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Hey guys,
I run a part time air bnb. Basically we rent our home out when we are on holidays. I’ve only done it 3x in 1.5 years and although I get good reviews for other things, I’m getting low 3/ 4 star reviews for cleaning. Our rental is expensive $250 nzd per night because of location and the inconvenience of us packing all our stuff to get out/ renting the house covers our accommodation when we are away. I do charge a $50 cleaning fee but that covers basically nothing/ extra toilet paper,power, washer and dryer, cleaning products. To hire a cleaner for a deep clean where I live is about $400. Even or hire a cleaner to come in and do 2h cleaning will set you back $150 for a cleaning company ( $75 for a stay at home mum or uni kid).
Anyway $250 is basically a mid range listing but in that they get the whole 3 bed house with all our crap moved out. 2min drive from a major event centre where our guests compete. A standard studio motel room in town will cost about $180 as a price comparison
My listing does state that this is our family home where we live with preschoolers.
Anyway I spent 12h cleaning the house with the toddlers help to get a 3 star. The guests aren’t to know in the time it took me to clean the shower the toddlers had tiped a bag of potting mix on the freshly scrubbed floor or in the time it took me to clean the fridge the toddlers had found a pen and drawn on 2 couches, a bed spread and the wall. Or even that to wash the windows the toddlers “had” to help and touch every clean mirror.
I’m scared air bnb will no longer alllow me to host if I keep getting bad scores for cleaning. I’m upset by it as it makes me feel grubby. I want to lower my guests expectations so they know they are booking a lived in family home not a holiday rental and aren’t disappointed with the cleanliness. Right now I’m considering pulling my listing as I dont want another 3 stars.
I can definitely do a bit better at cleaning but the house is thouroghly clean, just lived in with evidence of destructive toddlers everywhere.
Having brought up 2 children and never had a scribbled on couch or potting mix inside and very, very clear boundaries, I think this is more about your ability to parent and run your home. I agree you should pull your listing until you are able to manage things better, because you are just adding unnecessary stress to both yours and your children lives and not having a good time. Guests will whine and bitch about the smallest things. Lets it go and come back when you have better control and 2 proper helpers.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate your opinion and advice. I just want to clarify that that destruction was out of the ordinary and I believe done as a bit of a cry for attention by me ignoring the toddlers while I cleaned for such a long period of time and wouldn’t let them help. Not that that changes anything and if anything further proves your point.
you don’t need to move all your items out when you have guests. Just have lockable wardrobes and put valuables in the attic or other secure place. As long as you provide storage space for guest belongings that’s fine.
Why are you trying to prep your listing with your toddlers around have someone look after them/ pay someone to clean and add to your listing fee
No-one should be spending twelve hours cleaning an average house. I get a three bedroom house done by my cleaner in 3 hours
When I started I used to get dinged for cleaning and found that I just can’t clean they way a cleaner does. It is a separate space but I just don’t think to clean baseboards, windows, etc. I find my cleaners using my local community Facebook page. I use this person for a once a month deep cleaning and change-overs when I’m not around and after I get to know them I use them as co-hosts. Now I get 5 stars for cleaning.
I don’t think guests really want to rent a family home. They want the place to be clean. If you can de-clutter the space that will also help.
It may be as others have said that this is just not a workable option.
Can you drop off the toddlers at their grandparents for the day so that you can clean without the help of your toddlers. Or hire a baby sitter to entertain them while you clean. Also can put up baby gates so that toddlers can’t get into the living room after it’s been cleaned. Or simply lower your prices. Guest have high expectations when paying $250 a night and change the title of the listing to something like “Kid friendly home” to attrack more families with children that would be more understanding of little messes created by toddlers.
Regardless of the quality of your rental, people expect it to be super clean. How long is your average rental? Are people giving you specifics on what isn’t clean?
I can’t imagine the stress of caring for 2 toddlers, packing up my house and packing for holiday. If you’ve only done this 3x in 1.5 years and you’re putting so much effort into moving your stuff out and spending 12 hours cleaning, then maybe this isn’t a good model for a part time short term rental.
If you are renting it out for 2-3 weeks at a time, hire the $400 cleaner and amortize the cost over the course of the rental. You can clean on the back end when you get home.
If you choose that route I would make it clear in your listing that you are now using a top notch professional cleaning crew. If you only have 3 reviews and are planning to restructure your operation I would suggest suspending your listing.
Every time we have a post about controlling guest’s behavior the consensus seems to be that we can’t. You can only change you.
I agree with others that guests expect pristine homes at all price points. Fair or not you have little control over that. All you can do is clean the house better. It’s not the guest’s problem that you have a lot of work to do to prepare. You are competing more with other entire homes than hotels anyway. We have had this conversation here many times. There are hosts who think they should be given a pass on cleaning or maintenance if the price is low enough. But the consensus here is that your chance of getting that guest who agrees is low.
As for a solution, I agree with other posters that you need help. The cost of a clean home is the cost of doing business. If having a clean home at your price point isn’t a viable business, it’s not a viable business.
