Clean but not immaculate

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Hi, everyone. We live in our Airbnb. Our guests have their own bedroom and bathroom and if they like they can hang out in the dining room and living room and patio. We also spend time in those spaces and I will admit that aside from the guest room and bathroom our house is not immaculate. We have a cleaner that comes in every other week and the house gleams for about two days after they come. But it has a lived in look. We do clean a lot but it’s an older house with somewhat worn carpet on the stairs that go up to our room etc. Occasionally we get rated four in cleanliness.

Our location is good and our rates are low and I think we are very good hosts. We’ve been super host for years. So my question is: is there a good way of alerting people in the listing description that our place is homey and lived in? Or perhaps it’s better not to say anything and just live with the occasional 4. Or maybe we should take more photos.

I’m sure I’m not alone and I’d like to hear what other people say.

If I could get a cleaner in we’re often and buy new furniture, I would definitely do that but that’s not gonna happen. Thanks in advance.

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A house that’s not clean is not a good place to stay. If it’s cluttered, you guys are just sloppy, or things are worn down, that’s one thing. But if it’s dirty, then a four is well deserved, If you have guests are telling you that, then it is time to fix this problem.

Guest just like hosts are asked to be honest in their reviews.

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If you include the shared space in the listing, it’s fair game for a rating.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. You could just not let them hang out in your shared space. It’s like the guest that shows up early and you let them in out of hospitality before you are done cleaning, and they repay you by saying the property wasn’t clean when they showed up, conveniently leaving out that they showed up early.

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I host in the same situation you do, @Rachael52. My guests have their own bedroom and bathroom, and share my kitchen and the kitchen terrace where the dining table is. The living room, attached to the kitchen, (but clearly a separate room, not “open concept” isn’t listed as a shared space, although I have had guests sit on the couch there to read and I don’t mind that at all- there’s no TV).

While I always clean the guest bedroom/bathroom myself, I also have a cleaner who does the rest of the house- she comes every 2 weeks for 4 hours.

I am a tidy person, like things clean, am a minimalist, and live alone, so the house never looks messy or cluttered, but it’s definitely way cleaner for a couple days after my cleaner comes, as she washes the floors, windows, etc., things I don’t want to do or don’t have time for.

However, my house is only 17 years old, with no nooks or crannies to clean, or old carpeting, etc. And the guest room is accessed from the upstairs balcony, up a flight of outside stairs, so guests don’t have to walk through “my” parts of the house. And while when I don’t have a guest in residence I can let my dirty dishes pile up for 2 days, and not bother to clean the grease off the stovetop if my cleaner is coming within a few days, I keep the kitchen clean when I have guests. So I have never gotten less than a 5* on cleanliness.

There are many people who equate old and a bit shabby or lived-in, with “dirty” even though it isn’t.

I remember reading a host post years ago- she had a heritage home in Savannah, Georgia, that had been in her family for generations, that was full of a lot of the original, now antique furniture and decor.
Her reviews were either “This place was amazing and fascinating- like a step back in history, with beautiful antique furniture, and even a 1940s fridge that was still working.”
Or “Old and shabby”.

I don’t think there is anything you can do about those kinds of perceptions, but I do think you could add wording to your listing to try to lessen the 4* cleanliness reviews. It’s a matter of setting expectations.

Something like “Please understand that you are booking a homeshare listing, sharing some spaces with us if you choose to. Our home is “lived in”- we might not keep every living room surface clear of the things we use, and much of our furnishings in shared spaces are not new and modern. However, we do keep it clean and even have a cleaner who comes once a week. If you equate “old” or “worn” or “cluttered” with “not clean”, this may not be the best listing for you.”

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That’s your statement right there. Followed by "…but we do our very best to insure that your spaces – bedroom and bathroom – are as clean as we can possibly make them.

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This is a dangerous thing to say. It’s as dangerous as telling guests to treat your Airbnb as they would treat their own home; ratings on cleanliness are not subjective.

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Actually, cleanliness ratings are subjective, as most ratings are. There are young men who would never notice that there’s some grunge behind the sink faucets, or dust on the bookshelf, and as long as there were clean sheets and towels, would consider the place clean, and then there are guests who seemingly have nothing better to do than pull the fridge out from the wall and complain there was a dust bunny back there.

