How to deal with month long booking?

1

Just got my first month long booking (well three and a half weeks).

And i wanted some advice from more experienced hosts

  1. Is it my responsibility to change the bed sheets? Or should i give fresh sheets to the guest to change the bed items themselves?

  2. How often should the bed sheets be changed? E.g. Weekly?

  3. Do experienced hosts do an inspection of the property to make sure all is well? E.g. Say every two weeks?

  4. Should i implement a weekly / bi-weekly clean? Or should i leave this to the guest?

  5. I always provide essentials to my guests such as milk, toilet paper, shower gel etc. With a long stay, this Is likely to run out. Is it my responsibility to top these items up? If so, how often should I do this?

  6. Should i ask the guest to sign any paper work to cover myself?

Is there anything else guests would expect from hosts during a long stay?

If it helps, i live in the UK.

2

There are no hard and fast rules for this, but essentially you need to protect your property without making the guest feel that youā€™re being overly intrusive.

Why donā€™t you kill two birds with one stone, tell the guest there will be a weekly linen and towel change, this then allows you to inspect the property at the same time. You could, if you wanted, incorporate a light clean, i.e. kitchen and bathroom.

The key is communication with your guest, time and day of linen change etc. It wouldnā€™t do any harm to mention it in your messages pre check in, that way the guest knows what to expect. If they are resistant to this idea, then maybe you need to consider if itā€™s going to be a good booking :grinning:

I always provide essentials to my guests such as milk, toilet paper, shower gel etc. With a long stay, this Is likely to run out. Is it my responsibility to top these items up? If so, how often should I do this?

Stuff like milk definitely no. We always put a decent supply of TP and for longer bookings make sure the shampoo and shower gel are full. I tell guests if they need any more TP, just let us know, but few do and at times we have a variety of brands in our store cupboard where theyā€™ve just went and bought more themselves.

Should i ask the guest to sign any paper work to cover myself?

For the UK, with an Airbnb booking, I canā€™t think of any.

We rarely have bookings for longer than one week, our maximum is set at eleven days. We had one four week booking when we first started and decided we preferred shorter periods. Folks message us for longer stays, and occasionally we accept (Flamenco festival for example), and each time we do a linen change after seven days.

Youā€™ll get a better idea of what is going to work once you meet your guest and have a chat about it.

JF

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3

Also you need to put information about this in your listing.

Ie for one week plus stays we provide weekly linen and towel changes and a start up pack of household basics

If you want to provide a weekly clean factor it into your costs

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  1. Itā€™s up to you. but your towels and bedlinen will be in better nick at the end if the stay. (I wouldnā€™t want to use the same towels and bedding for three and a half weeks). I donā€™t let them change the bed themselves because I want to go into the apartment and spy. I call it ā€˜refreshing the apartmentā€™.

  2. Yes, weekly. The same day every week is best. I tell the guests that Iā€™ll do it when they are there or when theyā€™re out, itā€™s up to them. Invariably they want me to do it when theyā€™re out.

  3. I donā€™t need to because the cleaning is the inspection.

  4. You decide but once a week is best. I donā€™t call it 'cleaning, I call it 'refreshing - that way the guests donā€™t think that Iā€™m there to clean up after them. I want to make sure that they donā€™t leave the AC running at a stupidly low temperature or leave food crumbs around to attract insects and so on so weekly is definitely better for me.

  5. In the house tour, I always tell the guests where to shop for necessities (food, loo paper etc.) to make sure that they know that itā€™s their responsibility. But I also tell them to let me know if thereā€™s anything I can help them with. Some guests will ask me for more loo paper or soap or whatever but itā€™s rare.

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5

I have a similar booking for all of February and have been sorting out much of what you are asking. I think a lot of depends on what your booking rate is and what amenities are available to your guest. I imagine it will vary with what your guest may want (or not want).

  1. Bedsheets: I plan to provide 2 sets of linens. It will be the guests responsibility to change them.

  2. Bedsheets: There is a W/D in the unit so they can opt to wash them if they want weekly fresh sheets.

  3. I would suggest that with Covid any guests might be concerned with ā€œinspectionsā€. In my situation the guest house is on the property where I live, and since they are in their late 70ā€™s I expect that Iā€™ll be able to discretely* check to see if all is OK. *If Iā€™m going to the grocery store or Costco, I will offer to pick up items for them and then bring them over.

