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Hello, and thanks for bringing this up. Two things come to mind.
Cottages in our neck of the woods rarely meet immaculate standards. Usually people are too busy having fun to notice dust behind the TV. I would check out the mould thing.
By way of exercise, you may want to do a deep cleaning. I know this is a,bad time for you, but together with your caretaker, rip it apart. I used a detailed standard set by the best cleaners in town that I “borrowed”. I added more hacks learned here on the Forum.
To keep things running smoothly, I " hero" a particular area for cleaning with each rotation. Saves time for a big clean out.
A hack learned from a cleaning supply house is a quick wipe with Pine Sol. It “smells” clean.
Your guest sounds like a fanatic. Personally I eventually calm down and try to learn from them. One point is that her type will show up again, so don’t give them any ammunition.
We do have a 5 hour window… The cabin is 3600 square feet, not counting the large back deck (where the hot tub and grill is), front porch, outside fire pit, and cleaners have to clean the outside grounds as well because there’s always trash, bottles, cigarette butts that are flown in from up the mountain.
I know you said you aren’t bragging but I still think it’s amazing what you can do in your time window!! I know I’m not the best cleaning person out there. I grew up in a household where I was not encouraged to clean or do chores - my parents wanted me to just focus on my studies.
The best cleaners we ever had were a mother and daughter team. We still occasionally had people complained - all the ones that did were the people that damaged the property, and the complaints came in after I asked them to pay for damages. I’m so glad I never let those cleaners go. I almost did due to the complaints I had, but all of my repairmen, lawn guy, etc told me that, with all the cabins they work on, this is hands down THE BEST cleaners you’ll ever find. Those cleaners would spend 8 hours if it’s not a turnover day.
They eventually quit because they needed a job that gave them health insurance.
I’m curious if you monitor how much time the cleaners actually spend cleaning. If you are paying the cleaners the full $195 that the guest pays, then you should be getting at least 8 person-hours of work from them. If they aren’t putting that much time in, then they should be rotating through some of the deep-cleaning items (e.g. dusting ceiling fans and light fixtures, removing any spider webs from upper corners of the rooms, cleaning insides of kitchen drawers and cabinets) during each turnover.
I don’t know the number of cleaners, but I can understand. I too have a 5 hour window. Cabin is 1672 feet I think? Two bedrooms but with a theater room that some people sleep in as a third bedroom. popcorn machine may need to be cleaned, etc…so in essence a three bedroom.
Two baths - One bath is standard and the other has a Jacuzzi tub.
Outdoor grill, fire pit, wrap around deck where bird poop needs to be cleaned. Fireplace, outdoor waterfall, etc. Outdoor furniture needs to be wiped off. The deck needs to be blown.
Yes, I need help during that 5 hour window. Oh…not to mention all the laundry that needs to be washed which is running up and down to the theater room to complete it.
Perhaps the cleaning lady needs another person. A cabin with 5 or 6 bedrooms seems to be too big for just one person to clean. I also wonder how often she brings her kids with her. If she’s bringing her kids often, she’s not focused 100% on her cleaning since she has to keep a watchful eye on her kids. It might be a good time to find someone else.
It’s 2 people, cleaning time varies obviously depending on how bad things are, but sometimes it definitely takes the full 5 hours to just make it presentable. I always tell them that those times are offset by the good ones! They also have to take the laundry off site to wash and dry and fold and bring back. So to be honest I don’t make any money on the cleaning. I also pay them bonuses about monthly, and a Christmas bonus as well - but bonuses are dependent on how the reviews look.
It’s a 2 people team. I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask 1 person to clean all of that… and expect good work… I have had about a dozen different cleaners (most didn’t last past 1 cleaning). She’s the second best we’ve had…
I wouldn’t do that. I VRBO you can’t write reviews with words like on ABB. You can only give a number of stars and say if you want to host them again. But you can reply to their review. Your comment is for your future guests. So they will read this woman’s review and then your response and you want to convince them to still book you. Well, if you mock this woman, they will pass. I’d say something more like stating the facts and some actions so that future guest can see you gave it some thought. They wouldn’t know if the guest lied or not (although the part with kids under 4 working indicated shes a nutjob):
"I am so sorry for the misunderstandings. My name is Linda, not Lisa, as specified in the listing. Although my cabin is clean I sent the cleaning lady to clean again at the guests’ insistences. She is a single mom so she had to take the kids with her, not having a nanny. She hung the shower curtains that the guest has brought from home. Everybody has their own preference in terms of mattress softness so we have mattress covers that could be taken on or off in order to accommodate everyone. We cover the beds downstairs to keep the bugs away (it’s a cabin). We updated the photos on the website so that people could clearly see it’s a X bedroom cabin. I am sorry for any inconvenience and I hope that reimbursing you x$ makes everything satisfactorily for you. We strive to do everything we possibly could to make our guests feel at home and this experience helped us in that direction.
