What cleaning is normally expected when leaving an Airbnb?

[MilkyRen]

Keen for reviews on staying in airbnbs and what’s ‘normal’. My friends aren’t wanting to go and stay in an air BnB as they feel you need to clean them from top to bottom including the bathroom. I was baffled by this as I genuinely have never thought to clean a whole place before. I empty bins, clean up kitchen, do dishes and put away etc but Ive never cleaned the place as if it was my own house. They say we would need to hoover the place including the stairs? Surely that’s what the cleaning fee is for

I pay a cleaning fee so all I do is get rid of all the trash, pile the towels in a bathroom in one place, fill the dishwasher if there is one or handwash what we've used. We usually only stay for a week and we are pretty clean. I do enough cleaning at home I'm not about to start cleaning an Airbnb.

Speaking as someone who has cleaned several holiday lets, I was always grateful when there were no balloons left everywhere, floating turds and skid marks, used tampons and dirty knickers on the floor, dirty nappies outside the front door, contact lenses stuck to furniture and part eaten food left in the house. (yes, I really did come across all of that and more). It is appreciated if you leave the house as you found it, with beds stripped and left in one pile with towels, dishwasher on and all of your belongings including food and drink removed from the property. Nobody expects you to hoover, clean the windows or scrub floors, but the cleaning fee does not give you the right to be a manky dirty slob, and frankly most weeks, that was what I got. The cleanest guests were from Germany and The Netherlands or those visiting with dogs. The dirtiest were British.

Agree with the majority - I tidy up like I would if I stayed with a friend, but I don’t clean. I clean up after myself as I go of course so nothing is too awful. I vastly prefer holiday homes to hotels and don’t mind doing a bit of tidying - prefer a tidy space for myself anyway so it’s just getting the rubbish and dishes sorted which is easy enough.

What do you do when you do spot the stains? Do you ask them to pay a special fee or something? Just wondering why you don't like them 'hiding' them

I empty bins, wipe down surfaces, set the dishwasher running as early as I can so it’s finished as early as possible for them. I follow any instructions about where to put towels, and if they want bedding stripped.
Beyond that I would only clean up obvious mess that would be cleaned up immediately at home anyway, eg if my child drops food on the floor obviously I’ll wipe it up. I wouldn’t hoover a floor that just has general day to day dust on it without any visible mess.
I used to work as a cleaner of holiday lets (static caravans) and I clean to the standard that I was happy to see when walking in to do a clean. I never expected that people would have scrubbed everything or hoovered everywhere.

France . Never again for this reason . Trying to clean à house / chalet to the standard expected by the next guests !!!
And these were not cheap places .
Ruins à holiday for me .

I can remember reading on here that if you stay in France they expect a top to toe clean of the accommodation. Found that bizarre!

As an Airbnb host - Do your own washing up and wipe surfaces - basically don't leave it a shit hole. Absolutely no expectation or need to clean properly, strip the bed etc. Hosts who leave long lists of instructions including putting the washing machine on are unreasonable twats and should be given low ratings.
The worst thing people do which always leads to losing stars on cleanliness for me is leaving skid marks in the loo. Not least because by the time I get to it they have usually dried and I have to scrub them off. So yes just don't leave me your slimy food waste or your shit to clean up and I'm happy.

Airbnb doesn't allow cleaning fees nowadays. It's all one fee.

ETA that's not quite true as hosts can add one if they want but it's always included in the total price paid by the guest in the listing - they don't advertise prices less extra fees these days. This disincentives hosts to add cleaning fees as it makes them look much less competitive.

I ask that you leave the place basically clean and tidy with the washing up done or in the dishwasher and the bins empty. Furniture where you found it and any dog mess removed from the garden.

Strip or don't strip the beds. I'm not bothered either way. Less work for the cleaner but we still have to check for stains. No we don't charge you for stain removal but pre treating sometimes makes the difference between saving the sheets or having to replace them.

The actual proper cleaning is done by my cleaner. I don't charge a separate cleaning fee but it's baked into the nightly rate along with all the other overheads.

Leaving the place a mess doesn't affect me in the slightest but it does affect my wonderful cleaner who has a horrible job some weeks. If you choose to do this remember it's not often the owner you are punishing.

Probably both :(

You paid a €600 cleaning fee?

My friend runs an Airbnb and she prefers the guests not to clean.

