About this AirBnB

[Nakedavenger74]

I haven't used AirBnB before and I'm totally prepared to be told that this is standard but I really don't think I was unreasonable.

Friend and I meet up in NYC annually for a long weekend as she lives on the west coast and I'm in London. Hotels are a crazy price for the time we were going so we find a great little 2 bed apartment in NYC for much cheaper than a hotel (not much though!) through AirBNB. Plus it's available as the owner, who normally lives there when in NYC, is in London.

Everything is fine, perfect location and we suck up the fact that we are told we have sneak in and out of the apartment so no one sees us as it's against the terms of the owners rental, fridge, cupboards and wardrobes full of owners stuff and that the windows don't close properly making for a chilly and noisy couple of nights. No issues. We've both lived in cities and she seemed to live there as her main home so we respected that.

Roll around to our last morning. We were up pretty early to clean the place, pack our bags and get out before the 'checkout' time of 10am. Around 9 am I check my phone and see that the owner has sent me a message at 4am:
"Hi. Hope you've had a great weekend. Before you leave please wash and dry all the bedding and towels and replace them on the beds leaving them as you found them"

Errrrr what?! She thinks this is a reasonable request? Is this normal or expected for AirBnB? We pissed ourselves at the request because to wash and dry two sets of king size linen and 4 towels would have taken the best part of a day! Plus we paid around £60 cleaning fee (obligatory) when we booked.

Anyway we laughed it off and we stripped the beds and left them tidily next to the washing machine. Left the apartment pristine, all rubbish taken out, everything wiped down and left a little card thanking her and went off for our last day in NY. I messaged her to say sorry but it was too late to wash and dry everything and it's not usually expected in an apartment rental. No response.

A few days ago I get an irate message from her:

"disappointed to return to my apartment and find it in the state you have left it with dirty laundry all over the floor. Disgusted that I now can't sleep after my flight. This is a private apartment not a hotel. I will be complaining to Airbnb"

Was I unreasonable? Would you expect to do a whole batch of laundry for a 3 night break in an AirBnB rental?

Reviews were all glowing.

We stayed in three AirBnB over the holidays and were not required to do anything with the bedding.
When we have stayed in holiday lets we have sometimes been asked to put a set of bed linen in the washing machine before we leave.

We've never been asked to wash bedding. I've been asked to strip the beds which is fair enough. But you can't wash and dry and be out by 10am!

I've stripped beds and put washer on for a holiday if I know that the cleaner is coming in the day we leave. Then she can dry bedding while cleaning.

Otherwise I leave it by washer otherwise it sits in machine damp and gets smelly

You are certainly not being unreasonable, you paid her a cleaning fee, so she should pay for a cleaner. Waking you up at 4am is completely unreasonable, and wouldn't of given you enough time even if you were awake! Plus as she never offered to give you a refund on the cleaning fee, then where is it going? As a cleaner I have come across allsorts of airbnb hosts, but the ones I stick with have a good rating, because they look after their guests. I am usually employed for 3-4 hrs before and after, and we do everything, even if by some miracle you had managed to wash and dry bed linen, we would only strip the bed and do it again, as our guests are guests, not qualified cleaners, so we cant take it for granted they have cleaned them to a professional standard. She is being a skint flint, while they are some fantastic hosts, airbnb does also attracts the opportunistic types who want as much money as they can for as little effort, simply because their flat happens to be in a desirable area. A bit off point, but last week I had what I call pita (pain in the arsse) customer trying to sue just for being off ill, despite not even telling me she was doing airbnb (because she knew I would have charged her a higher rate). I would get airbnb involved, if your still bothered by her, but my guess she will back down.

We had something fairly similar with air Bnb. A landlady who thought the whole place should be deep cleaned by us before we left despite cleaning fee. Kept going on about how it only "buys you" about half an hour cleaning. No, it's a fee for the apartment to be cleaned.

We did a hell of a lot of cleaning before we left and left it really nice, but she still complained.

Mlgs that us really cheeky of the landlady, I live in London, and honestly we get all types, including the tight rods, so I wouldn't be surprised if she got the previous guests to do the same.

Leave a shit review saying everything you said here.

You should not be doing any cleaning or bed changing really.

My exh decided not to leave a review or to respond to them and it was his account. which was stupid in my view.

Have you still got time to leave a review? And did you check her prior reviews? She's a knob. That is not how Airbnb works.

Noway cheeky mare.

ridiculous, just leave her a shitty review , or maybe a factual and honest one !!!

Hosts are allowed to charge want they want with cleaning, some charge £36-48 before arrival and some charge for before arrival and departure £72-96 Now here's what I have seen crafty hosts do, they should charge only £36-48 arrival fee if they have new guests arriving later that day, as the next guest is also paying a fee to clean the rental. Some hosts try and charge both fees so pocket an extra cleaning fee each time. Then there is the other side of the spectrum, where you get hosts that only charge a token fee but still deep clean on arrival, departure and once a week, and pay the cleaner from the money they make. It really is random what type of host you get. But I have stuck with some lovely airbnb hosts who follow the ethos of having somewhere welcoming for their guests, though I have come across some real peetakers with enhanced photos on their page, tat in all the cupboards so no where to put thing, mouldy bathrooms, broken appliances, drying wet linen in wardrobes and even no curtains in one place I saw, with the host not being bothered to fix it, yet still let it out. I can only say please let people know in the reviews you give

We stayed in various AirBnB places in the states and only request we've ever had was before we even booked was to strip beds used and leave used linen and towels in bathtub. (No cleaning fee)

Sounds odd. If it wasn't in t&c's (under the sneaking about bit ) I'd state in my response review that there was no obligation to clean bedding.

Wow, she is chancing it. I have stayed in several air bandb places and never had to do that. I have often used the washing machine but to washs my clothing before coming home.
Also American washing machines are different to UK she is just assuming you would understand how to use it!

Bad review her!