I sympathize. For hosts that have only 1 or 2 listings and can’t clean themselves, the hardest part of hosting is finding cleaners that do good work, are flexible enough for STR cleaning, and are reliable.
The photos on the website have always been accurate… I have no clue where she got the 5 bedrooms from. And apparently in her opinion it would be a 4 bedroom because one of the bedrooms has a ping pong table, no window, and a closet that she didn’t find… I really like what you said about the bringing shower curtains from home. I do think I need to mention that in the review. The fact she TOLD ME she was gone to buy shower curtains, yet she already had the shower curtains, then sending me a receipt with the date chopped off, is irrefutable evidence… I think this is coming together… =)
That’s your choice how you respond. I too had guests that made me fume… All I’m saying is that if you attack this woman in your response you will lose business. You have to be neutral, nor aggressive and show future guests you dealt with the situation in a responsible way. Replying to aggressiveness with aggressiveness will make people scroll past your listing. If this woman thought the bedroom with the tennis table was not a bedroom perhaps you need to put a pic showing both the bed and the tennis table. Anyway, updating the pics on a regular manner helps no matter what. Just my 2 cents.
So true. I know I need to wait and let my fume subside before I respond. There is already a clear picture indicating the bed and ping pong table configuration. I guess she must have not looked at the pictures…
Great ideas. We are booked solid through the rest of the year so we’ll have to tackle deep cleaning after I come back from my honeymoon. I’ve forwarded the review to my cleaner - I’m giving her some time to think it over before I discuss with her (and her helper). You are right, this type will show up again and I need to be prepared next time… I know I made a few mistakes on this one - I apparently read her wrong completely. I thought by giving her refund, pay for shower curtains, and even treated them for a lunch out (this is a large group of women) I was going to get a favorable review! She was always so polite and kept telling me how they did enjoy their stay a lot despite the cleanliness issues and was so appreciative of me…
Be careful. If you’re in the US, it’s actually likely that your building code prevents a room without a window from legally being called a “bedroom” and you definitely don’t want your listing to say there are X bedrooms if there aren’t X legal bedrooms.
Edit to say there are other legal requirements for bedrooms, too (dimensions, ventilation, lighting, heating, egress, electrical outlets, etc.)
I think you are thinking of real estate properties… Air and VRBO have different definitions of bedrooms I believe. At least that’s the case when I spoke to them before… Although it may be a good idea to have an asterisk by it and indicate that on the listing… I’m going to add that now.
I suggest checking with your local zoning department or fire department. Airbnb and VRBO may classify different kinds of rooms as sleeping spaces, but you could be terribly, tragically liable if there were a fire. I wouldn’t allow people to sleep in any room that didn’t meet zoning requirements for safe emergency egress.
I don’t know about VRBO, but Airbnb doesn’t say your listing must be a legal bedroom or contain only legal bedrooms for sleeping, nor do they define what a bedroom is. It’s a host’s duty to list their space accurately and abide by their local laws, so a host advertising a bedroom when it’s not legally a bedroom might cause a guest to complain, and they would have every right to mark the host down on accuracy. It’s simple enough to just call it a “rec room” instead of a bedroom.
Additionally, there are safety reasons for the requirements on rooms for sleeping and if you list a property with beds in rooms that do not meet your local safety codes, you might be breaking the law, and you definitely can be held liable for it in the event of a disaster like an fire, flood, earthquake, etc.
Not meant to chastise, just something to think about.
BTW, the room in question might actually be a legal bedroom if it also has a door that opens to the outside even though there is no window, or you local building codes might not even have an egress rule.
I know what you mean. I will talk to my subcontractor (who built the entire basement level of this house). He’s licensed and is very reputable in this area. There’s only 1 bedroom without a window, and it’s located VERY close to the basement exit. But I’m going to talk to him and see if he has any input on this. I know he’s very familiar with the building codes because he’s taught me many of them… Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!
@happilytorn Your idea that ceiling fans and dusting behind the TV are deep cleaning that only need to be done once every 4 months is a attitude that I’m afraid might lead to future bad cleaning reviews. They need to be done whenever they look dusty or dirty, whether that is every turnover, every 2 weeks, every month, or whatever.
And perhaps you need to pay your cleaner for more hours if she doesn’t have time to get to it all.
There is already a clear picture indicating the bed and ping pong table configuration. I guess she must have not looked at the pictures… 
