Is cleaning the host's responsibility or the guest's responsibility DURING a stay?

[Carmen60]

I understand that hosts should / must / have to provide a clean space before a guest checks in for their stay.

But are hosts responsible for cleaning the accommodation for the guest daily or is it the responsibility of the guest to clean for themselves daily during their stay?

[Whitney55]

I think it’s important you make sure your expectations are clear in the discription. If you want to wash the sheets and remake the bed, sweep vacuum and mop the room, scrub the bathtub, clean the drain for hair, bleach any stains or replace stained sheets, clean period blood out of bedding, leave a kitchen as spotless as it was found, vacuum and mop and dust common areas then I will gladly refund the cleaning fee.

The reality is is these are people’s homes. We do not have industrial laundry services and turn down service, and a restaurant. We open our homes for a room for someone to stay in at a reasonable amount of what the mortgage is and bills. We furnish it and offer nice thoughtful touches and decor. We keep the space super clean and not even relatively lived in. It is NOT a hotel. It’s a space sharing and respect it. Hosts are just people, a person, a couple. Do not touture them!

I have guest horror stories. Blood everywhere, people who cook elaborate meals in the kitchen and leave piles of dishes on a daily basis. Stay they booked 3 months in a room and the room cleaning fee is $20. Is that anywhere near justified? A room trashed after never cleaning after themselves the entire stay and nothing you can do.

You are a guest. In someone’s home. How cool is that! So respect the space. You are not a rockstar at the W.

[Anne-1]

I am an ex hotelier..I sold a service that of course had many other services included..available bar..restaurant..room service etc..and of course cleaning.I am soon to start renting out my apartment airbnb.OF COURSE there should be cleaning..and top notch seeing as all the world goes through and OF COURSE you must charge a fee..the advantage of air bnb is that the rental price is cheaper than a hotel price and that is because there is less overhead..services etc..But cleaning is still cleaning..obviously not on a daily business.It is still a business by all effect and the service included(in this case cleaning should be done and retributed.As far as what is expected from your customers...I have had respectable people who left a place relatively in order(But still to be cleaned) and others that left the room in a despicable condition.Unfortunately class is not as easily obtainable as water.nd there are individuals that lack it totally  and other people that are well brought up.Important that there is a refundable fee charged should someone BREAK or destroy something...

Hope this was helpful

[Judy457]

I think I must be abnormal. I don't use the daily housekeeping services at hotels no matter how long I'm staying (I put the trash can outside my door if it needs to be emptied). I also make sure I clean up before leaving any Airbnb and almost all my reviews say how clean I've left the space (one says cleaner than when I arrived). I don't mind since I clean up anyway (leave it the way I found it,  including taking out my trash, putting used towels together, folded, and making the bed), but I was surprised when one host left a list of things to 'clean' before leaving. After reading all these responses, I guess I understand now why they did and why they have to. (Note: Because I know that I will leave a place clean, I don't rent places that charge a hefty cleaning fee. I don't mind paying a fee because they still have to wash the towels and sheets and make the bed, but their clean up is, I believe and hope, minimal after I leave).

[Sarah977]

@Judy457  You sound like a wonderful guest. Whether it's abnormal or not, I couldn't say- I also leave even a cheap motel room in good order, I'd never drop wet towels on the floor, leave garbage strewn about, eat on the bed linens, or any of that. It doesn't seem fair to the maids, who aren't generally paid that well, to leave them a mess. 

And almost all my guests also leave their room and bathroom in clean and tidy condition. Some leave it so clean, it really doesn't even look like anyone stayed for a night, let alone the week. Of course I still vacuum, clean, dust, wash the floors and disinfect the bathroom between guests, but it's certainly nice not to have to remove piles of garbage and recycling, deal with globs of who-knows-what in the sink, or have to spend hours trying to remove stains on bedding or towels.

Keep in mind that hosts rarely post here about the incredibly clean guests they just had- they post when they need to vent about the bad guests and ask for advice about it 🙂 

But it is rather shocking to read some guest replies to threads like this, saying they don't see why they should have to clean up their own messes.

[Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0]

I clean my (up to 5) Airbnb units. If I have a lot of changeouts, or got a bad review, co host  Cheryl is to the rescue. 

I live in a small house. It gets messy quickly and tidied up quickly. I am #1cause of messes, because it's messy to clean up.

I don't expect guests to do much of anything when they leave, though piling used bedding and putting stuff in the garbage is appreciated. We rip everything apart and quite literally sterilize and fumigate. It's like a hospital in here 

We live here, too!

[Qing15]

I think host should be reasonable, is just like you going to a restaurant for a dinner and they expect you to wash the dish and clean your table after the meal? The food you are paying already included that;  after the meal the waiter will come to you and clear the plate. If you make a mess while eating will you be charged cleaning fee?

You are using your house as a business to earn money, yes the room rates you are charging may be lower than hotel. But dont forget hotel have higher overhead and also branding, your profit per night is defintely higher than the hotel one room per night. If not you will not even bother renting out your house through Airbnb right? Because renting short term earn more than renting to someone long term.

I had host private feedback me on this
"I don't know if you have stayed in AirBnBs before but they are not like hotels, they are people's homes. Most guests pick up used tissues from the floor, put furniture back where it was originally, put dishes and cutlery away and clean the sink. Basically, apart from used linen, the house should be left clean and tidy."

