When people rent your space they dont care if you have toddlers or pets or whatever. They just want a clean space. By clean I mean super clean. Sparkling clean bathrooms, dust free bedrooms, spotless kitchen and floors. And of course clean and nice furniture (aka sofas with no stains, tables and mirrors with no sticky hands etc). If you can’t offer that you will get dinged on cleanliness.
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I do the insides every turnover. 
And I have a window cleaner come every month to do the outsides of the upstairs rental (because I don’t do ladders). But that’s because they both have a fabulous view.
In some places of the world guests wouldn’t spend time looking through the windows - here they do. There’s a great view and watercraft going by.
So washing the windows or not is, I suspect, largely dependent on where you are. If the view is great, then wash the windows every time if possible.
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And as always I have to remind everyone or point out to new readers that how many turnovers is relevant. I do 20 turnovers a month on average so no way I’m washing the windows each time. Also I have plantation shutters and no view. So many guests don’t even open the shutters. So here the windows get washed when I look out them and they look dirty.
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For me, I am selective about the windows I clean. I clean 4 windows inside and out on every turnover: both sliding patio doors, the window above the kitchen sink, and the narrow window next to the front door. These are the windows guests actually look through. There are 9 more windows in the house, but they are covered with blinds and curtains that are rarely opened, so I just check them and make sure they aren’t blatantly dirty.
Since we posted and took everyones advice, we have gotten 10 Sparking Clean badges. But I think doing it occasionally on holidays with young children would be extremely difficult/near impossible. Maybe instead of Airbnb I would advertise as a holiday rental on VRBO or craigslist, because Airbnb guests are used to a different standard. Through the other way you could screen folks and talk to them about your place before they book, so that they understand the expectations
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I tried to do the cleaning with our toddler and I subsequently had a major panic attack that lasted for 4 hours…
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No Kate, when people rent a place, they expect it to be clean when they arrive, regardless of whether they rented it through Craigslist, VRBO, Airbnb, or any other way. There are many travelers who book on multiple platforms- do you really think that the same person is going to expect lower cleanliness standards because they booked a place through VRBO rather than Airbnb?
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Thank you all for your help and your input.
I’ve reworded my listing to state clearly that " please note this is the permanent home of three eregetic toddlers and is not a full time holiday rental and as such is not maintained to hotel standards. Price is based on location not luxury" or words to that affect I can’t quite remember the wording. I’ve also removed the phrase “newer built.”
I am blocking out my dates so only Madi cup and field days can be booked (week long events.)
I’ve updated the photos to show that yes you will have a frozen duvet cover and the furniture is a bit beat up. Also I’ve added a photo of the front entrance which is still just rotten rock and not attractive/tidy looking. I have brought guests towles and sheets and a matching plates set.
I’ve removed my $50 cleaning fee so guests don’t think I hire a cleaner and upped my fee to $380 a night and which will then pay for a cleaning company but not a deep clean.
I’ve also changed my check in time from 12 to 2:30 to give me more time to do the last minute things and will look into a baby sitter/gate/ grandparents for that day.
When I say we go on holiday, I mean we go stay with my parents our version of a holiday. So financially the costs breakdown of running everything leaves us with $300 for a weekend if we added a cleaning company profit is $150. So financially air airbnbing isn’t really worth the hassle but while I’m a sah mum it makes a difference. As a business it wouldn’t make sense though. I started air bnb as a motivation to deep clean my own house and to get a few dollars to help pay the insurance bill ect and give us motivation to spend more time with the grandparents. However, I’ll give it 12m of trying with the two events and If it’s still to much / stressful I’ll investigate house swapping instead.
I’m not expecting people to lower their standards of clean or wanting to attract slum but as we aren’t relying on this as an income source just attracting people who know what they are in for.
I’ve got 5 star ratings on everything else and 2 4 star on cleaning one 3star. I was happy with the 4 stars because it was realistic of the house I provide (I do aim for 5 star). Last minute finger prints on windows, scruff marks on the walls that won’t clean out.
I have to honour a new years Eve booking and there is no possible way of hiring a cleaner so I’ll just start sooner and as hubby is on shut down for the week he’ll have to drag the kids around while I clean.
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I’m not saying the place should be dirty, but yes of course different people have different standards and some are fine with cloudy windows if it means they can afford for their family to have a nice vacation. I think an alternative route could attract more like-minded or kindred spirits and it would also relieve the stress OP has about low reviews.
Perhaps marketing themselves as family-friendly and having more opportunity to screen guests would alleviate that stress too and make for a better experience on both sides. I do think that Airbnb guests tend to book without reading the property description and are looking for a 5 star experience for a 3 star price, and if its a listing that is only for a few time a year I dont think the platform makes sense. And deep cleaning a place for 12 hours is insane.
There are people out there who travel on a budget and would probably love their place especially if they have young children themselves and won’t have to worry about leaving it as spotless as they found it.
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I agree. And it doesn’t matter how cheap or expensive the place is, cleanliness is a basic requirement. There are hostels (particularly in Europe) that are cheap as chips but they are still clean and hygienic.
And that’s what hosts should want too if they want to remain in business.
Sorry, but I still disagree. I raised 3 kids on a shoestring budget but there’s no way I would have wanted my kids to be sitting on an unclean floor playing all day. And there are very few hosts who expect their guests to leave the place spotless and do deep-cleaning, they only want the guests not to leave a mess behind them.
