My request to guests, please don't try to help!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

My request to guests, please don't try to help!

Many guests both here and on other sites complain that the host expects them to clean the property when they have already paid a cleaning fee!

My answer to that is......No.

 

None (or very few) hosts would expect you to clean a listing you had paid to be a guest in. We just don’t expect you to walk out leaving the place like a pig sty!

All we expect is that you will put your rubbish in the bin, pick up those used nappies and condoms that were left under the bed and dispose of.

Put furniture back the way you found it.

Leave the property in a relatively tidy state.

That’s all we as hosts expect!

 

It’s a well known fact in the hosting community, guests do not clean things properly! They just give dishes and glassware a quick rinse and put away, all set for the next guest to mark the host down for cleanliness because there were smears on the glasses and food particles left on the plates and fry-pans.

 

All we ask is that you don’t complicate the hosts job in preparing for the next guest! Don’t make the bed, don’t do the dishes, don’t sweep floors or try to spot marks on fabrics! Nine times out of ten you will make a hash of it and subject the host to a lot more work, or even worse, have something slip through that the next guest can complain about.

 

Remember all of us hosts, host to a standard…..our standard, not yours!

 

Cheers…….Rob

20 Replies 20
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Robin4 

Airbnb mention in there Terms Of Service (TOS, section Guest terms, article nr 4):

"you are responsible for leaving an Accommodation (and related personal property) in the condition it was in when you arrived"

 

BTW

(off-topic)

When looking at the same article nr 4,  i noticed  a major difference in the terms for EU members en non-EU members: article 4.2 "Assumption of risk" is not included in the EU terms.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2908/terms-of-service

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Emiel1 

Seems to be a bit of conflict there between the TOS and the ECP!

 

Emiel, as I said, I don't like guests washing things, they don't do it properly and they just make extra work for me. I like to put everything that was used through the dishwasher so it all looks properly clean.

If you leave coffee in a mug for a few hours it will leave a ring inside the mug which needs a bit of extra attention to get properly clean and stain free. Guests can't be bothered doing that, they just rinse it and put it away. Every time I have to pull all the glassware and crockery out so see what they may have handled.....that is not helpful, that is just complicating my job!

They pull the bed up so that it looks vaguely like it looked when they entered! If they want to be really helpful they would strip the sheets, pillowcases and protectors and just leave them in a pile on the floor. On the odd occasion someone has done that I have really appreciated it.

I have a laundry soiled linen/towel cupboard right next to the washing machine in their bathroom......they never use it, they hang their towels up like they haven't been used.

 

I know they are trying to be helpful, but Airbnb are barking up the wrong tree by telling guests to leave the property in the condition they entered it in.......that just makes our job harder!

 

Cheers........Rob  

@Robin4   Ooohh...I'm generally in agreement with you but the one thing I don't want the guests to do is strip the bed. Gross as it is, the best way for me to check for stains is with the sheets on the bed. If they are stripped and crumpled in a pile, I'm not likely to be able to see what I need to see, and once they go in the laundry, the stain is going to set. My place is pretty small, and there's no other area in which I can spread them out with good light to do the same, so in my situation, having guests leave the bed as it is is best. 

 

Just my 2 cents. Kia

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Kia272 

Yes I take your point Kia and like you I do check the linens thoroughly before dumping them in the machine. But what you are saying is quite correct, if the bed was stripped I would spend as much time checking the linens as you would stripping a made up bed!

 

What I am saying though Kia is, just leave the bed as you got out of it, don't make it, I won't think any the worse of you because you left it a crumpled mess!

 

Cheers........Rob

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Robin4  Exactly what I've often thought!  

 

Other helpful actions:  turning thermostats off (any month but July or August means burst pipes), turning gas valves off (so the gas fireplaces don't work for the next guests, thank you very much), and wrenching any manner of handle when you don't understand how it works.   Because wrenching it hard will definitely make it work the way it should.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Ann72 

Yeah, the bulk of them are lovely people but, they do seem to leave their brains at home when they go on holiday. And every guest teaches you something, I learned something quite substantial from a guest just last week. 

 

They requested an early check-in because they had an afternoon wedding to attend and wanted time to prepare themselves here rather than travel up from town dressed in their finery....which I granted.

 

They arrived looking like a pair of dags but they had some pretty fancy clothes in a suitcase with them.

They asked to use the ironing board and iron which made available to them.

They left at 2.00pm for the wedding, leaving the airconditioning system running....which I have come to expect! Despite the fact the unit is powerful enough to heat the cottage to a good temperature in less than 6 minutes, they think leaving it running for the 9 hours they are away from here will somehow make up for that 6 minute inconvenience on their return.

 

But, as I said, I learned something I was not aware of before!

I was doing a bit of weeding in the garden next to the cottage and I heard faintly a 'beeping' noise coming from inside the cottage. I don't like entering the space once guests arrive, it's their space and they are entitled to have that respected but, this beeping intrigued me, I hadn't heard it before, so I thought I had better go and investigate. 

On entering the cottage the beeping was coming from the iron sitting on the ironing board. When they left, they left the iron switched on and running just sitting upright on the fabric of the ironing board, and it appears, if the iron is left switched on and un-attended for 15 minutes it will start beeping........never knew that before, nobody I have met in my life up until now has ever been stupid enough to put it to the test! 

