This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
About 90% of our guests give us 5/5 on cleanliness. We can’t figure out what’s dogging us about the remaining 10%. I know I have a personal problem really caring about cleanliness, although we try very hard, so we hired a cleaning lady to help us. As hoped, she found a few things I’d never noticed. But it hasn’t done anything about that 10%. In fact, I think a pair of recent guests who seemed nice enough gave us a 2 out of 5!! That’s like saying our place is a dumpster, which is not even remotely true.
My wife suddenly thought it was because we don’t make the beds once a guest has arrived. But that’s part of a deliberate policy based on experiences with hotels where the cleaning staff keep messing with my stuff and driving me crazy. I make it clear that we stay out of their rooms as much as possible, and don’t do any cleaning other than a bit of obvious stuff with dishes when we replenish their food. Many guests leave their beds with so much stuff on them that making the beds would involve an unwelcome degree of moving their stuff around.
You could try offering it to guests and see if it makes a difference to your star rating. But I doubt it will - guests will be guests. I had a guest tell me (in the private feedback) that I should clean the (tiled) floor in the apartment. You could eat dinner off that floor!
No way! I’m not making their beds, lol!! I’m totally puzzled when they make their beds. They’re on vacation!! And I’m like you - ‘do not disturb’ always goes on the door at a hotel.
They know where to get that service, and they know what they are going to pay for it. They are welcome to it. You are different. You are special! YOU are AIRBNB!!!
Perfection is a horrible task master. I know it’s frustrating, but, let it go. 90% is amazing! As @konacoconutz often reminds us, people will give even the Ritz or Taj Mahal a bad review.
I was worried because bookings seem stalled this season. We haven’t had a new one in a couple of weeks. Our very local competitors, many of whom don’t seem to offer half of what we do, get better star ratings, notably in cleaning. Them seem to get “easy 5s”. We interacting with our guests, helping them, constantly checking they have everything they need, making immediate fixes and improvements to anything they comment about, and yet we’ve got a couple of those dreaded 4.5 star overall rating stars showing; they seem more like here’s your keys, have fun - and rake in the easy 5s.
Anyway, we finally had a new request just now, so I’m feeling better. I think we’ll lose this one over parking, but I can understand that at least.
No I don’t because I have 90% one nighters. One way to find out is to ask them. “What could I have done to make it a 5 star experience?” in a message. Several people have posted here that they don’t think people understand what the ratings mean and the importance of 5 stars to hosts. Is your home older? Are there things that look dirty that are just actually old? For example, is there a mineral ring in your toilet even though you just scrubbed it with a disinfectant? Also multiple people have posted that it’s slow right now.
No. I think this would make your ratings worse as they might see it as an invasion of their privacy. Don’t over obsess about ratings. I got dinged twice on location and our location is the only reason anyone comes here lol
MO. Stop obsessing! Most drops in enquiries are strictly related to seasonal highs and lows. We are currently in a transitional phase for some destinations.
You crack me up… No new bookings in two weeks? Try months for me!!! I’m totally dead in Hawaii. I had two bookings in July. NONE in August.
But all the hotels are dead now too. You know they are dying when they are advertising on the radio and tv for locals to come stay.
Most lulls are seasonal. I see a distinct pattern after almost seven years as a host. It dies right now and picks up in the fall and winter when I am back to back. I plan for it.
As for cleanliness you are always going to get someone marking you down. What do they know.
Thanks, Kona. This is only our 2nd year in business, but last year this was our busy period.
Here, when hotels start getting antsy about AirBnB, you can figure that’s a sign that they’re in trouble. And they’re making noise about us down at City Hall these days.
I think they’re nuts. Most of our customers wouldn’t bother visiting Toronto if they had to pay the full rack rate at a hotel. Many are only in the area because of Niagara Falls.
Worst case: City Hall will whack in some new fees and licencing requirements that force us out of business.
