dear airbnb hosts

[comeondover]

Enough of the plug-in air fresheners. They're foul a matter of personal taste. Also they make me very suspicious about what you might be trying to hide.

And if all the temperature and function settings have been rubbed off, what am I supposed to do, play oven roulette? Give me a fighting chance and leave me the manual so I can look at a picture of it.

Anything else?

Agreed! And if they’re charging a cleaning fee I’m leaving the place reasonable but I am not a cleaner & I’m not spending hours scrubbing the place.

I refuse to stay anywhere now that expects that, I want to stay somewhere that’s had a proper cleaver in between guests, not been wiped round by the previous people while the owner pockets the cleaning fee.

This is the best thing you can pack……

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/71074/anysharp-knife-sharpener

There were no wine glasses at the last one we stayed at - only pint sized water glasses so we ended up buying some!
Please also leave manuals. We found the gas fire was on low but couldn't work out how to turn it off.

Tea/coffee/sugar was in canisters so I had no idea if previous guests have sneezed over it or the expiry date. Please provide these in new and sealed containers.

I'm in the other camp. Grateful for any tea or coffee, sneezed on or otherwise (surely the likelihood of opening a canister and sneezing on some teabags is vanishingly small?).

I don't think I have ever had a later checkout time than 10am in all the cottages/flats we have stayed in over the years. Actually I tell a lie, there was one which was checkout by 12noon, but the arrival time was 6pm, which was fine because we just went somewhere else for the day on the way down.

I prefer to let myself in and the host should be available for questions if necessary.

If there is recycling to be done please provide clear instructions and receptacles to put the stuff in.

If the main door is opened with a key but with lock itself if it then closes - let us know so we don't get locked outside... luckily ds2 was inside and was able to open the door.

Pillow and mattress protectors on the bed please. I usually strip the beds and don’t want to realise I’ve been sleeping on stained pillows and mattresses 🙁

Please make sure your kitchen is functional and not just pretty. I have family staying for 4 weeks in a nearby rental, the fridge is barely more than a husky (pictures are carefully curated) and there is no washing machine. If you don’t have these things, please mention them to longer term bookings when the reservation is made.

Same place insists that a cleaner is used each week and paid by my relatives….on top of the £900/ week rental.

I prefer a keypad as well, as then I am not worried if we are delayed and arrive late.

However at our last place the host asked us to message when we arrived and then he popped over which was nice.

Dear Airbnb guests… please don’t leave the oven dirty, also if you break something- don’t just hide it at the back of the cupboard, try not to spill tea on the bedding, when you period leak into bedding - please put sheets in washing machine, put half eaten food in the bin, if you chip a brand new oven- don’t deny it, take your muddy shoes off, don’t take up 2 parking spaces.

but I see a lot of the points!

there are always going to be some issues from both perspectives as it is not your home so can’t likely be done exactly how you like it!

PS…I am a host, and no- it’s not my second home. And I also don’t have a list of stuff to be done and don’t charge a cleaning fee.

No scented anything. Nowadays many people have intolerances allergies to scents, so no plug ins scented airfreshers etc.

Post covid had a holiday in Wales in grannyflat adjoining the house.

Said it had WiFi- it did not and the owner tried to tell me that it’s because they lived in the country and I shouldn’t expect it. Well I wouldn’t have but they put it on their own bloody listing.

The house gave me asthma and a migraine thanks to the washing liquid (same as my dp’s gran uses). Even my partner was gagging open every window to reduce the smell. Once we washed and dried washing in non scented ecover laundry liquid (air b&b hosts take notes, tough on stains with no smell), the reason for the horrible scent became apparent, the place was damp and smelt.

The oven didnt work, texted the owner who then called us townies for not making it work) bit rich as I actually grew up on a farm and he was a retired English banker living in a welsh village.) he came over to investigate and realised it wasn’t actually working and had to call an electrician 😂. I then stated my rural upbringing and cheekily asked who is the townie now to my DP’s mortification 🤣

No WiFi and a dvd that didn’t work

Instead of a kitchen table rickety children’s benches and table that at 5’4 I couldn’t get my leg under

carpeted bathroom that smelled of piss and perfume roses 🥀 (made us wonder how soon after granny has died they let it out 🤔)

No salt or pepper etc. The cost was eye watering covid prices

Gave them a frank review as it was booked via my account, again DP mortified.

Ive stayed in dozens of houses, flats and cottages over the years.

