Problem with Guest's end of Stay Clean

[Simon690]

Had a guest who originally booked for a month, then extended to 2, then to 3, then added a final extra week.  All good, and glad for the business.  To recognise the guest's long stay i offered a reduced rate for the extra week - being the first week of the calendar month I was even hesitant to allow this week to be booked, as many guests are looking for exact calendar month stays.

One week before checkout I reminded the guest of the terms with regards the end of stay clean (which are also detailed in the listing). A 2-hour post-stay clean is included in the price paid, but if additional hours are required these will be billed at £18/hr (had the booking originally been for 3 months I would most likely have increased the cleaning charge to cover more hours).  Most previous guests have left the property requiring less than, or if more than 2hours, only slightly.  Rarely have i had to charge for additional hours.  Of course, the charge is within my gift to waive should I feel the guest merits it (for being easy to deal with/ going above and beyond were issues to have arisen).

At checkout, it becomes apparent that the guest has done zero cleaning, which after a 3-month stay means there is a considerable amount of work needed to restore the property to the required condition for the next guest who arrives midday the next day (24 hours later).  I take some photos of some of the issues, and get stuck in.  Nowhere has been touched.  Bathroom, bedroom, sitting room, kitchen, hallway, deep dirt everywhere.  8 hours later (at 8pm) i finally stop for the night.  I message the guest to say I was surprised at the condition the property was left in.  No response.  Next morning, as I am still cleaning and preparing for the next guest, I sent a payment request for 3 additional hours cleaning (half of the extra 6, as a compromise).  The guest refuses to pay, says that it is mean spirited of me to ask for more money after the amount they had paid for the 3 months, and in any case, the property was not dirty to require so much time to clean.   The guest also says that they are not prepared to pay for my time - the additional charge should only be for a professional cleaner.

Escalating to Airbnb achieves nothing, they side with the guest, my photos were insufficient to backup my claim.  

I am dumbfounded.  Where is the host support?  What proof would suffice?  My time has value, and as i don't know how long it will take to do the post-stay clean it makes no sense to employ a cleaner.  In any case, I am no slouch when it comes to preparing a property - the charge made is fair.

Have lost all confidence in Airbnb to adjudicate issues.  And for guests to respect the house rules they sign up to when they book.

Constructive thoughts welcome.

[Debra300]

@Simon690,

It is in Airbnb's policies that a request for additional cleaning costs does not cover the host's time, only for a professional cleaner or additional supplies used to clean the space.  If you have receipts for renting a steam cleaner that probably would have been covered.  Next time this happens, be sure to get an official quote or receipt from a professional cleaner.

[Simon690]

As there is no way of knowing how long the clean will take, it is simply not practical to employ a professional.  I have charged for my time for more than 6 years.  Whether it is me, or someone else, makes no difference to the guest, the charge is still the same.  

[Simon690]

Can you show me where that policy is stated in Airbnb's terms and conditions.  The cleaning fee that is already included in the price the guest pays is for me to do the cleaning.  I see no reason why there should be a different policy for charging for additional hours should the guest no leave the property suitably clean post stay.

[Debra300]

@Simon690,

I looked on Google for the Host Guarantee ToS:https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2869/host-guarantee-terms-and-conditions

I also searched for how to submit a claim: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/361/how-do-i-request-reimbursement-under-the-host-guarantee

Both articles state that you have to provide receipts.  I cannot find it right now, maybe it's in the Airbnb ToS, but host's are not compensated for their time.  This is common for most insurance coverages, the time of the insured is excluded from compensation.  For example, if you submit a claim to your home owner's insurance to repair broken windows caused by a storm, they will only accept quotes from professionals, and would not pay you for your time if you said that you could do the clean up and repair yourself.  However, you probably would get reimbursed for the materials purchased to board up the window openings, or special equipment used to clean up and dispose of the debris.

