Conveying a culture of respect for a home

[Chris773]

I've been mulling this over for awhile and I'm having a hard time forming anything concrete from the nebulous cloud of thoughts in my head, so apologies if this post comes off a bit discombobulated.

In the olden days of vacation rentals, owners would buy a home for their personal use and some would list it as available for rent (usually in classified sections of vacation destination magazines). When a guest rented a home, there was sort of an unwritten rule that the guest would treat the home as if they were a houseguest--being careful with the host's belongings, picking up after themselves, and in general leaving it clean (if not completely sanitised, at least in good order) upon departure.

With the rise of Airbnb and professional cleaning companies and such, that culture started to change--but most people still recognized a difference between a hotel environment and renting someone's personal home (even if it's an investment property).

When COVID hit, though, there was a major shift. As people wanted a socially-distanced way to travel, they shifted en masse from hotels to whole-home vacation rentals where they could check in, stay, and leave without interacting with someone and sharing a lobby or hallway with other people. These millions of travellers who had never used Airbnb (or other vacation rental marketplaces) have brought a different culture with them.

So, that brings me to the subject of my post. Over the last 18 months, the number of times guests have left our property in utter disarray (trash left all over, excessive stains on sheets, using literally every piece of towel and bedding in the property and not even starting the wash) and often with damage (everything from grease stains on carpets to markers on walls to cracked tiles and occasionally even holes in walls) has skyrocketed.

My cleaning companies are threatening to raise rates or drop me because of this. I've tried to walk a fine line between setting expectations (with house rules that require checkout procedures) and guest complaints ("I'm paying an expensive cleaning fee--why do I have to clean anything up?"), and it's becoming a struggle to manage (both practically and also emotionally).

I'm beginning to think that one of the things I need to do is somehow convey to guests that the culture of vacation rentals is different from that of hotels. You're a guest in our home; please treat it accordingly. I had an aha moment the other day: vacation rental cleaners are there to clean the property, not clean up a mess. They are responsible for cleaning linens, vacuuming/mopping flooring, sanitizing surfaces, putting out linens and supplies, and in general getting the home in perfect condition for the next guests. They're not there to scrub leftover grease splatters, gather trash, put away a floor full of toys, or launder and soak shower curtains stained with grease and poop (yes, that happened to me last weekend).

So, my question is twofold:

1. What is the correct balance of checkout procedures to require of guests, and
2. How can I craft some verbiage that encourages guests to reframe their view as being a guest in a private home instead of a customer of a large business?

Anyone have any thoughts or advice or suggestions along these lines? I'm working with my housekeeping companies to come up with a minimalistic set of checkout procedures that protects them the most (e.g. take out the trash) and materially saves them time (e.g. start a load of towels before leaving) without feeling like a laundry list (no pun intended) of things to do early in the morning. But I'd like to somehow convey the spirit of vacation rental culture to guests to sort of make them think twice about leaving the place a pigsty without coming right out and saying, "Please think twice about leaving our home a pigsty." 🙂

[Brian2036]

@Chris773 

Perhaps something like:

Please understand that we have agreed to share our home with you with the expectation that you will treat it respectfully.

Please do not leave it in a condition that would offend a close friend or relative who invited you to visit their home.

[Rebecca1458]

I love this, and have now included it in our listing's additional rules and guest manual!

[M199]

@Chris773, @Brian2036 

I do believe and in my house rules (which are part of the TOS), I state in 2 sentences that 1) this is our retirement home, please respect it and 2) the Terms of Service legal contract states that the accommodation must be left in the same state as arrival.

We get 95% awesome clean. Everyone cleans the toilet (but shower and bathroom sink "yuck").  Otherwise I guess thst I have been lucky.  Lol.

[Sarah977]

@Chris773  Every host has different expectations of what they would like guests to do before check-out. Personally I think that making sure all garbage is gathered up, and placed wherever appropriate, that the dishes have been washed, that towels are left wherever you want- either hanging up, thrown in the tub, etc, and that the kitchen counters and stovetop are wiped down is reasonable. 

I sort of chafe when I read hosts asking guests to strip beds, start a load of wash, clean the bathroom, and so on, and I know many guests consider that to be over the top and not their job as guests. It is particularly resented when there is a sizable cleaning fee.

