New Airbnb rules

Me too. Hotels make me feel claustrophobic. You’re basically stuck in one room unless you can afford £££ for a suite.

We eat out in the evenings so I don’t cook properly. Just a bit of breakfast or a sandwich, so the place doesn’t get dirty anyway.

Where I live it's basically a holiday resort, we have loads of holiday let's, very few hotels, the ones we have are very pricey. It's 99% of the people who live here's income comes from these. There are very few other jobs. Myself and many others I know clean/maintain Airbnbs.
Most of us work in teams. We are so busy during the summer months we share the load. On some days each team can have up to 10 properties to turn over, between 10-2 depending on check-in/check out times, we also have to collect laundry, drive,park and walk to various properties We set our prices based on the property size. But the owner sets what they charge the guest.
We also try and accommodate early check ins and late check outs which get requested alot! We give the feedback to the hosts who scored the guests. We only give negatives if it has been left in a terrible state!
We don't mark down for any of the things now not allowed to be requested. Our only concerns with these new rulings are- we don't always know how many beds have been used ( we don't always get a breakdown of how many beds will be used) we will now have to either strip every bed even if it hasn't been used or ask guests to leave them a certain way! ( Obviously most times we can tell if they have been used but sometimes guests use them for storage purposes. )

Washing up if we now have to do it in every property will cut into cleaning time, so we will have to charge more as we will probably have to either drop some properties or change check out/ check in times. Bins can be a pain as some inside bins can be left with some very unsavoury items and if we don't get in before the bin men come we can have smells and sometimes maggots in the heat to deal with ( all our wheelie bins are just outside )
I completely understand the relief for the guests and I think some of the hosts are ridiculous with some of their instructions and certainly don't expect anyone to clean on their hols! But it's us ( the cleaners) that it's going to impact.
We want everything perfect for when you arrive and don't want to miss stuff we now have to do extra in each property. Just little things like bunging the dishwasher on and putting rubbish in the outside bin really helps us. Sorry for the long post! Hopefully it makes sense?! 😂😂

Best not rent it out if you expect others to clean it for you. Do you charge a cleaning fee on top? If so get a professional in for an hour or so.

I'm an owner too. I've never had a rule that people wash up and in 10 years, 3 properties I have only once had washing up left behind.

It worries me as an owner reading all this as there is a huge perception that you are asked to "clean the bloody house". I've never been asked to do any cleaning at all in any property I've stayed in but there is a clear perception that all properties that list on Air do this.

As an owner, I'm worried how public this has been. I have never asked guests to take bins/rubbish out, or strip beds, but we have loads of crockery and cooking equipment, and now in theory they can use every single dish, pot, pan, glass and leave it all dirty in the sink. I solely clean it myself and sometimes it's left a couple of days till I can go. I'm worried I'll turn up to 3 or 4 dishwasher loads of mouldy plates etc. I just feel if you self cater then doing your own dishes is just a level of self respect/self management. I also feel like it's my home, and I get to say, but now air bnb are insisting. I anticipate a few hosts will leave but it is what it is. My property is an annexe/granny flat so I do feel like it's my home left open to trashing tbh

Agree, I think this is where the point is being missed with some of it. There are bare minimum things that hosts ought to be doing rather than rely on guests with varying standards.

I wouldn't dream of leaving dirty dishes but tbh I did find it odd to have to strip the beds. They took the piss by leaving this in place after Covid.

I don’t strip the beds but I couldn’t leave an air bnb without taking the rubbish out or cleaning the dishes and generally leaving the place tidy. They review guests too.

I think this is the point everyone is missing, I would never want stay anywhere that hasn't been professionally cleaned. We all have our individual standards and some just don't meet the bare minimum. I would at least hope the cleaning fee, I paid, didn't cover just an hour, no matter what the previous guests did or didn't clean before they left.

I stayed in one (not via AirBnB) where you were asked to put the rubbish in the relevant bins outside for bin day during your stay. Fair enough, except the bin schedule was 3 years out of date (they didn't respond to a message asking for an update), there was no recycling bin, the town had no recycling bins for non-residents...

