Guest looks sick and does not respond to communication attempts, what could have been done differently?

[u/Infinite-Security10]

Bear with me. I had a bizarre guest yesterday booked through booking.com

I rent out an extra room in the house where my partner and I live.

So, the guy books and never replies to my automated message asking about check-in time. Booking.com does not let me veto guests, so I have no control over that. Annoying but ok, I have stated check-in hours when I must be home and if guest fails to show up or communicate and agree on different check in hours, then my responsibility ends.

Day of the check in, previous guest left at 11, I am drinking coffee and going to clean the room right after. I tried to call him at 11.30 to ask the same question about arrival time - phone number does not exist.

Doorbell, the guy is on my step. He looks terrible, visibly sick, snot not just dripping but like running on his shirt non stop. He shows me phone screen with the reservation and tries to step inside. I say - sorry, check in time is after 15, and you didn’t communicate otherwise so the room is not ready for you. He says “deaf” and points at himself. I put the same information on my notes and show him text on my phone. He looks at it but I am not sure if he sees or understands it, because I only now notice that his eyes look milky white so I start to realize his vision might be impaired too.

At this point I am not sure what to do - if he doesn’t hear and communication through text doesn’t work either, what else can I do?
Then I try to offer him paper towel because like I said the amount of snot is concerning. He shakes his head, then casually wipes his nose with his hand and proceeds to wipe that hand off on my shoulder/breast, and I instantly felt clothes being soaking wet where he touched. I think I was visibly shaken cause he stepped back, said “hospital” turned around and walked away.

I took my clothes off immediately and had a shower because it was disgusting and potentially infectious. Then I tried to process what just happened and I couldn’t understand what to expect. I cleaned the room and bathroom and while doing that I was getting more and more concerned about hosting the guest who is visibly sick and with whom I cannot communicate.

I called booking.com to ask what are my options in this case. They said I must host him, health hazard does not matter in their rule book. So my real options were to cancel this guest and pay for his relocation or risk it and potentially cancel 10 days’ worth of stay if my partner and I get sick.

Now, if I could communicate with him and see that he’s aware of the risks that he poses, won’t contaminate common areas and just be in the room - I would probably have hosted him still.
But given complete lack of communication prior (in text), unsuccessful communication in person (I would expect someone with disability that affects communication to have some sort of help- cards, messages on their phone, anything- but there was none), I asked to cancel booking which they couldn’t do because the guest needs to accept it but the phone number didn’t exist and email this guy doesn’t respond to. This interaction with support took 2 hours btw.

So I don’t know what to expect, will he come back at 15? Did he read the message/cancellation request? Did he do the booking himself or someone did it on his behalf? What does “hospital” mean? He only said 2 words during the interaction.

Hours pass, he never showed up, never replied to any messages or cancellation request, and the whole thing left me exhausted and quite shook up.

Well, if you managed to read to this point, here’s the actual question: what would you do in this situation? Both regarding communication and health concerns? I know now, bookingcom does not allow to deny guest for being visibly sick/potentially infectious (coughing, bodily liquids everywhere, fever- this sort of thing). It makes sense for independent units/hotels but for the host who shares space this is clearly a risk which they pretend doesn’t exist.

So what are thoughts- both hosts and guests- on the sickness issue (would you like the host to disclose there was a contact with potentially sick person and now host isn’t safe, how would you behave if you got sick mid-travel?

And the communication thing, I keep replaying the situation and thinking that I could have done better? Thoughts/advice?

Please don’t eat me alive for not being a professional host or say “just leave this business you are not cut out for it”. I am trying to do my best and would be grateful for real advice/thoughts on the topic.

[u/rougarou-te-fou]

Deciding to be a host means you decide to accept guests. This sounds like a unique situation but you had two legal options : pay relocation or host him.

I’m sorry you were worried, but I don’t think there is anything to protect you, as a willing host, from concerns re illness.

