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I’ve had a few guests who have booked one week or more. As most of my guests use the instant booking feature, only one cleaning fee is charged per booking. Do you offer to cleanup once during the end of their stay or is this daily?
Personally, my apartment has wooden floors all around so every single bit of debris shows up and I would have to clean the floors at least every 2 days, so I can imagine how grubby they are when left longer…
What do you do? Do you cancel their booking and amend it to factor in more cleaning visits? Or do you just suck it up and do it when requested?
I offer to change the bedding and towels in the rental during the middle of their stay - free of charge. Very few guests take me up on it but one of two have requested clean towels. It seems that most people are happy to use the same bedding for ten days or so.
If they want the bed changing, I give them the choice of having me go in when they are there or when they are out. They prefer it to be when they are out and so do I - that way I can do a quick clean-up at the same time. I can also evaluate how well they are looking after the apartment and address any issues. So I don’t charge extra because it’s as much to my benefit as theirs.
For me, I vary this based on length of stay. For a 28 day booking, I’m offering a change of sheets, fresh towels, and and vacuum every 8 days (3 times over their month). For 10 days, I offer a change of sheets and towels, vacuum at 6 days (no one has ever taken me up on new sheets but everyone wants the towels and vacuum).
If I had a small vacuum, I’d probably just leave it in the apt. But I feel like this allows me to keep an eye on the place, as well. I don’t usually do the cleaning but I do these quick clean-ups myself – it takes around 10 min.
We’ve only been hosting for 8 months, and only had 3 sets of guests stay longer than a week. What I’ve done is given them a laundry basket with clean towels and sheets, and then have them give the basket back with the dirty linens. I don’t go in the unit myself, but this seems like a good idea and I think I will start offering it free of charge. I prefer not to have dirt, etc ground into my rugs or wood floors so a quick vacuum would really help. Thanks for the tip!!! Also, of the three sets of guests, not one swapped out their sheets, only towels.
I used to do the laundry basket thing as well, but it turned out to be too confusing. Guests would usually keep the clean sheets even if they wouldn’t change them, or they would partially use them, therefore depriving me inadvertedly of two sets of bed linen at a time. This is why I prefer them giving me all their dirty towels and linen first and offering them either to change it myself (which I prefer and most of the guests appreciate) or they change it themselves. I also change the kitchen towels and the bathroom mat. I offer this after a week of stay, but many people, especially those staying for 10 days, do not want their linen changed, they just ask for clean towels.
My unit has a tiled floor throughout with large area rug in the sitting area and various accent rugs elsewhere. Guests arrive to an immaculately cleaned and stocked unit. Other than the offer of a complimentary mid-stay exchange of towels and linen, they do not receive any additional housekeeping services during their stay. (If they choose to have the towel/linen exchange, the housecleaner does a voluntary touch-up of the bathroom facilities so her eventual clean-up is easier.)
The guests have access to the broom and upright dustpan, dusters, vacuum and all sorts of cleaning products. They can keep the unit as clean as they like while they are there. It’s self-catering.
I always tell guests who stay more than four days that we’ll be happy to vacuum and change the bed linens. None of them have taken us up on the offer. We tell every guest that they are welcome to fresh towels whenever they wish. Most guests go at least four days with the same towels. Last year we had two wonderful gents as guests. They stayed nine days so I asked if they’d like fresh bed linens. They assured me that at home they never changed their bed linens more often than once a month. I pointed out that their amorous life might be adversely effected by that habit (but I put it in less civilized terms).
I offer to “refresh” the carriage house and change linens once a week. So far, no one has taken me up on this, but I figure it is to my benefit once turnover day arrives. We haven’t had anyone stay longer than 10 days at this point. None of my weekish long guests have wanted linen changes. They have access to a vacuum, cleaning wipes, etc… We have guests staying 23 days next month, so that’ll be a new wrinkle, and I’m hoping all goes smoothly.
We have had guests stay from 2 days to 2 months. Typically for stays of a week or less, we don’t offer any cleaning or laundry service. We offer a change of towels to guests who stay longer than a week, and anything over 2 weeks, we’ll offer a change of bed linens. Sometimes the guests accept, usually, they like the fresh towels. Our longer term guests have taken care of their own laundry, we live just a block from a coin laundromat. We have a separate apartment for the guests, so they assume cleaning is up to them. If they want a mid-stay cleaning, we’ll provide and charge them a nominal fee. Our ‘cleaning fee’ listed on the site is for the end of stay cleaning and turnover.
We refresh the room every weekend for guests that stay more than a week. We do a linen change, fresh set of towels, full bath cleaning, vacuum, dust, pretty much the works. I used to do it myself but now I pay my cleaning lady $30 to do it. We also charge a $30 cleaning fee, but of course that’s only collected once by ABB and is for the final room turnover.
I try to host in a way that I would want to be treated as a guest and I would like to have a full room turnover weekly if it were me.
I have a 2 week maximum on my cottage, and it comes with a washer and dryer. So basically I leave guests to fend for themselves laundry-wise Oh, and there is a hoover!
for guests over 3 weeks i do weekly/every 2 weeks cleaning, but not for stays that are only one or two weeks. i have wooden floors to and know they get dirty but its only a week.
ive had a few guests for a month to three month stays, and i tell them ill come do a general clean once a week, and change sheets, not a full on clean like i would between guests, just vacuum, mow lawns etc
Personally, I offer free fresh towels and bed linens if my guests are staying over a week. I tell this to them when I meet them on check-in to decide how to coordinate during their stay. I usually do it in the middle of the stay.
It is not a big effort if you are around, and creates a very good impact on guest satisfaction.
Sometimes if they request more than that, I do my best not to refuse. But for example, I do not offer a full cleaning, unless they are staying for 28+ days.
This is why I prefer them giving me all their dirty towels and linen first and offering them either to change it myself (which I prefer and most of the guests appreciate) or they change it themselves. I also change the kitchen towels and the bathroom mat. I offer this after a week of stay, but many people, especially those staying for 10 days, do not want their linen changed, they just ask for clean towels.
Oh, and there is a hoover!