Coming soon - Get a detailed view of why an account is flagged as spam!
view details

This post has been de-listed

It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.

25
How do you handle sick guests? (Directed towards hosts who live with their guests, not whole-unit listings)
Post Body

And to be clear, I mean flu/bad cold, not cancer/chronic severe sickness.

We keep our medicine cabinet stocked for ourselves (obviously) but also share out all over-the-counter medicines with our sick guests. If someone seems really knocked out, I will make them tea (if I'm at home), and/or broth (my powdered bone broth) if they want. I'll also show them where the thermometer is, if they want to use it, and the heating pads/ice packs/etc. I'll also make sure they're aware of where the local urgent care is, and if I've barely seen someone for a whole day, I will knock on their door eventually and check and make sure they're not literally dying in the bedroom.

I did have one youngish guest years ago who I ended up taking to urgent care because she got a killer flu and I was really concerned for her. She was fine, but it took over a week for her to actually get better, and I willingly did a fair bit of nurse-maiding for her, because she was new to my city (just moved for a job) and was sick as hell and I just felt terrible for her. She (without asking) went grocery shopping for me and basically "paid back" all the soups and broths and bread/crackers I bought for her while she was down and out. But that was a pretty extreme example and it's only happened once in 10 years that I've been doing AirBnB/renting out a room.

Normally, the way I handle sick guests works great. But I recently had a guest that seemed to have the idea that I would be...really caring for them. Like on-call. And this was not a killer flu - in fact, I suspect it may have been more of a hangover than a flu. I cheerful disabused that notion immediately ("I'm so sorry you feel badly! Here is a cup of tea, and I've left several teas on the counter and the hot water heater filled if you need more. I'll see you later. Please feel free to use whatever you need in the medicine cabinet and I'll see you tonight."), and then went about my day.

What about the rest of you hosts? Do you provide medications and such? Make tea? Or just politely sympathize and otherwise get on with your day?

Author
Account Strength
100%
Account Age
8 years
Verified Email
Yes
Verified Flair
No
Total Karma
428,810
Link Karma
141,047
Comment Karma
282,287
Profile updated: 5 days ago
Posts updated: 1 week ago
Host

Subreddit

Post Details

We try to extract some basic information from the post title. This is not always successful or accurate, please use your best judgement and compare these values to the post title and body for confirmation.
Posted
6 years ago