My cleaners are late and she asked to be paid

[Jing259]

We are super new to the Airbnb world. We just started this summer and we had this cleaner who’s pricy but seems knowledgeable.

The cleaners usually comes before the next bookings to make sure that there is no bugs/mice poop in the house because  the house is in rural area.

We have booking last weekend Friday - Sunday. Last Thursday , cleaner called me saying that she is coming in around 11 the next day.

11am, didn't show up.

12pm, I texted her about something of the house, no reply.

2pm, didn’t show up we started to be worried, bc she is not picking up her phone either. We kept calling her but nothing.

3pm, didn’t show up. And not picking up the phone. The house is big, there is no way that they are gonna finish the house up in time for the guests. Knowing the guest gonna check in at 4pm we reached out to the guests and offer them waived of the cleaning fee bc of the inconvenience. 

at about 4:15 they showed up. So did the guests. The guests were in and around of the house while they were cleaning. the guests are cool about it since I reached out to them first. 

Afterwards, around 6pm that day, cleaner started to reach out. The cleaner said that she did not guarantee that she is coming at 11 and this is how she run the business. She said she talked to the guests( b/c she is a cohost too) that the guests were not suppose to come until 6pm(which she did not communicate that with me) That’s why she was late and her phone was broken so she cannot reach me. Not her fault at all. (She also mentioned that she said she had to go to another house to do unplanned cleaning bc a friend asked for help) 

After I told her that she has to be responsible for the loss of cleaning fee she got super furious, start yelling at me through the phone, and text bombing me with threat to go to court and put a lien on my house. She said the even guests were okay about it.( of courses, I offered comp) 

Of course that we are not going back to her anymore.  But I am really a new Airbnb host and I didn’t sign a contract with her when we started.  The cleaning fee is $350 for a 4bd house. I could have just give it to her and never see her again and save me the trouble to travel 3hr for potential court. But it just doesn’t seem right. What would you do? 

[Gwen386]

@Jing259 Sorry, but the onus is on you to provide a clean rental for your guest. It doesn’t matter that you comped guest for the cleaning fee. And, the cleaner eventually came and cleaned the house—so YES, she should be paid!

Let this be a very valuable lesson-learned. If you are unable to inspect or clean your rental yourself, you MUST have a backup plan in place, whether it’s a substitute cleaner or a co-host. Once you were unable to contact your cleaner, you should have either found someone else or driven the 3 hours to clean the rental yourself. You may think I’m being harsh, but I’m not. This is the cost of doing business. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jing259 I agree with @Gwen386 's reply but would also add that sending cleaners in to clean up mouse droppings is ridiculous. If you have droppings then you have mice and you need to deal with this properly rather than just cleaning up their droppings.