 

But there you go, as nice as they are Ann, many of them do seen to have sheep sh*t for brains  when it comes to other peoples property!

 

Cheers.........Rob

@Robin4  And yet the things hosts would appreciate the guests thinking to do, like shut off the water valve to the toilet if it should for some reason be overflowing, instead of letting it continue to overflow all over the floor, or letting you know if something doesn't seem to be functioning properly, instead of forcing it, never seems to occur to them.

 

My iron has a safety feature in that it shuts itself off if it isn't used for 10 or 15 minutes. 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sarah977 

Yeah you are right, it never seems to occur to them.

I do ask them when they enter to point out to me anything that does not seem to be doing what it should while they are there but, I stress upon them not to attempt to fix it, leave that to me.

I had one woman traveling with her sister and they wanted use the sofa bed as well as the main bed. It is a folding, spring loaded cantilever style rather than a slide out type. She got the bed part way out of the lounge base and because it would not go down she got her sister to hold the back of the lounge while she sat on it in an attempt to get the bed down to the horizontal. It of course bent all the mechanism and I had to spend hours straightening it and bracing it so it would not bend again. 

I sometimes wonder how half the worlds population has managed to make it to adulthood without killing themselves!

 

See I never knew these irons had these sort of safety features Sarah, I guess it never really crossed my mind that they were required but, goes to show, I still have a bit to learn in life!

 

Cheers........Rob

@Robin4 

 

Some people just do not have the mindset to respect other people's home. If I pay for it, why should I do it or why should I care? 

 

Sorry to hear you encountered such people. I always believe we should always put ourselves in another person's shoes? Would you like that if someone does that to your place? Or do you even treat your own home like this? If no, don't do that to others. 

 

Once I have a friend who asked me why am I washing the dishes in an Airbnb villa. I said we used it so we should clean up our mess. Why are we leaving it to others? With that in mind, when she stayed at other Airbnbs, she makes sure she cleans up as well and the same thing happened. Her friend asked her why she is she cleaning up? She should just leave it to the cleaner/owner of the Airbnb. She explained. I just hope it's a ripple effect we can create by sharing our experiences with our friends to educate others to be more mindful.

 

 

 

 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Yuan100 

Hi Yuan, the point of my post here is not to criticise guests for trying to do the right thing.

Some of them genuinely want to help, others make an attempt to do it out of a sense of guest duty, and some don't give a da*n just leave their mess and walk out.

 

Now in all honesty I prefer the latter group because I don't have to guess anything ....what have they used and what haven't they used. It simplifies my job, I don't have to pull everything out of the cupboard and assess whether they have done a satisfactory cleaning job or not! Some have, some haven't.....but I can't tell that until I have fully checked everything.

If they swept, I would lay a bet they didn't sweep under the bed, under the side tables. 

It's nice to know they care, but what they do doesn't help me Yuan.

Not one guest has ever stripped the pillow protectors from the pillows, or the mattress protector, but I have to do it for each turnaround. The less I have to strip off the bed the easier my job is.......don't make the bed! 

 

I take exception to guests who leave food lying around, books pulled out of the library shelves and just left on the floor, mud from those Wellingtons that were left inside the door, the mosquito net pulled out of its hook in the ceiling because they pulled on it too hard.

I take exception to guests who can't be bothered doing even a rudimentary tidy up. 

 

But I do want them to leave the cleaning to me, the dishes, the sweeping/vacuuming, the dusting, the rubbish bins......I don't want them making the place look like I have prepared for the next guest..... thanks for the attempt but, that is not helping! 

 

Cheers.......Rob

@Robin4 AHh okay! Gotchaaa! I don't expect guest to sweep/vacuum and do that scrubbing and cleaning. But just throw their rubbish into the bins and not scatter it everywhere in the room.  Put back the hairdryer, ironing board, irons etc to where it belongs. Just simple things like this. 

 

I encountered a few who did stripe off the bedsheets and quilt cover and left it near to the washing machine. A guest commented that she is afraid that the host doesn't change the sheets for the next guest! Hahaha which I think make sense. So now I make it a point to do so whenever I stay in any Airbnb. Once in Taipei, I knew the host did not change the sheet at all because I can smell saliva smell on the pillow HAHA and it felt someone have used the sheet. 

 

 

 

 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Yuan100 

Oh yuck! That is why I wash not only the pillow cases but the pillow protectors and the mattress protector between each guest. There is no way I want to sleep on someone elses mouth dribble, and I would never expect guests to either.

Yuan, I use a very lightly scented Lavender ironing aid when I am ironing the pillows and sheets, it leaves the guest in no doubt that this bed has been freshly prepared for them! 

 

Cheers.......Rob

@Robin4 

 

Ohhh thanks for the tips!!  Lavender ironing aid, that's really an impeccable one! I don't think any 5-star hotel do this! 

Max144
Level 10
Bongaree, Australia

Its a pet hate of mine guests leaving the  air conditioning on when going out, as you say it only takes a few minutes to cool down, i have quests stay that attend nearby concerts at Sandstone Point Hotel, they leave around midday with air con on and dont return till about 11pm  also Ambulance student stayed for 6 weeks and air con was on 24/7, i had a couple stay from Alaska a couple of years ago and told them i was going away for 4 days and they were leaving the day after i left so when i returned the air con was still going.