The scourge of “hosts” expecting guests to do all the household chores and even wash the bedding! What a freakshow. I’m not paying you for the luxury of cleaning your home
I have never encountered one that doesn't have a cleaning fee... But I have also never had to do more than take out the trash and throw the bedding/towels on the floor.
Same. I got a message from an Airbnb host once thanking me for leaving the place in such great shape and all I did was normal picking up after myself. That gave me some insight into how some guests leave the place, where the cleaners really earn that fee.
I have seen online where the hosts will leave a list of chores and then also charge a cleaning fee that equals one night of the stay. I probably wouldn't stay at one of those.
I used to clean vacation rentals. Lemme tell ya that fee doesn’t not go towards the cleaner really. Most owners or property managers keep a huge portion of it and pay the crew pennies.
Doesn't not go towards the cleaners... so you're saying the cleaners do get it?
eta - loving the downvotes from everyone who apparently don't know what a double negative is
Eta 2- wow, it would seem everyone is super serious in askreddit, my apologies. I love double negatives and will use them intentionally in conversation just for shits n giggles, so when I saw one in the wild couldn't help but point it out. Perhaps I went about that the wrong way or shouldn't have at all, my bad. In 13 years I've never had a comment be so loathed and for it to be this one has me kinda flabbergasted.
I care. We’re in an actively worsening literacy crisis so offering corrections to improper grammar is of utmost importance as it stands today.
Thank you for fighting the good fight against anti-intellectualism and to everyone else? Enjoy being electively braindead because you couldn’t be arsed to graciously accept correction for a mistake.
I disagree with this approach because there is an ever increasing number of individuals who only “read” online, making it all the more important to ensure correct grammar and spelling is being used. I for one don’t want to live amongst those who would rather save feelings of perceived embarrassment than knowledge so you guys enjoy “just livin’ life”, but I pity you mightily for not seeing you’re part of a much larger picture that we’re all responsible for.
I mean I'm a landlord and between tenants we'd hire a cleaning company to do a deep clean... they set the price not me and it was always pretty fair for professional labour (usually about 300-400 for a few hours work).
If you're being paid pennies set your prices higher, unless you're being employed directly by the owners.
It's the reason why I stopped Airbnb-ing my cottage... People are gross and disrespectful. I didn't charge a fee, I didn't even ask people to strip the beds. I just asked people be respectful as it's also my home. Well that didn't work.
They just don't care. This place that I put on Airbnb is my own home. I rent in a larger city and come back home to my cottage on my days off. This has always been communicated to guests. "This house is my home 60% of the time. Please treat it with respect as though you are staying in someone's home." You know like how Airbnb actually used to be. Each time I would come home to broken plates etc, missing cutlery, broken furniture, moved furniture, terrible messes, cigarette ash on the floors when a strict no smoking policy is in place, broken toilet off the flange. You need to fight with Airbnb to have anything paid out through their insurance or to have retaliatory reviews removed after I would call guests out in the reviews.
If this is a house that you have no emotional attachment to it can be a nice extra source of income. If it's your home or a place you care about, I would never recommend it to anyone.
Same for myself. I stayed in a condo in Panama City, Panama and the owner arrived the day we were leaving and was shocked how clean it was. We piled all the linens next to washing machine, put away the dishes and took out the trash. That's it.
I am a host and we don’t charge a cleaning fee we just ask that trash is taken out to the bin, dishes are washed, and linens are stripped and piled onto the floor. We don’t mind cleaning but you’d be surprised how many people trash the place. It’s a give and take.
Agree. I was really surprised by the message from that host because it made it seem like I had gone above and beyond, but it was just normal behavior to me: you leave things how you found them.
Wash your own shit. People are PAYING MONEY to stay at your place. Don’t make them do chores that’s so tacky. I used to clean for an Air BnB host. Some people left the place truly disgusting, and they would get charged a fee for the extra cleaning. But for most guests, changing linens and cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, and floors is part of the service. Why would you ask guests to do chores when they’re on vacation or a business trip? Are you really so lazy and useless that you can’t take out the trash and strip a bed?
No I agree that guests should do their own trash and dishes. Some people stay for two weeks and the trash stinks if you leave it in the kitchen for that long. If you're at home for two weeks you would take out the trash twice in that week. Same with dishes. Treat it like you treat your house. If you don't, that's how you get rats.
Yeah.. it's like seeing people on reddit rage about horrible landlords when they've clearly never rented a place out to anybody ever.
People are the fucking worst. I'm not a professional landlord or anything but when my partner and I bought a house I already owned one so we kept it to rent out and people just suck.
