Do you allow guests to use your washing machine/dryer?

[Penny80]

We have only been hosting for a couple of months and nearly half our visitors are young chinese students who are always polite and quiet.  However, we have had one or two incidents where they have used our washing machine (and washing powder etc) without asking and expected to use the dryer too.  We never use our dryer in the summer - too expensive - but I'm just wondering what other hosts think of this.  

I feel that my husband and I are good hosts and our reviews are testament to that, but I personally wouldn't dream of going to stay in a B and B, or guest house and expect to use the washing machine and certainly not without asking.  We currently have some guests staying who want to cook in our kitchen!  Is it just me or are hosts expected to extend more than a bedroom and a bathroom to their guests?  We receive £48 per night (guests pay £50) and for that our guests have a good sized room with king sized bed, large TV with DVDs, teas, coffees, biscuits, continental breakfast, free WiFi, brochures/info for the area, magazines, tissues etc, their own shower room with shampoos/conditioner,  shower gels, towels etc. in a Grade 2 Georgian house, a short walk from the sea, the station and the town -  I actually don't know where else you'd get all that for the money!

[Lee197]

I'm staying at this super noisy fix/flip house type property in Phoenix... for 8 days. Host is adamantly refusing to let me do any laundry at all. I agree that longer term guests need this type of accomodation, but people staying 1-2 nights probably do not. At least you are generous and reasonable with guests who are longer term business clients. I sorely wish this was the case for me right now!

[Elena87]

@Penny80  Starting out as a naive host, I did include laundry on the facilities available at first.

Most guests didn't use it, however then I had a jogger who wanted to wash his kit in the machine every night for a week, single night guests who tried to do two loads, guest who switched the machine on at midnight, guest who can't read russian and set the machine for a three hour cycle - so as well as hacking me off a tad, often it got in the way of my personal routine with the hanging drier being used when I needed it.

So, I removed it off the listing as being available. I do offer use of the machine for guests who maybe stay over five days or if the weather is a bit bad, plus I add I must supervise the setting and so on to prevent problems and timings. Even then, few people take up the offer, so perhaps it's worth to try it.

With Chinese guests which I have regularly I've noticed they almost always handwash personal items each night in the bathroom and leave them hanging up to dry there, and it's not uncommon to see my bathroom decked out in what looks like underpants semaphore signals, so I now try to take preemptive measures by discussing this during arrival walk through.

[Penny80]

That would try anybody's patience! I don't know which is worse, the washing machine being used like that or your home decorated with underwear! Thank you for your good advice, Elena!

[Farah1]

@Elena87 if you are not comfortable having underwear hanging around, you can always put this in your house rules.

[Penny80]

Most of our guests stay for 1 or 2 nights as we're near the station and ferry so hopefully won't be too much of a problem. Thank you!

[Elena87]

@Farah1  Now if only guests actually read the house rules.

Well it's not the worst thing that can happen.

On the positive side the recent xxl pair left out, I stuck a picture on ebay advertising them as a full sized Fireman's safety net. Bids close on Thursday.

[Penny80]

Hahaha!! Good one 😂

[Zacharias0]

As many other hosts know I don't allow use of the washer and dryer. The first time I allowed it the guest from China broke my dryer knob while i was away and now I'm stuck with a dryer that is on whenever I close the door of the dryer. After that I removed all access and tell them in my rules in more than one place. Some arrive and ask and I say its not available and to go to the laundry mat. Ive also turned off the circuit breaker to both appliances as one guest felt the rules didn't apply to him and thought it was okay to wash a pair of socks in my washing machine.

Regarding the kitchen, Ive also removed access to the stove and oven. Even though I told them no in the rules some guests would rummage through my cabinets looking for pots and pans to cook with so I put those away in another locked closet. Nothing bothers me more than a random guest rummaging through my cabinets. Today, I forget that my panini press was in one of the cupboards and today found out a guest had used it. The worst part is they didn't bother to clean it. So I've put that away as well behind in the locked closet. This goes to show if you allow guest use of the kitchen be expected to clean up after them.

Keep in mind hostels and hotels don't have these amentities and guests are paying a lot more to stay in a hotel. A guest shouldn't expect to have access to those items unless you have specificially stated they are available. Its at the hosts discretion how much risk they want to expose themselves to, replacing a broken washer and dryer are not cheap.

[Penny80]

It's definitely being taken advantage of so will just be saying no to laundry and kitchen from now on! Thanks Zacharius.

[Todd-and-Reese0]

Just like everyone else has been saying, "not anymore". We started out letting folks use it and not one time did it go well. People left things in the washer to get moldy, or ran the equipment during quiet hours, and had too much or too little, or washed our linens and towels and ruined them, etc etc etc! We did try offering it for week-long stays, but that just meant others new we had the equipment and so 2-day stayers would ask to use it. We had people use it without asking once and it's in an off-limits area of the house. We now have it in the rules and house manual that we do not offer laundry and where the nearest laundromat is.

[Penny80]

I agree that the best thing is not to offer it at all - we have a launderette just down the road and that's where I'll be pointing! Thanks for your good advice.

[Michael956]

Wow!  I allow all my guests--short-term or not--to use my washer and dryer and have full access to my kitchen.  I can't imagine creating "no-go" zones in my house.  Guests rarely use the washer and so far everyone has kept the kitchen clean.  

[Gaybriel0]

I thought it was just me. My guests gets to use the kitchen freely. I expressly cleanliness, responsibility, and expectaion of care for my home in my description, plus I do a thorough check-in/walk-through. However, I have replaced my dryer before and now I am on my 2nd water heater within 10 years (which has nothing to do with the washer), but if I do extend the washer, it will be with a monthly fee $25 - $30/month as an add-on. There are many laundromats in the area and most my guest utilize this. I want my guest to feel at home. I include this in my cost, so I am rarely at the recommended AirBNB price, 

[Gabriella177]

No, but we do have an option for guests to ask for the washer if they need it. This keeps tham acting nice and they get a key to the locked loundry room. I bought electrolux washer for this purpose since it is durable and easy to use and it works so far

[Louise231]

Yeah this looks like an old thread that's been bumped up, but to add my few words..

Yes hostels offer laundry, (coin machines) so do hotels (pay per item) so it's not weird for guests used to either to want to occationally wash clothes. That said it's not an issue to charge and control it.

I let guests wash clothes, but they pay £10 per load, and they get given a basket that is the max load size- and i put it in the washer, when my own washing is done.

Plus they get told there is no dryer, and they need to be aware it'll take a day to dry, so people staying one night never take up the option or they're leaving with damp clothes.

I'm lucky my washer is seperate to the guest area so they couldn't just roam in and use, but i understand that alot of my international guests are travelling between airbnb's and hostels with short stays in each. So they have the option to wash stuff , but they don't take the micky or it's going to cost them a fortune.