I Didn't Expect a Sauna

We went over to the flat at the weekend to do the turnaround. Started off in the usual fashion; OH picks up rubbish, scouts round the kitchen to see what needs doing, I take duster polish and vacuum cleaner into the living room. All was going well until I transferred my attention to the double bedroom. The windows were running with condensation, which is not usual. I mopped up, opened the window and turned my attention to stripping the bed. The mattress was sodden. Pulled bed away from the wall and found black mould spreading up the [now damp]  wall behind the bed, obviously from proximity of wet mattress. Not surprising then to see when I investigated further that couple had apparently decamped with baby into the other bedroom for part of their stay.

 

So what happened? We handed over a clean dry flat and returned to find part of it had been turned into a sauna. My suspicion is that they had had the baby in the bed with them and it had been sick or got very wet, they'd tried to wash the mattress and to dry it out they had turned up the heating and closed the windows, a shortcut to condensation and horrible humidity.

 

Of course no note left to explain or apologise, and we were left with a huge problem; people coming into the flat that day who weren't going to want to sleep on what was effectively a fabric waterbed.

 

OH did a 90 mile round trip back home to fetch the mattress from our guest room bed and we hauled the wet one out into what was fortunately a sunny day to start to dry out. We brought it home later, and it seems OK now, so we'll be taking it back next weekend when we have our Visit Scotland grading visit. Since OH is gallivanting off that day playing nice with some people from the Caithness Archaeology Society Committee I'm going to have to do the mega prep for the Inspector's visit on my own. I'm not a happy bunny about that, but just have to bite the bullet.

 

What annoys me most is the lack of any attempt to let us know what had happened, it's not as though we don't leave people with our phone number in case they need to contact us and I'd have thought common courtesy would lead them to at least alert us to the situation. I'm not saying I'd have been pleased if they'd rung us with the information that the mattress was now a sodden mass that couldn't be slept on, but we could at least then have take the spare with us saving time and a not inconsiderable amount of fuel money.

 

People do amaze me sometimes, and rarely in a good way.