AIBU not to want to spend our single morning in Paris stuck in a laundrette?

[AppleCiderVinegar]

Driving back from the south of France this weekend with DH and 2 DC. We've booked one overnight stay in Paris on Saturday night to break up the long drive before we get the ferry from Calais Sunday teatime.

We're staying in a relatively cheap Airbnb. The host doesn't charge a cleaning fee so you have to tidy up after yourself before you leave. So far so good. I figured we'll be eating out and not making much mess during our short stay anyway.

No problem at all about cleaning up, emptying bins etc, and I'm happy to make the beds up when we arrive then strip them for the next guests.

But now an email from our host makes it clear that, in addition to all the usual cleaning up, she expects us to take all bedding, towels etc to a laundrette a couple of streets away (no washing machine in the apartment), to wash and dry them before we leave.

The email makes it clear our host is finding this Airbnb thing increasingly stressful and disappointing, hence her detailed additional cleaning instructions. Eg she says some guests haven't been cleaning up after themselves and it's caused her a lot of distress, for example her husband had to hoover because he found a hair on the carpet!

I reckon I'm generally a pretty considerate guest but AIBU not to want to spend ALL our time in Paris washing and drying this woman's sheets?

Or is this a thing in France? I've done lots of Airbnb and never seen anything like it.

I presume you mentioned all this in the review butterwaffles? The reviews are the most important part of airbnb and is how it works.

Back in my day we still had universities and polytechnics. I think this meant you were more likely to be proud to say you were at a university to differentiate yourself and your achievements. Once the old Colleges of higher education like Bolton became “universities” everywhere was downgraded to uni. Still blame Neighbours too. Off out in my UTE now...

Yes, of course I did - so hopefully that will help some future guests. But not everybody reads all the reviews and some of the reviews were positive (or neutral and you had to read between the lines, eg "basic place but okay if you are only staying one night".

Perhaps some people just have really low standards/expectations? When I booked there were no reviews and they have 36 listings so quite a few bad reviews but spread out amongst the properties and there are still some with no reviews yet. Not everybody realises that you can click on the hosts name to see their profile and reviews for all their properties... Also a lot of people don't leave a review, even if they are unhappy.

In my experience, the majority of hosts on airbnb do care and have been great - but Airbnbs failure to get a host to change a dishonest listing means I will be much more wary in the future and gives me a negative impression of the company.

Sorry should have been on the Uni thread!!!

I have usually found that if a place was not as described most of the reviews would reflect this and i would avoid. But yes agree airbnb should get hosts to change listings if they are not as described.

I gave up on airbnb years ago, prefer a cheap and cheerful hotel! Clean sheets and towels, and no cleaning!

Absolute madness.

I'd strip the beds and leave the dirty linen folded on top of them. No way would I be farting about with laundrettes.

Do you really want to be in Paris if you’re driving? If you’re central enough to go into the centre to do anything Parisian then chances are you’re going to spend a fair bit of time driving into or out of it in some nasty traffic.

If you can extricate yourself (definitely worth a shot given the big change in conditions of your stay plus I don’t know how much a wash costs but I bet it will add at least a tenner on by the time soap and drying are included, if not more (not up on French laundrette costs!) which if you had known you could use towards better accommodation than doing your own laundry!

Anyhow, have you considered breaking your stay up elsewhere en route back?

In recent years we’ve used both Reims and Arras as places within striking distance of Calais to break up a journey before getting the ferry (and also Lille but that’s probably too far from S of France). Hotels that are easy to drive to, easy access to the centre of the town, nice size to explore and wander around of an evening, sensible distance to drive in the morning and still have time to stop off at the massive shopping centre and hypermarket outside Calais to grab lunch and some last minute French food bargains before catching an early afternoon ferry home...

Those happened to work for our journeys and we got some great bargains in some excellent hotels - but worth looking to see other places that could work time wise on your route.

Although the drive might be a bit longer in miles there’s very little difference in time taken as you don’t spend time snarled in the Paris traffic. And there’s no laundry to do either

If it doesn’t work this year, worth considering for the future...

Are you sure you can't cancel? We could cancel up to 24 hrs before check in when I recently stayed with an air Bnb (and did not have to launder sheets btw!)

It is dead in central Paris.

Drove around there a few weeks ago.

It was hard to spot a person in most roads and streets.

A few cars but definitely no traffic jams