Cleaning for longterm guests - requirements

1

Hey Guys,

I’m sort of writing from the other perspective at the moment. I couldn’t find a forum for guests, hope that’s OK.
We are regular airbnb users (at least 5 stays in the past 12 months) and are having our first bad experience.

We rented a room in a flat for 4 weeks. Room is nice, was clean at the beginning, all looked fine. We are now 3 weeks into our 4 week stay, and the host still has not cleaned the bathroom!
It was filthy when we arrived, but he had a professional cleaner come in the very next morning. He informed us of this so the 1 night was OK, no problem for us. But since then, nothing has been done!

Its a place with 5 adults sharing 1 bathroom, so you can guess what it looks like.

We first asked to have it cleaned again after 1.5 weeks, nothing happened (the host stays here too) we asked repeatedly, and he just does not seem to realize its dirty …

His answer was “what would you like to have cleaned”, followed by telling one of the other guests to please take care of wiping away his break lines. Nothing in terms of general cleanliness. We said just general deep clean of the bathroom, and nothing happened.

We cleaned it ourselves after 2 weeks of stay, but not deep clean. (had to buy our own cleaning equipment, the host doesn’t have any!!) Now its another week after that and the place just reeks with hairs everywhere etc. We keep disinfecting the toilet with bleach we bought ourselves, but the whole bathroom is full of hairs etc.

The host inst moving a finger. I swear he doesn’t even realize its dirty …

what can we do? is it his duty to clean or organize a cleaner?

This is the first time that we stay longer with a shared bathroom. We have stayed over a months before, and if its our own bathroom we clean it ourselves no problem. Just don’t want to do it for a whole flat!

what are our options? it is really disgusting us.

thanks for the help!

2

Well, that’s gross.

You very kindly say that he must not realize that it’s dirty. He realizes it, he just doesn’t care. I’d suggest that you simply say “please schedule the cleaners right away as the bathroom needs to be thoroughly cleaned”. If he asks you what about it needs attention, you can either humour him with a list or just say - ask your professional cleaners. I’d also tell the host that the cleanliness of the bathroom is an important issue to you, so you’d appreciate it being addressed immediately. If nothing changes, contact Airbnb and let them know and ask them to re-house you with another host.

3

Gross, indeed. Five people sharing a bath? That bathroom should be wiped down daily.
I do agree with you that he just doesn’t see it. I know the type. But you should not have to live with his hair blindness. And what about the other guests? Why the heck aren’t they heping?
Contact Airrbnb and move.

4

I agree that you should contact Airbnb - this ‘host’ and his appalling habits are letting down Airbnb itself and other conscientious hosts.

But as you’re in your third week, what would be more hassle for you - moving to another place or biting the bullet and cleaning it again yourself? (I know you shouldn’t have to). I’d be inclined to buy rubber gloves, a load of bleach, Clorox wipes and Lysol. Then blast though the bathroom cleaning it, leave the gloves and cleaning materials with a note say ‘Dear Guests, please help to keep the bathroom clean’.

I know it goes against the grain but it might be easier than moving. Be sure to take photographs of the disgusting bathroom though and send them to Airbnb.

5

When you say it is 5 people using one restroom, is that your party or the sum of the house?

For the owner to not realize it is dirty, I would imagine that means it is in a space he doesn’t use. Can you tell us more about the space?

Is there a cleaning fee involved with the listing? Are there other renting parties there other than your group?

Did you inquire about mid-stay cleanings before booking?

If there are other renting guests, have you spoken to them about splitting cleaning duties?

1 Like
6

Hey guys, thanks for the replies!

The space is a 4 bedroom flat. No living room but has a kitchen. Its the host, his flatmate, me and my girlfriend, and another air bnb guest (who, to be fair, seems to be the largest part of the problem in terms of producing the mess)

It has 1 bathroom and one extra little toilet - but the flush doesn’t work in that one so no one uses it.
The main bathroom is shared by all 5 adults.

we made the mistake of going with the cheapest available - never again … the 25-30% extra seems to be really something you notice.
It was one of those looks to good to be true listings, professional photographs, large room, great location, low price … you get what you pay for I guess.

Thing is we have only one week left and then will move. All the local places give a 30% discount for staying for a whole months. So moving would not only be a hassle but also cost us loads extra.
So what did you mean with air bnb re housing us? would they cover the difference? Its also a touristy place and Easter coming up. So prices are rising fast now.

re the suggestion with the rubber gloves - we’ve already done that! We bought disposable towels, gloves, bleach and wipe down the toilet etc. every 2 days or so.

But it needs a deep clean, moping the floor going into all the creases. And its just so filthy, we only wipe the areas we will touch and try and ignore the rest. (And with the rest I mean that the other 3 guys haven’t heard of sitting down to pee, and don’t have any aim either)

There isn’t a cleaning fee on the listing, so that’s why we are not saying anything on changing bed sheets, or cleaning our room. But a communal toilet is different right?
Luckily we have friends in town (their in student apartments so no space to stay with them) who lend us a second set of bed sheets to use whilst we wash and dry the one given.

I could go on. Overall the listing was one we weren’t happy with from the beginning, but it wasn’t bad enough to cancel. Guess we should not have been so patient, only asked after 1.5 weeks then gave him time and so on.
(Other issues include host coming home drunk or from working late at 2am most days, making loud noises etc. Washing machine running right next to our room at 3am … I am digressing from the bathroom ^^)

7

Whether there is a cleaning fee or not, you are still entitled to basic cleanliness and that particularly includes the bathroom. Is there a washing machine you can use on the premises for your bed sheets? If not, I would have thought that any decent host would offer you fresh ones every week. Depending on the price of your stay he should also provide the labour by changing the bed for you.

