kitchen supplies - impacting cleanliness rating

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Esther13
Level 6
Doylestown, PA

kitchen supplies - impacting cleanliness rating

I am interested in knowing what other hosts provide as far as the kitchen is concerned.  I have fully equipped kitchens and I am considering some changes.  I have 70 pieces of flatware.  If just one piece is dirty, I get a 4 for cleanliness.  Same thing with glasses, dishes, etc.  A cleaning service is not going to go through your cabinets to check and wash every item.  I do a spot check, but I sometimes miss an item.  If anyone cooks, for sure, I have to scrub all the pots.

 

My thought is to reduce the supplies to 4 of each to make it more manageable as far as flatware, dishes, glasses, etc.  I want to keep it more manageable to inspect and clean every item in the kitchen.

 

Actually, it is not worth it to supply most of the kitchen items that I do supply.  The maintenance cost are too high.  Most people don't use the kitchen to justify a higher cleaning cost.  I now state that there is an additional cleaning cost if the house is not left as found.  This is because of the huge cleaning mess left in the kitchen by some guest, but not most.  That has been working in keeping the messes to a minimum.  But I still have the problem with cleanliness ratings.

 

Also, on my listings, as well as others that I have seen, it seems to be a common occurrence for a listing to have many compliments for "sparkling clean" while also having the lowest ratings on "cleanliness".  I have also noticed that when a guests lies to justify a low rating, the next few guests make a point of countering that lie in their reviews.  While that works well for hosts and future guest alike, obviously, changes are badly needed in the host review process.

 

Any ideas on what to eliminate keep beyond the coffee maker, toaster, towels, etc.? 

 

Thank you in advance.

1 Best Answer
Laura2592
Level 10
Frederick, MD

@Esther13 I, too, attract amateur gourmands who cook elaborate meals in my space leaving a lot to clean. Our cleaners are great and we go behind them to double-check and disinfect but every now and again something small gets missed. 

 

-Cut down on what you supply. Less to check and you can rotate in new, clean utensils without having to do a load of dishes if you are in a hurry.

 

-Leave a LOT of information about where guests can eat in the area. Sometimes guests will cook because our place is sort of in the middle of nowhere, but there is a really good little mom-and-pop store that makes sandwiches within walking distance. Emphasizing how close that is and leaving a menu on the fridge and in the house guide can help guests to resist the urge to make a mess of the kitchen. 

 

-Block off holidays where elaborate meals are likely to be prepared. We do. My goodness, the last thing I want to do after making Thanksgiving dinner in my primary house is to clean up after one in the Airbnb.

 

-Check the oven after each stay. Some guests are HORRENDOUS in their oven destruction.  Leave oven cleaner and instructions in your house guide under the header "Love to cook? Here are some tips on using our kitchen." We don't demand that people do this, but we do strongly hint that they MIGHT think about checking out the state of the oven before they leave.

 

I wish that people just made sandwiches or salads in our kitchen. Or went to some of the great restaurants in the area  and just made coffee. But there are many guests who seem to spend all their time baking and cooking while on vacation. Boggles my mind, as I really can't imagine doing that when I am trying to relax!

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30 Replies 30
Emily487
Level 10
KCMO, MO

@Esther13 

I think it's a great idea- we can host 5 guests so I have 5 of everything - flatware and dishes. No more. It's easy to just open the silverware drawer and give the handles a quick wipe with a microfiber cloth to get rid of fingerprints and I admit that I rarely check the glasses and dishes in the cabinet and no one has ever complained about dirty ones. We have a few pots and pans, a few pyrex baking dishes, a toaster, a rice cooker, and a Kuerig along with lots of hot pads and towels. 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Esther13  I don't see any reason to provide more place settings than the number of guests you host. If it's 4, then 4 coffee/tea mugs, 4 dinner plates, 4 dessert plates, 4 bowls, 4 glasses, and flatware for 4. 

A few cooking spoons, a spatula, a couple of mixing bowls, a salad bowl. 

