Air BNB Check out times.

[Fusedspur]

So much moaning about checkout times! We have several Air BNBs and the checkout unless arranged otherwise is 10am, because check in (again unless arranged otherwise) is 3pm.

We get more requests for early checkin than we do for late check out and always try and accommodate, but if we have a fast turn around and the housekeeper is booked and ready to go we can’t really be flexible all the time.

So today’s weekend guests should have been out at 10. We have a ring doorbell, and there were still no signs of life at 11:30 so I messaged and said that as we didn’t have any guests immediately they are welcome to stay till later and enjoy the property for an additional fee of £100. (Property is £450 a night.)

They eventually left at 12:30. 😡 It’s cheeky.

So much hysteria about a ring doorbell but apparently you don’t turn a hair about staying in a hotel with cctv all over every public space?

Make it make sense.

Hotels have a published privacy policy and you are renting a room which does not have cameras. Cameras are in common areas. The question being raised here is not whether it makes sense, but is it compliant? Additionally is data recorded and what is the retention period?

I have no interest in airbnb but I presume you can add something like ''10am checkout or 12pm for extra cost'' or whatever I dont think you can charge unless it states can you?

I mean I personally think 10am means 10am so have no issue with the extra charge just not sure you can charge it unless it is policy?

10am is standard, but I'd let it slip til 11 if needed as it's not a slick operation like a hotel and it's unlikely the cleaner is going to turn up at 10am to clean. Personally unless you do need to clean, I don't understand what the issue is if they are later especially at that price. Why are you checking the ring doorbell, that's just creepy.

10am check outs and bed stripping put me off AirBnBs. I’d rather pay more and stay in a hotel.

I've never asked a guest to strip a bed or do anything in fact other than leave the key where they found it. I would judge a guest if they left me dirty washing up to do (though nobody ever has) but I don't even ask them to do that explicitly. I dislike the idea of a list of check out chores for guests as much as anyone. Airbnbs that do that don't tend to have very good ratings.

Airbnb's rules state that cameras are not allowed in internal areas.

Any cameras (external) need to be disclosed.

How is a ring doorbell at an Airbnb any different than a cc tv camera in a hotel hallway?

Airbnb has a very clear policy on cameras. As to your assertion that hotels have a published privacy policy.. I just checked a couple and the privacy policy only deals with personal data collected online, not cameras in and around the hotel.

I’ve opened the door to a cleaner at 10am (we were running 5-10 mins late)

Which is another reason not to have a later check out time, less margin for someone being a bit late leaving.

10am seems very standard in holiday cottages and self catering places. I'm pretty slothful but I don't find it too early.
We often try to leave by about 8 anyway, to avoid being stuck in traffic.

As an aside I don't even mind about stripping beds, (although not always asked to) it probably takes about 2 minutes max, back in the old days, when i was a kid, I remember my mum having to pack bedding and we had to make up the beds which is far more of a chore!

Often you don't pay more at a hotel.
Which has put me of using Airbnb.

Who are these grown adults that can't get themselves up and ready for 10am?

10am is a completely normal check out time. Your guests knew the time, they're cf.

Sure, but it depends what you want. At an Airbnb - unless you are renting a room in a house - you get lounge, kitchen, private outside space etc. At a hotel you get a bedroom and communal space.

I would never book an Airbnb for a night but for longer, yes.

We are at a hotel right now. Family of 5.
2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and bathroom with bath/shower. Free WiFi, tea/coffee/milk. Lots of channels on TV.
Icecream as a gift in freezer for the kids. Wine for the parents.
Daily cleaning/fresh towels. No cleaning at leaving. 11 am check out
No worries. And no, an Airbnb wouldn't be cheaper. Might be about location.

10am is too early in my opinion. I wouldn’t stay late but it bugs me and I wouldn’t book there again and would not consider staying there if it was clear before booking. 11am is my preferred time to check out

Well thats not really a 'hotel' then is it, is an apartment or studio with rooms offered by the hotel company/business.

You know what is meant by 'hotel', it means a hotel room.

Sorry I don't understand, most times the cleaners are unlikely to be coming. Although I appreciate they could. I just don't see why you'd make the guest leave at 10 if you know the cleaner isn't coming until 1 for example, it just seems petty

It's not really a holiday if you've got to get up at 7am and clean for hours. Your customers are trying to tell you how to create a better experience, but you have gone a bit Basil Fawlty on them here.

When you understand clearly that you are working on a product with your airBnB, providing a service, you might not experience it as moaning, but helpful, even crucial feedback. If you want to do a better job, figure out a way to enable checkout at 11.

It's wrong for them to assume and overstay, but when we've been somewhere they don't have guests coming in immediately they have offered a late checkout for free. Not that we've necessarily needed it, as we'd already made plans but it was a nice gesture.

