Hi Kory,
Here's some info on how we handle longer stays.
- on our end, I consider a 'longer' stay 7 nights or more.
- supplies - if you haven't already, you may wish to offer additional quantity or additional options for supplies for a longer term stay. Additional options for cleaning, more paper products, if you don't offer some items for the 'regular' guest you could add some for this longer term
- garbage: our property is on a private road that doesn't have services, like garbage pick up, so we need to arrange privately, and for a longer stay we add a garbage pick up mid stay and let the guest know that someone will be on property to pick up. So far this has worked out with zero issues. The issue for a longer stay is the garbage smell build up, not necessarily the quantity, and so for 9 days, if you don't already have a method for the guest to easily remove garbage from the unit you may need to arrange.
- laundry - we have a washer, dryer, laundry soap and so a guest can do a load of laundry at any time, it seems you may not have this option on your end.
- for our longer stays our messaging includes asking if the guest wishes for us (via our cleaning crew) to swap out linens and do a cleaning service - fee would depend on what the guest wants done.
- we do not leave out any extra sheets for guests to swap out the sheets themselves (they obviusly can wash at any time though). We do have an abundance of bath towels. We leave a full set out in the bathroom with a full set under the cabinet for each bathroom. On your end, you could leave out 'extra' towels & sheets and direct guest to use as needed. You would need to provide a laundry basket for dirty collection if you don't already.
- in general I would say that a guest staying in a short term rental (versus a hotel) doesn't necessarily expect a hotel style service of linen change or clean, broadly speaking.
- offering this service to your guest at no charge would be a nice courtesy that they might be likely to decline as they don't want someone in-n-out OR you could find out from your cleaning crew what the charge would be to swap out linens and whatever else you deem necessary (garbage, re-supply, whatever) and ask guest if they wish to have this option for a fee.
- we have a statement in our listing that mid-stay clean, services are available for an additional fee and just depends on what the guest wishes to have done.
I think the idea of offering this service, whether for a fee or not, is a nice gesture and so adding this into your mix of messaging is a good idea for whatever your version of longer term stays.
Much success!
