What do you do about garbage day?

[Ladan1]

Our home is located in a residential area and after each check-out, our cleaner takes all the trash out to the bins. Well, we have garbage collection day on Thursdays and we've included in our rules that guests must take the bins out to the curb on Wednesday evenings and bring them back in on Thursday afternoons. We remind the guest in the check-in instructions and send a message to them on Wednesday afternoon reminding them to take the bins to the curb. It's the only chore we ask of our guests, but that's because we don't have the luxury of having a home in an apartment complex or somewhere where garbage is automated.

So far it's been hit and miss with guests. Some completely ignore us. Some tell us it's not their job (even though it's clearly listed as a rule...similar to how some places have quiet hours, etc.). Sometimes we get an amazing guest who doesn't mind at all and doesn't complain.

Sometimes the check-out coincides with a cleaning day, so our cleaner is more than happy to do so. We'd do it ourselves, but we live more than an hour away...so we can't drive down there (especially when a guest ignores us and we don't know if they actually took it to the curb or not).

Is anyone else in a similar situation? If so, how do you get your guests to take the bins to the curb and bring them back in?

[Edwin57]

We are lucky our garbage is three days out of the week Friday is bulk day I tell my guest to but it on the hallway pluse I us a cleaning company call s&b cleaning services inc that does the all hallway and also the front of the building some of my guest ask me they can take car of it I tell them the calling company takes care of it ther reply is thank you

[Kelly149]

@Ladan1 Perhaps make Wednesday a cheaper rental fee? Include this in your text for the listing that it MUST be done?

OR tell guests that someone will drop by to do it unless they would like a $10?? credit to their bill if they do it. 

No matter how you do it a guest could still mess it up. Is there a neighbor or the cleaners who could do it every week & just leave the guests out of it?

[Joy243]

I am struggling with this, too.  I am considering building some sort of corral where the cans are left that is accessible for the city trash pick up and have people take their bagged trash to the cans.  That would work in my particular neighborhood as there is no HOA that would preclude it.

[Mark116]

If someone told me it 'wasn't their job' to take the trash out to the curb when it was in the rules they agreed to, I would be very, very tempted to call airbnb to rehouse them, and I would absolutely give them a thumbs down.

You could add it to the greeting message where you are including whatever you highlight to guests when they book, to make sure they see it, you could also add a fine for not removing the garbage to the rules, though it would be more of a pre emptive measure as I doubt you could ever collect it, but it might be a motivator for people to do it.

[Kristy43]

We only have fortnightly collection which makes things quite tricky.  For guests that stay on collection day, I usually send them a message to say that I will pop over to pop the bins out for them and that I won't enter the house/interrupt them etc..... 9 times out of 10, people reply that they are happy to do it themselves for me and pop them back afterwards.  The strategy works well!!!

[Jeremy-And-Shilo0]

Hi everyone,

We struggled with the same issue around what to do with garbage collection. Wondering if any of you would be interested in a paid weekly garbage collection service? This would eliminate the burden placed on the guests, and to remove garbage hanging around for days or weeks on end. 

The service would be around $150 /month. 

I appreciate any feedback you can provide.

thanks

Jeremy

[Aviva17]

We decided to try and hire the teenager across the street to take the bins out and bring them back in on trash day. Hopefully this works! It is his chore at his own home and would just take him an extra couple minutes to do ours as well. 

[Karol22]

I definitely cannot depend on my guests to take garbage out to the curve. A while back I decided to pay my cleaner to come to take the trash out to the curve the day before trash day, and then I have them come back to clean the common areas and bring the trash bins back into the home. I pay my cleaners an extra $10 to come out a second time for the week to take the trash out and since she's not to far away, it works out.

[Angela3989]

@Hello! I agree with the others who've said to pay someone to do it. Either the cleaners or a neighborhood teen you can give $10 to. Perhaps a nearby adult neighbor. This is where the trend today of neighbors not even knowing who each other is let alone speaking starts to show it's downsides! Any place I've ever stayed in Airbnb, the cans have just miraculously appeared at the curb. That's really how it should be. Remember, people do not expect chores beyond leaving the place tidy. They are on vacation and if they'd been in a hotel, they don't take out trash. Having chores is one of the major gripes from guests all across social media. Best!