Cleaning

[Gry19]

We have been retning out our summerhouse through Airbnb the last 5 years and have problems with the cleaning after the guests - or rather lack of cleaning.

the guests are supposed to clean the House before they leave and usually everything is fine. 

but a couple of times People leave the House messy and unclean.

with our other agency we have a deposit that we use in those cases - but with Airbnb we got nothing. 

we had had 3 guests now leaving the House unclean and the 2 first times we did not get a refund for the cleaning. This time airbnb havent answered the aircover request yet (been waiting 2 months now - and everytime i ask they Mark it as urgent - and nothing happens.) 

im just about to give up on renting out without cleaning but it is impossible for us to go clean in between guests. 

do you have any ideas for us? 

[Huma0]

@Gry19 

Your post really confuses me. What do you mean by the guests are supposed to clean the house when they leave and that you do not have time to clean in between guests? Are you actually expecting your guests to clean for the next guests?

While it is normal to expect guests not to leave things in a terribly messy state and to have some check out instructions, if you are relying on your guests to do the cleaning and not sending someone in between stays to get the listing ready, I think that is really unusual and a recipe for disaster.

Maybe I have misunderstood something though?

[Huma0]

@Gry19 

PS under AirCover, you can claim for 'deep cleaning', i.e. when something has really gone wrong and there is excessive cleaning involved (please read the fine print in the policy for details). You cannot claim for routine cleaning. The latter is the host's responsibility and just part of the service you are supposed to be offering.

[Kirsten266]

I think an Airbnb always need te be cleaned by yourself or a cleaner. Not by the previous guests ( or do I misread your post?)

[Huma0]

@Kirsten266 

I just had a look at your listing, and you have fairly low stars for cleanliness (as well as some other categories), so clearly this system is not working. It is not actually normal to expect guests to do the cleaning for you. If you rely on them to do this then how can you assure any kind of quality control? ]

If you do not have the time to clean in between guests, nor the budget/resources to pay someone else to do it, then you need to seriously rethink how you handle your operation.

While many guests will expect to do a certain amount of cleaning up after themselves before they leave (and others won't), the idea of relying solely on the guests for cleaning the space is really risky. Who is cleaning out the toilet bowl? Who is making up the beds? Who is washing the linens?

I find this all a bit confusing...

[Mariann4 · Accepted solution]

This is actually a quite common approach in the Scandinavic countries @Huma0 . And it is often understood by the Scandinavic guests, but not the international guests. 

@Gry0 this is a common complaint from Norwegian hosts also. You have to be very clear upfront about this. It needs to be noted several places. And you need to ask the guests before accepting that they understand this. And you have to have backup available for when this happens. You may want to set a high cleaning fee and say that it will be refunded if the cleaning is done well enough. I know other hosts use this as a form of deposit. 

[Huma0]

@Mariann4 

Thanks for the information. I did not know that.

Perhaps it is common but, to me, it sounds like a risky strategy. How can you be sure your guests are going to leave the place to the standards that the next guests expect? The OP's cleanliness ratings are not high, so I don't think this system is working all that well. 

Your suggestion for a refundable cleaning fee is good, but wouldn't that involve someone going there in between stays to inspect? How would you know otherwise? Would you rely on the next guests for this too? 

I am not sure how one can explain to guests that they will not be refunded the fee based on the opinion of the total strangers who checked in after them. The next guests could claim the the place was left filthy in order to get refunded their own cleaning fee.

I don't know. Maybe it does work for some. It just sounds like a minefield to me...

[Mariann4]

This has been common pratice for generations, @Huma0 . It as worked perfectly. It also left guests a good opportunity to report broken items or anything when telling the host that they left: when we did the cleaning we noticed that.... We have an open and trust based society. If you didn't clean the rental before leaving you could be sure everyone knew, and you would be persona non grata for the next vacation. Come international guests and you get hosts as chocked that this had not been done as guests chocked that it was expected.

As you can see this host has put it in the houserules that the cabin is to be cleaned before departure, and that you can pay to have someone clean it for you. This must be agreed upon before so the host can make arrangements for it.

