GIVING GUESTS CLEANING EXPECTATIONS

[Lorena16]

Hi, just joined and about to have our first guest. When we leased privately we employed a cleaner after each guest, but had specific requirements for our guets to avoid additional cleaning fees. I want to have the sane arrangement with my guests through AIRBNB.

1. Where do I list these expectations?

2. I assume there are no restrictions with airbnb as to what my expectations are??

3. What is seen as acceptable of how guests should leave a self conatined place? I dont want to deter future quests by my list, but dont want to be paying moer than basic cleaning fees either..

[Jan329]

[Lucy332]

WoW I hoped you charged them for this! If not at least you have the opportunity to review and say that they left te place a mess and you wouldn't rent to them again..

[Jan329]

Is this acceptable?!?!   A recent guest left this nice mess for the cleaner.  The guests do pay a small cleaning fee which no way covers the actual cleaning costs....l don’t think it’s too much to ask for guests to clean up, it is the respectful thing to do.  This was only the dining area, the kitchen was worse

[Sarah977]

Grown-ups wash their dirty dishes, no matter where they are staying. This is the kind of mess I'd expect from a pack of 14 year-olds.

People who would leave this are totally immature or have a huge sense of entitlement.

I often read posts where guests left a huge mess and hosts say they only gave tem 3 stars on cleanliness. I don't understand this-why give them 3 stars when they deserve minus 5?

[Jennifer865]

As a host what I fail to understand is why guests stand over the sink washing the dishes next to the countertop dishwasher that I expressly asked them to use? I make it clear that I put the machine on at night (they can hear it!) and only the pans are to be handwashed. Frankly I prefer dishwashed dishes, they are sanitized. That's is a much better job than any person could do.

As for the rest of the cleaning, I do it myself for my one room I rent. In my rules I ask guests to leave every room generally tidy. I have not had too many issues in this regard. One guest was snacking in her room and left the carpet covered in crumbs and stained the bed spread. That really was upsetting.

A third point on this issue is guests who leave feedback, even private feedback about cleanliness. I had a bereavement in my family and despite the guest knowing this she still had to get her 2 cents in about the kitchen needing more attention. No comment.....

[Kathie21]

I have a line in the house manual that 'Normal UK self-catering expectations apply please - wash & put away your dishes, clean up any spills (including on the cooker top), empty the fridge and put all rubbish in the bins.  Please leave the bedding on the bed and put used towels in the bath'.  If they are from overseas, or they are British but not used to renting self-catering spaces, telling them that cleaning up after themselves is the norm (which it is) seems to work (and I don't charge a cleaning fee).  I've only had one set of guests not comply (dirty dishes and a fridge full of leftovers) because they slept in too long, and they left a £20 tip.

[James1438]

AirBnB has clean and pure services just like Stadede Hem who always aim to create good atmosphere with their cleaning services. *

****

*[Personal information hidden for safety reasons–in line with the Community Center Guidelines - to use the Direct Messaging function here in the Community Center, hover over the post profile photo and click 'Sent Message']

[Bob164]

We own 5 vacation rentals and for the past 10-15 years we have always had a check out list.  In every vacation rental we have ever stayed at we had some kind of a check out list as well.

But I have received more complaints from Airbnb  guests about asking them to do a FEW things before they check out.  Airbnb demographics are younger than say VRBO guests.  Those who have rented from VRBO in years past never complain. It only seems to be the younger entitled crowd that think the $75 cleaning fee should take care of everything.  Well it doesnt.  We have one cleaner who cleans 3 of our rentals and one area and she is the best in business.  But for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home it normally takes her 2-3 hours to clean including adjusting the hot tub chemicals.  That's if it is left half way decent.  We ask guests to start a load of laundry because this is what takes the longest.  Especially if our cleaner has 2 FLIPS in one day.  People don't understand what it takes to get a place spotless before the next guest comes in.  I could raise my cleaning fee but that will not solve the issue.  And in this small community to find an alternate dependable cleaner is impossible.  Believe me I went through many cleaners before finding this one.  So it is frustrating to get these comments when what we ask them to do takes all of 10 minutes.  One person wrote a review that he had to wake his family up at 4AM to do what he called a pain in the ass list.  We  literally ask them to strip the beds, start 1 load of laundry, take out garbage and load and start the DW.  And I put on our Airbnb listings that if dont like to do a few thngs when you check out, dont rent from us.  We have excellent homes and are not hurting for business!!