As far as wording to get across the "please be respectful" attitude, something like "Valued guests- we hope you will have an enjoyable time here and work hard to provide for guests' comfort. Please understand that we are not property managers with scores or hundreds of listings- we are the homeowners and hosts and have a very personal stake in this home. We  appreciate and expect guests to treat this space with respect, follow the house rules and take the time necessary to clean up after yourselves, as per the check-out list. Hosts can get very demoralized to walk in and find the guests have walked away as if the host is their personal maid. We expect to pay for a thorough deep cleaning and sanitizing between guests, but cleaners of Airbnbs are not paid to wash guests' dirty dishes, gather up strewn around garbage, or spend an hour trying to remove cooked-on food and grease on the stovetop. The cleaning fee is exactly what we pay to the cleaners, but if guests leave the place a mess, we will have to up our cleaning fees, which we really don't wish to have to do.

Thank you for your understanding, and for booking with us."

That might be a bit lengthy, but it could be tweaked and condensed.

[Kath9]

@Chris773, I have noticed the same trend. But I honestly think it's now embedded in the culture of Airbnb. When we first started as hosts, it was all 'live like a local' etc. and there was an implied understanding that guests were staying in people's homes and would treat them accordingly. Nowadays, Airbnb is simply the new hotel and people treat them as such (not that I personally would ever leave a hotel room trashed, but many do).

Before I became an Airbnb host, I listed my house on Couchsurfing, where people (mostly backpackers) can stay in a house for free. When my son moved out, I had two spare rooms, and my rationale was that when I was a young backpacker (in the days well before the internet), I met many wonderful people who invited me back to their homes for a meal or to stay (boy, was I trusting thinking about it now!). Anyway, I kind of wanted to pay it forward as well as meet travellers from all over the world. Unfortunately, it was not what I expected. The entitlement was unbelievable - I would pick them up, drive them around, cook for them, provide them with wine and beer, let them use my laundry facilities, etc., but did it occur to a single one of them to, say, do the dishes? Contribute just something? Sadly, no (except for the Germans, who all seemed to get it). I couldn't even engage them in conversation because all they wanted to do was scroll through their phones. So, I guess what I'm saying is that in the 'olden' days, if you were invited to someone's home, you would bring some wine or food or help with the cooking or do the dishes at the very least. You would talk to your hosts. But now that you can sign up to a website and literally invite yourself to someone's home, the culture of it has completely changed and you seemingly don't have to do any of that anymore. Needless to say, my career as a couchsurfing hosting did not last long. Luckily, one of my German couchsurfers encouraged me to do Airbnb instead, so now I least I get paid to clean up after people.

So, in response to your question, go ahead and write something on your listing, but don't expect it to necessarily make a difference. Guests who would naturally treat other people's home respectfully don't need to be told to do so, while those who don't won't take any notice of it. In other words, this isn't something that people need to be told - it's embedded in the culture. The culture needs to change. How we do that is anyone's guess.

[Sarah977]

@Kath9  I'm sad to hear that you get guests like this, even in a home share. I guess I have to feel incredibly blessed, because the vast majority of my guests have been exactly as you describe the original ethos. They have arrived with "hostess gifts", cook meals they invite me to share, wash their dishes (and even mine sometimes), come home from town with a bottle of wine to share, are interested in  conversation, not glued to their cell phone screens, and express a lot of appreciation. 

It remains to be seen if when I open back up to bookings "post pandemic", this will change and I'll be getting guests who are just looking for a private room home share because it's inexpensive, and don't "get it" at all.

[Kath9]

@Sarah977, actually, my Airbnb guests are (mostly) wonderful. I don't experience the issues @Chris773 is describing precisely because it is a home share. Ironically, my paying Airbnb guests are way more polite and respectful than my non-paying Couchsurfing guests ever were. Maybe it's an age thing. But even my young Airbnb guests are terrific (indeed, my favourite guests). I was simply commenting that I don't think asking people to leave your property tidy will make much difference. While it won't hurt to write something, people who are innately inclined to respect the property will do so, regardless of what is written, while those who don't give a s**t probably won't even read it.