I would like:
Mattress protectors and pillow protectors (we take our own pillow protectors if we have space and when DC were ypung we used to have to cram mattress protectors in too which was really annoying)

Decent chopping boards - not one old, manky wooden one which is splintering

Space to store our food

Not too much crockery - we ve been in places rented to 4 people with enough crockery for 12....but no food storage space

Sharp knives

Bowls! (Currently in one which has NO bowls so we're eating out of mixing bowls...)

No ornaments and faffy decorations. One house we had to gather all the glass ornaments plus pottery from the garden before letting our toddlers loose. There was also an easy accessible guitar we had to put away and the stairs were VERY steep with just a handrail. So dangerous
Fortunately we had bought a stair gate but it was a pain.

Instructions on which of the 2 remote controls to use

I frequently move stuff around (see scatter cushions comment above) but put them back afterwards
We recently stayed in a rental for 3 weeks with limited kitchen counter space cluttered with "decor". The enormous ceramic dolphins and bowls of shells had to go elsewhere to give me space to cook.
Plus 2 dining chairs were moved to the bedroom as there were no bedside tables

Oh god yes. When booking the holiday home we're currently heading towards in our ridiculously overloaded car I spent considerable time weeding out properties with 4 or 5 bedrooms but only one small sofa and a dining table seating 4.

Leave basics like cooking oil, salt and pepper and loo roll, because if guests don't have lots of money and a car it's very stressful to arrive with luggage from the train station late with children and have to buy expensive, heavy items like cooking oil that you only use for a week.

Also, do say on your listing whether your home is only accessible by car!

And no scented anything or air fresheners without clear warnings in the listings as they can cause severe allergic reactions including anaphylactic shock (this should be obvious yet hosts still do it).

Oh and do not expect guests to clean, hoover, etc. (except cleaning obvious spills). We're paying an extortionate sum to stay in your skanky flat or bungalow: £700 should cover the wage of a cleaner plus leave you a tidy profit.

If you do expect us to clean, make check out time late enough in the afternoon so we have time on top of packing, getting children ready, etc.!

Yep! So flippin arrogant. I'm the customer!!

We recently stayed in an apartment. The manual said that the cleaners leave the place immaculate. I don’t call dirty skirting boards, an extractor fan clogged with dust and bedding that smelled musty, immaculate. There was a vacuum cleaner, but no cleaning materials. I think it’s reasonable to supply spray for the kitchen and bathroom if you want guests to clean them. DH couldn’t get the vacuum cleaner to work, until he tried to empty the dust canister and discovered it was full of cardboard discs. Clearly hadn’t been emptied since someone hoovered up said discs.

Yes, I suppose an apron is one of those things I miss from my own kitchen and I could bring my own in future.

I wanted the tray to eat from in front of the TV. (Couldn't get the TV to work, probably the batteries in the remote as someone said earlier.) There's a coffee table but it's too low and strangely out of reach of the sofa. I've stayed in 6 airbnbs this year and I think this is the first without a tray.

I can definitely do without the baking gear, secateurs, fruit carving knives, flippers etc

If you have a full size dishwasher installed please have more than one plate/mug/bowl/knife/fork/spoon for each person. It either renders the dishwasher useless or completely wasteful.

That's so not true of all of us, I put a huge amount of thought and effort into making my place lovely for every guest. It really isn't just about money, there's a huge amount of job satisfaction in knowing someone's had a lovely break with us.

Yeah, I would agree that’s not out of the ordinary. A hotel can allow a shorter turn around time as they have in house cleaning teams and each room will be quick to do vs a whole house of checking for broken lamps, missing knives, stripping beds etc.

If the property cleaner comes 1030-1230 because she is doing another let 1300-1500 (say) then the owner has to stick with it.

I never book Airbnb for one night as the cleaning and booking fee are quite high then vs being spread over 3 nights or whatever, but I can see that you might have to.

Yy Bruce - I have said this on another thread, but the kitchen shelves and surfaces of your air bnb are not the places to stack your novelty giant pestle and mortar shaped like a Mexican hat or whatever, if there’s then no room for me to slice bread!

My check in is 4pm with checkout at 11am. I spend all the hours in-between cleaning, tidying, tweaking pillows etc.

Agree with @grass321 - much less wasteful for the cleaner to fill up canisters from a big refill pack of PG than buy a fresh box each time only for 4 to
be used as the guest mainly has coffee!