[Cindy558]

I had my first and last experience with Airbnb.  4 adults and 2 children.  We were in Puerto Rico.  Nice 2 bedroom condo close to beach.  Nice welcome book with rules and suggestions.  Nice amenities.  Clean.

We kept place cleannthroughout week.  We followed rules.  I spent time after all were in bed last night cleaning kitchen sweeping wiping counters, ect.  Yes there was a cleaning deposit but I wanted it left in good condition.  I washed most of towels.  We left at 2 am so we did not strip beds.  We did not deep clean but we did everything we were asked.   We emptied all garbage.

I got a review saying we were nasty dirty customers.  I was appalled at this.  She sent me five pictures (which I wish I had taken pictures but did not think of that) of close ups of a couple pieces of paper on the floor, a spot on a sheet, and a couple of other things I forget.  All pics were zoomed in to show only the item she was upset about.  None showed how well the room looked in genersl.

I was on a week vacation with 5 of my family and she expected me to derp clean her place when I paid a cleaning deposit.  It made me wish I had let everyone trash it.  She could have said we had left the place a little less clean than she wished but nasty and dirty was unfair.  ALL dishes were washed and put away.  No food dirty items or stuff left lying all over the place.  Everything had been returned to its spot.  What was the cleaning deposit fir?

Cindy

[Ange2]

@Cindy558    You can always write a response to their review stating what you did do and that you followed their rules  " take trash out. No dirty dishes",   but that a deep cleaning was expected on top of a cleaning deposit charged and that was neither stated nor was there an explanation of what it meant.   btw: This goes both ways. I have had guests low rate me because they expected me to wash their dishes, clean up their gunk in the bathroom and follow them around with a mop when they tramped through the apartment in dirty, muddy boots. The best way to  address it,  in my opinion,  is to write a  short response and use it to sell yourself as a respectful and responsible guest and point out expectations that you were not made aware of.

[Cindy558]

I did all dishes swept floors washed most towels but we left at 2 am in morning.  I put out trash.  The place was not trashed.  There was a spot on the sheets that was a complaint.  A bag on the floor, which actually I do not know how it got there as I seept the floor more than once.  Beds were not made as I figured sheets needed washed.  It was not trashed by any means.  I actually spent the time from when everyone went to bed till 1 when I woke everyone.  Making sure it looked nice.  I read what was expected and I thought we had done every thing.  Just frustrating to get such a poor review when you tried to do it right.  But live and learn.

[Sarah977]

@Cindy558   I had a look at the reviews that this host has left for previous guests and she reviewed all of them nicely except for you. So not sure what happened there, but perhaps your idea of clean isn't the host's idea of clean, and she did mention in her reviews of other guests that they left it clean. According to her history of reviewing guiests, I doubt that one spot on a sheet and one plastic bag on the floor would have caused her to give you a bad cleanliness review (And she does say you were good people, so it's not all bad.

As you only have that one review, if you hope to be accepted in the future by other hosts, I'd suggest you A. Fill out your profile. You have zero info about yourself. B. Put up an actual face profile photo, not a photo of a sunset. C. Upload some verified ID- all you have is a phone number and an email listed (of course we can't see that actual info, just says that's all you have).

[Cindy558]

Thanks for your input.  Again I did not take pics.  There were no dishes left undone.  The floors were swept.  She did show a picture of an empty  cheeto bag.  We are not big partiers.  The floor was not dirty.  The grill was clean garbage put out.  I dont know.  Actually, looked pretty good.  But of course that is just me talking.  Not that I need to convince you or anyone else.  To me it was a very unfair review for the time I put in trying to make it look nice.

