How much do you pay a cleaner?

[Megan822]

We live in Northeast Massachusetts and have a 2-bedroom apartment that is set to sleep 5. There is a king bed in one room and a queen bed with a twin loft in the other. I request that all bedding, towels, and dishes be washed every time, even if they don't "look" used. Cleaner leaves all the used bedding at the foot of the back stairs and I wash, dry, fold for the next clean. I provide gloves, cleaning products, and masks. 

The entire process, including the dry time on the towels, is greater than 1 hour, but less than 2. 

My husband and I are at odds with how much to pay. Our cleaner is a young adult, this is a second job, and she is brand new to cleaning; but she is eager, trustworthy (worth its weight in gold to me), and dependable. 

Question 1: What do you think is a reasonable fee?

Question 2: What about a bonus incentive if the guest leaves a 5-star review and specifically mentions the cleanliness of the property? 

Question 3: Any other thoughts? 

[Mary996]

Thank you so much  @Huma0 for all this great information and for your kind thoughts. I'm so sorry that you lost Superhost status. Some say its unimportant and doesn't stop guests booking but I can really understand your feelings and sense of pride in what you do. Oh yes the gut instinct. It is important to listen isn't it. I've learned a few things along the way. Accidentally accepted someone who had one hidden absolutely appalling review ....eeeek. It said that he had locked himself in the room, made threats etc. He was in our place before we realised the risk. We pussyfooted around him and avoided any issue. So relieved when he left!!

[Huma0]

@Mary996 

We have gone a bit off topic, but I'm interested to hear how the guest's review was hidden and how you managed to find it afterwards.

The recent guests who marked me down were nowhere near as bad as that but I really didn't enjoy hosting either of them and was very happy when they were gone. There weren't major red flags with them but there were communication issues during the booking process that I should have given more weight to, especially with one of them who seemed very focused on her own specific needs, i.e. bombarding me with questions and requests like a very late check in, but totally ignoring my questions and then going ahead and instant booking when I had specifically told her she needed to answer those questions first.

In hindsight, I should have cancelled her (especially as I had a lovely guest staying who wanted to extend for another month and couldn't because this girl IBed the room first) but the red flags didn't seem major enough and you only get 3 x guaranteed penalty free IB cancellations a year.

Anyway, lesson learnt. I immediately turned off IB after that experience (even before she left the review) so that this couldn't happen again.

[Mary996]

@Huma0 Oh what a shame especially as you could have extended an existing guest. In a way it would be good and would make sense to be able to do that in preference to taking in someone new. Extending an existing guest would make perfect sense all round.

Cancelling someone means overriding their request and refusing them? I can think of at least one situation when I should have done this!!

@Megan822 Thanks so much for raising your issue. I do hope you feel you got some help and please excuse us going off topic but its just soooo interesting to explore these other matters. 

How was a review hidden? It was simply buried in among more recent reviews that had been quite neutral as I remember, or even positive. I think he came through via IB and more or less arrived before we had taken stock. We looked at the reviews in full thereafter....definitely the wrong order of events(!!)  but with IB things do happen quickly. Bit like road-side B and B's I suppose, when people just turn up out of the blue. I am grateful for the interface that Airbnb presents and for the money handling aspect. I do really appreciate the organisation for that. I also like how we can make suggestions and offer feedback and to some extent take responsibility for contributing to the management. OK we don't have total control as its not a co-op - but there are advantages  to an independent leadership. My daughter and I have had to stop hosting due to her moving for work and taking one of our horses with her, who then had an accident, so I'm not really aware of how things are operating differently but it seems there are various issues and I'm happy to help to work these through as you probably are too @Huma0 since I detect your very positive 'can do' mindset. I'm not sure how guests find us but it might be by doing a map search with the pins? Is that still working? I did try to do a search for a holiday but was a bit overwhelmed and couldn't move on from the first page that was presented! I do like the categories its fun to consider all the options but even if we go back to how things were (or land a mix) I'm glad that the leadership were able to try out new strategies and to be creative.  I felt inspired to see all the presentations of this experiment. If it hasn't worked out then I'm sure the management will revert or review and extract the aspects that do work. Two systems side by side? These are big people who probably won't be too attached to ideas that haven't taken off but who are going to stick with it and will see things through and to put matters right where needed.

[Huma0]

@Mary996 

No, I didn't mean refusing a request, I meant cancelling an instant booking. With instant book, you can cancel three times a year penalty free (after that you have to contact Airbnb CS and argue your case) if you feel uncomfortable with the guest or that they are going to break your house rules.

I did feel a bit uncomfortable about that guest but not to the extent that I felt I could cancel her in good conscience. I normally save those penalty free cancellations for things like third party bookings or guests that are uncommunicative or refuse to answer any questions, or other massive red flags and first I would ask the guest to cancel from their end. 

This guest had good reviews though and, even though she didn't answer my questions before booking, at least she was communicating. She left me 4* which I suppose is not terrible. She even said she would stay again (she won't because I blocked her), but I felt ill at ease with her in the house the entire month she was here. Lurking under the friendly veneer was a lot of thinly veiled negativity and aggression.

The guest who wanted to extend, in contrast, was one of the loveliest, most positive and kind people I have ever met. I would have been delighted for her to stay another month. She told me one evening that's what she wanted to do but would let me know for sure in the morning. As the other guest had been sending me questions that afternoon, I went to my computer to block the dates but, as soon as I opened the laptop, my phone pinged and the new guest had instant booked. Honestly, if I had gone blocked the dates one minute earlier, I would have saved myself a lot of grief! 

I accepted it at the time as simply unfortunate, but in hindsight, I should have been more selfish, cancelled the booking and blocked the dates for the existing guest, which would have been good for her to as she was unable to find another airbnb she liked so ended up going home earlier than she wanted to. Yes, I always prefer to have a guest extend or a repeat guest than a new one, as long as that guest was not problematic. Better the devil you know, as they say!

I can see how things can move very quickly with an instant booking, especially if it's a last minute one. However, I always check all the guest's reviews and also try to remember to check the reviews they have left for hosts as these are often very telling. The terrible review you mentioned would have been enough for me to use that penalty free cancellation on that guy.

[Huma0]

@Mary996 

About the searches, yes I was also recently looking to book an airbnb stay and found the new system incredibly frustrating. I gave up several times but finally did find somewhere but only because I had a Superhost travel voucher to use up and therefore persisted. If I hadn't had the voucher, I would have given up and booked elsewhere.

While the categories can be fun to browse through, it's just confusing when you are actually looking to book something and you want more straightforward, traditional accommodation.