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Case In Point today - I get a message from my departing guest that reads:
“We are hitting the road in a couple minutes. We had very light use in the kitchen I don’t think we use the fridge or the stove and maybe just heated up a cuppa soup in the microwave so should be an easy clean! Thanks”
Very amusing because there are now 5 beds to strip, remake and launder linens from. The bathroom ALWAYS gets a complete deep clean because, well you know why. I will still wipe down everything in the kitchen, because one should. The entire 3 bedroom house with a full living and dining room also has to be vacuumed and dusted, etc etc. You ALL know from whence I speak. Easy Cleaning indeed! I wish! This place is a 3 hour cleaning when we have to make all 5 beds. Not to mention the time it takes to do all the laundry later and then bring it back to put away. (I have plenty on site for turnover)
Add to this that husband just called me and add to the regular cleaning we found they left wet towels on the carpet in one of the bedrooms instead of putting it in the hamper (teens most likely), food wrappers in a couple of the beds (no eating in the bedrooms please House Rule), wet washcloths alllll over the bathroom (at least they were not on the carpet somewhere), dirty dishes in the sink (Please do your dishes House Rule) and it appears that someone slept on the couch without using the bedding for it, and I sent the guest a message specifically stating that they had to use it if they slept on the couch, and where it was located. They snarfed through all the snacks, but I figured they would because of the age range of the kids they had in the group. 3 adults and 4 kids ranging in age from 10 - 17 It isn’t that it is out of the norm, it is just seriously amusing that guests think we EVER have “An Easy Clean” That only happens when they do NOT show up LOL And how is your day going
Hi, we are travelling through and would like to stay at Ithaca. We are clean and tidy and we want to pay $100 for the night.
The night was Friday on a 2 night minimum. Friday night rate is $200 + $50 cleaning fee.
My response was, thank you for considering Ithaca, no matter how clean and tidy you are, the actual cleaning is 3 hours at $30 per hour. I am sure you will find something with your budget if you keep looking.
I get a few of those, @AvaH, so I hear you. “You won’t have any cleaning to do” - except for the mud on the floor, the dog hair and nose prints on the windows, the mystery spill on the bedding, the grease on the pans, etc.
But today was brilliant. Guest texted, “We loved our stay! Sorry about the mud :(”
So I worried. If they were actually apologizing for mud, it must be up the walls.
It wasn’t! It was cleaner than usual. Tiny bit of mud on the mat by the door, and some on the porch. The dears.
My condo had maximum occupancy of 8. Reservation was for 7. Dishes, bedding, towels etc. in the unit for maximum of 8. Guest complains they had 10 people and not enough beds or dishes.
I did charge them for the extra guests though…after they complained.
Ah, don’t you just love guests like that? Once I had a guy leave me an apologetic note and £5 because he got some blood on the pillow case. It was literally a teeny tiny speck and came out fine in the wash.
Oh this reminds me of a guest who left a few days ago…thanks for everything was wonderful. Have stripped the bed…yeah they stripped the best because there was glitter glue everywhere…some sort of blue poster paint all over the bathroom including the walls, a burnt up pan in the kitchen and several towels with the blue poster paint (that didn’t come out). So I charged them for the damage (thru resolution center) and she had the nerve to call and tell me I should expect these types of issues and she shouldn’t have to pay for them. Airbnb supported me and I got my money.
Wow, deja vu. My guests (5 adults + 3 children) left this morning and in their message right after checkout said “We cleaned up so you won’t have much to do.” Like you, I’m thinking “yeah right, 6 beds, towels and sheets, etc.” I go in and find that it’s not filthy, but it’s also not really clean anywhere that I can see. Then I find the nuggets:
Two hand towels and a washcloth in the laundry room that had already been washed and dried. They look like they had been almost completely soaked with something brown which didn’t come out in the wash and now it’s permanently set. They were obviously used to wipe up a spill of some kind. What and where is unknown.
A glass in the cupboard with dried milk on the inside and greasy fingerprints on the outside.
