Air B n B guests no longer need to clean up after themselves

[lonelylou09]

Wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the upcoming changes to Air BnB bookings where owners will no longer be able to ask guests to strip beds, remove rubbish or even wash up after themselves.
I'm a cleaner and I'm worried this will mean I can no longer do changeovers properly.
I currently do a 5 bed 3 bathroom that sleeps 10 and it takes me the whole check out time (5 hours) to turn the property over. That's with guests having to strip beds, remove rubbish to correct outside bins and at the very least load up the dishwasher and put it on.
If I have to add this on to It could easily add on an hour which means check out or in times would have to be adjusted and people already moan or turn up 2 or 3 hours early or leave an hour late.
So I'm guessing I'm asking what peoples thoughts are if you use air B and b. Do you do these things if asked and would continue too if you can't be asked to? Or do you think this isn't your place to do it? Does it make a difference if there is a cleaning fee charged separately?
My view is it's not a hotel ..its self catering and you should leave it as you found it. I always put a lot of effort into trying to ensure when the guests arrive it feels like no one was there before then and it's theirs for the week.
If I stay anywhere...even a hotel I'll strip the bed and set the bins ready to make it easier for the cleaner.
But although most guests are great you do get some that you just wonder what Thier own home is like.

Then why on you on here complaining?

You need at least 2 cleaners for that size.

You originally said

Our landfill (for a house that sleeps 12) is collected every 3 weeks so you can see how problematic this is - I will have to rely on the goodwill of guests (luckily I usually have great ones)

You're running a business and should be paying for commercial waste collection, why don't you ask them to come more regularly?

Again, at no point have I complained about my rubbish. I used it as an example for why a blanket ban across all Airbnb properties doesn't work, because rubbish disposable is completely different if you're in a city centre versus the countryside. Not to mention it also depends on the country. Other posters then seemed to say it was totally unreasonable to expect self catering guests to dispose of their own rubbish when it's literally outside the front door, so it started a discussion 🤷‍♀️

If people are respectful then the cleaning is done within the time frame and the next guests get an early check in. If the previous guests haven't even mopped up their own spills or done any washing up all week, then it's the next guests that suffer.

Or, or - instead of guests suffering, you can hire enough cleaners or block one night so you have sufficient time to clean instead of expecting your guests to do it? If neither is feasible then sounds like it's not a sustainable business plan.

We request bed stripped and dishwasher turned on. However we do not charge a cleaning fee. The cost of cleaning is included in our price. So I'm not sure where I stand.
Do I just now start charging a cleaning fee if they aren't willing to do these tasks.

I use airbnb to relax, not to do chores. As part of the listing, hosts should have been asked to post pictures of all their 'rules'--so we know which to avoid. It's too little, too late, I'm afraid. I've moved back to hotels long ago, unless it's in a place with absolutely no other options. But usually even so there'd be a Travelodge or Premier Inn.

You cannot ask guests to do it, full stop.

I've found lots of chain hotels to have great deals, now. Spotless and no worries about rubbish or cleaning 👍🏼

Having used AirBnB quite a lot, I would say that there's an informal social contract in place, most of the time. Every property I have stayed in has been at least clean and reasonably well equipped, even if some of the claims about the neighbourhood are occasionally a bit exaggerated. On that basis I always leave the property as I found it, and if in any doubt about something - recycling rules, leftover food, etc - I politely message the owner. I think most people will carry on doing that even without an explicit demand to do so. It's just polite, after all, and most of us do think about the cleaners' work. I suspect owners will take to saying 'you don't have to strip the beds and put rubbish in bins, but we would really appreciate it if you do', and 95% of the time that will work fine. M

Christ. Next you'll be saying that hosts should be paying guests to stay in their houses.

Never in my 8 years of renting out my home have I needed to push check in back by even 1 hour. But if as a guest, you decide to be a total slob and leave the place a complete tip, then it has knock on effects and as I'm not a magician, I can't magic them away so that the next guests don't see them at all. If the previous guest breaks the oven and don't tell m, so I only find out on check out day, should I cancel the next guests until I've got a new one, so they don't have to suffer the consequences of other guests?

I'm OK with putting rubbish in the bin, but not with taking the rubbish out of hte house and having to find the bin store. Dishes--loading the dishwasher is reasonable (though not ideal) but running it is a bit too much. I'm not comfortable leaving the house when the dishwasher is running, not to mention needing to check how to run it. Also not OK with stripping beds. Some even ask for some vacuuming?!

I think this is all a reaction to the hosts who really do take the piss. I've had places that threatened a fine if you didn't run the dishwasher to completion AND put everything away before checkout - while providing an achingly slow dishwasher. Towels not just put in hamper/laundry but the washing machine on before you leave. Beds not just stripped but each set of bedding put in a separate labelled bag and placed in a certain place outside. Bins not just emptied but taken to the big communal bin at the end of a very long driveway.