She has also put that linen can be rented. Also a common Scandinavic custom.

The problem is that guests agree to the houserules when they book. But they haven't actually read them. Before they were something you scrolled through. Now you have to click on a link to see them. Who does that? I do. You do. Or we read them before we request to book.

I don't know how to answer that this is a minefield. I understand the question and have put in my own houserules that it is expected that a guest tidy when having used anything in the shared areas. But for me this practice has always been the case. So much that I sometimes travel with my own duvet and pillow to skip the putting on rented linen in a cabin. 😊 

[Helen3]

I think if you are going to offer accommodation to international guests who are not used to your established ways of renting holiday accommodation, where guests need to clean,  it might be better to employ a local cleaner and charge a cleaning fee for your listing @Gry19 

In that way you can ensure your accommodation is cleaned to good standard and you don't get such lower ratings for cleanliness which will put other guests off from booking.

[Huma0]

@Mariann4 

Certainly, it makes sense to offer an optional cleaning service and, if it's normal to charge for sheets/laundry of linens, I could how that would work.

However, you say it has worked perfectly, but your listing has 5.0* for cleanliness and @Gry19 's has only 4.4*. This might be from one one two problem guests who left very low ratings, or it might be reflective of the overall level of cleanliness, I don't know.

Perhaps people are just cleaner and tidier in Scandinavia too (I'm sure that's possible), but I can't imagine trusting my guests to clean up for the next ones. I do ask my guests to tidy up after themselves in communal areas, especially the kitchen but, even when I have really conscientious guests who make a big effort with that, I always have to do some cleaning up after them. They always miss something.

Plus, there are the cleaning jobs that no guest is going to do, such as light fixtures and base/skirting boards, but that will start to look very grubby if they are not cleaned regularly. I suppose anyone using this system does go in from time to time to do a deep clean?

[Mariann4]

You have to remember that this is customs older than Airbnb, @Huma0 . Now renters are turning to platforms such as Airbnb and similar because that's were guests are searching. Before we had mostly domestic or Scandinavian guests. The customs were similar and we talked to eachother and friends before travelling. We knew what to expect by word of mouth. This was also before we started reviewing everything.

Now the world is turning smaller what travelling concerns and we get guests with different customs. And isn't that what Airbnb is about? Exploring? And also we have the old jungle saying: when in Rome...? This has worked for us for generations. As guests we were tought by our parents to be grateful to have borrowed someone's vacation spot and to treat it respectfully. It was affordable because we did the cleaning and brought linen and towels,  and we paid for firewood in advance. This is part of our history and way of living. Guests come to us to explore our culture. This is part of it. Why should we change it into something generic? There are plenty of generic places to choose in stead.

And yes, the owners do attend to the place. Often it's their own vacation place that they rent when they don't use it themselves.

As for my style of hosting I did some reading before I started. I also host at home like you. I want everything to be ready for guests, and living in the house eases the cleaning, of course. I hate cleaning! But having guests keeps me on my toes during season.

But we have one cabin ourselves and have access to another in our family. Both with no electricity or running water. So no vacuum or easy access to unlimited hot water. Guests bring their linen, pay for the firewood, the fridge is a hole in the floor under the kitchen where you have to keep the food in containers if you don't want to share it with the mice. The toilet is a hole in the floor in the barn. We say the hygiene is a bit off but the bar is fantastic! Norwegians, Danes and Swedes love it. Some Germans too. But we have learned to lay out a couple of details VERY specific before inviting anyone else. It's hard to get them to understand how basic it is. We ended up taking it off Airbnb. Guests arriving due to word of mouth kept the stress levels much lower.

And no, I doubt Scandinavians are more tidy or clean than others... 🙂

[Huma0]

@Mariann4 

No, I don't think that you should have to change anything. I believe in the 'When in Rome...', but unfortunately, I have learnt through my hosting experiences that a lot of guests do not (e.g. insisting the heating must be on in the middle of Summer just because they decided to run in the rain and and can't be bothered to have a hot shower and put on some dry clothes).