  4. I advised the guest that cleaning would be their responsibility but Iā€™m now considering hiring a cleaning service for them mid stay or providing the name of a cleaning service. They are paying my full rate. Without a month long booking, Iā€™d have multiple buffer days, so with that in mind I think I can justify paying for a cleaning service.

  5. I plan to provide what I normally provide (TP, Paper Towels, Soap, etc) because, again they are paying full rate. If it were a discounted rate Iā€™d might rethink that.

  6. Since my guests are only here for 28 days, they do not extend into my local tenancy zone, so no additional paperwork in my situation.

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6

Forgot to answer 6. No.

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7

I have rented for month long stays and I simply ask them if they would like the cleaning team to come over, 100% of the time they have declined. Only one stay requested clean towels and some supplies which I dropped off. What I do is wait a week and then Iā€™ll send them a message asking if they want the cleaning team to come over. When they decline I just send them another message telling them if they want the cleaning team over at any point of their stay, to please contact me and I will make arrangements.

8

I wouldnā€™t let guests wash the sheets and towels, because thereā€™s a good chance they will just throw them in the washer/dryer without checking for stains which need to be pre-treated, thereby turning them into linens you can no longer use for guests.

As far as amenities to provide, I should think it depends on your price point. Usually longer stays are discounted, so itā€™s reasonable to provide a starter pack, say enough for a week, with the understanding that the guest supplies their own when that runs out.

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9

Remember when you are thanking them for their stay and wishing them well on their return home at the end to ask them not to specifically mention any extras they got in the review as you arenā€™t able to provide that for all guests.

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Thanks for all the replies guys

Itā€™s great learning from those with experienceā€¦

I now know exactly how to play this

11

May max is 7 days, most bookings are 2-3 days.

Iā€™ve only allowed extensions twice, both for new workers in town hunting for housing, and told them that there would have to be a linen change & clean, and they would have to have everything off the floor and out from under the bed (the reason I bought the Robovac) and I would have to do it when they were out.

The one time I had a 3 month private booking traveling hospital xray tech I also required weekly linen change & vac.

12

Agreed. The revenue determines level of service. Full rate = full service. Deeply discounted rate = less service.

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13

I do some medium term reservations, especially in the Winter. I learned the hard way to insist on a weekly clean. It is not optional anymore. I let a couple guests convince me that they would clean ā€œas if it were their own placeā€. Please donā€™t fall for that like I did! You will end up having to do a major clean at the end of their stay with the room smelling of that person. Now I just make sure the guest is ok with me going in the room once a week to change sheets/towels, clean & vacuum everywhere, sanitize and start out fresh again. If they donā€™t like it, they can go somewhere else. My house, my rules. I donā€™t charge extra for the extra cleanings since they benefit me in the long run anyway.

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ā€œAs if it were their own placeā€ begs the question ā€œReally? And how clean exactly do you keep your own place?ā€ :laughing:

I just list a private room/bath in my home and guests share my kitchen. Theyā€™ve all been clean and tidy in the kitchen (mostly) and most leave their room/bath clean and tidy. I have a 2 week max stay, so even with the messier ones, it never gets over-the-top. But if I had long-term guests or rented out an entire place longer term, Iā€™d definitely do what youā€™re doing.

I property manage a little casita next door to me which gets rented long term and I never clean during the tenantsā€™ stays, which has been up to 8 months in the past. The amount of garbage the past renters left behind and the level of filth was unreal. 12-14 hours to clean a 5 meter by 6 meter casita and a truck full of garbage. Luckily a friend rented it 2 years ago, is still there, and while heā€™s a guy and doesnā€™t really deep clean like I would, he does keep it reasonably clean and very tidy. For instance, he decided to wash all the windows, inside and out, the other day. No tenant has ever done that before.

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15

We routinely rent for month or longer stays. We start them off with some supplies but make it clear they are responsible to restock themselves as they need and that we provide one change of linens and towels per bed so if they need to launder they still have a clean set. If they stain or ruin the sheets or towels by washing incorrectly that is on them but has yet to be the case.

We are just finishing a 6 week rental next week and then have a 1 month booking arriving 3 days later. Also due to the advanced cleaning protocols that AirBnB makes us sign we have removed high touch condiments and no longer leave any basic food stuffs like we used toā€¦

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