And yes, I'm still closed too - vaccination rates are still way too low in this country, and while we are still (!) Covid-free in Western Australia, it's only a matter of time (as I keep telling my unvaccinated friends). It's no longer if, it's when. It will be interesting to see what happens once (if) I open up again.

[Sarah977]

@Kath9  Glad to hear your Airbnber's aren't the disrespectful types, I misunderstood.

I agree that the kind of people who would be inclined to clean up after themselves wouldn't need to be told to do so. I 've never asked my guests to do anything re cleaning up their room and bathroom, in fact I tell them not to bother with anything, just make sure they've got all their stuff but 90% of them have left it super tidy and clean.

Sometimes I forget to tell them not to strip the bed (I prefer to leave the used bedding on the bed until I'm ready to turn the room over, which could be several days- between the dust and dead bugs and gecko poop in this area of the world, clean bedding wouldn't stay that way for long), so I often find the used sheets either wrapped up in a neat ball, or folded up at the bottom of the bed. One guest made the bed perfectly, as if I wouldn't wash the bedding for the next guest 🙂 

I would like to think, though, that some guests who might not clean up after themselves in these entire house listings, just do so because they don't really think it's necessary, or don't understand what the cleaning fee is meant to cover, and with the right wording, as the OP is trying to come up with, might step up to the plate. 

[Inna22]

@Chris773 I am both glad to see your post and saddened by it. I am glad because I have been experiencing the same thing. Saddened because if everyone is seeing it, it was not just a bad streak and this will continue. 

I do not think people leave hotels with marker lines on the walls and with holes. It is almost like they are now treating it worse than they would treat a hotel.

I do offer a "worry free cleaning package". You pay xxx and you do nothing at all when you leave. A good number of guests takes me up on it. They leave the same mess they would have otherwise but at least I now have the money to pay extra to the cleaning company and also plan for the mess in advance by scheduling extra time/person

[Anonymous]

@Chris773    I think there's some truth to your observation that guests who are conditioned to hotel stays are often the likeliest to leave an Airbnb home in a state undesirable to hosts. But where did people ever get the idea that it was OK to leave a house of horrors behind in a hotel room? The hotel industry has largely been culpable, going out of its way to make guests forget that their housekeepers (predominantly women and minorities) are human beings. That culture of disrespect for domestic cleaners is deeply entangled with the culture of classism, sexism, and racism that makes even the most superficially "woke" people quick to casually dehumanize those who clean up after them.

What's a host to do? Well, you can't covert someone with no conscience, but I do find people to be more respectful to hosts (or co-hosts) that meet them personally at arrival and remain engaged with the hospitality throughout the stay. Scheduling to meet the guests check-out time can help motivate them to leave a good impression.

And if you outsource your cleaning, avoid using condescending and dehumanizing language such as (full body cringe) "the cleaning lady" to describe your housekeeper. Use that person's name when talking to your guests, and convey that they are a valued partner in your business and not just a servant at everyone's disposal.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  Even way, way worse, my Jewish grandmother used to refer to her cleaner (who I never met) as " the schvartze". Even from a young age, I remember thinking that was weird and wrong- surely the woman must have a name.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977   When I was very little, I often overheard my mother coming home from work and referring to one of her colleagues with a....very graphic anatomical epithet. I didn't know that word in any other context, so I just assumed it was his name.

One day, I was taken to visit her at work, and a man came up to me and said "You must be Andrew!"

You can guess what happened next...

[M199]

As another thought?  Due to Covid and the need for self check in, has the culture changed?

We personally meet, greet and tour our guests to make them comfortable.  Here's an example of a recent review.....

 

[Laura2592]

@Chris773 I don't know the answer to your question as it's not uncommon for us to have difficult guests.  But I have found that having a social media account for your space attracts a better type of person. Our Instagram features our cottage as well as our other properties,  projects, pets,  local businesses,  other hosts in the area etc. It gives a window into how we feel about our space and the type of people we are. Guests who have found us there and stayed with us tend to be nicer, more respectful and cleaner. We also follow many of them and it's more of a personal connection.  For a remote host, it's a nice way to "meet" guests. Maybe give that a try?