I had to read that a couple of times before I realized you meant to NOT strip the beds but to leave the towels hanging. Maybe I’m just having a bad reading day.
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I do not charge a cleaning fee and upon my orientation, I instruct guests to clean their dishes with dishwashing supplies that I provide should they want to use them a few times. . The guest room is a self contained area. So far no complaints but there have been a few instances where a few dirty mugs and plates have been left. I don’t make a big deal about it.
I have a sign on the fridge of the shared kitchen (for 3 rooms) with kitchen rules, which include cleaning up after oneself.
During my 2 years of shared bath/shared kitchen operation, I only had one person who didn’t wash dishes. He was waiting for the sale of the condo his parents were buying him to close, and I don’t think he ever washed a dish, washed clothes, or picked up anything he just dropped on the floor until he was here.
After he checked out I put a sign over the kitchen sink that said 'LIFE WOULD BE REALLY GROOVY if everyone washed their dishes immediately!" and life was mostly groovy. I did a daily check for dish cleanliness, and most folks did a good job.
One guest in his review said that living here was “like living in a shared house when I was in grad school, except that here everyone washes their dishes!”.
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I live in a small tourist town in California that half the year has to buy water. Our water and sewers bills are huge and we are in our 3rd year of drought. I discourage guests from washing dishes and especially running a partially filled dishwasher. I also charge $10 per wash machine load - to discourage use. Even when guests do their dishes I have to inspect them - I have had to pull out pots, pans, silverware, etc. and we wash them because they were still dirty. I ask guests NOT to strip beds (looking for stains/damage), do not take out the trash as many guests do not understand recycling, and I even ask them to keep left over food in the refrigerator as I can feed veggies to chickens, give unopened food away, or compost other food. I started this after I saw one guest throw out about $100 worth of food. Such waste.
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I was recently told by the guy who maintains our laundry appliances that in his opinion the biggest factor in wear and tear on laundry appliances is overloading them.
The cost of water might be [far] more costly than a shortened life of the washer or dryer, but it’s a factor you might want to throw in the mix.
I agree - guests have used the clothes washer for 1 pair of jeans. But I mostly worry about overloads. So the cost is to discourage usage all together.
I get it. A high cost per load discourages use, but also encourages overloading if used at all.
I don’t have an answer. Here in MA, where the cost of water is low (certainly relative to CA) we’d rather guests do more loads than overload it. Still, there’ll be an outlier who puts in one thing and runs a load; another outlier of someone whose college kid brings five loads of clothes.
But we rarely see these outliers and we’re resisting our tendency to make new rules for the few outliers (not suggesting you are).
I think it’s smart not to have the guests do the dishes because so many people are just accustomed to running the water.
I’m afraid that I have to do that too - at every turnover. 
I don’t think that my guests are deliberately sloppy with their dishes - they’re on holiday and would rather get to the beach than do dishes. I can understand that.
But if you’ve ever stayed somewhere and found a dried-on cornflake on a bowl, then it’s worth it.
However, that’s why in our apartments (both with a max of two people) they get four bowls, four plates, four cups etc. If I’m going to be forced to examine every piece of crockery, I want it to consist of as few pieces as possible.
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I agree - it is my reputation that I focus on. I figure if I make the guest not have to worry about cleaning dishes - it is a win-win. They feel they are off the hook and I know the dishes are clean. 
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I once had a guest who told me, nicely, that he had taken every piece of crockery, cutlery and glassware from their cupboards and washed them all just after he’d arrived. “To be on the safe side”.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d done exactly the same thing just a few hours earlier.
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It’s all part of the sadism Piton. Care for more splinters?? 
I guess I see what you’re saying, but fortunately, it was just a quick paraphrasing of what’s in my manual. It must be clearer in there because there haven’t been any issues.
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OK - he was just a bit over the top! I would hope that incoming guests would read the reviews from previous guests. My reviews consistently remark about the cleanliness. And why he felt the need to reclean everything - when in doubt just wash the items needed. I have an electric tea kettle that I use to sanitize items. I explain this in my documentation, but we both know guests do not read. ha ha
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I don’t have a policy in writing and 50% of the time the guests ask if they have to clean the dishes.
I tell them if they have time that would be great and to leave them in the dish drainer. That way I can see if they are really clean. 50% of the time they are not.
My experience is that approx 50% of my guests clean their dishes without even asking me…and do a good job.
Since my max number of guests is 4, it’s not a big deal for me.
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Unfortunately, a lot of hosts depend on their guests to wash the dishes and despite otherwise good reviews, dishes are greasy and dirty more often than not. It’s tricky to be represented by a brand because a lot of other people are representing you that do things differently.
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We don’t have it written but many guests ask what they need to do on check out and we say “nothing except wash your dishes and put them on the dry rack before leaving”. No one has ever been outraged by this request.
I tell guests dishwashing is not required but appreciated. The vast majority do.
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for me it’s 99%. I hate hand washing, it’s nowhere near as clean as a dishwasher.
I ask guests to load the dw, sometimes they don’t because they only used a few items, so instead they opt for a half arsed hand wash, which i have to check, and then i have to check all the glassware and coffee cups. i’d rather they ran the dw on a fast wash.
I ask guests to rinse them off with cold water with the least amount of water possible and put them in the dishwasher. I don’t think asking guests to wash their own dishes is asking too much. Dirty dishes can draw bugs. Is this a Home share or not? Are you talking long-term visits or overnights? The cleaning fee isn’t for picking up their clothes or washing their dishes or wiping out the sink after they brush their teeth. It’s for the cleaning that’s done after they leave. But I think there are ways to make it a minimum ask.
I’m with you! My housekeeper used to wash all the dishes by hand because she thought it used less water. She heard the water running in the dishwasher and didn’t realize it was just circulating. With the pandemic, I told her she HAD to wash the dishes in the dishwasher to stay in compliance with the COVID regulations (that’s true).
Now she’s hooked on the dishwasher!
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This is why my instructions are: “If you have time, please rinse food off the dishes prior to your departure. We sanitize everything in our dishwasher between guests.”
I’m different than most in that there is not a dishwasher in the rental. And, as a guest, there is no way I would trust dishes that are hand washed by the prior guests. Even if there is a dishwasher, no guarantee the prior guests used it correctly.
Along the same lines, there is no way I would trust bed linens if I saw the checkout instructions required the previous guest run them through the laundry and then remake the bed. Not sure why anyone would treat dishes different than laundry.
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