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@konacoconutz most places I rented from Airbnb are people’s second home/appartement but they are run as businesses, often using cleaners and property management.
Where I have a home in Florida, I have to have a business license for Airbnb and pay the same local taxes/fees as hotels, and my guests expect hotel/resort like worry free experience. If I can’t deliver that, my guests will leave a negative review on Airbnb and will rent the villa next door next time.
Same for me as a guest. If I have to pay for Airbnb accommodation and then have to worry about “showing respect to the host” by doing the dishes when I have just dropped 100 euros for cleaning fee and there is no instructions to do so, it is not just worth my time or money. I will rent just another apartment.
I can understand that my point of view is shocking if you hope guests won’t expect to be at a hotel at your place but in all my years traveling in hotels and using Airbnb as a guest, it is the first time I was made to feel like I “disrespected somebody’s else place” when i didn’t do the dishes or left food behind" ( or maybe nobody told me to my face )
A cleaning lady in the south of France is 15 euros an hour max. A typical cleaning fee in the area for an appartement the size I rented is 55 euros (half of what i was charged. I know the rates i am looking at buying a place there ) Cleaning fees are not just to prepare the place for a guest. They are also to clean up after a guest leaves ( as explained on Airbnb Webste). My property management company calls them “exit cleaning fee”.
Now, I did rent a room in somebody’s home a few years ago in a small town via Airbnb. That was totally different experience. I did have to clean up the place before I left ( part of the rules) and I ended paying an extra dry cleaning fee since my kid was sick and threw up on a blanket. But everything clear from the get go.
I look at the cleaning fee as compensation for having to clean after my guest has been there, to be ready for the next guest. It’s not for the cleaning before the guest arrives, because the previous guest paid a cleaning fee as well. The cleaning fee here was high. But the fee also compensates for utilities that are used in having to do the laundry, and for your time. Even if someone leaves the place fairly tidy, you still must going over the whole space before you accept another guest. A cup, a glass in the sink, fine. But not a sink full dirty dishes. I would be upset by that. It’s also just adult behaviour to tidy up after yourself in that way. Its good manners. It’s respectful. I think it’s a matter of degrees. You pay a cleaning fee. You shouldn’t be expected to ready the place for a new guest. But you shouldn’t leave it littered and like you didn’t lift a finger to clean up after yourself, either. Not saying you did.
Well it sounds like you were expecting a hotel experience when you actually rented an Airbnb. Just because you paid 105 E for cleaning doesn’t give you the liberty to leave a mess. Just because they didn’t leave instructions doesn’t mean you get the liberty to leave a mess. Your 105E was not an exit fee, as I understand it. That was the cleaning fee you paid to book the apartment. You can call it an exit fee, but I don’t think your host did.
But I’ll stop now, as you clearly don’t get it.
Next time stay at a hotel. Sounds like it’s your only choice now anyway.
And to Brandt, name calling is not allowed here on this forum. Don’t call people “crazy” because you disagree with them.
I have to say I’m a bit surprised too. For several years I rented our Palm Desert condo through Air but also directly with the guests. Since I charged them $100 cleaning fee I didn’t expect to walk in on a clean house when they left.
I usually had a cleaning duo come in, but I occasionally did the cleaning myself. Sometimes there were a couple dishes in the sink and the stove top was dirty but not anything excessive. All I did ask them to do was put their trash out in the bins, which they did.
IMO, she should have left you check-out instructions. Whatever the custom is in rural France must be communicated by the host, esp when they are hosting guests from all over the world.
I’m not as freaked out as others here - the cleaner has to sweep, vacuum, make beds, etc so with the exception of dirty dishes, “tidying up” has mostly a psychological impact on the cleaner. I might have more “dread” when I see crumby counters, hair on floors, etc but regardless, it takes the same amount of time to clean. In other words, even if someone leaves the place very tidy, it doesn’t make a bit of difference since it still takes 90 min (in the case of my small apt) to clean all of those surfaces anyway.
And as the person who does the laundry, I greatly prefer unmade beds - they are easier/faster to strip.
Your biggest transgression was the dirty dishes. I’d say half my guest leave stuff in the fridge and it’s simply part of my cleaners routine to dump and then wipe the fridge. Dumping leftovers and drink containers takes her maybe 3 min. If my actual dishes are in the fridge, that would piss us off as it slows us down.
It wasn’t their Home. It was a rental property. It was a business.
Every Beginning has an End. So, is the cleaning fee to get the place ready, or to clean up after the PREVIOUS guest.
Your argument only stands up for the very first time a space is let… and even then I don’t agree. Cleaning occurs AFTER the visit, and is paid by a guest for cleaning associated with THEIR visit.
If, as you assert, the cleaning fee is for pre-visit preparation, there should be two fees, one for pre, one for post.
I agree BTW @Rsv, that is a hefty fee for a small place.
@chicagohost. Yes there is something I did that definitively triggered the host. It could be the dishes. To be clear, the place wasn’t nasty or trashed just not cleaned up to the host expectations. All the other rules that were spelled out like check-in/check-out time was respected. But her nasty review was not ok either. I asked Airbnb to look into it.
Thanks for everyone sharing your perspective. I see that the opinions are pretty split here. Airbnb is also not prescriptive in the host/guest check out duties and leave it out for the hosts to spell it out and what the clean fee covers/entails, what is expected at check out, etc.
