Cleaning Standards for a Long-Term Stay - Seeking Guidance! :-)

[Ayo0]

Dear AirBnB Community,

Can anyone please help us with a question about hosting & cleaning standards?  We have been hosting on AirBnB (mostly short-term visitors) for just over a year now, with great experience and reviews!!  🙂  Unfortunately, we are currently having issues with an extremely difficult long-term guest.  😕

This guest is staying with us for six weeks (2.5 of which have passed), and we charged a one-time $41 cleaning fee, which we used to make both her suite and all common areas spotlessly clean with a professional cleaner prior to check-in day.  My husband and I take out the garbage, compost and recycling daily, we clean all dishes immediately and we also wash kitchen countertops daily.  Per her demands (not requests, these are pretty nasty sometimes yelling and sometimes passive-aggressive demands), we are now also washing the kitchen floors twice a day and cleaning the shared shower daily.  (She has her own private half bathroom in her suite, so only the shower is shared.) The one day a week that we do not clean is Saturday as we observe the Sabbath, but we clean on Saturday night when the Sabbath is over.

Our guest is constantly angry and critiquing that the place isn't clean enough and claims that we should have professional help coming in DAILY to keep the place top notch clean.  She's never used AirBnB before, so she is probably used to hotel standards as opposed to staying in a really nice suite that is ultimately still a room in a shared house.

So, the question: What are reasonable cleaning standards for a long-term stay?  We're definitely not going to be bringing in professional help daily (unless she wants to pay for it) as that would cost a fortune and everyone else who has ever entered our home comments on how spotless it is (I'm a super neat person!), so she is the first with an issue.  But this guest is excessively demanding and kind of thinks that as hosts we are her servants who are required to clean exactly how and when and how often she likes multiple times daily.

There are only 3.5 weeks left to her stay, but she is increasingly unpleasant and making threats to claim a refund from AirBnB (even though I am 99% sure that the claim would be unfounded given how pristine this place is).  So, how do we handle this and what are or are not reasonable expectations of hosts vis a vis cleaning?  We want to be excellent hosts, but this is all becoming a bit extreme.

Thank you!

Cheers,

Ayo

[Sara2]

She is a bully in your own home

tell her to pay for a daily cleaner or clean her room herself

you have built a rod for the back of this OCD bully

tell ABB you are uncomfortable with her

she definitely belongs in an expensive hotel not a home stay 

I feel bad for you make sure we all know who she is

[Steve55]

Have a quiet chat with her to discuss expectations and agree on cleaning standards.  If bothe sides can't agree, suggest she finds somewhere else to stay. Remind her that the original intention of Airbnb was to offer inexpensive accommodation in people's homes as an alternative to hotels. If she wants hotel style services without paying the price, then tell her to schnorrer elsewhere.

Good luck,

Steve

PS for non-Jewish readers, a schnorrer is a sponger

[Ayo0]

Dear Steve,

Thank you for the guidance.  It's a good idea.  Just a question: If she decides to leave early, but everything in my listing is clean and as advertised in my listing, will she be eligible for a reimbursement?  I think that the answer is 'no', but our rentals are an important income source for us, so it would be good to for me to know for sure.

Thanks again!

[Ayo0]

Hi Sara,

Thanks for the feedback and for the validation/empathy.  I don't want to 'out' the person's name because I don't want to be mean or gossip, but I will suggest that she bring in/pay for a cleaner if she needs daily cleaning and if that doesn't work, I'll reach out to AirBnB.  

Thank you again!

[Paul-and-Vilma0]

I am so sorry for your very badly behaved guest. We also have a long term 2 guests at the moment, they keep extending their stay. This is their second month and they are so lovely.

I clean their bathroom once a week, on Thursday or Friday as we also keep the Sabbath. On the same day I change their bed linen and vacuum the floor. If they want to change their towels during the week, they know where they are and they are free to take them.

I think that if we had such a guest, and after a reasonable explanation, they continued in such a behaviour, their stay would be terminated. We wish you all the best.

[Ayo0]

Dear Paul & Vilma,

Thank you for sharing your experience and for the feedback.  Do you know what, if any, reimbursement AirBnB will issue the guest and take back from us if the stay is terminated on either end for the reasons shared above?  We want to respect ourselves and our boundaries and not put up with unfair demands and treatment, but the income source also happens to be important to us at this time, hence the question above.

Thanks again!

[Annette36]

Dear Ayo,

I have been hosting with Airbnb for a while now and the one thing I love it the fact that they do not tollerate bullying, disrespecting guests. The reason both hosts and guests are rated by each other is so that there are plenty of incentive to behave well and abide by the rules. By publishing the manner of your guest, you will help the rest of us avoiding her, or she will simply have to start behaving better.

I have had long stays before and especially when it is an entire family, insist on them paying for a proper weekly clean. Further more, I provide plenty of cleaning materials so that my guests are free to "top-up" any cleaning they might need.

This is a business that only works when all parties are respectful to each other. You certainly don't have to tolerate this kind of behaviour. I have just re-read the policies of airbnb to re-familiarize myself and she is definitely breaking their rules by her behaviour.

All the best!

[Ayo0]

Thank you, Annette!  Though our guest has since departed, your message is helpful and informative for the future.

Much appreciated and best of luck to you!

Warmly,

Ayo