10am we can cope with but I wouldn't usually pick somewhere with a 9am checkout, unless we had to leave early anyway.

I've never had to "clean for hours" anywhere before leaving even when the kids were tiny. It's hardly more than I'd do in a hotel on my own. But some people are pretty messy and disgusting. I went into a colleague's hotel room, she was only staying for one night and it was a right mess.

Many hotels include a separate Video Policy within or annexed to the privacy statement, there are several examples on line if you search 'video policy' and name of hotel/group.

Any CCTV camera in an hotel must be registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) anyway.

To quote the ICO:

• Hotels, like any business using CCTV, must provide a clear and transparent privacy statement informing guests about the use of surveillance systems. This statement should explain the purpose of CCTV, where cameras are located, how footage is stored, and who has access to it. Hotels must comply with data protection laws, ensuring guests have rights to access and potentially rectify their images.

• If a holiday rental property uses CCTV for security purposes, it must register with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Unless you run a holiday let, it’s impossible to know the nuances of running one.

my housekeeper cleans three properties in the same block, and she definitely starts at 10. The order she cleans them in depends on whether each has more guests arriving that day, but in high summer they all have a turnaround.

Her daughter helps her turn them around and they work really hard (as in, they are sweating even part way through).

I was there once when a family turned up at 1pm hassling her to get into a property that wasn’t ready and where the check-in time is 3pm. They sat in the car park phoning the agent and asking to be let in - then the agent started hassling the housekeeper.

what you probably don’t appreciate is that it’s not just late departing guests that are the issue, it’s early arrivals.

Perhaps the other thing that’s not obvious is that the allotted turn around time includes time to make any repairs, not just clean. If a problem is spotted at 10am, it can possibly be remedied by 3pm. I’m sure people who want a late check out/early check in would also complain if they arrived to find something broken/malfunctioning.

I agree with all this. Maybe because we’ve got smallish DC, it’s a rare holiday day when we’re not up and about, and probably out for the day by 10am anyway, so doing that on the day we leave is no hardship. And it wouldn’t take hours to clean unless you’ve done literally nothing to keep the place clean and tidy all week (or unless you’re ended up in one of the places that do have a ridiculous list of chores an arm long in a laminated list).

Our most recent holiday, instead of our usual self catering, we were in a suite in a five star hotel, so there was someone in every day to clean and then a later turndown service. It was quite a novelty! I suppose if you’re used to that kind of holiday, you might not be in the habit of picking up after yourself and wiping spills etc through the week, so it might take a while to clean up everything on the last morning.

Your guests eventually leaving at 12.30pm is taking the piss, without any unexpected issues, e.g. car won't start. A 10am check-out isn't too bad if you're not really expecting much from your guests in terms of cleaning, which it sounds like you're not, and/or if your guests are a small group of adults. Tough with young DC that you have to tag team, though.

IME when I used to book with air BnB some hosts would put cleaning expectations on the listing. Most wouldn't. In some properties you rock up to a laminated sheet or folder with "cleaning expectations". This was rarely the case pre COVID but after COVID bar 1 Airbnb (stayed at about 15 after COVID before I gave up and stayed at hotels/ holiday parks with lodges), I stayed at had a long list of "cleaning expectations" for guests. Plus £60-120 "cleaning fees".

Common examples across most properties include:

Stripping all beds and putting 1 of the bedrooms bedding in washing machine (tablet provided on specified wash cycle).
All towels in X bathroom.
Hoovering entire property and mopping wood floors with X cleaner (property is 80% wood floors).
All cups/ plates/ bowls/ glasses in the dishwasher on X program and then unloaded into cupboards.
All surfaces wiped with x cleaner.
Fridge and hob to be cleaned.
All Bins (including bathrooms and bedrooms) to be emptied in courtyard. Recycling to be emptied - with no guidance on local recycling requirements.
We don't have a dog but I have seen - all dog bowls to be washed and dried, dog blankets for sofas to be put on wash before leaving.

What exactly is the cleaner been paid to do if I've done all these jobs? I will start a dishwasher on check out - no way am I emptying it, especially if you want me to put everything on a 2 hour wash and then unload it. Same for putting bedding in a wash - I'm on holiday. I'll wipe round and do a general sweep in kitchen/ hall but I'm not hoovering and mopping an entire house. Same with fridge - I'll empty our stuff out and wipe up any spills that could have occured but I'm not deep cleaning a fridge on holiday - I do that at home. Same with a hob - I'll wipe up any spills or crumbs. I'm not deep cleaning a hob. One CF place wanted all crumbs cleaned out of the toaster.

I've literally never seen any host ask for that. I'm in lots of host Facebook groups and this gets discussed a lot. I think these 'expectations' are becoming an urban myth.

The most I've ever been asked to do as a guest is put the rubbish out. As a host I ask nothing of the guests at all. Most people clean up after themselves because that's just common decency.