From cleaning person: "All my other houses, the guests take out the trash!" - How do YOU handle?

[Joanne-Flynn0]

HI Hosts!

Do you ask your guests to remove garbage upon checkout or leave in the house?

I am a (super)Host of a cabin and I've also started co-hosting a ski condo.

Most guests are 2 nights so I ask guests to tie the garbage bag up and leave it in the kitchen. (if someone is staying longer I let them know there's a garbage bin in garage)

For the condo the cleaning person said, "for all my other houses the guests take the trash and deposit in dumpster."

I personally don't want the last thing the guests remember as they are leaving to be the trash. For example guests may think and write in a review, "why am I paying $75 cleaning fee and STILL have the take out the trash!"

I want to be open minded about this and ask other hosts how you handle.

Do guests take trash out for short stays?

If you ask guest to take the trash have they ever commented about it in your reviews?

Thanks so much host community!

[Sarah977]

@Polina65  I'm not sure why you keep mentioning the service fee. The service fee has nothing whatsoever to do with the host. Hosts do not set the service fee percentage. It is Airbnb's fee and goes directly into Airbnb's coffers. 

Your concept of how long it takes to clean an Airbnb maybe why you think cleaning fees are too high. A half hour cleaning for a studio or 1 bedroom apartment- no way.

I spend an hour and a half cleaning my private room/private bath listing. That's one small bedroom and a bathroom. I spend that long cleaning it regardless of whether a guest has been there for 2 nights or a week and regardless of how  clean and tidy they left it.

It is very difficult to add the cost of cleaning into the nightly rate, unless a host gets pretty much the same length bookings all the time, which is why most hosts have it as a separate fee. If the cleaners spend, say an hour and a half cleaning, and charge $30/hr. adding that to the nightly rate would mean a guest who stayeed for one night would pay $45, and a guest who stayed for a week would pay $315. 

Because a place normally gets cleaned once per guest syay, regardless of the length of the stay, that's why the cleaning fee is usually  charged separately, rather than rolled into the nightly rate.

BTW, I do not charge a separate cleaning fee, but I also have a 3 night minimum stay. So my cleaning time spread out over 3 days is doable when accounted for in my nightly rate. If I allowed 1 or 2 night bookings, it wouldn't be.

[Polina65]

@Sarah977 

I totally see what you're saying. There are reasons behind the high charges. But then why make your renters do the work?

Btw I think it's lovely that you're so detailed about making sure your property is clean! Signs of a great host.

I've hired cleaners before, and I have friends who hire cleaners regularly. We live in one of the most expensive parts of the country. They clean 2500-4500sq foot homes (big homes with multiple bathrooms), spend about 2 hours, and the price is between $120-160.

And then I look at renting 700sq foot studio in a remote location for a weekend and the cleaning fee is $100. And I still have to take out my trash, plus some places ask you to strip the sheets.

It doesn't quite add up.

Either the cleaning fee would be lowered or the guests should not have to clean themselves.

[Sarah977]

@Polina65  I just think it's hard to judge if a cleaning fee is too high, or whether the host is expecting the guest to do more than is reasonable, unless one is privy to knowing exactly how much the cleaner is being paid or why those requests are being made of the guest. You can't just compare the sq. footage. 

A remote listing, even though it may only be 700 sq. ft., may entail the cleaners driving for half an hour to get there. Roads may be difficult to negotiate in winter driving conditions. There may well be no curbside garbage pickup, the cleaner having to load up the garbage when they leave and transport it to the local dump. None of that is free. So there may be added cleaning expenses one hasn't considered, with a remote listing, as opposed to a city or suburban listing.

The host may want guests to take the garbage out in a remote location because if it is left inside it could quickly attract rodents which are common to the rural location.

Like anything, it's hard to determine if something is overpriced without knowing all the details. One may find a tradesman who charges more than another you got a quote from, but that may be reflected in the quality of service. At first glance, you may think one is too expensive, and hire the cheaper one, only to find that they weren't reliable, didn't show up when they said they would, and did poor quality work, requiring you to have to get it redone 6 months later. So in the end, they weren't actually cheaper after all. 

I know there are some unscrupulous hosts who list a low nightly rate to lure people in and then jack up the cleaning fee, definitely making a profit on it. This is, of course, dishonest and sneaky. But for the most part, from what other hosts on this forum have posted over time, it seems like the cleaning fee does usually represent exactly what the host is paying to have the place cleaned. 