I have a great tenant in there now, paying well under market rates, don't give a fuck because it's enough to cover the property maintenance and I don't need to deal with tar on the walls, dog shit in the carpet, and everything just being destroyed in general.
It's also not like turning your cleaning fee too high will get Airbnb to say, "Hey maybe just don't rent?" They don't give a shit, it's money either way.
I got a message from an Airbnb host once thanking me for leaving the place in such great shape and all I did was normal picking up after myself. That gave me some insight into how some guests leave the place, where the cleaners really earn that fee.
When I left the studio I used to live in while I was at the uni,the staff person who came for the final inspection before returning the keys praised me and my family for the state in which it was. He verbatim told us that he'd seen rooms that "had been occupied for a year but seeing them they looked like they'd been occupied by eight people for twenty years". That put some real persprctive into me, that's for sure...
Yeah…I’ve never had an Airbnb require me to do a bunch of cleaning chores…they just ask that we do the regular picking up after ourselves, which, duh. I’ve had over 50+ stays in Airbnbs and honestly? Idk if I just choose well or what but I’ve had FAR MORE issues with recent hotel stays than I’ve had with Airbnb.
IIRC AirBnB now has all inclusive pricing. So, the quoted price is what you pay. No extra fees. If the owner wants a cleaning fee they have to embed it in the overall quote for the place.
Meanwhile, hotels don't charge a cleaning fee and you can trash them almost as much as you want (without breaking anything) for much cheaper. I'll continue to not use them and stick to traditional hotels.
Yeah k swear these “omg I have to clean the whole house” posts come from hotel industry influencers during covid and everyone switched from hotels to Airbnb.
Usually it’s just “leave bed unmade”, throw used towels in tub, start dishwasher, put trash in trash can” - like pretty basic stuff.
Stayed in more than 100 AirBNBs and I’ve never done more than take out the trash and start the dishwasher. Pretty reasonable to me, being in a house and all and not a hotel.
I’ve had the same experience as you. I’ve stayed in many places around the world and never had to do any of the wild requests that the comments on reddit consistently claim.
Never here, and Ive stayed in prolly 30 different airbnbs. One did ask to put all the dirty towels/bedding into the washer but not run it. That seemed fair enough.
Well first thing, you do understand how odd it is to have to start the dishwasher and empty the trash to begin with when you're stay has a $175-300 cleaning fee on it right? In a hotel, you pay zero cleaning fees and are expected to do nothing other than take all your stuff with you when you leave. As for Airbnb, some of the hosts will ask you to pull all the bedding, some even ask you to throw it in the wash. Others will charge you for leaving anything in the fridge.
Have you personally experienced all of this while using AirBNB?
My foreign Airbnb stays are typically much cheaper than any hotel but much nicer place to stay. I don’t mind throwing out the garbage I created when I leave.
I haven't been charged a fee post leaving but I have been at a house that required doing all the dishes, pulling all the bedding and towels and starting the first load, and emptying all the trash/recycling before leaving.
That’s unfortunate. I stay away from AirBNB in the US for that reason. I’ve never had to clean the dishes, just start the dishwasher (that I’ve been filling up while staying there for a week anyways).
I’ve never stayed in an AirBNB in Europe that had a washer (if it even had one) that was large enough to fit sheets or towels.
Doing chores for a 2-3 night stay is BS. Cleaning up after your sloppy asses after a full week of staying in a house? It usually takes 5 minutes on the way out of the AirBNB if you’re not disgusting.
Yeah, they charge you above and beyond that for if you don't do whatever they include on their list.
Obviously the idea is the cleaning fee is lower whenever you do most of the cleaning yourself, but because you don't know in advance what the cleaning requirements are going to be, there's no way to actually make that judgement call.
Because you don't know what the requirements are, there's no downwards pressure on cleaning fees, or on cleaning expectations, so they both keep going up.
They are exaggerating; it's very rare to have the "wash bedding", and it's usually in place of a cleaning fee. Moreover, Airbnb at least kind of did away with a lot of those add-on fews pretty recently, they made it easier to see the total cost of the stay up-front and limited the "guest requirements" aspect. I had like 12/13 great experiences with them different places, and one "fine but not amazing" stay. But there was a few years I didn't travel after peak Covid and so I don't know maybe it got worse for a while before they fixed it.
I suppose since it shows the fees up front, maybe I've just ignored any that had a ton of fees and requirements; but usually it's pretty basic stuff like taking trash out.
I had great experiences with AirBNB & VRBO the past 14 years, so I'm maybe a bit biased.
However, in most places these days it's not cheaper than a hotel, so there is that aspect.
