I certainly hope NOT! I want someone who I know cleaning my house, thank you. I’ve never had trouble finding a good cleaner where I live, and I charge what my current cleaner charges although she only does about 5% of my room turns.
2 Likes
But often hiring a known cleaner is difficult as they, quite naturally, prefer regular, fixed days on which to work or may be working somewhere else on the day you need. This is where a cleaning company comes in more useful and I think an Airbnb-seeded one is not a bad idea, as they would know the standards required.
And, hey, if you got marked down on cleanliness you could just turn round and say Well, Airbnb, it was your people that cleaned it …!
I like that idea!
5 Likes
I understand, but just to clarify, you’re a host and don’t mind complete strangers renting your home, or space in your home, but a cleaning service that is bonded, insured, and hired to help make the ease of cleaning your Air space is crossing the line?
Just an observation, to each their own. I know in Denver there are many hosts who’d love a dedicated Airbnb cleaning company just from my networking, but it’s not for everyone - – no biggie 
2 Likes
I can see a real need for a service that specifically caters to Airbnb businesses. The home cleaning companies in my area want an arrangement to come every week on a regular day and schedule - obviously this is worthless to the varied schedule of our coming and going of guests. Thursdays at 9am, for instance, does not help me at all. Here’s a new business model!
3 Likes
I’ve developed the business plan and am currently just waiting for basic seed money to start. LLC, EIN, insurance, business cards/marketing money, variety of cleaning supplies, etc. $1000 or less and someone, even part time, devotes their energy to Air hosts would greatly benefit from this just from simple word-of-mouth and the understanding of host needs. If I, hypothetically, charge $80 for a one-bedroom apt, pay my cleaner $50 of that (under two hours of cleaning on avg.), get 5 hosts needing the service max per day, that’s $250 for my cleaner and $150 for myself due to scheduling, business needs, etc.
Not bad day for 8-10 hours a day, no boss breathing down your back, and making connections with hosts in the community. I honestly don’t see the downfall to the host… charge the guest whatever fee is agreed upon by the cleaning company/host and then the host gains valuable time all with less energy and stress while hosting.
2 Likes
I would use this service in the situations when I have a something on my calendar and a transition the same day. Most of the time, I am available to do the cleaning/transition between guests myself, but when I have a conflict, it can be tough to figure out. So far my mother has been my back up! Three cheers for mom!
1 Like
I might sign up for the occasional cleaning by a vetted last-minute STR cleaning specialist, if I’m super busy. The “last-minute” and “vetted for STR” bits being essential.
I really can’t afford to routinely outsource cleaning at my price point (below $100) nor do I have much flexibility to raise prices/fees in my very competitive STR market. (If only I could get rid of all the unlicensed or otherwise illegal ones, but I already griped about that in another thread!)
I agree that once someone has settled on a place to book, it might psychologically be easier to continue the booking even in the face of a high cleaning fee than start over (unless the fee hits some over the top limit in the booker’s mind). I may just experiment going from $25 to $30.
I’d be willing to clean other people’s Airbnbs for $15 an hour occasionally. What we need is something like Uber for cleaners. If it turns out I have time I log on and see if I get pinged. I’m vetted and get reviewed as part of my Airbnb profile. People could see that I’m a good guest and host and have 425 five star cleanliness ratings. It’s not something I can do all the time because of my other jobs but I’d rather do that than drive for a ride share company.
Now, how many hosts would be suspicious that other hosts were just using the system to spy on them?
4 Likes
This behavior is more appropriate at the back door of a frat party. At least they aim.
I won’t complicate matters with the biohazard threat.
I would avail myself of a disposable bucket, mop, gloves, and Mr. Bleach Bottle’s big brother. Don’t forget those photos. Or the crystallized ginger.
I agree. Dedicated ABB cleaners would probably have more flexibility and could schedule their times by having a dedicated ABB calendar of host room flips and check in times (if host would provide.) Interesting Idea for sure.
I hadn’t thought of that!! haha. What are your thoughts on this @TheInsider?
My business plan in progress is a cleaning company dedicated to host’s and their crazy turnover schedule so I’m for the cleaners.
As far as using Air recommending a cleaning company that ends up not being great is most likely the reason this idea hasn’t been implicated. The professional photography Air subcontracts out is a bit different because it’s very clear (no pun intended) to see a job well done and isn’t as highly subject to opinion like a cleaning company would be. Too many guests will call in saying a listing is disgusting because they found literally one piece of hair on a bathroom floor, or a dead fly near kitchen, etc.
For Air to recommend cleaners will just be too risky. They should allow it in their community forum area IMO, but I’m just a CM who doesn’t know anything lol
Before you do this please try being a host for a couple of months. Seriously.
Your proposed service would not work in my community, because all hotels and BnBs, including AirBnBs have an 11am checkout time and a 3pm or 4pm checkin time, which only leaves a 4 or 5 hour window for turning rooms unless the guest leaves early.
