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?

[Bahareh3]

Thanks for your response. As I mentioned I clean all areas before guests enter them and I try to clean the shared bathroom every other day but I can’t clean it every half an hour 

[Kenneth12]

Bi-weekly.   I probe guests for cleanliness by reading reviews and asking in auto-reply,  House Rules,  and other replies throughout the process. It mostly works.   If I find a problem on walk-through,   I may or may not deal with it personally or bring it up.   I should not be cleaning guest's dishes or picking up after them;   I let them know that I expect them to keep things tidy for other guests and users of our spaces,  and attempt to enforce that expectation.   Again,  mostly it works.
The absolute minimum I can pay for a 1hr cleaning visit is $35;   I ensure that occurs bi-weekly;   when there,  I usually do a walk-though of the baths as well as other shared nightly to make sure they are sparkling,  but no one should expect that and everyone should be able to take responsibility and clean up after themselves outside their room.
I cannot ensure the bath is always cleaned before every check-in but I usually can,  either by having staff do it when rooms or turned,  doing it myself,   or having staff do a cleaning/check mid-cycle (we're mostly weekend check-ins).   I follow-up to any non-5-star cleanliness rating to figure out what the issue was and react/abate as possible.   So far,  again,  "it mostly works" though we're not perfect,  and it's keeping us within the SuperHost range.

(And then,  there are the construction workers and the one guy who was on the city trash abatement crew... )

Good luck and happy hosting.

[Bahareh3]

Would you mind sharing with me how would you communicate that with guests in a respectful manner? What would you say to them or do to ensure that that they clean up after themselves? I think I need to be more assertive 

[Kenneth12]

@Bahareh3 We have little reminders such as (off the top of my head) "there is a small strainer at the bottom of the bathtub,   please ensure none of your hair is there before other guests must use" in our house primer.    We ask nicely but flrmly "please ensure the best experience for all guests by cleaning up after yourself and letting us know about any problem that needs to be addressed."   We review and tweak these periodically and from experience (we keep all our master communications materials in gDocs).   The goal is to be very polite,  suggestive,  nudging to desired behavior,  but firm and clear about expectations.

3.5 is about the lowest I'll consider accepting,  and if I have a guest with a 4.0 I'm going to be watching for problems and stepping in to correct-- even from afar.    Our security grid (smartlocks and cameras outside and in stairwells/halls gives a good sense of who is around and helps figure out any issues when they crop up.  (We're about to purchase a 2nd house for this operation,  we hope-- I doubt I could personally manage much more than 12 guests;  I'll leave scaling operations,  as another topic).

[Mark116]

@Bahareh3  I would say something along the lines of..... that since the guests are renting a private bedroom with the living room and the bathroom shared between everyone that it's important to keep things tidy, pick up your belongings and especially clean up after yourself in the bathroom, [you can insert whatever details your experience indicates need to be mentioned here...]that even though the bathroom is fully cleaned every other day, it will help all the guests better enjoy their stay if everyone pays attention to XXX and help keep it straight between the full cleanings...then say, that if you do find something that is a problem in any of the shared spaces, please let you know so you can address it with the other guest(s), make sure it is taken care of to ensure everyone has an enjoyable stay...something like that?  

[Ange2]

@Mark116    That is pretty much what I say.  I have also been thinking about testing out a  spray paint that only becomes visible when wet. Thinking about spraying a notice in the shower and sinks and on the bathroom tiles "please be sure to clean up after yourself" it would become visible when wet and then disappear again as it dried. Although, it had occurred to me that someone may be so shocked to see writing suddenly appearing all over the bathroom that they may have an accident.

[Michelle1725]

I would suggest cleaning the bathroom before each new check in. They should have a clean bathroom at the very least at the start of their stay, but ideally it should be quickly freshened up on a daily basis.

[Sarah977]

@Bahareh3  It really doesn't matter if there's a policy about it or not, or whether the messiness can be pinned on a certain guest. The bottom line is that if you are offering 3 rooms to separate guests who all have to share a bathroom, it seems to me like your responsibility to make sure it's clean if the guests aren't doing it, because otherwise you'll get displeased guests and reviews which reflect that.

I'd try a framed note on the bathroom wall- "This is a shared bathroom. Please be respectful to the other guests and make sure to leave the bathroom clean after use. Thanks for your attention."

Maybe that will help, but I'd say you need to do a quick clean in there once a day. At the very least, faucets, faucets handles, door knobs and the toilet seat should be wiped down with antibacterial wipes, even if you have good guests who are keeping it clean.

[Melanie33]

In my view the bathroom should be cleaned every day!

[Helen427]

@Bahareh3 @Melanie33 @Gordon0 @Sarah977 @Ange2 

@Kenneth12 @Michelle1725 @Mark116 

How about when you do your introductory tour of your home that you run through cleaning & other relevant things in the bathroom, and other shared household areas?

Guests are not to know unless one raises these issues what there responsibilities are although one would reasonably expect people to do as they do in their own homes.

Mention to please be mindful of other guests and provide a squeegie/ cloth to wipe down the walls - place it somewhere obvious, open the window to let the air circulate so the bathroom doesn't get mouldy, where to hang the towels etc.

Interestingly I've had more male guests than women ask when showing them through my home,

"Where is the squeegie?" to wipe the walls etc as they use one in their own homes to!

@Ange2  your idea is classic, I love it!!

All the best folks

[Jennifer482]

Perhaps a funny/witty sign letting guests know the bathroom is cleaned every other day and they are sharing it with others and need to clean up after themselves.  

[Kenneth12]

Can't upvote this one enough.

(We really,  really,  really need to assemble a FAQ of ABB Best Practices ... )

[Kira32]

Hola @Bahareh3 

I clean the guest bathroom every day because it's shared with other guests.

Its not fair that one guest has to be in someone else's mess. It takes 5 Min. to put a new toilet roll, clean the sink bath and floor. 

Guest will eventually copy the way you treat your own home(for better or worse).

Kira♡

[Paul154]

@Bahareh3 

I have a similar setup for your same reasons -

3 separate bedrooms are easier to book than a 3 bedroom apartment.

But as noted , a shared bathroom is tricky.

Like you, I deep clean for check-ins. I do not clean after every shower, but I do a quick dry down of the shower, shine the chrome and wipe the bowl. 5 minutes tops. 

I think this is a reasonable expense of time considering I make more income with 3 separate bedrooms.

Plus, it's a good excuse to check the common areas daily so you can avoid problems.

[Paul154]

My bad, I forgot the word DAILY.

As in , I do a quick dry down daily.