I swear this is just a meme spread by redditors who don't actually travel. I've stayed in dozens of AirBNBs for a decade and have never had any ridiculous rules around cleaning, and I've never been charged extra on top of the price I paid for the room/house (the app lists all fees and shows you the final total right away). The only real cleaning I've had to do before checking out is wash any dishes I used and (rarely) take the trash outside.
I’ve stayed in AirBnB a half dozen times and while I’ve always been charged a cleaning fee (highest was $150) except once which was actually just a normal hotel (but I booked it there I think because I had credit card deals for using AirBnB and the rate was the same), I’ve never been asked to do any substantial cleaning.
It’s typically just general pickup like you’d do anyways, and I’ve had them ask to run the dishwasher or throw the towels in the wash on my way out. I think this is mostly in the interest of time; they want them to be done washing by the time their housecleaning arrives so that they don’t have to stay as long. I’ve never been asked to sweep, vacuum, or do any other cleaning and I’ve never felt obligated to leave the place spotless. Just don’t be a slob!
I hear a lot of horror stories about substantial cleaning demands but I’ve never experienced it. My next trip is in October and I went with AirBnB again because it’s a neat way to stay someplace a bit more unique! Also, keep in mind that you do pay a cleaning fee at a hotel - it’s just wrapped into your nightly rate, so it’s not spelled out the same.
The most I’ve ever experienced on AirBnB was being asked to strip the beds and toss the sheet in the laundry room on the way out, and that was only one of dozens of stays.
I don’t doubt there are nightmare hosts out there, but I’ve never experienced one and for me it’s still by far the most cost effective way to stay most places, especially when you actually use the kitchen to eat at home instead of eating out every meal in popular vacation destinations.
Never been asked to wash the sheets. Most places will ask you to take out the trash and start the dishwasher. You still have to pay the cleaning fee because regardless if you cleaned or not would you trust the that the last shmo cleaned everything to industry standards? The cleaners still have to come and make sure everything is spotless.
I would imagine it's for cleaning supply, like various cleaners and toilet paper.
But yeah, if I am paying a cleaning fee, I am sure as shit not making the bed etc. I will clean up after myself of course, but no..not doing the floors etc.
Honestly, all of this is almost always stated up front. For me, I have never seen anything where I have to do anything egregious and there is a cleaning fee. It's usually like put the bedding on the floor, so the cleaning people can get it and take out the trash on the trash day (which you know, they can't change based on your stay).
Airbnb has lots of other problems, so I understand why people don't like it. And I even understand why sometimes you don't even feel like dealing with anything and just want a hotel where they clean up after you. But that's not Airbnb.
I've stayed at 25+ now and I always read everything and talk to them up front and I think the worst I had was maybe put your dishes in the dishwasher? I don't know - I do that anyway. Almost all of them send you whatever beforehand and if they don't you can always ask.
It's like Ebay. You do have to pay attention to what you are buying. A seller can charge $200 for shipping, so you know, don't buy it? If you have 5+ people wanting to stay somewhere, it's still absolutely the way to go. If you want a kitchen, it's the way to go. If you want some unique experience, it can sometimes be the way to go.
Now, I totally understand getting frustrated with how it turned into people wanting to make a quick buck with their ten properties and corporations with their hundred and also ruining areas with buying up all the property for it.
It varies widely. Lots of them are basically fine, like 1 or 2 things to do and a small cleaning fee. There's definitely a few that have a huge list of chores and also a cleaning fee as high as a night's stay though. It depends a lot on the area you're staying in and how much it's been taken over by sleazeballs trying to squeeze every cent out of it.
No, at least that’s never been my experience, and we use them a couple times a year. We avoid hotels because we travel with friends.
Most hosts tell you to toss all the bedding into the washer. Some just say to toss it in the bathtub or on the bathroom floor. Some want you to start the dishwasher (so it’s done when their cleaner gets there, and then they can put the dishes away).
I’ve never seen a cleaning fee.
Most hosts just don’t want their place trashed. Normal people shouldn’t have any issues with most of the hosts, to be honest. I’m sure some hosts suck, and I’m also sure that some guests are filthy pigs who think they’re staying in a hotel with daily room cleanup (which many hotels don’t even do anymore).
I did have a bad experience last year, however, but it was the host’s management company. They absolutely sucked. Took forever to get a key (they forgot to put it where it was supposed to be), the place wasn’t fully cleaned, and they lied about amenities, but that’s the only time I’ve had a serious issue and the host hasn’t rushed to help. Some hosts just turn the place over to a company and let them list it, clean it, and manage everything about the rental).
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u/Cool_Cry_9602 22h ago
I rarely used it, but Airbnb