r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 8h ago

Society New Airbnb rules ban hosts from making guests wash dishes, do laundry & other checkout chores

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/new-airbnb-rules-ban-hosts-from-making-guests-wash-dishes-do-laundry-other-checkout-chores-3420832/
27k Upvotes

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470

u/Treestwigs 8h ago

Now do the 4pm check in and 10am checkout times.

45

u/FingerFar7529 7h ago

Short check-in / check-out windows make sense at hotels with shared laundry and cleaning covering multiple close proximity rooms. Getting all the laundry done and the building reset in under 2 hours isn't exactly reasonable.

The model is built on paying some cleaning service to drive over and turn over a vacation home in a several hour window. Rental houses on resorts which is the better comparison also usually have longer windows than traditional hotels and even those have shared laundry.

6

u/Maskatron 4h ago

I lived in airbnbs for a few months while apartment hunting, weekly stays. That gap was such a hassle!

3

u/Treestwigs 2h ago

Exactly. Was traveling for work and had to stay at multiple Airbnbs. Had to bring my baggage with me to a conference multiple days because of this. Next time one hotel.

8

u/ManiacalShen 5h ago

Yes. It's one thing to have that at a hotel, where I can stop in, drop my bags, use the public bathroom, and sit in the lobby while I figure out my afternoon. And on checkout, I can again drop my bags, go touristing or whatever, and come back for my bags before going to the airport.

At an AirBnB? Hope you drove to wherever you are, because otherwise you have nowhere to leave anything. Public lockers aren't a big thing in the US, so god help you if you want to tourist around between checkout and your flight.

7

u/disillusioned 6h ago

I'm about to check in to one with a 10am and will obviously do the "can we please have a reasonable checkout" ask. Obnoxious.

-29

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

20

u/Aeriie 8h ago

How is 6 hours not enough buffer?

3

u/sbenfsonwFFiF 8h ago

Do you think hotels don’t clean between two stays?

0

u/Bio-Grad 8h ago

Wait until tomorrow?

-74

u/iamabigtree 8h ago

What's wrong with that?

68

u/JeebusChristBalls 8h ago

10 am is crazy early for a checkout time. 4pm is late for check-in that doesn't have a concierge service to hold your bags until check-in. I arrive in the area at 1pm. Do I just walk around with my bags the whole time? I can drop them off at the front desk of a hotel.

7

u/iamabigtree 8h ago

That's fair. We are having that next week and need to drop bags at the station instead and pay for it.

37

u/plantslegoscats 8h ago

Seriously?

-25

u/iamabigtree 8h ago

Yes. The host needs a reasonable amount of time to turn the place around.

Every place I've been has those times and it's been fine

13

u/NicJitsu 7h ago

The studio apartment I stayed in for 2 nights does not need a 6 hour cleaning window.

8

u/Trick-Ad9352 7h ago

Lmao thats so shortsighted i mean... 6 hours cleaning window for multiple houses. Cleaning service people dont have only one house to deal with.

0

u/NicJitsu 1h ago

They can hire more cleaners. It's not rocker science. They're not staffing these cleaners, they're outsourcing the work and profiting from the referral.

-1

u/pyx 1h ago

oh no, not profit

1

u/NicJitsu 1h ago

Profiting off of outsourcing cleaners for your own unit is pretty shitty.

1

u/iamabigtree 6h ago

For ONE house. Contractors or owners will often have several.

6

u/Treestwigs 5h ago

Then they can hire more cleaners.

0

u/CogentCogitations 4h ago

That many cleaners can't make a living when only cleaning 1 rental in a day.

1

u/Treestwigs 4h ago

1 or 2 cleaners can easily do 3-4 houses in 6 hours. I’m typically being charged a 200$ clean fee. So that’s 6-800$. Not bad for a days work.

2

u/Lumpzor 5h ago

Use the exorbitant cleaning fees to, I dunno, hire more contractors?

-7

u/FingerFar7529 7h ago

Then why didn't you stay in a hotel with shared laundry and dedicated cleaning staff?

There's a trade off in it not being hotel, but some jo schmo paying some cleaning service to drive over do the clean and do laundry in the house which takes a couple hours.

4

u/HTPC4Life 6h ago

Then don't book guests so close together. If you need FIVE hours or more to clean a place, keep a day between bookings.

-2

u/iamabigtree 6h ago

That's not at all realistic. Most guests are fine with 4pm-10am.

4

u/HTPC4Life 5h ago

I'm not. I'm tired of bringing a cooler in the car and keeping all my luggage in the car until I can finally get in the BNB at 4pm. I don't think most people are fine with this.

-2

u/CogentCogitations 4h ago

Then book an extra day. Clearly you are fine with paying more of you expect the hosts to leave days empty, do you can just pay for it

4

u/Aeriie 8h ago

It shouldn’t take more than two hours to turn a short term rental around, including dishes. As far as laundry goes, swap sheets and have a few sets to alternate between and clean them offsite. It’s not that much to ask for, hosts are just often using AirBnb for passive income and don’t hold themselves accountable to be there to clean efficiently and on time (if at all).

1

u/FingerFar7529 6h ago

Shit man, my dish washer at home takes 2.5 hours. Same goes with the laundry little over an hour for the washer and then over an hour for the drying cycle. Throw in stripping the linens, folding, putting things away, and then not being draconian on people arriving/leaving a little outside the window...

This is the trade off for not being a hotel with dedicated cleaning crew with shared laundry. And if you don't want a mom and pop operation... get a hotel.

3

u/Treestwigs 5h ago

Bring clean sheets and towels and clean the house. 1-2 hours max. Do the laundry at another location. There is no reason it has to be done at the property.

1

u/FingerFar7529 5h ago

Throw all the dirty dishes in the back of the van!

But honestly surprised to see a real estate developer / multi AirBnb stan getting upvotes.

But again, the model has to support the mom and pop operation that rents out their spare room or their unused vacation home with facilities on site. Otherwise just get a book a hotel or a resort if you don't want mom and pop.

0

u/overthemountain 7h ago

While I agree they can likely get it done in a small window - that starts to fall apart if they have to do that for 20 different properties scattered around town or something. It has to be difficult to employ good workers when all you can offer them is 2 hours per day a few times per week.

3

u/BeotchLasanga 6h ago

Okay, if they are running short term rentals out of 20 different properties at the same time, that's on them. No one forced them to take on more than they can chew. If you're operating at that level, you're running a business, and finding reliable cleaners should be considered a business expense.

No sympathy from me.

1

u/overthemountain 5h ago

This isn't about sympathy, it's just logistics.

If it helps, think of 20 people all owning 1 place they rent out on AirBNB. They all then contract with a cleaning company to clean this house between stays. All of these people want their houses cleaned between say noon and 2PM. The cleaning company simply can't do that. You'd need a large number of people willing to work only 2 hours per day.

I'm mostly just saying the issue is needing a small amount of work in multiple places at the same time.

So it's less about getting people to clean in a 2 hour window and more about how do you build a sustainable business around that model.

A longer window eases that problem. That was my only point, really.

2

u/FingerFar7529 6h ago

The landlord of 20 different properties that can't compete with hotels exploiting part time cleaning services probably isn't right place for sympathy.