These are my recommendations: 

1. Increase the amount of money/time allotment for cleaning in your nightly rate (this will result in either/both a price/profit adjustment).  You have the Enhanced Cleaning badge on your listing, and there just is no way that level of cleaning can be performed in two hours.  
2. Stipulate in the Things to Know section and your house rules, the fees for excess cleaning, and provide some description of the condition the space should be left upon departure (spills and dropped items picked up, no food left in dishes/pots & pans, no bathtub or toilet ring, no stains and rips in linen and furnishing, etc.).  Also, send the guest a checkout list with cleaning tasks that should be done.  Since you've signed up for enhanced cleaning, you have agreed to provide cleaning supplies for the guest to use during their stay.
3. When you submit a claim to Airbnb, include a quote/receipt from a professional with the pictures, videos, etc.

[Simon690]

I am not making an insurance claim, I am asking the guests to merely keep to the terms of the house rules they agree to on booking.  The 2-hour post-stay clean is clearly stated there.  Equally, 1 week prior to checkout guests are reminded of this, with more details given in the email, and they are also directed to a folder in the flat with even more details about what is expected/ included.  Should this leave doubts they are asked to contact me.   So no, there is no requirement to be even more precise.  The guest knew what he was doing.

Up until now guests have, on the odd occasion when required, paid this extra cleaning fee.  Even damages, when claimed, do not always require a receipt to prove the cost of replacement.  All that matters is that the amount requested be 'reasonable'.  We are not dealing with an insurance company, this is merely upholding the house rule about additional cleaning fees.  Whether it is me or the Queen doing the cleaning, the fee is £18/hour.  This is supposed to act as a deterrent, rather than a money making scheme.  Maybe this should be increased to £25/hr

Were the guest to have booked 3 months at the outset then the cleaning charge would most likely have been increased.  As it stands, he made no contact with me prior to checkout to discuss, simply leaving without doing anything.  I would have waived any extra time had he had the courtesy to do something, to show intent, but his attitude was to stick a finger up and say 'up yours'.  Nothing that had occurred between us prior to that merited that behaviour.

[Debra300]

@Simon69,

When you submitted your request for money through the resolution center, that is a claim under the host guarantee program, which is Airbnb's host insurance.

I agree that the behavior of guests has downgraded lately, and as hosts we have to adjust to managing our clientele.  You have decided to stop hosting for a few months.  In July 2019, one of your responses to a review said, "As for cleaning, well, it is an unsaid expectation that guests will desire to keep the flat clean for themselves during their stay."  That experience with the guest should have been your alarm that you need to explicitly stated in your house rules the cleaning requirements.

These are the things that I do to try to manage my guests' expectations and behavior:

1. The cleaning fee is separate from the room rate.  Although we did not sign up for the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol, we always have had a very stringent cleaning process.  I increased the fee to account for the additional time to clean everything in the kitchen, and the cleaning supplies provided to guests.  This amount covers for six hours of a cleaner's time.
2. For longer-term stays, I require separate 30 day reservations (this is an easy out for both me and the guest in case it's not a good fit), and after the first month I discount, but do not remove the cleaning fee on the subsequent bookings, because as you observed, the space may require a professional deep cleaning after checkout.  I charge about 25% of the initial cleaning fee.
3. I read your house rules, and although you do mention the amount allotted for gas and electric use and water the outdoor plans, there is nothing about cleaning.  Since guests agree to house rules when booking, that means they'd have to pay more if utilities go over £50.  The plants requirement is hard to enforce, because there really any penalty for failing to do so.  However, sending a guest emails about checkout directions isn't a binding agreement on their part, because it wasn't in the listing description and house rules.  Personally, I have a long list of items in my house rules, and I remind guests in my greeting message to review the house rules again and ask questions, because by booking they have agreed to follow the rules.

[Simon690]

The requirement re 2-hour post stay clean is indeed in the listing.  The problem is now that there is a lot of information in the listing, and maybe the guest does not read it all.  Prior to instant bookings, when guests sent requests, I would always highlight the salient requirements when responding to the request, and never therefore had any issues.  

