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.

That's slightly different though. You originally said you weren't allowed to make the request, whereas it seems you can, but Airbnb won't enforce it as a house rule. I can understand why that would be frustrating, particularly if it results in damage. But ultimately that's a decision by Airbnb as a platform. There are other booking platforms if their terms no longer work for you.

I have a particular sympathy about this..... I have friend who was brought to her knees by shite tenants who after they were evicted for rent arears of many months standing decided to trash the place with a sledgehammer and to shove nappies, sanitary napkins, tampons etc down the toilet. You'd have to ask what fucking half wit would shove nappies down a toilet- but they walk among us. I imagine quite a few airbnb owners have seen some utterly jaw dropping things in their time too.

But you do get that this is not the fault of the person who has paid an often high price for rental for a holiday? Owners who are running these places as businesses need to ensure they can get cleaners at the appropriate times. (Another drawback of the popular holiday locations where locals are being priced out of living there?) If there is not sufficient turnaround time for one person - despite the earlier check-out and later check-in times that seem inevitable now - then they need to pay a team.

Like lots of others here, I am a decent human being who is not going to leave dirty dishes, breadcrumbs all over the place, dirty toilets/bathrooms, but I’m not going to do the housework either - I’ve not come on holiday for that! Happy to tidy up and set the dishwasher going, and I always run the hoover round as we have dogs too, but I’m not paying a cleaning fee and cleaning the place too. Given the choice, I’ll pay a fee and leave the cleaning to the person who’s being paid to do it every time.

Yes it might do. But it would have to be lovely & no traditional type of guest accommodation nearby for me to risk it - I would worry it’s less organised/regulated a bit one man band - which most of them are. I’m uber fussy about the bed, pretty fussy about the bathroom & general cleaning.

I would be fine if it was like airlines nowadays, you know in advance what you are paying for and what not. Want to clean yourself - fine. Want to pay a fee instead - also fine.
But if I pay a hefty cleaning fee, can only check in 4PM and check out at 9 because you know, cleaning - and then on arrival am still presented with a 5 page chore list, now that's taking the piss.

If it’s just stripping a bed, why are you making such a fuss at the idea you might have to do it yourself instead of the guest doing it for you?

Quite, I don't see why the paying guest should do it.

Why do you think this is an issue? It’s not required in industrial laundry

I always leave an air BnB as I found it. Dishwasher emptied, no dirty dishes anywhere, rubbish all emptied. Everything tidied away just as we found it. The only things I don't do is strip the beds and physically clean the property.

You can not flush nappies into any loo, Victorian or not. That can’t be a house rule any more than “don’t set the sofa on fire” can.

however, there should be no holiday let in the uk where you can not flush loo roll down the loo, which was the original issue raised in ghe thread.

They are all chores. Again hotels are asking for 11-12 check out, and no cleaning. How come airbnbs are asking for 10-11 check out and cleaning

washing up is cleaning. Putting bin bag in a wheelie bin is a chore.

I had holiday accommodations up until a couple of years ago, and never asked guests to do that. I generally started cleaning & prepping at 10am and finished everything by 3 or 4pm.

I think that's reasonable. If your pipes get blocked up with wet wipes etc it's unlikely to be the guests who most recently stayed who are solely to blame. I guess some absolute nincompoop might actually try to flush a nappy but it's more likely that any blockage would be caused by a number of different guest groups over several weeks, with each time being "oops - well it's only one wipe, probably not too bad"

We once had an issue at an airbnb where the toilet wouldn't drain after flushing on day 2 of the holiday after one of the teenagers took a spectacularly large dump. We definitely hadn't flushed any wipes, we hadn't even brought any. We did everything we could to get it going, the memories of which still haunt me, but eventually had to ask the landlord for help because it was the only loo that the disabled member of the group could use so we had to have it working. It turned out to be blocked mostly by wipes but no way to prove which recent guests were responsible, it certainly wasn't us and might not have been the previous guests - could just as easily have been the ones before if the next week's guests mostly used the other loo. How would you possibly prove it?

So yes having it as a "reasonable request" is right, because you shouldn't have the power to penalise any specific guest when a pipe gets blocked. Better to assume that the odd wipe is likely to get flushed and budget for occasional power cleans that you factor into the rental cost.

I’m not cleaning and paying a cleaning fee. Pick one

The last AirBnB we stayed in had a huge cleaning fee but also a list of things that we needed to do (remove rubbish, clean all dishes, dry and put away, strip beds, vacuum floors etc). It was the last time I stayed in one. If hosts want to charge customers for cleaning - they're going to have to start cleaning themselves. They've certainly brought this on themselves. Hotels all the way for me now.

I don’t get the rubbish. Why can’t the cleaners or owners empty the bins between guests?

thats def not one you can pin on “people living like pigs” or whatever guilt trip people want to try because bins only get emptied at home when they’re full.

So you’d leave dirty plates in a holiday let?

That's a bit much, I doubt it was low cost!

If you are expected to leave it as you found it, then you won’t need a cleaner. Guests can’t put new linen on beds, wash and dry towels and clean/ scrub/ polish the whole place, all before leaving at 10am!!

Then that’s not how you found it.

Agree about the bins. Why should guests be emptying bins? It should definitely be covered by the cleaners and the cleaning fee.

I am so glad Air BnB are pushing back on all these unreasonable demands and stupid lists from hosts. It’s no holiday if you’re up early cleaning on the last day to be out by 10am!

I’’d load a dishwasher and turn it on and wipe surfaces and that’s it. They are competing with hotels where you do nothing and have a later checkout so something had to change!

They don't all use industrial laundries though, where did you get that idea? I wash the bed linen in my washing machine. I treat stains before I wash because heat sets the stain in lots of cases, especially blood.

So many stains. The worst is when things get bleached by acne cream, it's ruined. Stained bed linen is a cost of doing business but it doesn't mean it doesn't piss me off.

Airbnb is massively more expensive and stressful when you have to pay cleaning fees and yet also clean the house so it looks like nobody stayed there, and also take your rubbish with you/do weird precise stuff with the rubbish. Especially stressful with a very young family.

Give me a hotel, where I can watch them safely and put rubbish in he bin, recycling in another bin, and towels in the bath and no more.

Of course they don’t. But tbh, if you don’t you’ll have to accept you’ll have to bin more stained sheets because these things will happen.