You mentioned resort fees before- I think you may see these pumped up cleaning fees more with property-managed listings, the types that have scores or hundreds of listings, than with small-time hands-on hosts. Those management companies often have all sorts of added fees in the small print. A lot of them also get poor cleanliness ratings, because guess what? You can't properly clean a 4500 sq.ft., multiple bedroom multiple bathroom home in 2 hours unless there are 2 or 3 people working. You simply can't do more than superficially clean.

[Huma0]

@Polina65 

I don't think @Sarah977 's approach is that different to a lot of hosts (the decent ones anyway). 

I spend minimum two hours, often more depending on the size of the room and how messy the guests were, cleaning and making up the bed in one guest bedroom. That's before you even consider bathrooms, kitchen etc. A quick, superficial clean is not good enough. Everything must be cleaned again even in between each guest stay, regardless of if you just did it two days before.

I cannot see how anyone could clean a 700sq foot studio on 30 minutes to a satisfactory standard for an Airbnb. It's not the same as having a cleaner do a quick superficial clean at your own apartment. All the linens and towels must be washed. They might even be ironed. Do you think the cleaners could squeeze that into 30 minutes too?

On the other hand I see your point about asking guests to do cleaning tasks when they are paying a substantial cleaning fee (personally, I don't charge one. I think it's a given that the place should be properly cleaned and I would prefer it if we all had to include this cost in our rates).

However, I think most hosts who ask guests to take out the rubbish do so for good reason. It's so as not to attract pests, create bad smells etc. especially in hot climates, if they or the cleaner cannot get there straight away after check out. It may also be so that they don't miss the rubbish collection. Where I live, all types of waste are only collected on Tuesday morning. If the stuff is not out the night before, then it's going to be sitting there for another week.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  I also don't think it's anything special to spend an hour and a half cleaning my guest space. I don't see how it could be properly done in less time than that, and I don't lollygag about, I'm fast and work efficiently.

When people think half an hour is  enough to clean more than just a bathroom (I've even read people say about a studio apt.,"all it needs is a 10 minute tidy up), I can only assume they have no concept of what cleaning entails, or their standards are completely different from mine. 

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

It's like the lady I bought my house from. She said, "It just needs a fresh lick of paint," while the surveyor's report said, "This property requires a £100,000 renovation," and the bank  said that it was "not in a fit state for rental," so, yes, people's standards are very different! 

Like you, I am also not faffing around when I get a bedroom ready. I have a system and an order in which I do things, but things need to be done properly. How would that person who thinks a studio needs a "10 minute tidy up" feel if they booked a place and found the previous guests' hair everywhere, their dirty underwear and socks (or worse) under the bed and drawers or insides of cupboards covered in dust? Would they like a thick layer of dust on the skirting/kick boards or sticky doorhandles? How about greasy fingerprints on the windows? I am guessing not!

[Polina65]

@Huma0 @Sarah977 

Professional cleaners work much faster and more efficiently than regular folks. The house example I gave you - it's two people getting the job done in two hours. 

I bet if you had them clean a 1 bedroom apartment - they'd be done much faster and do a great job. They do this for a living all day every day.

All I'm saying is that over the years I noticed the prices on Airbnb's increasing, the cleaning fee increasing, and more tasks being added  to the guests' to do list. In the US market, anyway. Here Airbnb is no longer worth the cost at times. When I stayed in Airbnbs in London, Paris, Rome, Prague - prices were actually competitive (lower than hotels).

All of these factors combined in the US market - is why I've stayed in hotels on my recent trips within the US. And on my upcoming trip (which prompted this whole discussion) I'll probably be doing the same. 

[Huma0]

@Polina65 

Yes, it probably does vary from location to location. In London, hotels are generally super expensive, unless you go very basic. There's no way you could get a similar level of accommodation at a hotel for the same price as my listings unless you got an amazing last minute deal or something. On top of that, guests save a lot of money by being able to use the kitchen and not having to eat out all the time.

Yes, professional cleaners do work faster and more efficiently than regular folk, but when you have been cleaning and turning over rooms for years and have hosted hundreds of guests, you get pretty fast and efficient at it too. I have professional cleaners who do the communal areas in my house every week. They are the fastest cleaners I've ever had and they are also very good. However, they do not clean the bedrooms because I prefer to do it. No cleaner will do it as thoroughly as me. I know that from experience.

[Sarah977]

@Polina65  In general, yes, professional cleaners work faster and more efficiently than "regular folks". But hosts who have been cleaning their own listings for years are not regular folks. We are basically professional cleaners ourselves, even though no one is handing us a paycheck for doing it.. It isn't a job which requires years of schooling and studying, it's a job that requires an eye for detail, caring if it is thoroughly clean, knowing about cleaning and laundry "hacks", and practice. 

