You make a couple of really good points here about cleaning fees. I’m going to give this some thought and perhaps do what you’re doing. Thank you!
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it’s kind of astounding to me that in 2021 there were housekeepers (or anyone) who preferred handwashing.
oh, not so different! 2 of my listings have a kitchenette, with a small sink, def form>function, but i discourage washing up and tell guests we take all the used items away to be sanitized by dishwasher. I’ve had more breakages this year from guests handwashing, and we always have to double check (and usually re-wash) items if they tell us how helpful they were by washing up.
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Different culture - St Lucia in the Caribbean. @muddy is in Mexico and the culture there is similar to St Lucia. I call it like the US 50 years ago except with internet and cell phones
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I have never had a dishwasher in my life, even when I lived in Canada. I can wash the dishes by hand faster than it takes people to rinse the dishes, load the dishwasher (and everyone I know with a dishwasher is constantly rearranging things in it before they turn it on) , then unload the dishwasher. Plus people with dishwashers still have to wash the pots and pans, large things, and knives by hand.
I think it is an illusion that it’s some kind of time saver. But I can appreciate that if one has a big family, it’s handy. Plus it’s a good place to hide the dirty dishes.
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I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a time saver, and once you know your dishwasher well there’s no need to rearrange, but sure this happens a bit when we have guests. It’s the sterilising factor that is important, although if you are truly doing a thorough wash you have to wash in soap AND then rinse everything in very hot water, that’s quite challenging to do, and time consuming.
Yes i hand wash knives and cuttings boards, and my cast iron pan, and i hate how those items are forever sitting in the sink or on the side drying. For you as a single person i get why you’d opt to handwash although personally were i in your situation i’d install a single dw drawer, or any of the smaller dw they sell nowadays. In a large family you have people using items at all diff times of the day, so you can’t fill the sink with suds constantly, and teens are notoriously bad at proper handwashing. Did you do Home Ec at school in the 80s? we were actually taught how to wash up back then!
Yes, I did do Home Ec- we had a choice between cooking or sewing and I chose sewing. But I’m way older than you- by the 80’s I had 3 kids, the oldest was 10.
I took Home Ec in the mid 60’s, dear.
When my girls took sewing, they got to make cool, useful things in sewing class, like hoodies and backpacks. Back when I did, we had to make some truly awful things. A gathered, knee-length gingham skirt (when everyone was wearing miniskirts and wouldn’t be caught dead in what looked like something someone from some fundamentalist cult would wear) and an apron (preparing us to be good little housewives).
I had a cookbook from the forties, that had an entire section at the beginning on how to be a good little housewife. The book was so old, it talked about using wood cookstoves and ice boxes. It gave instructions on washing dishes, cleaning (and drying!) the sink after use.
As far as dishes having to be washed in super hot water, I disagree. People in first world countries are over the top germ phobes. Soap kills germs and I seriously doubt that any bacteria like salmonella are viable and survive on clean, dry dishes. I’ve used lukewarm water to wash and rinse dishes for 50 years and no one’s ever gotten sick from it. I do use hot water when I have Airbnb guests in residence, though.
Why? I don’t want a dishwasher. Just one more thing to deal with and get fixed when it breaks. Plus there would be no way to retrofit one in my kitchen.
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oh wow, i always assumed, from our various convos (and your profile pic on abb), you were only just a smidge older than me. although 14 years is a “smidge” at our age.
home ec for us was sewing & cooking. can’t say i enjoyed the sewing part. We also made stupid things.
You are probably correct about the hot water thing, at least as far as killing bugs, but to sterilise (think back to baby bottles) we always used boiling hot water.
Oh yeah, if I was dealing with baby bottles (I didn’t- I breast fed), or someone who was immune compromised or something, I’d be attentive to making sure all was sterilized.
My Airbnb profile pic is about 10 years old. I actually always looked about 10-15 years younger than I was (I once got carded entering a bar when I was in my late 30’s by the 20 year old doorman) until recently- one day I looked in the mirror and just seemed to shockingly look my age. 
You can’t really tell how old someone is from online convos. I’m not “old” in almost any way but physically (and even then, I still get up on ladders, move wheelbarrows full of dirt around) . You won’t find any doilies, ruffled curtains, crocheted toilet paper roll covers, or little foo foo dogs in my world. 
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I hope they do … but I wouldn’t quite say I expect them to.
