Some helpful feedback please from you fellow hosts.

[Alexandra199]

Hello fellow hosts

I would really appreciate some constructive feedback please. I have self catering cottages in The Cotswold in the UK. I have guests who stay and have the whole place to themselves. Since Covid the cleaning regimes have become much more tricky and it takes longer to clean a whole house after guests have checked out. As a general rule I get nice reviews.

Today I had a brief review of my cottage, followed by a 4 star overall, and a 2 star for communication (never had 2 for anything before ). The explanation for this low star rating was provide by the guest, who was aggrieved by the pre-check out email I  send to all guests the night before they are due to leave, the email is as follows:

Hello, you are due to check out tomorrow morning and I hope you have had a fabulous time and take home some wonderful memories of your stay. Check out is at 10am. Please read and follow the instructions on the wall of the kitchen, prior to leaving.

Please consider running the dishwasher this evening, to give yourself time to put away the clean crockery you could then quickly hand wash any breakfast crockery in the morning.

Please make sure to take all your belongings with you.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Alex

The instructions on the wall of the kitchen basically ask guest to put their rubbish out in the relevant bins, wipe down the kitchen worktops and leave a message in my guest book (nothing too exceptional).

This particular guest felt that reading the email on the Saturday night asking her to load the dishwasher and hand wash plates put a downer on her day.... so 2 stars for communication

I'm pretty cross about this and I've never had any other complaints but I wondered if you lot thought I was being unreasonable. The reason for this request is some guests leave the dishwasher going and then check out. The cycle can sometimes take up to 3.5 hours to complete and my cleaners have other properties to do so don't always have time to empty it and put away all the crockery once it has eventually finished.

Your thoughts please guys? (Please bear in mind I am already pretty upset about this review so be kind)🙄

Alex 

xx

[Alexandra199]

Thank you Colleen, yes I am smarting from this review when I get many many wonderful ones. Its just a character trait to always remember and obsess about the bad ones!

I really do find your words helpful though which is why i came on here, i really appreciate it. x

[Debra300]

@Alexandra199,

I also send my guests a message with a reminder of the checkout time and requested task checklist the day  before they are supposed to depart.  Since guests tend to select the longest dishwasher cycle and don't have a full load, I usually ask them to only load the dishwasher and not run it.  The following is an example message.  No one has spoken negatively about it, but most guests still fail to do something.  This is only irritating when it's the guests that stayed until very the last minute or left a little late, and we have a rather generous checkout time of 2 p.m.

Hello XX,
Thank you for staying with us at the Keep Cool Apartment. You are scheduled to checkout by 2 p.m. on XX, 2022. We hope that you’ve enjoyed your stay.

We ask that you do the following before checking out from the apartment:
- Put all garbage in the trash bins, including cooked, open and unused food, and open toiletries. Do not leave items in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Pour out food and liquids from open containers.
- Wash any dirty dishes, and leave them in the counter dish rack. Or, rinse off dirty dishes and place them in the dishwasher. Do NOT turn on the dishwasher, we will do it when we clean the apartment.
- Wipe up/sweep/pick up any dropped food, and wipe/mop up any spills.
- Clean the lint trap in the clothes dryer.
- Do not remove the linen from the beds.
- Place used towels inside the laundry hamper, and leave it in front of the washing machine.  Make sure the washer’s door is left ajar to avoid musty odors.
- Make sure these items are turned off: AC units, TVs, lamps/lights, ceiling fans, washer and dryer, stove, kitchen exhaust vent, microwave, toaster, tea kettle, and coffee makers.
- Ensure that you’ve deleted your user account and password from the streaming devices and TV.
- Place keys, TV remote and keyboard on top of the entertainment cabinet in the living room.
- Double check to that you've not left behind any personal belongs.

We will remotely lock the door after you depart.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Debra

[Colleen253]

“Since guests tend to select the longest dishwasher cycle and don't have a full load, I usually ask them to only load the dishwasher and not run it.”

This is a good point! I also ask guests to load but not run it. Partly for the reason you mention @Debra300 , but also because I go through all the drawers and cabinets to find any ‘surprises’ that need to be added to the cycle. There is usually at least one, often many!   
@Alexandra199 

Unfortunately, even though my checkout instructions are extremely short and simple, I’ll often arrive to find this ask has been overlooked😑

[Alexandra199]

I have a dishwasher that runs a 3.5 hour cycle. My guests check out at 10 am. My cleaner arrives pretty soon after and it take 2.5 hours to clean the house. Therefore I cant ask the guest to leave the dishwasher because the cleaner will have finished before the cycle finishes. Its really annoying but that is the reason i ask guests to not use the dishwasher in the morning they check out.

