you act like you're letting them stay there out of the goodness of your heart. they are PAYING to stay there. and being so stuck on dishes is weird. i want to know my dishes are CLEAN, and trusting the last group who was likely rushing to get out of there to do an appropriate job is wild.
Do you take every dish out of the cabinets and wash them after every stay? Because if not, you're also trusting the last group to have washed the dishes that they did put away. I'm not hung up on the dishes in particular. That line was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
I don't touch the dishes because too many crappy hosts don't ensure they are sanitized. and you're hung up enough that is was your last straw. if you charge a cleaning fee you don't get to complain that people leave some dishes in the sink
Genuinely curious, as a guest, would you prefer I raise the cleaning fee to cover people leaving the kitchen a mess? Because I have to pay for cleaning by the hour. And I charge a flat per stay fee so that I'm not overcharging people who stay longer. Putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher doesn't seem like too much to ask.
I would prefer that don’t have a work list for your customer to complete since you are charging them according to market rates, why is that hard for you to grasp? You’re running an Airbnb? Where’s your property manager? If it’s you, you’re responsible, if you don’t like it, don’t list your home on Airbnb as a way to suck money from people
We have a housing shortage and people like you are the reason, if this is what you want, then put in the work and stop worrying about your next vacation that you didn’t earn
What's the cleaning fee for? What are they cleaning if I'm doing all the cleaning? You already charge a cleaning fee what is that being used for? You're competing with hotels, you aren't renting out your back room to some local schlub, you're supposed to operate like a business that doesn't seem like something you're capable of.
I'm not asking anybody to "do all the cleaning." I ask folks to put their dishes in the dishwasher. I'm having no trouble competing with hotels or leaving guests happy with their experience.
Then why are you here complaining? And I highly doubt that's your only ask, I have never once stayed in an Airbnb that had such a simple checkout list of only one item. I used Airbnb for over a decade but I haven't in 6 years because of how horrible the situation was, I moved back exclusively to hotels. Only way Airbnb makes sense anymore is if there's absolutely nowhere else to stay, but after so many bad experiences I would go with any other company than Airbnb.
Then you set your cleaning fee to [normal hours+0.5 or maybe 1]. That will cover the vast majority of cases, and give a little cushion for the few that take longer. If those longer cleaning sessions become the norm, then you up the rate to cover it. Occasionally eating an expense is just part of doing business; you see what went wrong, change things if you need to, and grow from it.
Way higher than I'd like. Cleaning cost ranges from $130 to $180. I used to charge $130 and eat the rest, but since Airbnb started taking a 15% cut of the cleaning fee, I now charge $150 so I still get $130 to pay the cleaners.
Ok, and I mean this sincerely and not trying to be a jerk.
Let’s say you come to my house, as a friend and guest, to crash for a night. You try to be courteous by doing your dishes, stripping your bed, etc. Then, as you walk out, I ask for $130. What would your reaction be?
The logic here is very flawed.
Either the person cleans the place and you don’t charge the $130 or they do nothing and your cleaning crew cleans it.
There isn’t a logical in-between where you come out not looking greedy. If I came to your Airbnb I do not give a crap about being your guest. I paid for a place to stay, not to build some sort of relationship with you. You offered your home up to make money. I paid that money. This is a transaction, nothing more.
I’ll respect your home like I respect a hotel. I don’t destroy hotel rooms, and I wouldn’t destroy your home. But I also don’t strip the sheets and start the laundry at a hotel.
I think you need to have a long think about what it means to run a rental business versus inviting people to stay in your home as your guest.
I think maybe Airbnb marketing might have tricked you here, unfortunately.
Like I said, I don’t like that it costs that much, but that’s the reality. Guests usually leave a partial load in the dishwasher, already cleaned, for the cleaner to put away. $150 worth of cleaning doesn’t cover washing a weekend’s worth of dishes, unfortunately. Personally as a guest, I’d prefer to keep things clean as I go, toss my breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, and have the cleaning fee not be $180. My sense is that my guests are fine with that arrangement as well.
Hot take: I would never expect costumers of my business to do the kind of dish cleaning that would make dishes acceptable for the next person to eat off of. I've seen too many people who just run a plate with crumbs under a stream of water and call it clean.
I have a very well equipped kitchen that guests rave about. Unless I do 10 loads of dishes, there are going to items that guests cleaned during their stay and put away. Nobody with a grip on reality expects every single dish and utensil to have been freshly cleaned when they arrive to a house that someone else was using the day before.
On the other hand, I’ve been to rentals where they provide nothing but disposable dishes and utensils, one where they provided exactly as many paper cups and plates as there were guests. THAT is the kind of crappy experience Airbnb should be addressing if they want to keep customers happy.
If I'm paying you whatever you're charging per night plus a cleaning fee, you can bet your ass I expect the dishes to be fully cleaned to the point of being restaurant quality clean.
I wouldn't go to any other place that has coming and eating utensils and be okay with something not completely cleaned.
You're a business, not just someone's home. You're going to be held to business standards, not someone's home standards.
If you paid to have every clean dish rewashed before your arrival, it would literally double the cost of the entire accommodation. Guests with unreasonable demands are why hosts with real homes are leaving the platform leaving nothing but soulless corporate hotel substitutes.
Just like ridiculous cleaning rules, if I see you have a ridiculous cleaning fee I'm not going to book because I can already predict a petty renter who's going to try to squeeze guests and report violations for no reason.
0
u/This-Jackfruit-3576 9h ago
you act like you're letting them stay there out of the goodness of your heart. they are PAYING to stay there. and being so stuck on dishes is weird. i want to know my dishes are CLEAN, and trusting the last group who was likely rushing to get out of there to do an appropriate job is wild.