We clean all our dishes and cutlery and also clear trash and put outside as we not sure where to throw. We moved a single bed slighly to join to the next single bed and forgot to move back when we left in early morning for our destination. 

We are there to stay and we paid for it, if the place is provided to us free or there is no earning for host, fair enough I think it should be return as it is. I think the thing the host private feedback me is basic housekeeping. Airnbn is short-term rental and housekeeping is inevitable for different guests.

if you so like your house and scare it to be dirty, don't host. Stop saying that Airbnb is different/not like hotels. What Airbnb provide is the same as what hotel is providing, just that it is no-frills(no room-service, concierge etc). Airbnb is a direct competitor to hotel industry. 

The rates are charged by you, and the reason why many host complaint because they set a low rate so that it can compete with the other hosting around that area. 

[Lily244]

I’m totally going back to hotels after a host left a bad review calling my family dirty and complaining about milk stains on her Wooden floor. 

I swept out the room, took out the trash, put dirty linen together and cleaned all the dirty dishes. The host left a mop with no disposable towels on it and that’s the only reason I didn’t mop. Perhaps, she expected me to buy them from the store myself.

long story short, I have filed a complaint and am done with Airbnb for good. After all, it costs me the same and I have to pay for cleaning as well. Then I’m expected to work on my vacation. 

[Lily244]

Also, some of the host comments i’m reading are making me uptight knowing how attached they are to their property. I would be worried my during my entire stay about potentially stepping on toes. I have also had an Uber experience where a driver won’t take the highway when I was already late for work. 

Im so done! 

[Jesal-And-Jenny0]

What should I say in the Private Feedback section to let the guest know they should not have left dirty dishes around the house and a mess in the kitchen?

[Kenneth12]

@Jesal-And-Jenny0 :

"You should not have left dirty dishes around the house and a mess in the kitchen."

[ברום-סרוויס0]

Use broom service in israel

[Steve2316]

If the host charges a cleaning fee they have no right to expect the guest to clean the place.  Common sense.

[Sandra856]

@Steve2316 I would personally never leave a place a mess. I wouldn't clean but I would load the dishwasher, wipe down counters - leave the place in a nice state - not doing that would be embarrasing and disrespectful. 

[Šarka0]

During the stay, I believe it is guest's responsibility to clean after themselves, no matter if they stay in a private room with shared kitchen/bathroom or in the whole apartment/place by themselves. Just keep the place tidy, it is not that hard...

Do not trash it and leave it thinking "the host will clean up after me anyway"... Yes, we will, but we do expect a level of adulthood if you are renting out a place...

I do not expect guests to vacuum, mop, scrub the bathroom, put linen in washer, do a thorough cleaning - but I do expect the place is left almost as they got it, at least about the kitchen (clean dishes and leave them drying or load and start the dishwasher) and maybe bathroom (get the fallen hair out of the sink or shower and put them in the bin, don't leave trash around on counters but put them in the bin, and please please, scrub and flush the toilet after yourselves!).

When I rent out a place, I always think about hosts and how much they'll have to clean after me, so I rather take one hour before leaving the place to wash the dishes, clean the countertops, put used towels on a pile and sometimes even strip the beds.

After the stay, hosts go through a great deal to make the place clean, tidy, disinfected and ready for next guests - we basically do deep cleaning everytime a guest leaves the apartment. We need to vacuum the whole place (even sofas and bed mattrasses), mop the floor, wipe the dust and clean all kitchen countertops and sink + appliances like toaster, oven, microwave and cooktop (you can't believe how dirty they can get if you miss just one cleaning), change linen and towels, wash them, iron them, check for stains, sometimes replace the linen and towels too if they get torn or stains don't come out... And if someone leaves a big mess behind, we need to clean that too.

Cleaning supplies and clothes detergent cost a lot, especially if you do a turnover every 2-3 days as it is usual at our apartment. Guests also use the detrgent we provide to wash their clothes and dishsoap for kitchenware. We provide all of it in our apartment to make the guest as relaxed as possible and have everything at their fingertips.

That is also why some hosts charge the cleaning fee. In the cleaning fee, there is not only cleaning after guests, but also all the little details that make your stay easier.

We basically do all the cleaning in-house, but we pay a worker for 2-3 hours of cleaning, changing linen and putting them to wash in our washing machine and dryer and sometimes also ironing. The extra we need to pay is extra water that is used for cleaning, electricity, detergent for clothes, dishsoap, dishwasher tablets/powder that are provided in the apartment and that we use for cleaning, and also breakfast items that we always leave in the fridge and cupboard for our guests to take. All in all, the cleaning fee mostly only covers the worker and some supplies (cleaning workers charge roughly 10-15 € per hour here in Ljubljana), everything else is included in the nightly price.

[Diana1469]

Dear all, 

Now my guests, who stay for 7 nights, asked me to how is it possible that there is no daily cleaning! Well, it`s not a hotel! At all! They started to complain. Asked to come and clean. We don`t have any cleaning fee added. So it was on our own. I did it at my own. Should I write within a profile that additional cleaning during the stay is additional cost?