[Huma0]

@Alexandra199 

Are you sure the shortest cycle on your dishwasher is 3.5 hours, as that seems insanely long? I know that these days, most dishwashers come with a quick wash cycle but, even my last one, which I recently replace, which was 13 years old, didn't take anywhere near that long.

It seems to me that this one thing is causing unnecessary hassle to your guests. If this is the only one who has ever taken exception to the requirement, then perhaps you should just ignore it, but personally I would be annoyed if I was on holiday and had to run the dishwasher the night before, empty it, hand wash remaining dishes and still check out by 10am!! That's hardly a recipe for relaxation.

Then again, I do understand that it's important to run a tight ship, especially if you have guests checking in and out the same day. A dishwasher with a quicker cycle might help to resolve the problem...

[Mark116]

@Colleen253 @Debra300  Hmmm, that's interesting about loading the dishwasher but not running that, I may test that out.  Often, when guests have done a lot of cooking the stuff has to be rewashed anyway.

Our list is very short...leave keys on the living room table, hang up towels, wash dishes, depending on how long they stayed either take out trash/recycling or collect it in the kitchen receptacles.  We no longer ask guests to deal w/any leftover food because in the past it caused people to throw out half full bottles of soda/juice and throw away tons of recyclable take out containers, so we just tell them to leave it and we will deal w/it, that works because most of our guests don't do that much cooking to begin with.

[Colleen253]

@Mark116 "Often, when guests have done a lot of cooking the stuff has to be rewashed anyway."

Ugh, yes. People's way of doing things and standards vary widely. That's why I check cupboards (and ask them not to start the dishwasher) - to find the dishes that have been 'washed' and put away, yet still  covered in lipstick marks and greasy fingerprints, or the pot with crusty remains. 

[Alexandra199]

The food situation is interesting here...I ask guests to empty the fridge etc but wow do they throw some nice stuff away. Whole gateaux, entire bottles of drink.... its dreadful really but clearing the fridge and cupboards does help with changeovers.

[Sarah977]

@Alexandra199  I have to say I think it's terrible for hosts to ask guests to throw perfectly edible food in the garbage. What does it take, 5 minutes for the host or cleaner to cull out what is perfectly edible and what is not? 

To throw entire unopened foodstuffs in the garbage is shameful to me and a real indictment of the wastefulness of first worlders.

[Helen744]

Helen @744 exactly Sarah. I often wish I could haul some of the stuff down to a homeless shelter or even one of the places that make meals from left over restaurant food. Its now firmly on my list to investigate . H

[Lorna170]

@Alexandra199   We ask our guests to clear out the refrigerator, but if they have unopened foodstuffs that they cannot or will not transport home, they can leave it for donation to our local food bank.  

[Debra300]

@Mark116,

My rentals are in locations where the climate and surrounding environs are prone to bugs, critters and vermin.  One of the first steps of mitigation is to remove or greatly limit the exposure attracting these unwanted visitors.  Unfortunately, recyclable garbage pick up isn't available at either of my rental locations.  Everything gets thrown in the trash, and the collectors claim that they pick through it for recyclables at the collection station (gag!).

[Kia272]

@Alexandra199  I'm sorry you had this guest express her displeasure this way. I'd be pretty upset too. 

However.....I'm wondering how much of a burden it actually is to simply remove the dishes from the dishwasher and put them away? Better yet, why not just suggest to them which cycle to use?

I do all of my own cleaning, and if all that was required of me was to empty the dishwasher ( I don't have one in my rental), I would jump for joy. Seriously. 

I could see- as a guest- being slightly annoyed by your message. If it was simply a friendly check-out message with a reminder to *please* pay attention to the list in your kitchen, I might be more amenable to that. Something about the specifics of telling them to run it the night before so they can put the dishes away, and then suggesting that they hand-wash dishes the next morning is a bit off-putting. 

Besides, I always have to check the dishes after guests have stayed, and inevitably they don't get put back in the right place anyway, so it's not too much trouble for me to check for cleanliness AND put them away correctly. 

You sound like a thoughtful person, so I'm sure you'll make a good decision about how to move forward. Good luck! 

[Alexandra199]

Thankyou Kia, its just the length of time it takes for the dishwasher to complete its cycle...ages! I think the way forward for me is to actually explain to the guest why i ask them to do this. I think one the face of it it does look a bit harsh but when I explain it is to help with change over it will make more sense. I have re worded the email to make it more explanatory and a bit more gushing in the please and thank yous.

I still don't think its is unreasonable to send a check out reminder the night before, though I have moved the automatic time from 3pm to 6pm instead.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Alexandra199  I actually am happy when guests leave dishes well rinsed, as I am going to re-hand wash and inspect them myself anyway. Also, our "trash" will need sorting so that recycling is properly done and nothing unwashed in there. Compostables need to be sorted out as well from the mix. Each location has different rules about that. When on vacation, guests do not pay as much attention to these details, and I do not expect them to do so..