A skillet in the cupboard that was partially clean on the inside, but literally dripping with butter on the bottom, requiring the cabinet to be cleaned, too.
Dried up sticky blue puddle 8-inches in diameter on the patio table (probably Gatorade going by the bottles in the recycle bin).
BTW, my theory is that dirty dishes are getting put into the dishwasher full of clean dishes and then later put away with the clean dishes. It’s been a common theme with with families with kids (happened with 3 out of 3 families so far…).
The grand total cost to me is about $3 for the towels and washcloth and 10 minutes of extra cleaning. Hardly worth writing about, but I was thinking about how my standards of cleanliness seem to be significantly higher than that of my guests (so far) and that’s probably a good thing, and it looks like I’m not alone.
My guests were here for our giant St. Patrick’s Day parade/all day & night party. They left the cottage pretty clean but used up easily 1.5 pounds of coffee beans (the entire jar I left for them and a full pound in the freezer as backup – they left me the empty bag), ate or took all the oatmeal packets and must have done 6 loads of wash in a 3 day stay. How? What? I only leave a certain amount of detergent out for guests, mainly so they don’t buy something that will overflow the HE washer, but holy cow. I guess they got their value out of the place. . .oh, yeah, they ran the air conditioner the entire time, even though it was cool and pleasant outside. It could have been a lot worse. No barf to deal with this year, for one thing.
About half my guests who want to make use of my hide-a-bed don’t actually unfold it. They just sleep on the couch. So I got a removable sofa cover that is light and easy to wash.
Our messiest guests are always families with children in that age range or slightly younger. It doesn’t surprise me they thought they were “pat on the back” clean as they are often the most delusional.
Because of the size of my listing, it would be unrealistic of me to think that I’m not going to attract families. And to be honest we have set it up to attract families and seniors, we are fine with that. We’ve had groups of just young people and they’ve been much messier than the families with children. They also give me the crabbiest reviews. I think it may just depend on a combination of where we are and who our listings attract.
I am in the heart of Redwood country in true Northern California, so a tourist destination. Also in the heart of marijuana country so I have to vet my guests carefully when they are not families. My very first guests used our house as a, as near as we can figure, a place to pack up a crap ton of fresh weed for shipping ( they left behind the shipping materials and the ENTIRE house stunk of fresh weed). The entire house reeked like a grow house for four days after they left. Fortunately my next guest were very understanding because they understood where we were!
A family stays at your place. They have children and they’re on vacation. Things get hectic. They probably did the best they could.
Do none of you have children?
Sure, if people show total disrespect and make no effort whatsoever to tidy up then fair enough. But some of the bitching on here seems a bit ott.
@Magwitch, I guess it is all about perception because I don’t see any over the top bitching. I see tongue in cheek wry humor for the most part.
It IS amusing that so many guests think if they do all of the “required” tidying up that it will be “easy” for hosts to finish and turn it over. In my case, they did not tidy up, but as I said, it wasn’t out of the norm or excessive. They will get a star knocked off for cleanliness and House Rules (Guest Guaranteed he read them and made everyone else aware as well) and I will gently educate them in private comments. I would be fine having them back again for a second chance to get it completely right
@Magwitch , my post was not intended to come off as bitching. I only find the differences in standards of cleanliness intriguing (and amusing).
@AvaH , the only times I have had “easy cleans” were two different times the house was rented by a couple. They did not use the formal living room, formal dining room, one of the bathrooms, or three of the bedrooms at all. Dream come true
I hear you! We had someone who leaked some kind of yellow residue all over the pillowslip and sheet (we still haven’t figured out what it was!). And then the teenager who hid a sheet in the wardrobe as she had spilt chocolate in the bed and didn’t want to get in trouble. We have NO clue what she did with the bottom sheet as have never found it (I suspect it went in the bin!). And the other day I had the “makeup towel” where they’ve used a white hand towel to remove makeup…the whole thing was streamed on foundation! Heaven only knows how much foundation this person had on their face!!
You have to wonder whether some of these people do this at home, or just think that we are made of money and can afford to replace linen all the time
