Host requests for Airbnb places.

[madaboutpurple]

I saw some information on the net that Airbnb hosts are not allowed to ask guests to do the jobs that they often ask to be done anymore. My point of view has always been I am on holiday, the place will be getting a cleaner in before the next guests arrive so I will do a few things but I am not there due to being a paying guest to do some of the demands owners ask.

Hotels for me. Stayed in lots of airbnbs over many years. The cleaning fees and expectations of owners are now ridiculous.
I’m on holiday, I’ve paid for good accommodation. I don’t want to spend 2 hours as I leave doing tasks that a cleaner, that I’ve paid heavily for, should do.
Hotels all the way for me again.

I always do the washing up but can't really see how it's bad manners not to wash up.

Same goes for stripping the bed.

It's a business deal. You pay to stay just like you do in a hotel.

I used to think AirBNB is cheaper so fair enough but now it's cheaper to stay in Premier Inn or Travel Lodge.

We are usually in the uk on holiday, and while we’ve never used AirB&B, we have used lots of holiday cottages from other companies. The demands got more and more onerous, and the check out times earlier and earlier, so we were in a position of having to set alarms and get up early to do the chores on our last day, which ruined the last morning of our holiday! So we’ve gone back to hotels, and I love just being able to pack our bags and leave, usually after a lie in and a good, relaxed breakfast.

We run three air bnbs and do not ask guests to do anything other than to use the throws provided if the dogs go on the furniture.
like a previous poster we ask people not to strip the beds as we can see anything that needs to be binned.
not bothered about dishes etc. as we are there long enough to run a cycle and empty it.

This is why I only stay in hotels now. Too many rules with AB+B type lets.

I realise AB+B is necessary and/or more suitable for some families and groups etc. But for me, no never again. Nothing like closing the door on the hotel room every day and coming back to a lovely clean room with fresh towels etc. And being able to close the door on the last day too with not a mop or bucket or dishwasher in sight.

The other thing I find is that often in AirBnBs the standard of cleanliness when you arrive isn't great. Several times I've had to wash up glasses, crockery and cutlery before I could use them.

If hosts are relying on previous guests to wash up for the next then it's a hit and miss thing.

Other AirBnB gripes -
Some people seem to inherit a run down house and then let it with swirly carpet, knackered furniture and 1970s nick nacks everywhere.

Grim bathrooms with mouldy sealant and wooden surfaces covered with water stains and worse.

Pleather sofas you slide about on.

Curtains that don't keep the light out.

Complicated TVs and ovens with no instructions.

Standards have definitely plummeted since Covid.

Yeah, I’m not doing that on holiday. If you’re cleaners can’t clean quick enough that’s on them and you, not on the paying guest.

This was another off putting element of holiday cottages. I got to the stage where we would wash two of each thing as soon as we arrived (crockery and cutlery only, we don’t cook when on holiday) and jusy use those throughout our stay. Other people’s habits are often really manky.

It's not just Air BNBs. Most villas I've stayed in have the same requests about emptying bins etc.

Yes, exactly that, us too.

We would have a space on the worktop with 'our' washed stuff on it and only use that.
The final straw for us was getting a saucepan out of the cupboard and finding a mouldering tomato in it. Grim.

The turnaround isn't long between guests, especially if cleaning a few properties on changeover days.

In my experience you have to be out by 10am and can only get in at 3 or 4pm.

That's five or six hours to clean a house.

If people have more properties then they should have more cleaners.

Not bad manners not to wash up? So you're happy to leave your used plates for someone else to scrape into the bin? It's disgusting which is why most people do it without being asked.

Why do you bother doing it if you think it's perfectly fine not to?

We ask guests to put their dishes in the dishwasher and to put anything particularly stinky straight in the outside bin (near the front door), but that’s it.

We specifically ask that they don’t strip beds as it’s easier to check for stains or damage on the bed.

I've never been asked to clean a holiday cottage. I've done over 30 stays on Air BnB and never been asked.

Whether I’m staying in a hotel or rental property, I always put towels in the bath and leave things ‘tidy.’ My DH thinks I’m mad but I just don’t like leaving stuff lying about. In a rental, I’d wash up anything we’d used and wipe down the work surfaces in the kitchen. We stay in a chalet each year and we have to strip the beds as well. I don’t really mind. But I do then like a week in a luxury hotel to make up for it 😂

Same here. I ask for used towels to be put in the bath, and used kitchen stuff into the dishwasher but that’s it. Some Airbnb hosts have really ludicrous requirements.

We stayed at a lovely Airbnb and we had to do all this and recycling and putting bins out before leaving. It wasn't a cheap rental and they had cleaners. Pissed me off.

So this time we're staying at a nice hotel in the same town for the same money .

We run an Airbnb and it takes 6 hours to clean it (3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms) to a standard we're happy with. If people want immaculate accommodation it takes time. Plus there are sometimes extra jobs to do. This week we had a plumber round during the changeover period and there's gardening in the summer.

Do you wash up after you've paid to eat in a restaurant?
Or at a hotel you're paying to stay in?

How does an AirBnB you're staying in differ from the above?

I really don’t mind loading the dishwasher/washing up etc - I leave an airb&b how I found it more or less. I’ll take out the rubbish too.

The last one I stayed in, however, had some rules that were ott imo. “Do not turn heating above 16. There is no need to turn it higher.” And “Please limit showers to save water.” I disobeyed.

Sorry AskAndy, I didn't answer your last question.

I do it because I like to leave things tidy. Often I leave places tidier than I found them.

I just wouldn't think it was bad manner not to wash up though.
In truth I think it's bad manners to ask a paying guest to do washing up, bed stripping, bins etc. Bins especially when there's inadequate recycling provsion.

The last Air B&B we stayed at was atrocious. Every surface had a warning on it , light switches with notes saying to turn off if you leave the room, a note by the stove warning a fee if you used the stove, a fee if the was a mess on the stove or counter, a fee if you forgot a can of drink in the fridge, a note not to change the temperature in the unit, another note that if you used the fireplace there was another charge.
We left after one night

I just love the space and privacy I get from a rental. If that means some work on the morning I leave so be it.

I normally have plans on the way home so I am up early anyway so I don’t mean a 10am check out, tomorrow we plan a hike before driving 3 hours back home.

i Am more annoyed when a description of “fully equipped kitchen “ means only one pan and two pots or four mugs etc. I don’t like washing up after each meal.

I stay fairly frequently in AirB&B and haven’t seen the stripping the bed instruction since the time of things reopening after lockdown.
Personally I do empty the dishwasher and put away (anything used at breakfast washed by hand). Regarding bins, I think it’s reasonable to put out the recycling but if someone’s only stayed a couple of nights and the kitchen bin isn’t full, it’s fair enough to leave it.

We are away at the moment in a holiday company letting. We have to be out by 10 so I am happy to put dishwasher on, on a decent setting. ( when we arrived all the crockery and utensils had been washed and put away but only on a short wash judging from the setting left. It was very dirty so that was our first job. We wouldn’t have time to get everything ready (2 autistic DGC) and strip five beds. Towels in the shower are easy enough.
Emptying bins are going to be a problem because the last guests obviously didn’t put the bin out for the bin men. We have absolutely no room in the car to take it home with us!