Wow, you must have been exhausted. What an awful way to start your own vacation or trip. I concur with other commenters. Do an experiment next time – hire somebody to clean and raise your price if necessary, see if you get any bookings.
Airbnb’s marketing (like HGTV) has raised perhaps unreasonable expectations regarding decor and squeaky-cleanness. The other factor is that guests conflate “old” with “not clean.” You can try to address this in the first lines of your description. “Well-loved and lived-in home, not fancy but very comfortable.”
No comments from me on parenting skills – I’ve been on the receiving end and I know that doesn’t help.
I’m not sure that I’m right here but I googled that for a conversion and it says that $250 nzd is $169.55 US. I don’t know your area of course but that seems to be an incredibly cheap price.
With 3 bedrooms, I’m assuming that the place can sleep six so that’s about $28 per person! (For comparison purposes, our rental sleeps two people and for a good portion of the year has a nightly price of more than your 3 bedroom house).
It’s annoying for everyone here when commenters say ‘hosting might not be for you’ but I honestly can’t see why you’re doing this.
If your house is rented out for two weeks you’re grossing about 2.5 k. Taking into account your costs during that time, how much are you actually benefitting? I agree with others that you need to pay for a proper cleaner - preferably someone who cleans to Airbnb standards.
If you’re determined to continue renting out your house when you’re on holiday, you might look around at the options as Airbnb with its strict standards, review system and emphasis on availability might not be the best way for you to get guests.
This might not be for you at all, but have you thought about house swapping or a similar system while your kids are small?
I know you’re right and none of us should really be critical of other people when it comes to parenting, but trying to clean a three bedroom house with two toddlers causing mayhem isn’t ideal by any means. Slaving away for twelve hours and looking after toddlers at the same time is awful.
If you do all the cleaning, you could have your husband and the toddlers start their holiday trip a day or two before you, so that there’s no one around messing things up after you’ve cleaned them. However, I’m more inclined to think that your interpretation of clean is just not at the same level as your guests. To clarify, are you getting 3 and 4 star ratings in the cleaning category or for the overall rating? If it’s just the cleanliness category, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to get kicked off, but a low cleanliness rating might affect the type of guests that book your place, and probably not for the better.
Some good tips for a similar situation as yours in this thread.
You can’t expect guests to lower their expectations when it comes to cleaning. Whether a host rents a private room in their home for $20/night or a entire house listing for $300/night, coming into a clean space is the least that guests expect.
Some people just don’t know how to clean well, and you may be one of them. Either get a super clean friend or relative to show you how to clean well, or you’ll need to hire someone to either clean the place or do it with you.
And by all means, do not try to clean with your toddlers underfoot- hire a babysitter if need be. Like another poster mentioned, I raised 3 kids and they never scribbled on furniture, walls, or anything else but the paper they were provided. Nor would they have had access to a pen unless I puposely gave it to them. Sounds like you’re letting your kids run the show.
Our house is definitely on the cheaper side. However when you look at the listings it looks expensive because many in the area charge per person or have a lot of hidden costs. Unfortunately, where we live most people only holiday for 2 or 3 nights. Even then only 2 events a year would provide a week long listing. We live 2min drive from the main competitive rowing lake in our country. I’m thinking after reading your response I should make those the only dates available and incorporate the cost of a cleaner as we can holiday at anytime of year.
I really think that too many hosts worry about what other people in the area are charging. There are so many variables when it comes to what’s provided. I’ve said here several times that one of our two rentals is directly above another guy’s place which was also on Airbnb.
So the two apartments are identical in every way except for decor. We charge a lot more. And because I look after that apartment for our neighbour, I know that our higher price is justified because we provide so much more.
I would suggest adding up all your costs: a cleaner, electricity, guest supplies plus the amount of tax you have to pay on the earnings and make sure the profit is worthwhile.
Getting bad reviews is not good for you and not good for Airbnb either.
For non-event times, as @jaquo suggested, maybe try Home Exchange. Those guests are nowhere near as fussy and you get to stay in someone else’s family-friendly place. The exchanges don’t have to be at the same time. You get points when people stay at yours and use those points to stay wherever you like. I’ve stayed in lots of home exchange places in NZ and find it a nice change to stay in a place that feels lived-in.
I have a 3/2 house and rent out 1 bedroom with a private bath. It takes me (on my own) at least 6 hours between guests to clean my house - and without toddlers screaming for attention. I do a deep clean, too. Windows inside and out take ages.
I would suggest to the OP that she take down the listing for now until she can get locking storage for personal belongings and a better schedule to break up the onus of deep cleaning between guests.
Neither do I, especially in rainy season. The OP is in NZ and that’s pretty rainy, so she probably feels that with toddler finger prints (helpers!!) and the weather, she needs to do it every turnover. Since that hasn’t been that often, she’s probably like me - panics when the windows aren’t cleaned on schedule and then spends 12 hours scrubbing.
This is how I do it - clean all the “normal” stuff between bookings, and each time do a special area too - wash the outside windows, scrub the baseboards, oil the wood furniture, etc. That way everything stays nice and clean without being overwhelming.