After checkin I refer guests to my in house folder, which has more information about house rules and the end of stay clean.  I am always on hand during the reservation to answer questions and concerns.  The guest had a whole week to bring up the issue of the post stay clean if they were not happy with the terms as stated - instead, he chickened out, did no cleaning, and chose to lie to Airbnb to get out of paying for his mess to be cleaned.  Other than video myself cleaning, for 8 hours, it seems the requirements airbnb has are unrealistic - i once had a guest use up a printer ink cartridge, having pointed out that the printer was there should they need to print out the odd page or two, but not 100s (cartridges cost £25), and when I requested £10 to cover the cost of the ink the guest refused to pay,  Airbnb said that i needed to provide photographic evidence of the guest using the printer.  Sure - here's my secret surveillance video of the guest inside my property.  Sometimes, i think they have no idea what they are asking.

The guest you quote left the flat in a very poor state - two girls, they had swept the floor, leaving all their hair and dirt in a large pile in one corner.  When i mentioned using the vacuum cleaner that is provided, they said they didn't know they were required to vacuum too.  Gross.  The amount of wear and tear the two left from one month was greater than most people for 6.  The place was filthy.  Charged them only 1 hour extra, when really it was way more.  Again, she/ they were well aware of the terms of the end of stay clean as they had been informed a week prior to check out as usual.  No questions were raised.  

[Simon690]

Airbnb’s Host Guarantee is not an insurance policy - I quote from their text

[Debra300]

@Simon690,

You're correct, it does say that, but it is administered in the same fashion in that it does state payment requests must include proof of the cost or value of the loss.  For most situations that means a receipt or quote.

It is highly unlikely that you will get reimbursement for the extra cleaning that was performed.  However, you now know what's required for payment request submittal to Airbnb, and hosts have provided you some other tips, also.  Good luck.

[Lorna170]

@Simon690      I have rented long term, but I include a mini cleaning every two weeks.  This means that either I or a housekeeper come in to clean the bathrooms, wipe down the kitchen, wash the floor, vacuum and dust, all while the guest is physically present and/or has agreed to the housekeeping in their absence.  This means that the cleaning at the end of the month rental is not overwhelmingly excessive, and the guest is made aware of my expectations as to their care of the property.  If the guest does not agree to the cleaning schedule which is sent to them immediately upon booking if not before, they are advised to cancel their booking.  I do not know how to meet the current AirBnB cleaning standards with this scenario, so I am not currently accepting bookings longer than 2 weeks.

If I had found my property in the condition that your guest had left it in, I would have called in a housekeeper (friend) for a quote and for assistance.  Then you would have had a bill to present to AirBnB.  

[Simon690]

Many thanks for your reply.

As detailed initially, this was supposed to be a 1-month booking, that grew to a 3-month + 1 week booking.  When I hand over my property it is always spotless.  Most of my guests stay 1 month.  Within this time the level of post-stay clean requirement will be slight, even if the guest has done minimal cleaning.  But after 3 months, the requirements will be far greater - as mentioned, I remind the guest 1 week prior to checkout that only a 2-hour post-stay clean is included in the price paid, and direct them to a property folder which further elaborates on the areas that they should include in their end of stay clean.

My property is not a hotel, and it is simply unrealistic to offer guests an unlimited post-stay clean - can you imagine the time/ money you'd need to spend dealing with that?  There are simply too many areas for the guest to 'abuse' - the amount of time it takes to clean an oven, hobs and extractor after someone with an obsession for fried food would on its own take several hours.  

The suggestion to send in a cleaner every fortnight is not without merit.  I have been hosting for 6 years, and in my experience most of the guests understand the ethos of Airbnb, and have been respectful to the house rules.  But lately the guests have been an absolute nightmare, for one reason or another, and the ethos has it seems disappeared.  Guests no longer seem to care that they are using someone's home, their pride and joy, rather this is simply somewhere for them to stay on the cheap and make as much mess as they wish, whilst bringing any petty issue they can find to the fore and  hoping that will get them a discount/ rebate.

Given my recent experience I have decided to cease hosting.