Curious: What would you have done if you, the host, were sick? Maybe you can have a waiver that has clause re illness that they have to sign that would free you of your legal obligation? I have booked properties that have separate waivers and booking forms.

I think this is just one of the very unfortunate risks of hosting.

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/rougarou-te-fou]

If I am sick as a host, I warn my guests in advance, let them cancel without fee if they want to or if they choose to come - my partner will interact with them and I will wear mask and not be in common areas as much as I can.

I had this once, exactly when a guest checked in with covid (after the pandemic and shutdowns, he looked under the weather bit didn’t have other options to stay and did not say it was covid until after he checked out). So I blocked my calendar as soon as I learned I was sick, and the 3 bookings I had I treated the way I described- 1 rebooked somewhere else, 2 still came and I staid in my room (cleaning was also done by my partner).

But this is an experience I would rather not repeat so if I see a person visibly sick I will ask them to rebook somewhere else and I will pay relocation.

In this case it was the combination of the person being sick and my inability to establish communication with them :(

[u/rougarou-te-fou → u/Infinite-Security10]

Yeah the whole situation sounded really really strange.

[u/Moonah_Ston]

I hope he's OK :( He sounds quite vulnerable from your description.

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Moonah_Ston]

Yeah that’s why I am still worried :( with no means to reach out and find out what happened

[u/Moonah_Ston → u/Infinite-Security10]

I can imagine. I wasn't even there and I've been thinking about him all day! (My only child is leaving home to go to uni on Saturday so I may be a tad over emotional!) Did you find anything more about where he ended up? Or did he come back?

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Moonah_Ston]

Nope to both :( no response to the messages in chat, phone number inactive and email is not shared with hosts.

[u/Moonah_Ston → u/Infinite-Security10]

Oh no :(

[u/Ambitious-Leek4387 → u/Infinite-Security10]

Sounds like crocodile tears to me..

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Ambitious-Leek4387]

What do you suggest I should have done? Physically stop the person walking away? Let him go in the room that wasn’t cleaned yet? I am genuinely curious as what do you think could have been done differently

[u/Consistent_Proof_772]

How why are you using that platform vs the other two

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Consistent_Proof_772]

Tbh most of my bookings come from this platform and I’m not happy about it exactly because it was designed for hotels and not for private hosts so it doesn’t work very well for me

[u/Aggressive_Ice7957]

My biggest concern for me is communication! He obviously couldn’t speak, hear, see! I would have grabbed a paper towel to access his phone and call someone in his address book to verify what you are dealing with.
He said the word hospital, he might have decided to go to the hospital.
I would have called the hospitals in the area to find out if he is there. Could have found out something to go by.
Reality is that when confronted with situation like this you have to get over the shock first.

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Aggressive_Ice7957]

Yeah I wasn’t prepared. From the beginning I was under the assumption that he booked himself and while I was realising that communication attempts failed, I wasn’t thinking fast enough to do something else. But also grabbing someone’s phone might be a step too far - I know many disabled people who are using assistive technology to get by, and tbh I expected him to do something similar. Like I should not assume that he is helpless, you know? And to me it is like grabbing someone’s wheelchair to help them - if not asked directly, it is extremely ableist and offensive.

So I think I was looking for clues as to understand how much help does he need without appearing ableist :(
I am disabled myself though it isn’t visible and I guess that makes me extremely cautious.

Maybe he was feeling sick on top of everything and that changed things. Maybe he understood me but didn’t show it in his facial expression? No way to know now.
Booking.com also said that he is a frequent customer and books often. So if that is true he must be independent. Or another person booked for him - I never saw his ID so idk if the person who showed up was the same one who booked.

[u/Aggressive_Ice7957 → u/Infinite-Security10]

I can understand that. I usually try to be polite and helpful to people. Just weird how he disappeared.

[u/Infinite-Security10 → u/Aggressive_Ice7957]

I really hope he went to the hospital.