system stayed running, burning up hours on the projector lamps, all weekend long! It took another week of working on that place to get it back straight. They then had the gall to call up and ask for a discount on the room rental because the multimedia equipment was "Not fully operational"

On the flip side of this, I received a call last week from the rental agency where some friends and I rented a beach cottage. Before we left, we went over the house and did what I thought was a pretty routine cleaning. I got all our food out of the fridge, washed all the dishes & put them away, vacuumed up all the sand, made the beds, etc. Basically, put the place into the condition we found it, and a condition where the next visitors could walk right in. I thought we had left something untouched, or forgot to do or clean up something. Instead, they called to praise us on how well we cleaned up the house and that they have never had a renter leave the house in as good a shape. They said the maid didn't need to do a thing, and that they were refunding us all of the cleaning fee that we paid when we rented it!

 

[westytoploader]

Greg, let's hear some of those "country club" stories about just how downright disgusting some rich people can be!!!! ;-)

 

[jasonl]

Rich d**ks

Those rich suit and ties execs could give a care about what you think they did to the conference room. It wasn't their's and they won't have to worry about it. All they care about is their next golf game.

 

[jasonl]

R/C planes

Those things and delicate and expensive at the same time. I owned a Slo-V. A beginner plane that was easy to fly. and so much fun.

While my radio didn't use the same frequencies as the "real" R/C'ers. I made sure the field was clear to fly. I would have NEVER EVER dreamed about trying to fly someone else's R/C. Geez. That kid should have his allowance taken away until he pays for the damages.

 

[Cybrvanr]

*WHEW* Shall I get a cigarette now or later?

*LOL*

Outside of many of you all stating the troubles that you've had with visitors bringing un-invited pets into their homes, smokers tend to be irrational too. Nothing against you, but I do have a few friends that smoke, and they can't seem to figure out, even after telling them that A: I don't want cigarette smoke in the house, and B: I don't want cigarette butts all over the yard and gardens. I have graciously provided a butt can on the front porch, and even as so much as put a heater out there and close the windows so they can smoke in warmth.

Luckily, outside of that, I haven't had too much trouble with people messing up my stuff. I sound pretty lucky from what you all have posted. I let one of my neighbors borrow my chainsaw after Hurricane Isabel took one of his trees out. He even gave it a tune-up and tweaked up the carburator while he had it Now it starts on the 1st or 2nd pull!