I can assure you that no professional cleaner can clean my listing better than I can in less time. Like Huma, I do have a cleaner for my house- she comes once every 2 weeks for 4 hours. But I have always cleaned my Airbnb guest room and bathroom myself because I do not trust anyone else to do it to my standards, and it's my reviews and reputation as a host that are on the line.

I have had several "professional" cleaners over the years and even the best ones, I have had to teach how to clean properly to my standards. 

Being a "professional" in many jobs doesn't necessarily mean they are better at what they do than someone else would be. I know several people, for instance, who are very adept at photography, love doing it, and have their own darkrooms. They take amazing photos, they just don't happen to do it for a living- they just do it because they have a passion for it. But they are just as good and knowledgeable at photography as a professional photographer. 

[Jimmie19]

I would like to know how your able to clean a 4500 sqr ft home in 2 hrs? It takes me 3-4 hrs to properly clean a 3bd 2 ba home. I am wondering if you have a laundering service? That could be the difference. 

[Jimmie19]

As an Airbnb cleaner, the trash is something they ask the guest to take out, as is putting the dishes in the dishwasher & turning it on. However, I don't see the problem with having the cleaners take out the trash but it's important for the dishwasher to be started in order to get the house done in a timely manner. Dishwashers & washing machines/dryers take the most time and sometimes it is what keeps me from turning the house in time for the next guest checking in.  I wish there was a more efficient method of doing the laundry timely. It's tuff if the house doesn't have enough linen to make that turn and we have to wait for the linen to be washed & dried before we can make beds & place towels.  Does anybody else have that same issue? Any ideas that may help?  The other struggle I'm having is every day of the week we work on our own, except Sundays when there is the most check outs. Well on Sundays we are all put together working each house together, rather than giving each of us our own house like every other day. I don't find this effective time management & having 6 people in 1 house can be more problematic. What are your thoughts??

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

Unless there is a good reason (bugs, heat etc.) why the rubbish needs to be taken out asap, no, I don't think guests should be required to do it, especially if it's a short stay and ESPECIALLY if there's a cleaning fee. As a guest, I would have no problem taking out the trash and have done so, even when it wasn't required, but if I was charged a cleaning fee and the host expected me to do it (outside of locations where heat and bugs are an issue or there's some other important reason), I would find that weird.

I do ask my guests to put their rubbish/recycling/food waste in the appropriate kitchen bins while they are here, because the council requires these to be separated and can impose fines. But, I or my cleaners then take it outside.

Taking out the rubbish is just a standard part of a cleaner's job. I have never come across a cleaner who didn't view it that way.

[Michelle1851]

I ask guests to take out trash and start dishwasher, that’s it. I really don’t want my condo smelling like food.  No one has complained, I do the same when I stay somewhere, it’s really so easy. 

[Huma0]

@Michelle1851 

I think it really depends on the listing and the host's situation. I'm a home host so I am taking the rubbish out all the time and also am the one to put the dishwasher on. I also clean a guest's room as soon as possible after their departure (obviously the COVID protocols mean this could be delayed a bit), so food smells are never an issue.

I actually prefer to deal with the rubbish and the dishwasher rather than leave it to guests who more often than not will mix up rubbish, recycling and food waste and that's not allowed by my local council. I could even get fined for it. I also try to be energy efficient,  so guests constantly putting the dishwasher on a full cycle for a handful of dishes is not at all helpful.

On the other hand, if you are not a live in host and your schedule or your cleaner's does not allow for cleaning the property asap, I can see how guests taking on these tasks would be helpful.

I would just feel a bit weird charging a cleaning fee and then expecting guests to do those sorts of things. If there is no cleaning fee, then fair enough but if there is one and it's substantial, I don't think you can then reasonably ask guests to do things that are really the cleaner's job. I've had guests tell me they stayed in Airbnbs where there was a cleaning fee but the host still expected them to do a thorough clean up before check out, leaving it 'as they found it'. 

[Michelle1851]

@Huma0 , yes it’s true, I have to assume that they are recycling correctly, however bins are clearly labeled and on the way out so I don’t see it as a bother to guests.  However  our resort  town doesn’t do composting, so it’s not that complicated,  I could do composting and bring it to my primary residence, but I’m not quite up for that yet, maybe next year.

I clean one property myself and I appreciate guests taking their own trash, the other has a cleaning lady who expects trash to be taken out. 

Honestly, guests taking trash out still leaves a significant amount to clean and is definitely worth a fee.  For a while I didn’t change a fee and I found that the property was left in worse condition than when I charged a fee, so I went back to charging. (Probably another topic)