To be infuriated by my mum cleaning the AirBnB?

[MangosteenSoda]

Tbh, I know I’m being somewhat unreasonable and exasperated is probably a better word than infuriated, but bloody hell! Why?

I’m clean and tidy and never leave a mess or dirty dishes etc. My mum is doing a full on deep clean. Polishing the sideboard kind of thing. Cleaner than when we arrived. Check out time is 11 and she started around 7. Everything packed and pristine by 8.30, then sitting around twiddling thumbs. We are moving on to another destination and have an activity booked en route, so no point setting off early. Would go to the beach again with DS, but she would probably freak out by any sand being brought back in. Arrgh.

I’m hiding in my bedroom with a half packed case, Mnetting like a sulky teen I can hear the sound of elbow grease from outside the door.

Love, love, love my mum dearly and my DS loves a holiday with his grandparents. But this drives me mad!

@phoenixrosehere

It is utterly pointless activity unless you think it matters greatly what the professional cleaner hired by the rental company thinks about you (when they are unlikely to even know your name).

I have done several Airbnb and it is usually the host I get the keys from and give back to so doing a clean right before leaving isn’t necessarily pointless and if everyone was responsible (cleaned up after themselves), it rarely takes long.

It’s still completely pointless unless the ‘point’ is (a) to have the owner, a complete stranger, think ‘What a clean woman has just stayed’ and/or to do the work of the turnover clean in advance.

What’s wrong with doing a good clean? Leave things as you would like to find them! I’m not bothered about being judged by anonymous cleaners or random Airbnb owners but I do think that good manners and tidying up after yourself is important,. Your mum sounds lovely, give her a break. My MIL won’t even make a cup of tea while we’re on holiday together - now that is something worth complaining about!

@PuppyMonkey yes we had the deep clean of a property when staying with another couple and also SIL.
I wipe down surfaces, clean poo stains and take off sheets if asked to, but I figure that unless specifically asked to the cleaners will vacuum the place themselves as part of the clean.
It was most infuriating with SIL as basically all the menfolk had made the mess by not taking their hiking shoes off inside, but seemed implicit that it was the women folks job to clear it up on the last morning.

@Choccorocco

What’s wrong with doing a good clean? Leave things as you would like to find them! I’m not bothered about being judged by anonymous cleaners or random Airbnb owners but I do think that good manners and tidying up after yourself is important,. Your mum sounds lovely, give her a break. My MIL won’t even make a cup of tea while we’re on holiday together - now that is something worth complaining about!

Because someone is already being paid to clean the place!

Not bollocks at all, @PuppyMonkey. It was the norm to have to clean up yourself, especially cheaper rentals. It was a PITA and I always tried to find rentals that didn't require it, but they were usually out of my price range.

Can I borrow her for my house please?

Miss Lucy - And yet in the numerous cheap holiday rentals I stayed at 20 years ago (and more), this never once happened.

@LemonFantaGin wouldn’t you rather enjoy the last few hours of your holiday with your family than doing an utterly pointless deep clean? A nice breakfast out, walk on the beach etc. It’s a bit sad that you send your husband and children out to have fun whilst cleaning is your priority …life is for living.

Every place I've ever stayed in had an exit time of 10 am or sooner. Not much you can do on leaving day apart from pack the car and have a quick clean around. There's plenty of the day left to enjoy yourself in.

@PuppyMonkey

Miss Lucy - And yet in the numerous cheap holiday rentals I stayed at 20 years ago (and more), this never once happened.

I clearly remember one when we were told to clean it as they had a quick turnaround and so wouldn't have time. That was 2005, and I remember it because it was so unusual and not something that had been asked of us before.

Leaving somewhere "clean and tidy" is not the same expectation as a full clean, the latter only having been asked of me once (and it wasn't cheap)

@Forstarters
wouldn’t you rather enjoy the last few hours of your holiday with your family than doing an utterly pointless deep clean? A nice breakfast out, walk on the beach etc. It’s a bit sad that you send your husband and children out to have fun whilst cleaning is your priority …life is for living.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here, sometimes people would do anything (not actually registering it) to give themselves a reason to not spend that extra time focusing on their nearest and dearest and doing a neurotic clean gives them a good excuse (in their own eyes) to get distracted from the family. They do send the message to their family that cleaning is more important than spending time together or that the strangers' opinion is more important to them than the opinion of their own family.
I don't think it's the main reason, but it's one of them.

But it all could be taken apart and explained from a point of psychology, whenever a person says "I can't help myself" it actually means "it's my choice to do it"...

Also for a surprisingly high number of people life is not for living, they deny themselves living at every opportunity...

Some PPs would roll their eyes at how I left our house when we did a year-long job/house/car exchange when the kids were small!

I wish the other family had tried as hard. I left all new pillows and theirs were dribble-stained. 🤮

@NewlyGranny a house exchange is very different from a holiday let though where paid cleaners come after you have left.

We used to do house swaps and I found the pre-clean - as a not very naturally house proud person - quite stressful, as I wanted the house to be holiday cottage clean for the other family. Can't say we always had the favour reciprocated though. Worst was one house where they'd left a whole bunch of made up desserts in the fridge- in individual bowls so weren't meant for us and the oven was full of black dripping gunk when we went to use it.