Late to the chat but that’s at most (or least?) a 4 to me unless you’ve been very explicit in your rules. Like they’re posted in big letters on the wall.
I know guests don’t read, and I am very much competing with local budget hotels. So I always ask myself if it was worse or no worse than I would have left a hotel room. Particularly a newbie guest may apply that standard. In that case, a private note is more effective I think.
This is all balanced out over time by those guests who utilize the cleaning supplies that I so artfully leave in plain sight.
I had one guest who left a bit of a mess but messaged apologetically that he had overslept and had a plane to catch, so no “points” deducted for that one.
Harry Enfield maybe?
JF
I wouldn’t bat an eye at that type of mess. That’s like being like, “they left stuff in the refrigerator”. My guests always do that and I throw it out… I might give them a 4 for cleanliness but I wouldn’t give them a 1-4 overall unless they did multiple things that were specifically against the rules - or a big thing, like exceeding the maximum occupancy.
I expect pillows and blankets on the couch to be used and need a wash. I am okay with people falling asleep on the couch watching tv… What kind of hotel or rental judges you for that? I request that people put dishes in the dishwasher, but if they don’t, I don’t get worked up over it. It takes 1 minute to load the dishwasher and run it. I expect to throw stuff out.
People make messes. People cook and leave grease and macaroni all over the stove, is that unexpected? no. When I cook, the same thing happens. I suggest you increase your cleaning fee if you feel like you’re getting gipped.
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Wow did you get out of bed the wrong side Weirdly named one 
@God
Jasper Carrot @Joan ???
I think the lesson here @WinsomeLoft is that you and your wife need to agree a rating system that works best for you in terms of your guests.
If your check out rules are clear and accessible. (I pin mine in a laminated sheet to the fridge and send guests a reminder the day before check out) then judge your guests against them and your house rules.
@God loving the way you have made a series of first posts telling other hosts they don’t know how to run their STR business 
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That’s it, well done!
If you charge a cleaning fee, then that makes clean-up part of the hosts job, if not, then if you are quite explicit about what to expect, its the guests job. I do not think that “cleaning fee” should be for the turnover labor, that cost is embedded into my daily rates. Our cleaning fee is about 50 bucks. Only very occaisionally, have we had to “do dishes” but we do redo the used ones anyway, just to know they are clean, (both by hand). We bended the rules and had an 8 year old, he had sticky fingers…which was not unexpected for his birthday stay with 2 adults. I think we extend to our guests the enthusiasm and thankfulness that they return to us.
Sorry, I don’t agree that if you charge a cleaning fee to prepare your place - that any mess a guest leaves is up to the host to clean up, regardless or not of how much mess is left and regardless of whether their house rules say for example that all dishes, crockery etc need to be cleaned before departure. @gypsy
It doesn’t matter whether the ‘cleaning fee’ is a line item on the listing or not. We all pay for cleaning (or do it ourselves). We all have to buy consumables that we claim for. We all have a variety of guests who vary in their tidiness/untidiness.
And we all have to clean the rental thoroughly regardless of the state in which it was left.
It doesn’t matter if there’s food in the fridge - it’s still cleaned after every guest. If sheets have marks on them, they’d still need to be washed in they’re pristine. If there are fingermarks on the windows, the windows would be cleaned at turnover anyway. I agree with @hostess1 that people make messes. There’s no such thing as a special breed of Airbnb super guest.
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I agree that some hosts get far too fussed about a “mess”. I’m going to thoroughly clean the bathroom countertop, sink, and wash the mirror anyway, so whether a guest left globs of toothpaste all over the counter and sink and splatters on the mirror is a non-issue. Some of my guests have left their room and bathroom spotless, some leave some bits of garbage laying around and empty pop cans. It only takes a few minutes extra to clean up one as opposed to the other.
I do think leaving a pile of dirty dishes is disrespectful, and things that require vast amounts of extra cleaning time, like food ground into the carpet or furniture, a greasy, encrusted stovetop, or pizza stains on the bedding is unacceptable and deserves a lower cleanliness score. If guests who leave that sort of scene get the same cleanliness rating as those who make a big effort to clean up after themselves, then the ratings are useless.
Something like food ground into a carpet is definitely not acceptable. It’s gross. I don’t mind a few dishes though. I never have guests leaving a pile of dirty dishes because I don’t supply more than four of everything anyway. In two-person apartments, that means that they don’t have to do the dishes after absolutely every meal but they do need to keep on top of it.
The kitchens in the apartments are tiny so luckily guests don’t expect lots of dishes.
If a guest simply left a few unwashed breakfast dishes, in an effort to check-out on time or because they had a plane to catch, that wouldn’t bother me at all. But a sink full of the previous night’s dinner dishes with dirty pots and pans would.
I often tell my guests, who share my kitchen, to just leave their coffee cup and dirty dish on the counter, as I have my own dishes to wash anyway and a couple more is immaterial. Sometimes they wash mine 
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