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/
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943

u/baconair 8h ago

I never minded dishes, but laundry was asking a bit much.

479

u/dihydrocodeine 8h ago

I don't mind loading the dishwasher either, but I don't trust other guests to wash the dishes properly. I'd much rather leave that to the professional cleaners.

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u/oneiross 7h ago edited 7h ago

I don't trust other guests to wash the dishes properly

Indeed, a lot of times I had to wash everything before using it because clearly the previous guests just did it quickly to get out of it, and the owner didn't check that the dishes were still quite dirty or full of dried soup.

Edit: was meant to be dried soap, but soup also applies lol

5

u/OldAccountTurned10 5h ago

exactly, you really want me to wash this for the next guest when i'm on a vacation and couldn't give 2 shits about it? OK lol

-7

u/OneOfAKind2 6h ago

Yeah, the crack smoking $12/hr 'professional' cleaners.

11

u/dihydrocodeine 6h ago

This is a really odd comment. Were you hurt by a cleaner at some point in your life? Or is it just the classism that makes you think people who work low wage jobs are inherently criminal/irresponsible/untrustworthy?

51

u/lormightymike 7h ago

Having the guest washes the dishes only works assuming the guest is cleanly and gives af about doing a good job. I have been to many Airbnb’s where “clean” dishes were put back in the cabinets that were so dirty and gross because they were poorly washed or not washed at all and put back. I rather have a professional do it, especially if I’m paying a cleaning fee!

1

u/cive666 38m ago

My brother dries his dishes with the same towel he uses to dry his bathroom hands

167

u/Ancient-Bat8274 8h ago edited 3h ago

Right? Like dishes I understand. That’s just rude guests. I can even understand please strip the bed and that’s about it. Laundry tho no like that’s what the fee is for.

Edit: Dam some of yall are fuckin disgusting. Do you not wash your own dishes at home? Fuckin nasty

58

u/Kapootz 7h ago edited 7h ago

The cleaning fee is for all cleaning. I’ll do the chores to avoid a cleaning fee, but if there’s a cleaning fee regardless, no shot I’m doing any chores

22

u/KatieCashew 7h ago

For real. Leaving dirty dishes feels like just throwing your trash on the floor instead of in the trash can.

5

u/dannoffs1 4h ago

I don't want random people in charge of cleaning something I might eat off of. This is what cleaners are paid to do.

3

u/jellatubbies 6h ago

Not when you're paying $150+ for what is explicitly called a cleaning fee. Fuck that noise.

6

u/Chasmosaur 5h ago

Yeah we were in a Vrbo for a few weeks last year. We'd been taking out the garbage, wiping down counters, and doing our dishes all along. We threw all the towels in the bathrooms on the way out the door, because we do that in a hotel room anyway. And we had time to kill before our cab, so we stripped the beds.

The owner had professional cleaners flip the unit after each stay, and he reached out to let us know how much he appreciated how tidy we'd left everything. We didn't do laundry or vacuum or anything - we were just polite guests!

4

u/MagnarOfWinterfell 4h ago

Laundry is actually understandable for me - when the cleaners come, the laundry is done and they can put it in the dryer, and that gets done when they're done cleaning and can make the beds, put the towels back, etc.

4

u/Helenarth 2h ago

I'd do the dishes just because 1. Shit is harder to clean the longer it stays dirty and 2. I don't want to have to look at a sink full of dirty dishes

1

u/Ancient-Bat8274 2h ago

Like a proper human

2

u/Indie__Guy 8h ago

One place made us load the washer with all the linen. It was so dumb

1

u/Orleanian 6h ago

Like I goddamn trust the last Tom Dick & Harry to have rented this place to have appropriately washed the dishes?

If I see a "guest must load and run dishwasher before departing" I absolutely assume that every dish in the place has been wiped up the unwashed buttcrack of Tom and left for me to lick.

It's a sure sign that what I'm entering into is unclean.

-1

u/OneOfAKind2 6h ago

I don't want to do ANY of that shit if I'm paying hotel rates. Doesn't matter, never used an Airbnb, likely never will.

29

u/Jabbles22 8h ago

Any idea how do hotels with kitchens handle it? I've only stayed in hotel with a kitchenette once. We did our own dishes because that just seems like the right thing to do. Had we not though would they have charged a cleaning fee?

56

u/EmbarrassedTrouble10 8h ago

Hotels like residence inn do the dishes for you as part of regular service when they clean the room. If i had a busy day where i had breakfast and left dishes because im always late, they would be in the dishwasher when i got back

1

u/Alaira314 5m ago

Housekeeping is no longer every day since covid, though. It just seems nasty to keep used dishes around for multiple days. If it's something like a cheese sandwich on a plate that's whatever, but imagine if you heated up canned soup or instant oatmeal or something. I wouldn't let that sit at home.

3

u/Chasmosaur 5h ago

On our honeymoon a gazillion years ago, we stayed in an actual B&B for a week that was actually a standalone building on the owners' property. It consisted of a four-unit building, each one with a full kitchen. So instead of coming down to a communal dining room, the unit was stocked with breakfast supplies so you could make your own.