The less there is, the more the guests will have to stay on top of washing the dishes, rather than letting them pile up, with food getting encrusted on them and possibly not being fully cleaned off.

You could always have more extensive array of kitchen gear locked away that you could provide in case a guest indicates that they really like to cook and will be doing a lot of eating in. 

In my case, I host in my home and my guests share my kitchen, but as I live alone aside from guests or when family or friends come to visit, and am not someone who prepares elaborate meals, while I have some of everything, it's not a ton of gear. For instance, I have flatware for 8, which works out to 40 pieces (some of which have somehow disappeared over the years), not 70.

Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

I have cleaners who count and spot check all of the silverware and dishes.  I also have a checker who goes in afterwards and rechecks everything the cleaner might have missed.  I provide 8-place settings of everything, although my max is 6.

 

I’m usually rated “sparkling clean”, but a few months ago one of my guests commented to me in private that when she slid around my tile floors in white socks all day, the bottoms of her socks sometimes were not completely white by the end of the day (I’m not convinced it wasn’t their own soil and sand, since the property is in a beach location). This was another host.  Hosting hosts is often difficult, IMO, because they do things Iike slide around in their socks all day, looking for issues. 🙂

 

Bottom line is that for me, Airbnb cleanings are not the same as normal “cleaning service” cleanings.  The cleanings are more like what you would find in luxurious hotels.  Not one smudge on the mirrors, not one water spot on the fixtures or silverware, 0 discolorations on the linens, no dingy towels even if completely clean, etc.  I don’t know if this is true for most Airbnbs, but more and more for me as time goes on, this seems to be the guest expectation.

@Pat271  Luckily I don't get guests like that. I've read host posts where the hosts go around the entire unit with a headlamp and a lint roller making sure there isn't one tiny stray hair anywhere. No matter how much I vacuum and wipe things down, over and over again, there is always a little white crinkly dog hair from my constant shedder (who never even goes in the guest quarters, she just walks by outside and her hair floats around everywhere) stuck to something and it'll be a cold day in hell before I crawl around with a lint roller and a headlamp inspecting every square centimeter of the space.

Am now on my 3rd host/guest in a row and all have been lovely and non-critical. Hoping that trend continues, because my next 2 guests are also hosts!

I do my own cleaning.   I've had guests move items of furniture and comment on dust found behind or under furniture. I had someone turn a bathmat over and find a hair under it. I'm kindof a stickler for trying to get all the hair out,  because I get that hair is icky.

I do, though, have a "bug" issue sometimes.  I have a garden space, and don't use any chemical sprays of any kind, inside or out. It's inevitable that someone will leave a door open, and something will fly or crawl in. I've been known to do a hands-and-knees crawl through the space looking for critters, in advance of guest arrival, but I have an old house, and the woodwork can be porous.  Spiders can, and do, hide. In the summer, if it is very rainy, I can sweep up all the cobwebs every day, at the entrance, and they will build fresh overnight. It's magical, really, when you think about it (if you happen appreciate spiders, which I do). 

Finding a spider in the space has been cause for an immediate cancellation, or a poor cleanliness rating. 

As an aside, I put a bug trap under all the mattresses, to determine if I really have anything major going on (I have a terror of someone importing bedbugs from a four star hotel) and have, in 3 years, never found a single bug in there. 

@Michelle53  I hear you on that one.  I do not understand the guests who check under the beds and then complain about what they find.  Who does that?  I recently had a guest who complained about bugs when their visit started the day after pest control spraying.  They must have let them in house while they held the doors open, perhaps for luggage. 

 

For bed bugs, I put a plastic cover that zips close on the mattress.  Then I put the usual mattress protector over that for comfort.  This prevents the bed bugs from getting into the mattress.

