Should I add Washing machine charges?

[Jaimee1]

I'm interested in finding out how many other hosts out there charge for washing machine usage if it's not an amenity you offer as part of your room fee?

[Marjan27]

True. They can abuse the amenity. My guest just wants to wash few clothes but couple of loud because he's separating black and white shirts! What a selfish person. Then he's making me feel bad when I explained him how expensive water is in Souther California and every resident here are responsible to save water.

[Jonathan-And-Lauren0]

Jane,

I have this one lady staying with me and she is really abusing the washer/dryer. She has been washing several loads a day for 5 days. I don’t know what to do. There has been times where she will leave the house and when I finally try to seize my chance to wash... I find that there are done clothes in dryer and washer. It’s so frustrating. I had to finish her laundry for her and put all her stuff in my only hamper. Idk what is going on. 

[Leeann9]

Wondering how much people charge for a wash and dry when renting through Airbnb?

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I only let guests staying for more than 1 week to use my laundry machine (detergent and fabric softener provided) at no additional cost. I haven't had this happen but if a short term guest asked about laundry, I'd be willing to add a few of the guest's items in with my own - but not a separate full load. If they need to do a full load, they can go to the laundromat down the street 🙂 

[Melissa304]

I was wondering if I actually have to allow guests to use it. I had one guest break my dryer door (and not say anything), other guests throw my clothes out the dryer, and others wash almost every day for two or three things. its such a waste of energy! I also had someone coming for three days (from summer camp no less) expecting to wash two months of clothes. 

[Maureen116]

Our home and guest cottage is lcoated on a small gulf island in BC. We have drought conditions every summer and must practice water conservation. We charge $2.50 per load. The cost is because we have to get water specially delivered if our well and cisterns run dry. No dry ups this drought season, but last year we ended up having water trucked in twice. Also, hydro here is insanely expensive. 

[Kostas0]

I had been providing the washing machine for free, only to realise that people were abusing it to wash clothes before they get back to their homes. Also after some time it broke down and had to replace it with a significant cost. It played absolutely no role to book my flat or raise the price. Is there any way to officially add this service in Airbnb platform rather than asking cash on hand? Last time one of my guests used it without my permission and said “I only pay money through the platform”. I’d like to help people and they need to be reasonable.

[Alice491]

I've put a note on my washing machine if $5 per load. We have a drought in Australia and I don't think it fair that people use it for free. I am dumbfounded at other things people do. I find the best solution is if the airbnb cleaning fee was a percentage of your nightly fee for all of us. Ironically the people who stay the longest create the greatest mess I have to clean whilst the shorter term stayers leave everything pretty fine. I've played around with cleaning fee versus higher nightly rate but I still feel it's not enough for the mess the longer term stayers create

[Victoria567]

Hi@Alice

I do not Do long term rentals, just 3 nights maximum, so it’s usually one night stays by guests who are touring Scotland for several weeks.

Many of these guests use my washing machine and electric tumble drier.

It is NOT free and I charge £5 per load for washing machine including detergent and softener. I charge £5 per load for the electric tumble drier, for an hours drying time.

I do not let the guests open, close or operate the machines in my utility room but I supervise them loading the machines( overloading a machine will also unbalance the spinning drum and ruin it) and unloading them, as I set the cycles to exactly one hour.

Everyone, bar one couple of entitled girls from Utah, refused to pay up.

I had to get air bnb involved, they still refused to pay up!

My listing WAS clear about these charges, as was my email via air bnb, so air bnb paid me from their own funds.

[Brenda183]

Well I haven't charged for laundry as of yet and I've had over 20 guests so far, but now I'm settiing a 3 load limit per week because my current guest is doing a load every night!  It's getting out of hand, especially using the dryer so much. (not cheap to run at all!)

[Sarah327]

We have a washing machine and dryer in an outside barn (our utility room of sorts). We did not allow guests to use it. Mainly because the barns are old, dirty and full of our junk. We only recently began offering a paid laundry service, just below the local launderette prices, as a guest who recently booked has a young baby and said she would need to wash clothes every day (for her week's stay). Firstly, as we share these facilities with guests and would need to do the washing for them, because of our set up, this seemed completely unreasonable to me. Hence why we instigated a charge. 

In the meantime, before the above mentioned guest has even stayed, another guest, again with a young baby, is currently staying for 8 nights. Shortly after they arrived (they've only been in since Sunday), windows were being opened and left open. This is odd behaviour for our guests in general and even more so at this time of year as it still gets a little chilly at night and they have a young baby (four months old).

At one point I had to contact the guest to say I'm going in to shut the windows because they'd gone out, leaving them open and the property insecure. Thus invalidating our insurance. When I did dash upstairs to shut one of the windows there were piles of clothes everywhere, clothes soaking in the bath tub and washing hanging from anything it could be hung from. It's utter chaos!

By opening all the windows the guest is also letting all the heat out of the property - or more precisely our money as oil fired central heating is hardly cheap to run. The other issue is they are causing excessive damp and moisture in our lovely old property. The last thing we need is for them to cause mould!

Clearly this guest is unwilling to take their clothes to the launderette and unwilling to pay me to wash them. We live onsite (next door to the property) and I am at a loss what to do. We simply cannot have guests use the bath tub to wash their clothes and hang them all over the place causing damp and damage.

I contacted Airbnb about the open windows and mentioned the washing being everywhere. However, they weren't too helpful about it and said it would likely result in a cancellation.

I am at a total loss what to do and cannot bear the thought of raising the issue with the guests or them staying 5 more nights as they do not check out until Monday.

Any advice or suggestions on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated!

[Ana1136]

@Sarah327 well there is not much you can do except to contact the guests and let them know that you offer washing services which would save your guests time and effort. Also let them know that there are washing facilities nearby. If they are reasonable guests they will understand. If not you can only stay quiet and they will continue to wash clothes every day. 

[Sarah977]

@Sarah327  I don't see anything wrong with guests using the bathtub to wash out some clothes, but hanging them all over things is of course not okay, as it will likely lead to water damage. Perhaps you could provide an outdoor clothesline or drying rack for guests to use?

I don't offer use of my washing machine, but if I have guests who stay for more than 5 days, I'll often ask them if they have a few small thngs they want to add if I'm doing my own wash, and they always appreciate this. Many of my guests wash out small items in their bathroom sink and hang them to dry on the balcony railing right outside their door.

[Roberta556]

I ve had people staying for as less as one night and they did a couple of loads and I ve had people staying for ten days and they they only did a couple of loads all stay long. However I was really concerned when i had people who ran the washing machine all day long almost every day of their stay and they stayed for over a week. Now I put it in my house rules to use the washing machine sensibly and that a more than a load every 3 days is unacceptable. I also put down that a €2 contribution per load is greatly appreciated.

[Mike1034]

I have a few guests coming with loads of unwashed clothes. In one of my listings, I don't provide the laundry. There is a laundry facility 2-3 blocks away. The other listings only have long-term guests. I do provide them for free usage for their convenience and the laundry facility is 1-2 miles away, which is relative far.