There are other ways hosts can have a lower price without low cleaning standards. Guests can be asked to provide their own sheets and towels if they are driving to the location, there can be little in the way of amenities, i.e. no tea, coffee, or other food provided, etc.
If someone expects guests to be okay with coming to stay in a place that has had a so-so cleaning done, or expect others to have the same low levels of cleanliness they do, they really shouldn’t be in the hospitality business.
I stayed a little beach hotel a couple years ago. There was nothing fancy about it. The common area had a rusty old fridge with a note on it that said “I know I’m ugly, but I work!”. The furniture was cheap and the construction itself was definitely bottom-of-the-line. But the place was immaculately clean. Guests will overlook all kinds of things if a place is budget priced, as long as it’s clean. But they will find all sorts of other things to add to the complaints if it’s not.
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I agree with you, @muddy.
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When I vacationed in NZ I used bookabach and the expectation for the most part was the guests cleaned after themselves.
RR
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Hi Meliss,
You only rent out when you go on vacation once a year or so, right? And you have toddlers.
A power cleaning would help you too. But you can’t do it by yourself. So bring in the professionals before you leave. It’s for the guest’s benefit, and for yours. They will get into the nooks that you cannot manage as the mother of young children.
When you get home, if guests have been respectful, you only have a basic cleaning to do. And they are more likely to respect a clean house.
Think of a nice clean house as an added dimension to your vacation.
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That’s you though - my point is that there are people in the world different than you. I know folks who have lived in a barn in the middle of Vermont for an entire winter because thats what they could afford and they love that kind of lifestyle. It sounds like she’s in an area where prices are high and she can’t afford a cleaning service, and she’s only marketing it for a few stays out of a year. If she prices it and markets it towards the kind of people who don’t care about immaculately clean spaces, on a platform that doesn’t garner reviews, then she may find herself in a situation that benefits her rather than stresses her out and try to make a circle fit into a square.
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@Kate_Barry I’ve lived myself for years where I had to haul water from a well, where the wood stove didn’t hold the fire all night, and I’d wake up in the morning with the glass of water frozen solid on my bedside table. We’re not talking about lifestyle here, and I’m not saying that a place has to be upscale, or not have any kid’s toys around, or have some pristine landscaped yard or not have a scuff mark on the wall somewhere or anything like that. But very few people are okay with moving in on top of someone else’s dirt and grime.
I don’t know why you are defending renting a place out that hasn’t been adequately cleaned. Cleaning isn’t rocket science nor does it incur some huge cost- it just takes the will to do it and some time. If cleaning seems unimportant or something one just doesn’t want to be bothered with, there are plenty of other ways to supplement one’s income besides hosting.
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@Kate_Barry seems to be making the point that not everyone needs or wants a place to be so clean. You are missing the main point:
Personally, I absolutely do not require a place to be very clean at all. My very favorite Airbnb ever that I stayed in several times a year for a few years was a private room in an old Spanish style house in Beverly Hills. It was a bachelor’s home but it was full of art and antiques and books and all kinds of treasures. It had a beautiful art deco tiled bathroom and a backyard with an orange tree and an avocado tree. The fridge was bulging with food (but you were welcome to any and all of it). He had a cleaning lady, I saw her come sometimes, but I think she wasn’t very good at cleaning (but she was very nice). Anyways, the house was really not clean. But, nonetheless, it was paradise in its own way. And it wasn’t cheap either. It was a real home and I actually prefer that to some sterile space without any signs of real people in it. It is not possible that I am the only one that feels that way.
@Meliss’s house actually sounds like it is clean but it’s not to Airbnb standards.
And for Airbnb, yes, it is different. My apartments are absolutely spotless. There are enough clean freaks out there that they basically set the standard - we have to clean to that standard for Airbnb to have the most possibility of bookings. So, it is solid advice to clean Airbnbs to an extremely high standard. It’s good business sense.
But as Kate pointed out, there are other options for the OP other than Airbnb and that’s good advice too. And OP’s house was surely not actually unclean, it just wasn’t what Airbnb guests have come to expect. Another option is for her to set the expectations for the guests as some don’t really mind. I watch the listings in my city and there are a lot of very successful ones with lower cleaning ratings and they aren’t necessarily less expensive, so there is a market for that too. I’d like to point out to @Meliss that the 3-star ratings for cleanliness will actually help set that expectation - people with higher standards will probably not book there anymore. So, if she can book with that rating then it may be that she gets a better “fit” for her place.
Also, it’s worth noting that 3-Stars = “As Expected”. We are all so trained to see anything under 5-stars as a failure. But her guests may have had their expectations set and fulfilled.
Yes, this is forum for Airbnb hosts and the best advice is to keep your listing spotless and sparkling clean but, of course, there are other points of view and other options. (As there is with everything.)
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My house, where I live, takes 2 cleaners 3 - 4 hours.
That adds up to 6 - 8 hours. And I clean and maintain the place in between
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I’m well aware that not everyone has the same threshold for “not clean”. I’ve known people are perfectly happy sleeping in a grubby sleeping bag on a stained foamie on a dirty floor. The thing is, if you are advertising on a rental platform, how do you attract those types of people who don’t care and not get the ones who will mark you down for cleanliness?
And there is a lot of ground between “a real home” and “sterile”. It’s not either/or.
Exactly! And that middle ground is 3-Stars. “As Expected” cleanliness.
Honestly, it didn’t sound like it from your comments 
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