I probably will not use this program again so I guess it doesn't really matter.  We usually only need one hotel room when we travel.  This time we took my adult daughter and her family and thought this made sense.  Not worth the effort and stress.   I believe that not everyone you rent from would leave reviews like that but it is bothersome when they do.

I am a mother of 16, grandmother of 44.  I live on a farm.  I know how to respect other peoples property.  My daughter and I kept the place up at all times.  I would have never been embarrassed to have anyone drop in there st snytime.

[Jenn81]

Oh Cindy, I feel your pain! This just happened to me and my family at the airbnb we rented in Glasgow. I believe we received an unfair review since our host was probably expecting a negative review from us due to some odd behavior from him at the beginning of the experience. 

I spent 1/2 a day tidying up after our 8-day stay (myself, husband, 2 kids who I only allowed to eat in the kitchen). I ran the dishes. I cleaned up every scrap around the 2-bedroom apartment. I wiped down the tabletop, countertop, sink, etc. I even took photos before leaving and felt genuinely pleased with how we left the apartment. On the other hand, I was pretty disappointed in his place - which had stellar reviews. It was dirty - the shower drain was clogged, the kitchen sink was coated in grime, the toaster had a layer of dust and bread crumbs on it. The beds were uncomfortable and the WiFi was abominable (.5 mbps upload speed, and I had to do work while I was there!). I wanted to leave a bad review, but I didn't want to be mean, so I didn't leave a review at all.

Our conflict all began with our arrival time. It's my fault that I didn't let him know until a few days before that we would be arriving in the "late afternoon / early evening" - and then the day before, I informed him that our train would arrive at 8:15 and we'd be at the apartment at 8:30. He replied that we HAD to be there by 6 PM as his dad would be greeting us and needed to be out of town. He was rude - didn't apologize for not being clear in the beginning about a check in time limit. We ended up buying new train tickets to arrive by his dad's deadline. I was nice about it, too, but I was pretty upset about the situation.

His review complained about our arrival time and failed to mention that we capitulated and rearranged our schedule for him. Then he complained about "rubbish left in bags" in the kitchen - these were 2 bags of plastics and paper, for recycling. The apartment building's trash room didn't appear to have a recycling option, so we thought it'd be better to leave it in the apartment for the host to dispose of responsibly. And then lastly, he complained about "wet towels left on the beds." Well, for this I'm truly sorry - yes, it turns out my husband left a damp towel on the bed after showering on the morning of our departure. 

But seriously, I left the apartment as I found it - in fact, some things were cleaner, like the kitchen sink! And now I feel terrible and am second-guessing my ideas about cleanliness and manners. I didn't expect a host to be so put out by having to dispose of 2 small bags of recycling and a single towel. And he didn't take any responsibility for his lack of communication regarding check-in time. 

I'm going to have to get a voodoo doll to take out my stress over this!

[Ashutosh12]

Hosts- if you expect guests to do anything. Cleaning dishes included then you HAVE to include it on your description/rules. Do not send a list of rules after they’ve booked  or worse after they’ve arrived. 

Some hosts understandably have expectations from their guests but they are not explicit about what they expect until you’ve already arrived or its too late to cancel.  If hosts are upfront about it then guests who expect you to clean up for them wont book your place.  Its simple.  Its obvious from the discussion that many people have disagreements after a stay, but if you made it explicit before they book then there should be no headaches.  

I mean there are management companies with multiple homes in the expensive areas who operate like hotels (costing upwards of 800 a night). If a place like that made it clear in their initial description that they expected house guests to clean their dishes and pick up after themselves, im sure some of their potential clients would decide to stay at a hotel  or alternative airbnb instead. 

Also im appaled that hosts expect cleaning by guests by default.  I would pay my friends to house-sit, and Only then do i expect the home to be in the condition I left it.