So we'd roll out of bed in the morning on our own time (no "breakfast is served from X to Y" to deal with, which was great for a honeymoon), make breakfast, and clean up the kitchen afterwards. Because why wouldn't we? We made the mess in the kitchen, we're cleaning it up.

The third evening, we got a knock on our unit door. It was the owners with a huge plate of hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberries for us. "You kids are lovely - we come in every morning and the kitchen is spotless, you have the bed tidied, and the bathroom is so neat. We can barely tell you're staying here!"

I just looked at the wife and said "People don't wash their own breakfast dishes - are you kidding me?" She just looked at me and said "You have NO idea."

1

u/Disastrous_Self_6053 22m ago

I worked in a restaurant at a hotel for a year or so and our rooms had a small coffee maker with a cup, plate and utensils. If they were moved at all or looked like they were touched, they were swapped out for a clean set at no charge. It's a hotel, people are going to eat in their rooms or want a quick coffee in the morning without running down to the lobby, and if there is a plate or cup there, it'll probably get used.

That's what I don't get about the Airbnb people. You're charging people to stay at your place, why is the cleaning not just part of the price. If its $100/night with a $75 cleaning fee, just say its $175/night. Trying to sneak it in as a "fee" is scummy.

I wouldn't trust a customer to wash the dishes anyway. If there's no dishwasher it's getting rewashed lol

0

u/digitaltransmutation 6h ago edited 5h ago

When I stay at home2 there is an in-room dishwasher and the housekeeping would just leave a fresh detergent packet for me. 50/50 chance they will unload it for me.

or ya know, just leave it in the hallway cuz its a hotel and that's standard. never heard of anyone getting a fee unless they break something.

That said I travel for work with a loyalty account and I have found hotels in this context are a lot more casual than what they do for vacationers.

41

u/iamabigtree 8h ago

Yes dishes are to be expected. You use them you wash them. But nothing else, I'm not doing normal housekeeping for you

21

u/curtcolt95 8h ago

tbh I don't understand dishes either. You're expecting the people before you to have cleaned them? That just seems gross. I'd expect the host to wash them to an acceptable standard every time

7

u/NoifenF 7h ago

I expect them to be washed properly by whoever owns the place but I’m not goons just leave them crusting in the sink.

9

u/FrogOfSteel 6h ago

You wash them to not be gross. You don't let food sit on dishes and just let them pile up. That's how vermin establish themselves, and you'll also likely need dishes in the next few days. You want professional cleaners to come in during your stay because you ran out of plates?

4

u/azdb91 5h ago

If you're staying at a Airbnb for multiple days and cooking (or at least using dishes the whole time), you're going to be cleaning them just as part of needing them clean for yourself during the stay. It feels weird, to me, to just stop doing them when you decide you're not personally going to need them clean again. So I haven't stayed at a Airbnb and wondered whether I have to do the dishes or not. But the cleaning fee really does hammer the point of why should guests do anything at all when the fees have grown so much

2

u/wip30ut 3h ago

dishes aren't a big deal for anyone. Rinse & stick them in the dishwasher... 5 minutes max? Vacuuming & doing laundry can take an hour+. When you rent timeshares you aren't required, why should AirBnB's mandate these chores if they're charging a cleaning fee.

10

u/ChildOfFortuna 8h ago

I've never minded throwing the bedding in the wash. if check out at noon and then the next person checks in at 3, it doesn't leave a lot of time to wash and dry the linens. 

26

u/IWannaBeTheVeryBest 8h ago

I would expect an airbnb to have multiple sets of linens. Dishes are fine with me but I would not strip the bedding blabla when I usually have to catch a flight

1

u/jellatubbies 6h ago

Sucks for them if they can't figure it out. Why is it my problem on fucking vacation. I went on vacation to NOT DO THIS BULLSHIT. THATS WHY PEOPLE ACCEPT THE RIDICULOUS $200 "CLEANING" FEES

4

u/M4xP0w3r_ 7h ago

If I have to do the dishes it means the dishes being clean depends on previous guesta

0

u/corndog161 8h ago

I don't mind tossing the towels in the washer and starting it. Asking for anything else is too much.

5

u/drinkallthecoffee 7h ago

Even that is a lot. I stayed at a place when this first started. They asked you to strip the beds and put all the towels and bedding into a specific tub. That was reasonable.

1

u/corndog161 7h ago

I really only stay in them when we have a large group (like at least 8 of us). So laundry is easily the task that takes the cleaners the longest. If getting a head start on it can keep the checkout time later then I'm all for it. Tossing towels in a washer and starting it takes less than 2 minutes.

1

u/SirGlass 6h ago

Yea the dishes thing is bad. All this will do is cause AirBnB to remove their dishes as I can only imagine what disasters they will have if they have a full on kitchen

And that sucks because I like being able to cook a healthy meal while traveling ; and I never minded doing my own dishes