@Michelle53  I have in my house rules a list of items that are not candidates for a refund.  One of those items is bugs/other little critters.  Our condo is in Maui, which is an extremely tropical environment, and there are bugs everywhere outside.  Even though we have a pest service, bugs and geckos make their way into condo sometimes (hundreds of geckos literally jump from plant-to-sidewalk-to-plant outdoors).  I have this in my house rules:

 

Guest also understands that Hawaii is located in a tropical climate, and that insects, rodents and lizards flourish in this environment. Although Owner will use its best efforts to hold to a minimum your interaction with these pests during your stay, Guest understands that any contact by Guest with such a pest within or outside the unit does not constitute a breach of this Agreement or give Guest any right to any refund or rental adjustment. ”

 

Of course, we all know that this may not stop the guest from raising h*ll with Airbnb, but because the guest agrees to these rules when they book, the rule carries some weight.  I haven’t had any problems with guests demanding refunds for this issue (although there’s always a first time, I suppose!).

@Pat271 I agree, Airbnb cleanings are not the same. It is hard to find someone who will check all the kitchen ware and rewash it, or clean the inside of the refrigerator, freezer and microwave, or clean and clear all the drains of the hair that causes clogs.  And yes, some guests do seem to expect it. 

 

Once, when my pest control guy came, I told him about a guest complaining because they saw an ant.  Then I commented that I would like to see the inside of their homes.  Would it match their expectations of our homes?  He replied, "I do see the inside of their homes."  Enough said.

@Esther13 I think I’m probably lucky because my condo is in Maui, where the hundreds of vacation rental cleaners have been held to these standards for decades, so they are used to it and know exactly what to do.  My cleaner has taught me 100% of what I know about STR cleaning. 🙂

Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

@Sarah977 Did you read about the lady who never travels without a black light to check for stains!? She posted here (I think) herself! 

@Pat271  Yes! I did read that (I think it actually might have been on another hosting forum, I can't recall, but I thought How rude!). If I found out a guest had arrived with a black light to make sure the place was entirely sterile I'd leave a review that said she was better suited to a hospital environment 🙂

I spend an hour and a half to two hours cleaning a small guest bedroom and bathroom, even when the previous guest left it super clean and tidy. I even flip the bed frame, a single with a foam mattress, onto its side to vacuum the underside of the bed. If that's not good enough, that's just too bad. 

I have a friend who hosts an entire suite in her home. One woman left a review mentioning dust. My friend was gobsmacked and as she didn't have anyone in the room that day, went in to look around at where this woman might have found dust. My friend is a nurse and she certainly hosts a clean space. She searched everywhere, then finally found literally one tiny triangle of dust in the bedhead bookcase, way at the back corner, the sort of thing the rag just didn't get all the way back into. It was about a half a centimeter. 

@Sarah977 “Better suited to a hospital environment” - LOL!

Amy-and-Brian0
Level 10
Orlando, FL

@Esther13 - you might have a hard time collecting on an extra cleaning fee if the home isn't left exactly as they found it. To be honest, if I saw that as a guest on a listing I'd be turned off. It's essentially saying "we're going to charge a cleaning fee but you need to clean it first or we're going to charge you double". What's the cleaning fee being charged for then? Does it apply to sheets and towels too? 

In fact we stayed in one place that said something similar to what you are suggesting and we'll never stay with them again and put that in our review of them.

 

We have a fully stocked kitchen in our condos - from whisks to crock pots and storage and baking dishes... and yes, there's messy guests and clean guests, like always. The only annoyance that we addressed with a little sign was "Do not put dirty or wet dishes back in the cabinets. Put them in the dishwasher or sink." 

 

We address the messy guests in their review and we put the "no dirty dishes" in our house rules. If they don't follow it, we ding them on not following the rules.

 

If you feel you're not getting paid enough because the kitchen needs more time to clean, just charge a larger cleaning fee. 

@Amy-and-Brian0  I agree- I think a host saying to guests that they are expected to leave the place as they found it is weird, regardless of whether one charges a cleaning fee or not. It's one thing to expect guests to tidy up their personal messes, put all garbage in the bin, do their dirty dishes, etc, but when I read host complaints about some grease on the stovetop or toothpaste on the bathroom counter or mirror, I don't get it. Cleaning is part of being in the hospitality business. I'm going to clean and sterilize around the bathroom sink anyway, why would I care if there's toothpaste splattered around?