How often should the shared bathroom be cleaned after the guests arrival?

[Bahareh3]

Hi every one

I’m a new host. Our basement is an airbnb. There are 3 private rooms and a shared bathroom. I clean the entire place prior to the guests arrival and I charge a minimal 15$ cleaning fee. When guests take a shower some of them leave the bathroom messy and full of hair. I try to clean the bathroom every other day but I’m not sure if this is my responsibilty to clean after guests  after they check in. Recently a guest who only stayed for 2 nights gave me a terrible review stating that the bathroom was not clean. I personally cleaned the bathroom prior to their arrival but I can’t clean it after each person takes a shower. How should I deal with this siruation?

[Gordon0]

I'd say a shared bathroom needs to be cleaned, as a minimum, every day, @Bahareh3. And yes, it's absolutely your responsibility. 

[Mark116]

@Gordon0  Really?  Can you expand on why you think this?  I would think that every other day is fine.  If it's an entire unit being rented the bathroom doesn't get cleaned at all during a stay, so why if you are sharing a bathroom would it be mandated that it's cleaned every single day, and frankly, to prevent it looking bad you'd have to time it to get in after every guest.  Why not just say something like 'shared bathroom is cleaned every other day, guests are requested to keep it tidy in the meantime' or something like that?

[Bahareh3]

This is what I think. I wonder how I can prevent a bad review based on this issue. I simply can’t keep up with cleaning after every shower someone takes. I’m not home all the time and an airbnb is not a hotel. Adults are expected to clean up after themselves

[Bahareh3]

thanks for your reply. Are there any specific airbnb guidelines that mention this regarding shared bathrooms? So a host is responsible for cleaning on a daily basis during the guests stay?

[Alicia563]

Luckily our setup has separate studios with bedroom and bathrooms for guests. We do leave cleaning supplies, gloves and hand sanitizer for long term and short term guests to do their own cleaning of their spaces until check out. Then we clean & sanitize per protocol. The shared spaces (kitchen, laundry and a sitting room near the guest entrance are kept clean regarly by hosts.

We state in our listings that Airbnb requests that social distancing or masks be used in shared spaces. 

If guests see hosts honoring the rules, they are more likely to follow suit.

My suggestion for multiple bedrooms with one bath issue would be make a rule in the listing that guests should clean shared spaces after they use them. Also state in the listing that the host may, with prior notice, access the property for sanitation measures or maintenance. Provide cleaning products (spray & gloves or heavy duty disinfectant wipes) for guests to use for cleaning after themselves.

Check in with each guest via text as hosts should during a stay. I would checkin at the property with prior notice a few times a week. If you do need to clean,  notify the guests that the hosts may need to access only the shared spaces on the property during their stay. Ask the guests if certain days/times would be convenient.

I hope this helps.

[Kenneth12]

There's certainly no way I can afford $40 to clean a shared bath for people paying $40-80/night.  See what @Ange2 said,  below.

[Gordon0]

If I chose a place with a shared bathroom (it's not going to happen) I wouldn't expect to clean up after other people. It's just a bit gross. It's more of a boarding-house type affair, and your guests shouldn't have to play Russian roulette with what they might stand, or worse, sit on.

It's a cursory freshen-up, not a full cleaning schedule that I'd expect. 

[Ange2]

@Bahareh3    I have in my rules that guests need to clean up after themselves in all shared spaces and that there is no daily maid service and I remind them when they arrive. Mostly it works, but sometimes people are complete slobs and they even ding me for their mess!  I do clean shared spaces when I am around but like you I am not around 24/7 to clean up and pick up after guests and their mess and my price does not include that either.

p.s. Add your cleaning fee into your nightly fee. $15.00 does not cover daily maid service.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Bahareh3 If a guest pays a cleaning fee then would reasonably expect to find the bathroom clean. It's not their fault if another guest leave it dirty and they then have to use it

[Mark116]

@Gerry-And-Rashid0  Sure, they expect it to be clean when they check in, but do they expect it to be clean every time they use it, every day, throughout their stay when they're paying $34 a night?  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Bahareh3 

shared bathroom is a trouble. Maybe the best would be to turn your 3 rooms into the 3 bedroom apartment

[Bahareh3]

It would’ve been so much easier for me if that was possible but I live in an area where 90% of my guests are solo young professionals looking for an economic option for their stay. It is not a tourist destination so we would lose most of our bookings

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

well, you know your area better than I do... but you could run a test and create one more listing for 2 and for 3 bdr apartment and see what will happen. Don't forget to link them to prevent double booking.

[Anonymous]

@Bahareh3 Airbnb doesn't have specific requirements about how hosts are supposed to manage their cleaning routine, largely because that would be impossible to standardize across every type of accommodation. But guests expect that the bathroom and other usable facilities will be clean when they enter them, even if you're not charging a "cleaning fee."  So if you're going to leave one party of guests at the mercy of the other(s), it's important that your House Rules clearly communicate what's expected of guests in each use of the the common areas. You might even want to post a checklist on the bathroom door, because everyone has a different idea of what constitutes "tidy."

Even if you don't feel you should have to do a deep cleaning of the bathroom more frequently, you should definitely be inspecting it more than once per day so that you can quickly catch on if there's a problem. Regardless of who is at fault, guests will consider everything about the state of the home to be your responsibility when it comes time to review, so you have to choose whether your priority is higher ratings or less work.

(I'm assuming that you are also living on the property - if not, and multiple guest parties are sharing it, you have much bigger potential disasters ahead).