I would definitely ask someone who has given you such a low score what is going on. It could be an error. And if it isn’t, you might learn something. Assuming the guests in question aren’t nutjobs, that is.
I think they were - maybe not nut jobs, but secretly nasty. The guy who booked, anyway. His wife was fine.
And come to think of it, I did ask, but wasn’t sure it was them, and they never answered. The wife left a hat she wore every day and before noticing the ratings issue, asked if she wanted it. No answer.
We never enter the room unless asked. Never have provided maid service either. Our reviews are consistently 5 star. Our room is unique as it has it’s own private entrance and private bathroom. We do a full on cleaning after each checkout and do charge a cleaning fee. Guests have almost always made the bed before they depart until we put a small note in the room telling the to strip the bed and place all linens in a hamper that we store in the closet. We also ask them to take their trash out before they leave.
@Mo_In_TO Do you mean like making the beds daily, like a hotel?
Here’s our experience: we ran our place as a traditional B&B for 4 years, breakfast, bedmaking, room cleaning every day. etc until we discovered Airbnb at the same time as I had come to loathe the sight of the vacuum cleaner. We now do a linen change and “room refresh” halfway through their stay if they’re here for 7-10 days, twice if they’re here for two weeks. We actually do mention in the House manual that we can do daily cleaning for €5 a day if they want it. Thankfully no-one has taken us up on it! And we’ve made more money, had good reviews and I’m so much less exhausted that when we did “full service”
I think that, in truth, there are people who are surprised when rooms aren’t serviced daily, when they are used to traditional B&Bs, as we were when we first went to France where it wasn’t routinely done, but I think that is changing as more people use Airbnb. I also think that neat freaks like me and all the older French guests we’ve had will make their own beds and leave their rooms immaculate and the messy ones don’t care anyway!
I think some people’s thinking goes: “Hang on, we can’t give them five stars for everything, that will just look ridiculous. Hmm, they were great hosts, very helpful, super place, we can’t really mark them down on location … cleaning - well, there was that little cobweb in the corner … what about a 4 for that? A 4 is still good. OK, 4 stars for cleaning and everything else 5. And we’ll write a nearly nice review.”
absolutely not. I have an older home and park around 88% 5 star reviews. It’s impossible to get a perfect 5. My house is immaculate but once a guest bangs a suitcase against the wall I’ve got a mark to instantly clean. What I find works in my historic home is I clean daily… almost in front of them. As in, I’ll be wiping down kitchen counters when they arrive back after dinner. Or in the morning when they are getting up they might find me tidying up the patio. I never do anything noisy or messy, just constantly doing little things to leave the impression that I take care of the house.
it depends on guests - I have a lock and key for the room - if they want to lock the door then I ask them if they want me to clean the room daily and make bed - if they dont lock I clean do bed if the do lock I ask first = usually once they know they can have thier room cleaned they stop locking - or they say no they dont want anyone going in - as I have a cleaner also I explain that I need to change sheets and towels and get a time that works for them - being flexible is the key
Once a guest arrives I don’t go into their space at all for the duration. I noticed when I first used Airbnb myself that if I left my room and closed the door, then came back and found it open I didn’t like it. One thing with a hotel, you know it happens. Another in a private residence, it’s psychologically different. Most of my stays are couples, 2-4 nights, some up to a week. Longer stays I offer washing machine use and ask them to let me know if they want to have sheets or towels changed. I mean how often do you change then at home? I’ve hosted over 55 groups and no trouble or complaints so far. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I do ask when they leave how I could have made their stay better so it’d worth doing that. As someone else mentioned, if you have an older home maybe reflect that in your description.
I change the sheets and towels once a week, I ask when it’ll be convenient and I go in and switch everything out. Usually they watch me do it and even offer to help, but I’m getting to be an old pro so I just say “Nope I’ll be out of here in 5 minutes.”
Most drops in enquiries are strictly related to seasonal highs and lows. We are currently in a transitional phase for some destinations.