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.

I'm really at a loss. What do you do if the kitchen bin is full on day 4 of your holiday? Do you genuinely just leave it where it is and work the rest of the week with a loose bin bag you're slowly filling, instead of just walking the full bin bag to the wheelie bon outside? Genuine question.

Do you think the linen doesn't get binned in an industrial laundry? I'm not sure what point you're making. It doesn't get things cleaner. If anything it's less clean. I lose less laundry because I treat the stains.

You empty bins when they are full. I don’t understand what you’re at a loss, as this is common sense

on the other hand, when I’ve been in an 12 bedroom holiday let for 2 days (as I do every year) , no bins are full and I don’t empty any before leaving

My point was only that insisting people do or don’t strip the beds is futile.

If they had a dishwasher I’d load it. If I was staying SC, I’d make sure there was a dishwasher.

Everyone is saying they will NOT empty bins. That emptying bins is a cleaners job. I'm querying what people do when the bin is full half way through their stay and the cleaner isn't coming until they check out. I'm talking about holiday lets where people usually stay 1 week.

Most of the time when I stay in an Airbnb it's in the US ... Almost always the only things asked of guests when they depart are to put any dirty dishes in the dishwasher and start it running, take the rubbish and recycling out, and either leave the used towels where they are or put them in the washing machine and start it running

That's probably because most Americans would have a lot to say if anyone charged them for cleaning then asked them to do it themselves, @FrostyPalms - and rightly so

Where a cleaning fee's levied it beats me why AirB&B are having to change the rules at all to say they can't do this; to me it should be obvious, but doubtless some hosts will agree so as to keep their listing and then leave coy little notes about "Could you just ..,." until it becomes an expectation again

They’re saying they won’t empty bins for leaving day. All the conversation relating to this point has been about emptying bins before you leave, as a standard rule, unrelated to whether or not they are full. You must’ve misunderstood.

I believe they mean on the morning of checkout rather than midway through a longer stay.

I genuinely thought I was losing my mind, clearly I have indeed misunderstood!

We don’t use air bnb as there are some crazy hosts who basically want you to do a full end of tenancy clean when you leave.

What I’m happy to do and expect to do. I’m happy to strip beds, I’m happy to pop the dish washer on or leave washing up drying. I’m happy to give a quick sweep for crumbs/sand on the sides and floors.

Though Im yet to walk into any holiday accommodation that I haven’t found something that still needs cleaning. From people’s pants left behind, skid marks, tooth paste splatter and crumbs in the side. Often a crisp pack under a bed. Dread the thought of losing a pen under a sofa and moving that to see the horrors.

edit to add

we always take all of our rubbish.

Right. So why were you telling me I had to accept I would lose linen because I don't use a commercial laundry? You can maybe see why I was confused.

I stopped using airbnb for precisely this reason. I am a naturally tidy and clean guest but the demands from the last abnb I stayed in crossed my limits. That was early 2024 and I deleted my account and haven't returned.

These new changes won't entice me back as I realised I prefer hotels, and we rent villas through specialised agencies.

OP, if you don't have time that is a you and the owner problem and the turnaround times should be adjusted accordingly.

I think you’ve jumped on my post to have a fight- I was simply asking why hosts felt they needed to have stains made obvious to them as if this is important to the running of their business.
Which it turns out- as you said- it’s not anyway .

have you considered it won’t be each person striping their beds though - for example small children who can’t (or refuse to!) do it?! Then you have stressed out parents trying to get packed and their kids organised as well as cleaning your house … after paying a cleaning fee? You say you have a five hour turnover so I presume check out 10am, check in 3pm (which I doubt these days… 4pm?) Your guests are paying you for a holiday, not to be greeted by a bunch of rules.

edited again sorry to say surely it’s not going to take you 15 minutes to strip 8 beds?!!

You sound like a fantastic host!

I think you were starting a fight actually, like most people seem to. You actually told me I had to accept losing laundry if I didn't use an industrial laundry which is quite an arsey thing to say, quite provocative .Your comment to me was literally nothing to do with stripping beds.

I don't ask my guests to strip beds or not strip beds. I have literally said nothing about stripping beds.

Don’t be silly. Of course people empty a full bin. If it’s full when you’re there then you take it out. But if it’s half empty then it would be nice if that was another chore that the cleaner could do since you’ve paid a cleaning fee.

Another couple of posters pointed out I'd misunderstood. I thought people were saying they would not take out any rubbish throughout their entire stay, not just at the end, hence my confusion. We're lucky that collection day is the same day as check out so despite not asking guests to take out the rubbish, they always do.

I've always seen Air BnB as a massive rip off and the owners some of the most unethical people I've ever met as a cleaner.

For one, as a cleaner, you have no idea what you're going to walk into in terms of mess. They could have barely touched the place, or they could have used it to shoot a porn film.

Then you have an owner who thinks that you can have just housed a family for a week, and accept a booking for a check in the day they leave. You really don't have enough time to wash everything that needs washing. The owners Will tell you to do a 45min wash which includes a rinse and spin. So probably 20 mins of actual washing. Most of it comes out still smelling like the previous person.

ETA: This isn't about not having enough linen to go on the bed while one is washed, it's because you need to wait for it to dry and put it away. Owners are never fully prepared for how often they will need to replace lost and worn bedding, though, and this becomes another hassle for cleaners. You need to have bedding on every bed plus a full set of spare bedding for each one for every stay. I haven't found it to be more consistently avaliable when people outsource laundry either.

When you work for an agency who supplies cleaners for air bnbs, they often tell you not to wash or mess with things that look untouched. So if a bed is nicely made and neat, assume it hasn't been touched and leave it. Same goes for surfaces, bathrooms etc. They want it visibly clean, nit actually sanitary if it takes too long

You can feed this back to owners so they are aware of what hygiene standards they actually offer but they don't really care as long as there is nothing visible that can be photographed.

Air BnB should stop same day check ins. Standards will rise exponentially. There will not be the pressure on guests to do all these things and the place will actually get cleaned.

Can I ask you @lonelylou09 about crockery etc ? Do you go through the cupboards and check everything or do you just hope that the previous people have washed them properly ?

More pertinently, they don’t care about your circumstances. It’s up to you to work out if you can make a business profitable.

It’s like these small shops who say “We have to charge more than Amazon and the big chains because we don’t have the buying power”, then complain that nobody supports independent businesses. What are you offering to the customer that Amazon, Tesco etc. isn’t? THAT’S why a customer will pay more - not because YOU need them to.

Just no. It would end up with one person (usually the mother) stripping all the beds, whilst packing, cleaning, taking the rubbish out, wiping the surfaces, wiping the bathroom. It’s a holiday.

The owner either needs to hire someone else to help you or book an extra day between bookings.

That’s what I did. No ridiculous demands on the guest. I asked nothing of them. It’s a holiday not a boot camp.
just made sure I had a day to turn it all around rather than a few hours.

It isn’t a hardship if you are not charged a cleaning fee.

How difficult is this to understand?

This is what I would do but owners don't want to pay cleaners to do that type of thing. They'd rather risk it