About this AirBnB

[Nakedavenger74]

I haven't used AirBnB before and I'm totally prepared to be told that this is standard but I really don't think I was unreasonable.

Friend and I meet up in NYC annually for a long weekend as she lives on the west coast and I'm in London. Hotels are a crazy price for the time we were going so we find a great little 2 bed apartment in NYC for much cheaper than a hotel (not much though!) through AirBNB. Plus it's available as the owner, who normally lives there when in NYC, is in London.

Everything is fine, perfect location and we suck up the fact that we are told we have sneak in and out of the apartment so no one sees us as it's against the terms of the owners rental, fridge, cupboards and wardrobes full of owners stuff and that the windows don't close properly making for a chilly and noisy couple of nights. No issues. We've both lived in cities and she seemed to live there as her main home so we respected that.

Roll around to our last morning. We were up pretty early to clean the place, pack our bags and get out before the 'checkout' time of 10am. Around 9 am I check my phone and see that the owner has sent me a message at 4am:
"Hi. Hope you've had a great weekend. Before you leave please wash and dry all the bedding and towels and replace them on the beds leaving them as you found them"

Errrrr what?! She thinks this is a reasonable request? Is this normal or expected for AirBnB? We pissed ourselves at the request because to wash and dry two sets of king size linen and 4 towels would have taken the best part of a day! Plus we paid around £60 cleaning fee (obligatory) when we booked.

Anyway we laughed it off and we stripped the beds and left them tidily next to the washing machine. Left the apartment pristine, all rubbish taken out, everything wiped down and left a little card thanking her and went off for our last day in NY. I messaged her to say sorry but it was too late to wash and dry everything and it's not usually expected in an apartment rental. No response.

A few days ago I get an irate message from her:

"disappointed to return to my apartment and find it in the state you have left it with dirty laundry all over the floor. Disgusted that I now can't sleep after my flight. This is a private apartment not a hotel. I will be complaining to Airbnb"

Was I unreasonable? Would you expect to do a whole batch of laundry for a 3 night break in an AirBnB rental?

[Somerville]

It stopped being a private apartment when she let strangers stay in it in exchange for money.

Just ignore her messages. Or work out where to report her to for illegal subletting...

[HoggleIsMyFriend]

No that's absolutely batty. YOU should complain to AirBnB. I can't see them standing for that nonsense.

[Jayfee]

what on earth did she think her cleaning fee was for!

[HoggleIsMyFriend]

She obviously wants to have her illegal cake and eat it too.

[newroundhere]

No, YANBU. The owner is BVU - if she really wanted you to do this then it would've needed to be clear in the terms before you booked.

But that aside, it's a completely ridiculous request anyway.

We there any / many reviews of the property?

[OlennasWimple]

Did you leave the bedding all over the floor?

[PilkoPumpPants]

Yanbu

[UnGoogleable]

I would be complaining and spelling out exactly what happened in your review.

The owner clearly doesn't quite understand does she!

[ClumsyFool]

No way is that usual, I've only used airbnb a few times so not an expert by any stretch but have never ever been given those kind of stipulations! We always clean as we go just as we would at home and have always left accommodation clean and tidy but not to the extent of washing and drying all linens used, that's bonkers!

[ClaudiaWankleman]

OlennasWimple we stripped the beds and left them tidily next to the washing machine. Left the apartment pristine

Clearly they did not.

[Nakedavenger74]

No we bundled it up and left it in front of the washing machine. I'll admit the bedding was rumpled up in a pile (but who takes time to nicely fold laundry before it goes in the machine?!). Towels were folded and put on top. No wash basket.

My friend actually told me not to bother even stripping the beds, that even that wasn't expected, but I felt bad and thought it was the nice thing to do.

[MissVictoria]

Texting you at 4am wasn't on. Expecting you to wash and dry her sheets wasn't on. IF she'd had extra sheets in a cupboard and asked you to make the bed fresh, that would have been reasonable, but wash and dry then re make, no. What if you had no idea how to use a washing machine? What if you used the wrong setting and shrunk everything? The fact she is breaking the law by making money off letting it to people when she's not there and breaking her tenancy agreement that could get her evicted, let her complain. I'd be tempted to write to the manager/owner of her building showing your booking confirmation and her ad on the site you booked from.

[Nakedavenger74]

Thank goodness. I thought I was going mad. I was totally boggled at her request and then was stupid enough to feel for her coming home shagged out from a transat flight and not being able to flop into bed. But then DP said 'fuck it, she just needs to go to Target and get someone linen' and my empathy waned.

I did think about dobbing her in but she's probably the type to send the heavys round to teach me some laundry skills.

[saranuff]

We use AirBnb a lot and this is not how it works.

You pay a cleaning fee. You don't have to do anything re tidying up and certainly not stripping a bed or washing the bedding.

I'd be reporting this to Airbnb as the owner of the flat is not the kind of person they would be wanting to do business with. She'll give the company a bad name.

[OlennasWimple]

sorry, I missed that bit of the OP (whinging child climbing on me...)

Don't dob her in, there's nothing to be gained by that, but leave a review that sets out exactly what happened and lets others decide if they want to book it or not

[Trickiewoo]

I've used Airbnb many times in the US and have never been asked to do laundry. Sounds like she's charging a cleaning fee and expecting you to do the work. I would leave a very honest review.

[Mirandawest]

What were her reviews like?

[PinkiePiesCupcakes]

Screenshot messages and forward them to aairbnb. Cheeky cow... That's her, not you op. 😁

[BreakfastAtSquiffanys]

Who doesn't have a spare set of bedlinen?!

[Bountybarsyuk]

Even if you wanted to spend a day doing laundry, it's not possible to sleep in a bed overnight, then wash, dry it and have it all put back on the bed by 10am!

Leave a very honest review, I bet no-one else has ever done the laundry, unless they took it off the night before which is just ugh.

[ILoveAutumnLeaves]

Leave a detailed review.

Inform AirBnB - they take a dim view of that sort of shite.

I've stayed in quite a few AirBnB places, it's mostly been great. The last one was a bit of a nightmare, but lessons learnt! 😖😫😂. The others definitely made up for it.

[Motherfuckers]

Remind her that letting an apartment for less than 30 days is illegal in NYC. maybe point it out to Airbnb too, they take a dim view of this.

[Nakedavenger74]

'Breakfastatsquiffanys' she seemed the type that wouldn't. Cupboards of 'holistic'green powder no salt or sugar or olive oil. Very minimalist in general 2 wine glasses only. No bin. Bedroom wardrobe had what looked like a capsule wardrobe with beautiful things in perfectly spaced hanging arrangement; pink cashmere here, black pencil skirt there etc.

I am at pains to point out that I did not go rifling through the poor woman's belongings just catching sight of them when you open a cupboard to put things in and find them full of personal things. Also I was mind blown how it was possible for anyone to have such a perfect wardrobe!

I suspect spare linen would be considered clutter

[SilentBiscuits]

AirBnB owners have individual rules that guests need to abide by. Find her rules, and screenshot them as back up. Then leave an honest review.

I would not expect to strip beds and wash linen if I'd already paid 60 quid in cleaning fees!

[Ldnmum2015]

I am a cleaner, when doing airbnb its usually a 3-4 hr job when you do the bed linen, I also empty bins etc, deep clean bathroom and kitchen etc. I have only decent hosts on my books, but guests are supposed to basically just leave it in decent state, waste of time to wash bed linen as it would only get done again, as we don't take it for granted they are really clean unless we do it ourselves. Def complain as that is what you paid your cleaning fee for.