We offer clean sheets, towels etc for every guest staying for over one week. That and a clean bathroom are pretty basic requirements, I would think.

Approximately how much is this listing per night? Was it a true rock bottom price? Even so, no bathroom cleaning is just disgusting, regardless of price point!

8

Yeah there is a washing machine … runs most nights … it was around 10$ per night in an area thats usually 14$ or so. Bear in mind though that’s after the discount for booking a whole months.

We know the normal rental prices in the area, and that is paying the rent for the whole flat for the months. Just we aren’t staying long enough to access the normal rental market.

re the cancelling - would airbnb move us to a different listing at their cost? could we even get our money back on this listing for unused nights?

what you are describing is also the norm. We are digital nomads, have been living in air bnbs for at least half of the past year, and have had nothing but good experiences so far.
Guess we were due a bad one …

9

I’m sorry. Did you say $10 a night? I would really love to see this listing. If you don’t want to post it, could you at least PM me the link?

I agree that everything should be spotless on check-in. Sheets, towels, etc. would seem to be a foregone conclusion. As far as the other Air guests, have groups come and gone or are you with the same group as when you started? You would figure he would have at least taken care of things between their changing.

With a rate that low, they could bump it slightly and supply some cleaning implements. It’s a bit hard to relate to a situation with a shared bathroom between various guests and permanent residents.

Now, to the meat… If you ask to be re-homed now, it will generally be at probably max 20% above your booking rate. So, if you’re in a $10 listing and they decide the situations warrants relocation, you’ll get another $10 room or max $12.

Maybe you can at least get the CS folks to give him a call and let him know the state of affairs in the bathroom. It’s bad for business in general if one person lets things slide like that.

10

Hey Felix,
$10 sounds little I know, but we arent in a high income country so its actually quite a lot. We know you can rent a really nice 3-4 bedroom apartment here for $300 per months. And we only got one room.
And its the same people, the host only does 30 day or more stays.

the rate, you can easily get hundreds of listings for $14 here. So its nothing too cheap. We’ve stayed in plenty of places around this price range and always had a good experience.

Ill pm you the listing. We are gonna leave in a week anyway, so we will think on moving. Thing is we’re really busy with work so the time is not good either … maybe just pester the host more or, like you say, get airbnb CS involved.

11

With no reviews for the room, you would think they would want to take care of you.

12

you would, wouldn’t you. Especially as our account has like 10+ positive reviews from happy hosts - so if anyone was to check who left the review they will be getting, they’ll see its legit.

13

So this guy has four guests (is this right?) at $10 each per night so is making $40 per night but can’t be bothered to wipe the bathroom over every morning? A bathroom he uses? The very least he could do is make sure that there are plenty of cleaning materials in there with a nice little sign saying ‘please clean up after yourself’.

He must be a bit dodgy if he’s using the bathroom too and it’s still dirty.

Tip! Host with a woman next time! We girls are more particular :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

(Sorry guys! Couldn’t resist.)

14

Yeah, if he spent a few dollars on cleaning supplies, the results might be shocking.

I leave a collection under the sink that I use for flipping between guests, and though not expected or requested, you would be surprised how things wind up clean anyway.

15

We have a toilet brush, bleach and toilet cleaner plainly in view by the side of the loo. And Clorox wipes in a more prominent position on the window ledge. Plus a fairly large trash can.

So far (crossing fingers here) the bathroom has always been left in a reasonable condition.

Somewhere on this forum there’s a topic about how a higher price begets a better guest. This is not to criticize the OP but I get the feeling that some guests in a $10 per night place might not be as careful as they are in our $125 a night rental! Even so, the host has no excuse.

If the bathroom was professionally cleaned, then it would take two minutes or less per day for him to do the Clorox wipes and loo brush thing. I mean, you’d do it for the sake of yourself if not your guests!

16

Just clean it yourself with what’s there and what you’ve already bought. Use toilet paper / kitchen paper fit the floor. It will take you 10 mins at most if you go fast?

18

Hi Robert, I agree that it is not good hosting, and they should leave that feedback in the review, If this is the only issue and the price was a low $10 per night and they have already spoken to the host about it and are conflicted about talking airbnb to cancel or refund for the final week of a 4 week stay. My advice was not about what’s right or whose a slob or not it was advice to the guests to just get on with it vs create an unpleasant fuss - given it would take 10mins to remedy. I don’t have any issue with them taking it up with the host/airbnb or moving out/asking for a refund - but another option is to just clean it up themselves and enjoy their stay.

19

Hey guys, thank you so much for the sympathy and information!

Here is what we will do:
We got a couple of work deadlines tomorrow noon, so will work hard on that for now.
In the meantime, we will give the host an ultimatum to get it sorted in a day - if he doesn’t, we’ll contact CS and take it from there.

thanks again!

20

I think it’s totally unacceptable to leave guests in a filthy house. Cleanliness is the one rating that I feel I have total control over.

I’m not in the same space as my guests so I wouldn’t notice if their bathroom was getting grotty but most of my guests stay only a few days so not a problem.

For longer stays, I leave a basket of fresh sheets and towels outside their door (they can change the bed themselves) and if it’s a stay of longer than a week, I send a cleaner in to vacuum, dust and clean the bathroom if the guests don’t mind someone being in their space.

If your host is only charging such a small fee, okay, no cleaners, but honestly, it takes 30 mins to vacuum, mop, wipe down sink and bathroom. It’s really really lazy of them.

Good luck

1 Like
21

Hi @hk123 - can we get an update?