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Our municipality has imposed a 60-day minimum stay – up from an already-challenging 30-day stay. I say “challenging” because
the longer the stay, the smaller the pool of guests and
if the window between guests is less than 60n days (plus time for deep cleaning on either side), it becomes unrentable dead-time.
We did luck out this fall, and have an upcoming 65-day booking with just three-weeks dead time beforehand – a good opportunity to work on an accumulated checklist of overdue maintenance (carpets, painting etc).
We live upstairs from the self-contained Airbnb suite (including private kitchen & bathroom). Although we deep-clean the Airbnb ourselves between guests, we make it clear to them that housekeeping during their stay is entirely their responsibility. We normally stay out of the guest suite unless invited in for a social visit, or there is a repair needed. Staying here as an Airbnb guest is more like subletting a furnished apartment than checking into a hotel.
Here’s the point of my message to the forum today: every two weeks we get someone in to clean our personal living space for a half-day. On impulse (and after checking with our cleaner on her schedule) I explained this to our upcoming guests (a couple from overseas who will be working remotely while experiencing day-to-day life in Canada just for fun), and offered to make arrangements for the same cleaner to help out in their living space for a couple of hours every two weeks after she is finished with us. They would pay the helper directly – our only role is matchmaker.
Has anyone in the forum had experience with a similar arrangement?
Not sure what kind of feedback you are looking for here. I don’t have experience with this kind of arrangement, but it seems no different from letting guests know about any type of service they might be interested in that you could play “matchmaker” for, for instance a massage therapist, a computer repair technician, etc.
The only pitfall I could imagine is if you had some scammer guests who claimed the cleaner you offered and recommended stole stuff from their unit.
I don’t have experience of doing what you described but nevertheless, it seems like a good idea.
I would be inclined though to share the cost of the cleaner to make sure that he/she knows that you are their employer. (The share ratio is up to you, of course).
If you split the cost then the cleaner is still in your employ (so you can still claim the cleaning costs at tax time) and therefore will be willing to report back to you any problems in the property.
When the cleaner is working in the suite during a guest visit, I don’t think of them as “working for me,” so I would not look for a way to pay them – even if I did get a small percent age of that pay back as a business-expense tax deduction.
The only advantage I see from this is that it earns me a bit of extra goodwill from the guest – my suggestion and initiative makes life a little bit easier for them during their stay.
The usual thinking is that if a host is hosting somebody more than a few days they offer cleaning service or straightening up service so they can easily go in and make sure there’s nothing terribly wrong happening. Leaving people at a house for two months without cleaning service or any idea of the cleanliness level that the guests are used to is a recipe for disaster.
Plus it means that you have a ‘spy’ in there every week or every fortnight keeping an eye on your property and making sure that the guests are looking after the place as you’d want them to.
In the past when I’ve had long term guests, they have 99% been fantastic but I’ve heard from friends who rent out properties in the same complex as me that this isn’t always the case.
One neighbour had a long term guest who painted the furniture a colour. The same neighbour had a long term guest who seemingly didn’t change the sheets - for the duration of his rental period.
I know another property owner whose guests kept undisclosed pets with smelly results.
These are from people I know but I’m sure that other hosts who have gone in for LTR have similar problems.
I was meaning that the cleaner going into the rental unit was a benefit for you, as well as the guest.
Whilst 30 days is reasonably safe to leave guests to their own devices as far as cleaning goes, I suspect 60 days is a rather different proposition and if I were looking at this scenario myself, I would definitely book the cleaner anyway and just up the rental charge a little to cover it. So far as the guests are concerned, it is just part of the deal to have a trusted cleaner in every two weeks, which I am sure they will appreciate. And it will ensure you know it is being kept basically clean and won’t leave you with any unpleasant surprises when they leave.
For those of you saying that Spark would benefit from having a “spy/cleaner” to make sure the guests aren’t trashing the place, that’s really good advice for an off-site host, but as he lives upstairs, and mentioned that while he doesn’t intrude on guest’s privacy, he also mentioned that he has had “social visits” with guests.
Although my guest quarters have a separate entrance, my bedroom is off the same balcony as my guest bedroom, so I end up walking past their room often, and they often have their door open, or we might chat out on the balcony. When that happens, I can pretty easily see whether the guests are keeping things clean and tidy, or living like pigs.
So it’s possible that Spark may have a similar situation and not require a spy or even a cleaner in there during the guest stay if they are clean, tidy folks.
That hasn’t been my experience. Half our guests in the past 10 years have been 30 days, and in 2019 we self-imposed a one-week minimum. In the past two years (because of changing regulations) all guests have been 30 days and a couple were even longer. Last year the city increased minimum stay for all new bookings to 30 days, and six months ago to 60.
My wife and I have often thought that the physical setup of our Airbnb has helped keep us free of problem guests – the guest has a private four-room suite, but we live upstairs and they actually have to walk through our living space tom get to the guest suite. We think this setup filters out trouble-makers when the guest is choosing a property, and it helps keep those that do book on their best behaviour when they are here.
Also – less than one 1% of our guests over the past decade are from countries where travellers have a reputation for being entitled.
I think the key is off site/on-site hosting. Most of our guests – we don;t go into the suite even once during their stay. We are more likely to socialize on one of the patios or on the chairs under the trees out in the garden.
It’s probably even more nuanced than onsite/off site. There are lots of Airbnbs where the host lives onsite, but the Airbnb unit is an entire separate unit from the host’s home, perhaps not even in the line of vision of the host’s dwelling. If you are actually sharing at least part of the home where you live with guests, whether that is a hallway, outdoor space, or the kitchen, even if you don’t ever go in their private area during their stay, they would have the distinct feeling and knowledge that they are staying in someone’s home, not just “an Airbnb”.
Off topic, but does the new 60 day rule have you considering going to long term lease renting? I imagine that 60 day “guests” would be considered to be covered and have rights under the B.C. landlord/tenant regs?
The bylaw officer who inspected us when we applied for a license said that we cannot use the space on the open rental market – not up to “code” for that use…
Even if we could, it would not be safe. With Airbnb we are able to make a rule “only registered guests.” That allows to control who enters our house. Under the landlord-tenant legislation does not allow landlords to impose the same sort of restriction. In our setup, we would have no control who is coming into our house and has access to our personal living space – no walls or doors.
Also – renting out to tenants … we can’t just “blackout” a week or two if my wife and I want to take a trip together. While we’re out of town, tenants and all their friends have no physical barriers to prevent them from wandering around our house.
Blockquote [quote=“Debthecat, post:19, topic:63667, full:true”]
I do it every 10 days and it is complimentary
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If we felt we needed to do this in order to stay competitive, we would offer the same, but we’re generally fully booked without offering this level of service. We tell people this is like renting a furnished apartment (not a hotel). My wife and I usually do do the deep-clean ourselves between guests, and the visitors are responsible for their own housekeeping 9including washing sheets). No complaints about this model in 10 years.
Do you do the ten-day cleaning yourself, or do you send in a hired hand?
colour. The same neighbour had a long term guest who seemingly didn’t change the sheets - for the duration of his rental period.