I do most of my own room turns (and laundry, a lot of it!) except on days when I have tours scheduled with my tour business that won’t leave me a 2 hour window (just in case of the rare disastrous guest) between 11am and 4pm. In those cases, I call on a cleaning service that can turn a room in 30-40 minutes. She tells me that she has about a dozen AirBnB hosts who are like me and call her when we are unable to turn the rooms ourselves, along with her regular house cleaning clients and her month-end cleanings for landlords that are turning monthly rentals. She has a sterling reputation here, as do her employees — and she always does the BnB turns herself because she knows how important it is for hosts to have super clean rooms — and she even folds towels to hosts’ specs (some of us fold; I always roll them).
I’m going to stick with my known local cleaner, thank you.
Which is why AirBnB should just delete these kinds of reviews, especially if the host has an average star rating of 4.7 or higher.
4 Likes
not disagreeing with you IMO at all, it’s just simply not policy and not in my ability to change any policy. I’m just here to help navigate through common questions.
To each their own. I personally know many hosts who are waiting for me to start this service up and have a small group of trusted friends and co-workers who’ll be employed to clean when the time comes to begin. Everyone is different and each host has a different mindset on their Do’s and Don’ts.
I also do have host and co-host experience, I just won’t go into those details here as it can easily be linked to identifying me with what properties I am linked to. I’ve used my career knowledge, host/co-host experience, networking history with other community members, and a bit of personal intuition to understand the need of hosts. It may work, it may fail, or I may never execute my plan ever but either way I’m fine with it.
In your area, check-in and out times may be fairly common. In my market, there are hosts who have set their prep time for 24 hours so they have additional time to clean their unit and give extra cushion if a guest smokes and they need to do a deep clean/fog or if they need to open a resolution center case. Although I see why hosts do 11am check outs and 3pm check-ins for the revenue, IMO and my opinion strictly, they’re risking not being able to go after a previous guest if something happens because you only have 14 days to open a resolution center case OR until your next guest checks in. I just think it’s smarter to slow down a bit, make sure until is cleaned, supplies re-stocked, and as to not stress the host out so much time wise.
2 Likes
I have a host friend that closes off the day before and after a guest and doesn’t sweat check-in and check-out times. For a LONG time I thought she was leaving $$$ on the table with those blocked dates, but now I am wondering if this is, in fact, a great way to reduce stress.
2 Likes
Where do I sign up!!!
Someone already on it
1 Like
Yes they would and they do - ALL THE TIME! "Why should I have to take out the garbage? I paid a fee. Why should I remove the sheets? I paid a fee. Why should I do the dishes? I paid a fee. It’s okay if I leave makeup on the towels, I paid a fee. I shouldn’t have to remove my shoes at the door, I paid a fee. Guests constantly forget the part that says they are supposed to leave the place clean and follow the House Rules.
OMG - You have such a narrow view of what hosting is and who hosts are that you have no idea what it is to be a host!! I can’t charge what it would cost to have someone come in and clean. In fact, during the winter, it’s so slow, I can’t even charge a cleaning fee - at all! Many hosts don’t have the ability to charge a rate of $150 to 200 per night. Some/many might be lucky to get $50-60 per night. It would be disproportionate to charge a large amount for cleaning. Check around this forum for threads about cleaning fees. There are loads of different answers to this question.
Yes it can and does happen! I have one buried in my reviews somewhere right now. In fact, he starts his review with, “First, you should know that I screwed up…” and then he retaliated and gave me all 1*s and bashed me and my place with lies. We hosts have a pretty good idea when they are going to happen and how and when to post. Just check out the threads on this forum.
To clarify, yes, both the guest and host have a period of time to edit their reviews. There is even a message that says how long you have to make further edits. However, once the other person posts and both visible, then the reviews are locked and cannot be edited.
@TheInsider - I really really recommend that you spend some more time reading the years of experiences on this forum. I wish @konacoconutz was still on this forum. I’m sure she would have some sage comments to share. You may have information about how things are supposed to work. The information on this forum is about how things really do work and what works and what doesn’t. There is more than one way to be an Airbnb host and to run a business. Some are big businesses and some are small, some rent rooms in a house and some rent whole houses, some have few rules and some require a guest to also sign a rental agreement in addition to booking through Airbnb - they don’t all and can’t operate the same way.
6 Likes
This forum is full of answers to common questions with those answers provided by HOSTS. Maybe… hang around for a little while and see what would really help and take that information back to Airbnb. One thing that seems to be a reoccurring thread in the posts on this site, is about how Airbnb is un-supportive of hosts and backs guests and their bogus complaints. For example, Airbnb doesn’t honor the hosts cancellation policy and gives refunds to guests. Personally, knock wood, I’ve not had this happen to me, but I read it on this forum again and again.
1 Like