[Ute42]

.

Hi  @Simon690  

I believe I have detected 2 fields of problems (I am german, Problemfeld = problemfield).

3 hrs cleaning

When I attempt to book Your place for the month of may 2021, a price of 1895 Euros is displayed. This monthly rate includes a cleaning fee of 39 Euros.

As You said in Your opening post, Your guest had extended her stay 3 times. 2 times for a month and once for a week. So we are looking at:

3 month à 1895 Euros = 5685.00 Euros

1 week....................................473.75 Euros

----------------------------------------------

Total.......................................6158,75 Euros

This total includes 4 x 39 = 156.00 Euros in cleaning fees.

Maybe Your guest feels, that after having payed 6000+ Euros for the place and 156 Euros for cleaning already, asking for another 3 hrs of cleaning is disproportionate?

Pls don't ge me wrong, I don't doubt that You're in the right to ask for these 3 extra hours of cleaning as You made it absolutely clear to all of Your guests that they have to tidy up at checkout themselfes:

• It's part of Your rental contract

• 1 week prior to checkout guests are reminded of this,
  with more details given in an email

• they are also directed to a folder in the flat with even
  more details about what is expected

• Should this leave doubts they are asked to contact me

If they don't follow these stipulations, an extra cleaning fee may be due. So You are absolutely clear about the situation, but perhaps Your guest thought that this is still disproportionate?

Too many rules

Your last guest wrote in her review:

• The stipulations did feel quite overwhelming for us, as we haven’t had to worry about those things at some other airbnbs in the past.

I have no idea what kind of stipulations You have in place, but I did take a look at Your listing.

On Your patio there are 3 traffic signs:

• there's a speed limit of 20 (I assume kilometers per hour)

• there's a sign that says „NO ENTRY“

• and there's a sing that says: „please stand on the right“

Don't You think it's a little bit over the top to tell Your guests to stand on the right on Your patio? Maybe these traffic signs finally triggered Your guest to complain about „overwhelming stipulations“.

cc: @Debra300 @Lorna170 

[Simon690]

Haha re the stipulations.  The guest who left that feedback was a complete numpty, I was merely attempting to explain to her about the need to be aware of condensation, to air the property as much as possible.  Nothing too taxing, one would have thought.  Her feedback is symptomatic of the problem with recent guests - I send guests an email the evening after they checkin, saying how nice is was to meet them, and i hope they are settling well, and finding everything they are looking for.  99% of the time guests respond with a quick 'yes, everything ok thanks' or similar.  These guests did not respond at all.  I then usually send another courtesy checkup email, one week to 10 days into the reservation, again checking all is ok.  I ask them to get in touch if ever there is an issue that requires attention.  Again no reply.  So when the guest's feedback at the end of stay complained about poor wifi, noisy neighbours and a few other things, I can only be exasperated.  You cannot complain about things that you do not give the host a chance to assist with.  And if you mention noisy neighbours, maybe you need to mention too that you stayed over Xmas and New Year, when people might be a little noisier than usual.  But the real clincher was that the guest had failed to notice a massive amount of condensation build up - this has never happened before - which had in fact become mouldy.  Never happened before.  Not happened since.  No idea how the guests could not notice it as it was all over one wall.  Quite what they did to let that occur who knows.  But the guest of course blamed that all on me.

[Sarah977]

I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say you sent the guests an email- you mean an Airbnb message or an actual email to their email address? In any case, many hosts have realized that some guests don't have their Airbnb notifications turned on, and many people never check their email, or may only do so sporatically. 

So when you don't get a response from a guest, don't just assume they are ignoring your message- try sending them a text message to their phone instead. If they answer that, then you can ask them to please turn on their Airbnb message notifications. 

And Airbnb notification alerts can be glitchy- I had a month once where my Airbnb text alerts totally stopped coming. If that happened to a guest, they wouldn't know they had a message from you,  and they wouldn't have any reason to check their Airbnb Inbox during their stay unless they were communicating with a future host.

@Simon690