She cleans herself and has a schedule / checklist and she finds it's just easier to do it all from scratch herself. She prefers guests not to strip the beds. She changes every single bed and launders everything even if it appears to be unused. Some guests don't book to capacity and may not have used every towel or used the 3rd bedroom but she can't be sure.

She does charge a pretty steep cleaning fee but its in her listing, kind of like a "feature".

Just left one last week. Bins out, generally tidy but nothing more.

To be honest that should be standard.

We change all linens, used or unused as you really can't always tell.

Depends. I always leave them pretty clean anyway, I never leave unwashed crockery or overflowing bins, but I’d probably go a bit further if there were no cleaning fees and was just someone renting out their own annex/doing their own cleaning (empty bin, strip bed)

Well yes quite.

Although I've stayed in some places where the spare towels were unused but definitely needed a refresh!

I’ve never been expected to do more than strip the beds, take out bins and do the washing up. I would clean any spills etc as they happen anyway and same with keeping the loo clean. There’s no way I would be mopping an Airbnb or vacuuming the stairs!

I personally never understand the cleaning fee as surely they clean every time so it’s just part of the price… I guess it’s because it’s the same whether you’re staying for 2 nights or 2 weeks?

None. If there is a requirement to strip beds, empty rubbish etc it will be stated. There’s normally a cleaning fee. I normally don’t do anything at all and I wouldn’t stay somewhere that required cleaning.

We run an Airbnb and don't charge a cleaning fee because I think it's unfair to charge people extra for something we have to do between guests anyway. We ask people to strip the beds, take away any unused food and empty the bins.

I would obviously hope for a basic level of cleanliness like flushed toilets and not leaving unwashed dishes but generally we get that and on the whole our guests are lovely people who enjoy their stay.

I have stayed in loads of Airbnb's both here and abroad. Always leave it tidy and wipe the sink round, give the loo a quick clean if there is a loo brush. Make sure no food left, leave the used towels in a pile in the bathroom.

I used to strip the bed but since reading on here that a lot of owners don't like that I don't unless the owner says to do so.

We stayed in an Airbnb in France about 2 years ago and there was a great long list of things to do before leaving from wiping the hob and oven to washing the floors (tiles throughout). We had paid a deposit so had to do everything to get our deposit back.

Having cleaned holiday homes in the past and been a chambermaid years ago I always leave places clean and tidy. How some people (usually the Brits) leave places is unbelievable.

Yes, it was for a big villa in Italy and we were staying for two weeks but it was still about an additional 10% of the whole cost (going back about 10 years ago now). The best of it was that it was in the small print so we didn’t even realise until she turned up with a cleaner as we were leaving and asked for it. If I lived a bit closer I’d have asked her for a cleaning job myself!

I've stayed in many air bnb's. I don't do any cleaning apart from making sure the washing up is done and put away and tidy up after myself. I leave everything else as it is.

I have a holiday let and I make a request to empty bins, put dishwasher on, and a light wipe down, however if the guests don’t do this that’s fine, some guests do more some do less, I just learn to be thankful for the tidy considerate guests and tolerant of the messy guests, I take the tough with the smooth and just get on with it… it’s just the way it is 🙏
but I don’t really have any enforced expectations and I certainly would not withhold deposit. I only withhold deposit for significant damage or theft.

I own a uk Airbnb property. I specifically tell people I don’t expect them to be doing house work on their holiday.

we ask people wash up or start the dishwasher before they leave, strip beds but they can leave bedding roughly folded on the bed. (This is a hangover from COVID where it was recommended so that cleaners weren’t having to risk airborne viruses taking bedding off, they can just go straight in washing machine). I you track a lot of dirt or sand in (toddlers or dogs) we provide a small hoover to keep that under control but wouldn’t otherwise expect people to vacuum. And put the rubbish out and pick up your dog poo.

what we have had:

• full nappies in open overflowing bins
• rubbish left lying across kitchen floor
• several towels ruined in one weekend with red hair dye
• furniture moved from different rooms to different floors left for our quite small housekeeper to try and move back
• unwashed frying pans put away filthy, unwashed washing up generally
• dregs of weed left on the living room coffee table and the whole house stinking of it

as a sample!

We’re very grateful for anyone who behaves like decent human beings and just leaves the place neat and not in an ungodly mess.

we mostly have lovely guests to be fair and several who are repeat customers.