When you're also paying double what I pay my cleaner in a cleaning fee and also at the end of a holiday wanting to have a nice breakfast, get everyone ready and showered and out the door by 10, it's not the greatest.

We stayed in a really lovely place recently where (a) there were a couple of issues but they were fixed incredibly quickly and with minimal disruption and (b) the instruction binder said" "we want you to enjoy every moment you have with us. Please set the dishwasher running before you leave and make sure rubbish is in the inside bins. We'll do everything else."

We still left it very clean and tidy (and the kids automatically stripped their beds) but the sense of physical relief that we weren't being marked on whether we left a streak on the countertops....

You're right in theory, ASkandyforcompo, but it's not unknown for hosts to demand a security deposit after booking and outside of Air B&B's guidelines

Unprincipled, yes, but then so is deleting truthful comments about a property and in my case it didn't stop the company doing exactly that

Honestly though, it's not your problem - she needs a second cleaner coming in with you. It sounds like a big place, and if it's pet friendly as well I can see how it takes the full 5 hrs to get it spotless again. If the host's not willing to hire enough cleaners to flip the property in time then she shouldn't be running an airbnb, that's just how it works.

I run an airbnb and use a cleaning company - it costs what it costs. If the business becomes unviable because the cleaning costs exceed the profit that's not my cleaner's problem - it's mine, I can charge more or I can find another way to make money.

You can do without all that stress!

Also it's baffling how hosts are asking guests to do so much and yet the check out time is still 10-11am? Hotels can still manage a 11am-12pm checkout time no problem. So how come guests have to do chores and yet check out 10am?? Doing all these chores saves at least 1-2hours for the hosts. I'm sure some guests will happily do chores if check out was 1pm. I, for one, do not want to be finding bin stores in an unfamiliar place at 9:45am as the last itinerary of my vacation.

I think people are talking at cross-purposes and using "empty the bins" to refer to two different things.

No one expects the wheelybin/lidded bin that is outside the property and collected by waste-collection services to be empty on arrival. If turnaround day is always on a friday/saturday and the waste collection is on a Tuesday then there will always be waste in the outdoor bin and that's not a problem. Requiring guests to take their rubbish to a local tip/waste centre is unreasonable - hosts can pay for commercial doorstep collection if that's not a normal municipal service in the area.

The wastepaper bins in bedrooms and bathrooms and the kitchen bin should be empty, and lined with new clean liners, when new guests arrive. Emptying them into the bin outside the property is the cleaner's job. Not the guests job - unless they completely fill a bin midway through their stay and they might empty it into the outside bin and then start refilling it. Emptying all these indoor bins into the outdoor bin is part of normal changeover tasks and the rubbish remains in the outdoor bin until the next kerbside collection day.

On the rare occasion where I have stayed somewhere that the wheelybin is stored somewhere that isn't accessible to the kerbside collection service - in this case it was kept in the back garden and needed to be brought up to the street on a particular midweek morning - the hosts should (and did, in my experience) make arrangements for someone to visit at the appropriate time and put the wheelybin in the appropriate place. We were just told that this would be happening so that we didn't worry that someone was entering the back garden.

I even had hosts (in a nordic country) threatening for a €20 fine if I used a second towel. I booked myself a 4-person family flat and couldn't use more than 1 towel!

The main issue as I see it is that air bnb exploded with inexperienced hosts who saw it as easy profit. Their pricing model did not include sufficient cleaning or wear and tear.

i would much rather stay in hotels or commercially run self catering where you aren’t dealing with inexperienced hosts who place so much emotion around emptying bins etc.

Or who refuse to pay for an extra cleaner, or for extra refuse collections. Greedy fuckers.

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@lonelylou09 Even if you're in your own home it would need a really good clean if ten people and 2 dogs where milling about for a week without anything being done - this is absolutely true, but the cost of that clean is part of the rental cost for the property. No one is disputing that the work needs doing, but the appropriate person to do it is the cleaner and if they need more than 5 hours it needs to be 2 cleaners.

I have no objection at all to leaving the place tidy and wiping up any obvious mess, putting all our used dishes in the dishwasher and setting it going before we leave. I do object to having to get up to eat breakfast early enough to then put on the dishwasher, let it run for 2 hours or more, and then empty the dishwasher before I leave at the ever earlier checkout times requested. As well as emptying all the bins, coming back in, washing hands again, stripping the beds (how far? Do you want the mattress and pillow protectors off too? Or am I leaving those on? What about the beds we haven’t slept in but have put our cases on to unpack?), cleaning the loos, washing hands again, and packing all our own things up. Before 9.30. On my holiday.

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