And really, many old houses can be perfectly clean, but will be perceived by some as “dirty” just because everything doesn’t look new and sparkling. And when someone books a homeshare in a host’s home, with shared spaces, they should understand that the host lives there and the shared spaces will likely look “lived in”, with variations depending on whether the host is a mimimalist clean freak who likes clear surfaces, and puts everything away as soon as they are done using it, or people who are a bit messy.

Of course there’s a line to be drawn. A host who has pets and whose sofa is always covered in pet hair and smells like dog, or has a stinky litter box in a shared bathroom, or leaves dirty dishes in the sink, probably shouldn’t have a homeshare listing.

However, I tend to agree that “as clean as we can make it” isn’t the best wording. Reminds me of the time I went to stay with one of my daughters, who has many wonderful qualities, but stellar housekeeping is not one of them. When I arrived, she said, " Mom, I know you hate trying to cook in a grubby kitchen, so I did a deep cleaning yesterday".

I could definitely tell she had made a big effort compared to the last time I had been there, but lets just say her idea of a deep cleaning isn’t the same as mine.

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Here’s an update. Thank you all for your suggestions. I slightly modified the description of our listing and I’m in the middle of a decluttering project! Here’s what I wrote.
Comfortable, clean, quiet room and private bathroom. We are 10 minutes away from our vibrant downtown. You have access to the living and dining room, patio, yard, and nearby hiking trails. We love hosting and we take our hosting seriously to make our guests happy. Please understand that you are booking a homeshare listing, sharing some spaces with us if you choose to. Although our older home is “lived in," we work hard to make our home clean. We and our lovely cats are hoping to meet you!

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Perhaps now is the time to update your Cleaning regimen as well. Having cleaning people come in every couple of weeks is not enough for yourAirbnb situation. Once a week is more reasonable, since as you explain yourself after two days it starts looking dirty. I can only imagine what it’s like after two weeks.

One thing that worked for us was having robot vacuums. They run twice a day through our common areas, for example.

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To be fair, @Rachael52 didn’t say that after 2 days it starts to look dirty. She said that the place gleams for 2 days after the cleaner has come. Those are not the same thing.

My cleaner also comes every two weeks, but that doesn’t mean the place looks dirty in the interim. While I usually leave it to the cleaner to wash the floors, if something spills or the floor is looking grubby, I will definitely give it a quick mop.

As the OP said, she is in the process of decluttering, which will probably help a lot. It’s obviously easier to dust and wipe things down and sweep and vacuum if there isn’t a lot of stuff everywhere. And just decluttering will help with those guests who perceive messy as dirty, which are also not the same thing.

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I suggest you ask a friend to look at your place with a critical eye and tell you what they think. Don’t choose a clean freak though !
My Airbnb is cleaner than my own place as I have learned over the years to check for the little things such as hair in the bathroom, smudges on shiny surfaces/mirrors and to look for dust everywhere. I even polish the taps!! Travelling in Japan has taught me lots of things to pay attention to regarding cleaning.

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Thanks for the suggestion. My friends are way too nice and wouldn’t give me honest feedback. What I do now is look at how clean everything looks after the cleaners come and try to keep it like that. My original post was about wording of my description so people can understand that we live in it and that means it’s not immaculate and I got lots of good responses. Made a few edits and am doing better dealing with piles of magazines, as an example. Thanks for writing.

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I’m actually not the one who suggested that you have a friend give you an assessment. :wink: I understood that your place is lived-in and maybe a bit messy, not dirty.

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@muddy And here I thought I was the only one who can’t cook in a disorderly or what I consider grungy kitchen. It is sad, really, as I love to cook but just can’t do it when a kitchen look like chaos.

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I’m the opposite, in that I don’t love to cook at all, but while I don’t actually enjoy it, I have no problem cooking in a clean kitchen. Gotta eat, right?

But when faced with a dirty, disorganized kitchen in someone else’s house, I never offer to make a meal. I’ll wash the dishes, sweep the floor, rake the yard, anything but feeling inspired to cook in a grubby space.

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@muddy I totally get that :joy:

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