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... 🙂