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” is a good motto to live by when you’re dealing with the general public on a daily basis!
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My (short) check out list by the door says, “Wash the dishes if you have time, or leave them in the sink.” and “Extra points for sorting recycling into the outside bin.”
My son-in-law travels on business and uses Airbnb a lot. He has no issue with washing his own dishes and leaving the place tidy. He wouldn’t even need to “sort” the recyclables, he would just put them in the provided bin to start with- he’s a responsible, respectful adult.
But he gets rightly irritated when he has been charged a cleaning fee, and then encounters check-out instructions telling him to strip the bed and start a load of wash, and hump the garbage down the alley to the dumpster, when he has a 8am flight to catch.
He would pass on booking these places to start with, but those over the top instructions are only given in the onsite house manual. If hosts expect that sort of thing, they need to state it in the listing ad, otherwise they can expect some negative comments in the review.
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I have 2 checkout tasks :
1 - throw any used linens to the floor
2 - Leave any dishes running in the dishwasher
People may not like it - but I’ve yet to have a guest complain.
These requests should be in the house rules, and of course in the listing itself, given to the guest before the booking goes through. The guest can then have DAYS to plan for the 5 minutes it takes to strip the bed and start the washing machine.
I take issue with taking garbage to the dumpster; hosts could supply an oversized garbage bin inside for the guest to ‘hump’ their garbage, if possible. Asking guests to take out the garbage every 2 days, seems more realistic, and doable. Leave the last day’s garbage in the house perhaps…And as a host, I never frame these things as ‘cleaning’ or ‘chore’ but as matter-of-fact duties of adults: “all garbage should be in cans as per airbnb’s rule to leave the place as you found it”; 'for your convenience you can simply strip the bed and throw the sheets into the washing machine - no worries, we will remake the bed to make the bedroom ‘as you found it’ and so on.
When my son was a preteen I was subjected to his judgemental asides about what he was expected to do as part of the family - yes to one thing, no to another. We need to make sure guests are treated to the same thing: we are not interested in the guest’s decisions as to what is ‘cleaning’, what is ‘a chore’, and what is ‘ok’. Discussions about what a guest feels is right or wrong about the host’s rules shall not happen; guests who decide they do not want to do a rule or want to negotiate should be asked to cancel their request to stay. And gusts who ‘go public’ with their pronouncements about what they think is right or wrong need to be confronted with level headed responses from us professional hosts.
No, that’s exactly what I am saying is unfair to guests. If hosts want guests to strip the bed and start a load of wash before checking out, they need to make that clear in the listing itself, so guests can choose whether to book that place or not, just as they should pass on a place that has any other house rules the guest is not prepared to abide by.
A guy travelling on business who has to get up and get to the airport at 6 am to catch an 8am flight is not going to be okay with having to strip the bed and start a load of wash before he leaves, regardless of whether it takes 5 minutes or not, nor should he be expected to.
Springing housekeeping chores on guests after they arrive, beyond simply tidying up their own personal messes, is unfair and presumptuous, IMO.
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Fixed in my post. But we do both agree that if a guest is not prepared to be the adult and do what is required to fulfill their part of the transaction, they need to look somewhere else.
Er, does being a ‘guy traveling on business’ get a pass on doing this or other things? It is 2022, fyi…
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No, I could have just as easily said gal, or business traveler- I was relating it to how my son-in-law feels about it, hence “guy”. And I have to add that he does do whatever is required- he just resents it being sprung on him only after his arrival.
The thing is, if people are on vacation, they are not on some kind of tight schedule- if they are smart planners, they can make sure the place is nice and tidy the night before check-out, only having a few last minute details to do the morning of. Plus there are usual more than one person on a vacation booking, so there is more than one person to attend to the check-out list.
This is where, like a lot of things about hosting, it’s a good idea to adjust your expectations to the demographic of guests you tend to attract.
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I have none.
…
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I once asked an Indian couple, both architects, about how expensive appliances were in India. The prices for stoves and refrigerators didn’t seem that expensive, so “how much is a dishwasher?”. The reply was about x rupees per month, so I asked how much if you just paid cash, and they looked confused until he realized I didn’t understand… “We don’t buy dishwashers, we hire them! Even middle class professionals like us have a cook, a dishwasher/cook’s helper, a nanny, and a gardener.”
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I really hope that you don’t abuse seasoned cast iron pans like that?
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