Sochi hosts recount tourist mess from bedbugs to birth

During the New Year holidays, 470,000 tourists vacationed in Sochi, of whom 281,000 stayed in hotels, according to the resort administration. There are also those who prefer to rent apartments and flats. Landlords are tallying profits and the damage left behind by guests. We«ve collected stories that shocked even seasoned ones. After some tourists, it»s necessary to renovate, call exterminators, and replace pipes.

«I poisoned those creatures myself»

Yulia Kostromina manages apartments and several flats in Adler. She was hired by the owners—she advertises, meets tourists, and tidies up the premises after check-out. And Yulia has accumulated many different stories about the state in which tourists leave rental housing. She doesn«t mince words, which we»ve, of course, softened.

«I just don»t understand how they aren«t ashamed themselves. In one of the flats, a young married couple with one-year-old twins lived. For some reason, they threw diapers behind the bed. They accumulated there for two weeks and started to smell. Apparently, it was normal for them. When I entered the apartment, my eyes stung,» Yulia says. Despite having prepared waterproof mattress protectors for all beds, since she knew the guests were coming with small children, for some reason they removed them. As a result, three new mattresses had to be disposed of. Along with the towels they used to wipe the floors.

In the apartments, mattresses, pillows, and the beds themselves also had to be thrown out. Bedbugs had settled in them.

«I was so ashamed. I checked people in this summer. I laid out new linens for them, we always change pillows at the start of the season. And in the morning they called me and demanded their money back. They decided to move out because they were bitten all night. They discovered bedbugs. As a result, I myself poisoned those creatures, called a specialized organization, but nothing helped. We had to throw out the beds and treat the entire apartment,» asserts Yulia. She doesn«t understand how insects could have been brought in; the neighbors didn»t have them.

The girl says that consistently in the apartments and flats she manages, windows, mirrors, toilets, and sinks are broken.

«One such guest clogged the toilet completely and continued to use it. Can you imagine what was going on there when I arrived? We had contactless check-in and check-out, keys were left in special lockers. Now we»ve decided to move away from that practice. Starting from summer, I will personally inspect the property, because it«s impossible. They leave mountains of garbage, all of it rotting, stinking, and they don»t care. Not all, of course, are such pigs,« says Yulia. According to her, there are also tourists who leave behind ideal cleanliness. They polish the plumbing, take out the trash, and even wash the floors. Such cases help her not to become disillusioned with people.

Had to find homes for kittens too

The owner of a guest house, Svetlana Minasyan, told a SOCHI1.RU correspondent that she lives on the premises and monitors what happens in her accommodation facility 24 hours a day, yet her guests still manage to leave surprises for her. Not always does she manage to inspect the rooms; sometimes tourists check out on their own.

«A family from Chelyabinsk stayed with me for 10 days this summer. Mom, dad, and two girls aged 10 and 12. Room cleaning is not provided by me; all necessary equipment: vacuum cleaner, mop is provided. But these people weren»t concerned with cleanliness; the parents drank heavily. When they moved out, I opened the door and gasped: in the middle of chaos, a cat was giving birth. And not mine. Everything was scattered, a pillow was torn and feathers everywhere. As if they fled. Over the phone, they told me that they found the cat when they were returning from a restaurant quite drunk, and took pity on her. And she turned out to be pregnant,« Svetlana recounted.

She had to deal with the cat, and then also find homes for the kittens. By the way, she remained living with Svetlana. She says that soft-hearted tourists brought several dogs to the guest house, and one family left their own. She couldn«t reach them by phone; possibly they put Svetlana»s number on the blacklist.

Several times a season, she has to call the water utility and clean the pipes; guests persistently flush wet wipes, diapers, and even towels down the toilet. And then they complain that there are problems with the sewage.

«The most undemanding are Siberians»

Elena works as a maid in one of the large and expensive hotels in Sochi; it«s not customary to air dirty laundry there—you can get fired for that, so we won»t give her last name. She has many stories related to trashed rooms. These New Year holidays, another one occurred that even shocked her. A honeymoon suite, costing 25,000 rubles per day (about $278 at current rates), was rented by a young married couple. They spent 4 days in the hotel and didn«t leave the room, refused cleaning, only ordered food from the restaurant and alcohol. At the same time, they behaved noisily and argued all the time. After they checked out, the maids were horrified.

«All the light-colored covering was soaked with blood. The entire bathroom was covered in blood. Apparently they not only argued but also fought. Dirty plates with dried food everywhere, garbage, empty bottles. They smoked in the room. The manager contacted them; they refused to compensate for the damage. They cursed at her and told her to go to court. How it all ended, I don»t know,« says Elena. She has been working as a maid in various Sochi hotels for 20 years. And she is sure that the more expensive the property, the bolder the people who stay there. They think that if they paid a lot, they can do whatever they want.

«Drunk men run naked through the corridors, scream, bring women of easy virtue, are not ashamed of anything. They behave rudely, and we are generally lower-class people to them—servants. Drunkenness is the best rest for them. That»s where all the problems come from. A sober person wouldn«t behave like that. But I won»t say that it«s exactly mass. Many of our guests treat staff respectfully and take care of the room,» says Elena.

According to her observations, the most intellectual guests are Muscovites, in second place—residents of St. Petersburg. The noisiest and most demanding—are tourists from Rostov, Voronezh, Krasnodar. The most undemanding and friendly—are Siberians.