OK.. I did a stint this summer to help out a friend who lives far away and has an air bnb where I live. I’d say 8/10 guests left the house is a shocking state. Mostly families having a seaside break. Things that baffled me most (in no particular order) dirty nappies left in bathroom/kitchen bins not in nappy bags / as well as sanitary items (bags for both provided)! Using towels to wipe off make up and fake tan - countless beautiful fluffy white towels ruined! One guest left an entire fridge full of food.. about 20 empty bottles of wine and accidentally packed two very nice blankets in her weekend bag 🤷🏼‍♀️ Leaving the toilet unflushed when checking out.. I’ve seen some god awful things this summer! I’d never seen such disgusting stuff before and I’m not surprised at the cleaning costs. I should add this was a high end 4 bedroom house with hot tub (also trashed almost every time). It’s made me realise this is something I’ll never do and feel sorry for any cleaner faced with that mess. Oh and let’s not forget that most don’t check out on time and the next guests always want to arrive early to a pristine place!

This

Stayed in an AirBnB once. Never again. Was charged a huge cleaning surcharge then told to do.it all myself. Rip.off.

I don't use them now.

In my opinion, washing dishes you've used and taking out rubbish is just being a decent human. I don't understand how some people consider that 'cleaning'. Even when we leave hotels we bag up our rubbish, strip the beds, put used towels in a pile in the bathtub and make sure it's tidy for the cleaners to come in. I had no idea some people were so disgusting to just leave it all for someone else, regardless of whether it's their job!

And the late check in times too. Pre covid 3pm was pretty standard and we'd often get a text saying it was ready earlier. Now 4pm is standard and some even say 5pm.

Same in some French ski resorts. Not only do you have to leave the place spotlessly clean (basically as you found it, floors mopped, surfaces wiped, carpets vacuumed), but they even charge you a "Linen hire pack" at the start where you go to the office to pick up your bedding and towels and have to return it to them at the end, to reclaim your deposit.

Do you or have you ever had young children? I've always chosen self catering when possible as it's difficult and expensive to eat every meal out with young children. It's so much easier to self cater with young kids. A few times over the years I've booked a hotel, and regretted it.

It was the normalisation a 10am checkout what did it for me. During Covid times it was to allow for extra thorough cleaning. Then it just became standard. Setting my alarm to get up, have breakfast, shower, tidy and be out by 10am. No thank you.

The problem with this is that you get unreasonable people on both sides occasionally.

Sometimes SC accommodation owners (not just Airbnb) make unreasonable levels of demands about jobs and usage restrictions.

Sometimes guests leave places in a complete state (I don't own a holiday rental for the avoidance of doubt, I just hear the stories).

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that people bag up rubbish and don't leave dirty dishes. The problem is that not all guests will do that as standard.

In an ideal world hosts wouldn't need to ask and guests wouldn't need to be told.

It’s still shaking out isn’t it?

I do know it’s much easier now to just stick the money in a bank/stocks than do either of those things now, especially as house prices aren’t shooting up anymore.

Good i hate rushing round on the last morning stripping beds, really ends the holiday on a sour note.

You are comparing apples and oranges there. Of course a cottage in the lakes is a different offering to a hotel. A basement studio flat in central Edinburgh also isn’t going to offer you all those things. I’m not sure what your point is?

When I book SC, I'd much rather be dealing with an agent than the owner. I'm sure they're not all the same, but they often don't treat it as a business and can be precious about minor things that should just be treated as a cost of running the business IMO.

The market dictates all of this. Poor long term investment in tourist accommodation in very touristy areas adds to the problem.

I think it was a 'small yellow mark' with a felt tip that did it. The sheets with felt tip marks cannot be used again if it won't come out.

I don't charge for bed linen but I've lost 3 whole sets this year. It's pretty annoying and usually preventable.

it’s even worse if you stay in a campsite mobile home in France. They send someone out to inspect your cleaning the day you leave and there’s a nervous moment or three when they tell you to have another go with the cleaning cloths on the bbq! They’re not just looking for clean, they’re looking for spotless so they hand over to the next people with absolutely nothing to do.
You can pay an extortionate cleaning fee, which might be less stressful!