@konacoconutz Her review won’t make a difference for me. I mainly wanted to hear other hosts perspective. Thanks for doing so.
LOL, ok poor word choice. how about incredulous or disdainful? I personally think his host over-reacted a bit although I’ve never been left dirty dishes so that could possibly set me off, making me feel outraged about the other stuff that i would have normally accepted in isolation.
My cleaning includes windows, window ledges, ceiling fans, cleaning oven and fridge, cleaning toilet, bath floors. Damp wipe all surfaces, vacuum/steam clean all floors. Strip beds, wash sheets, put clean ones on. Replace disposable products. Outside clean BBQ, cut grass, tidy garden furniture etc. Take garbage to dump, recycling and returnables to appropriate places.
My guests may leave some food, but it’s usually just a few veggies or a bottle of orange juice. They don’t leave leftovers. I ask them not to strip beds, so I can check for stains.
This is done for every guest as I live on a dirt road and dust is a problem.
My cleaner spent an extra hour last week because of guests who behaved like you did. I run this a business. If more people behave like you, I will have to increase my cleaning fee.
It’s really hard to speculate as we are only getting one side of the story. If the host left no check out instructions, then she was partially at fault. So this could have fault on both sides.
But all I am saying is that every guest should make an effort to leave a place as they found it, no matter what they paid. It’s just common courtesy.
It doesn’t work to tell me oh well it’s a business, it’s not someone’s home, and I paid a cleaning fee already so I have no obligations here.
I sometimes have guests leave dishes or even trash and I don’t freak out with a bad review if the guests were otherwise nice. In my eight years of hosting on Air, and hundreds and hundreds of guests I’ve left exactly four very bad reviews. In every case I’m very discerning because I know a bad review will impact their ability to book another place.
@konacoconutz If that is your expectation and you communicate it, and guests are ok with it that is totally ok.
My guests in Florida would never be ok with having to clean up. I have a few guests every year who ask if I can wave the cleaning fee if they clean up the house themselves. I agreed once when I started in 2011 and it was a disaster. Everybody’s definition of “I left your villa clean” varies when they checkout but when they check in they expect a pristine place and a warm pool.
If your dirty dishes were stacked neatly in one place, and there’s no dishwasher (if there was you should have loaded your dirty dishes into it), AND the rubbish was all in the bin, then I think your host was definitely over-reacting. Unless I had left specific instructions I would not see this as a big deal.
However: if you left your dirty dishes all over the place (a mug on the bedside table, a plate on the dining table, burnt pans all over the kitchen) and rubbish also all over the place NOT in the bin, causing your host’s cleaners to have to run around cleaning up after you… then you left it in a clearly unacceptable state and the host was right in the review she left
Rsv, I can see your point of view given the cost of the cleaning fee (and that is what it is called by all hosts, not a ‘preparation’ fee!) and more importantly, that the host had nothing in her rules or house manual (if she has one) on how she wanted her house to be left on departure. That said, I would never leave dirty dishes for anyone or leftover food in the fridge. The scenario you find yourself in is one (and it is just one) of the reasons i don’t charge a cleaning fee in my place but I make it crystal clear as to what the guests need to do prior to departure and to date have had only one bad experience.
One other thing that occurs to me is the different ideas of what is messy that each of us has. For instance, I think of my sons and their dorm room and then their home room messes. The dirty glasses, dirty dishes, silverware, pizza plates, cereal bowls, coffee cups, popcorn bowls and the like that they didn’t seem to have a problem with leaving lying about. The trash bins that would overflow with rubbish. To them, these were not messes and I overreacted to get concerned about them. I also overreacted when they made dinner and left all the pots and pans in the sink. At least they put them in the sink they would say!!! (obviously expecting the dish fairy would be by later to tidy things up.)
So I suppose we all have our own standards about what constitutes a mess and what doesn’t.
Could you link to content on Airbnb’s website where it says the cleaning fee includes cleaning up when the guest leaves?
Washing dirty dishes, bagging rubbish and getting rid of food is not cleaning an apartment. for most people it would be seen as something they would do automatically. I wouldn’t dream of leaving an Airbnb without doing this.
Cleaning an apartment is washing floors, cleaning bathrooms and kitchens, hoovering, polishing, the cost of a linen service, making beds, clean towels etc.
You chose to book an apartment with the cleaning fee (often includes cost of linen service and is more if you use a management support service), so why complain about the cost afterwards.
Unfortunately, there’s always going to be differences in interpretation of ‘rules’ and behaviour. I used to Airb a 1bed flat, some guests would wash up, some wouldn’t, some seemed to clean throughout (or hadn’t stepped foot in the flat)!
But regardless, when I go away and stay in an Airbnb, I take pleasure in washing up, and the final whizz round tidy up. I used to strip the bed, but will reconsider now that I’ve read above, it makes it harder to check for stains. All my rubbish goes in the bin, but I’ve never taken that bin outside to the dustbins (can’t always be sure where they are). It pains me to pour wine down the drain - if the cleaner wants a wee glass after hoovering, that’s up to them I’ve been in places with a lovely nespresso machine, I’ve been in places that had one tea bag, and three cafe sugar sachets.
And I pretty much give everyone 5 stars!
)
I’ve been in places with a lovely nespresso machine, I’ve been in places that had one tea bag, and three cafe sugar sachets.