Squirrel moment. I read an article about the effects of legalized marijuana & traffic accidents. In Denver Colorado there are more fender benders but far fewer road rage incidents since legalizing pot.
Tokers are definitely more chill about things
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Rather hilarious as you say you are an experienced host that you can’t see what the risks might be @Chris_Cooper ?
It’s irrelevant what you say…
What would you do if the guest turned up and the previous guests hadn’t bothered to check out
What would you do if the new guests turned up and there were drug remnants and a filthy mess?
What would you do if the new guests turned up and the bed/cooker/sofa was broken?
What would you do if after the new guests checked out you found major damage - you can’t choose whether they did it or the previous guest.
What would you do if Airbnb gave your incoming guests a full refund on arrival for a longer term booking because they found the place filthy.
You can’t base any assumptions based on three guests.
The reality is even though some hosts offer this and have done for some time quite successfully like @Annet3176 - it can be a high risk strategy for many hosts.
If a guest complains and regardless of what you have put in your listing guests will complain, particularly during these Covid times, Airbnb will side with them…
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It is a very interesting and creative idea. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. For some of us, this might work and be applicable to our own stay and hosting strategies.
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It may not be a fit for us personally, but it’s a very cool idea. Also love how you clearly have years of success in hosting and creative solutions involving Uber, etc. Good on you!
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Btw I ask guests to send me pics of the condo as they check out. It protects them if the next guest says the condo wasn’t clean. Most guests are happy to send. A couple of the pics showcased the condo so well I asked permission to use the pics in my unit listing.
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Self- Clean? Are you fonking kidding me??? I would NEVER trust a Guest to get within 50% of the cleaning job quality we do on our place!!
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Had a guest tell me they had cleaned before they left.
Greasy dirty oven
Greasy pots and pans
Kitchen cupboards in complete disorder
Shower screens spotty with water and soap scum
Patio table With melted wax patch
Bbq with caked burnt food residue
Food in fridge
Food spills down kitchen cupboards
Paw prints over fridge door
Glitter balloons had been popped
Everything was done again!
No way I would trust a guest to prep for the next guest!
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I second that. We are pretty specific about what would help us do the full job and we get about 40% compliance. If they can’t even take the trash out to the bin and do their dishes I can’t trust them to actually clean.
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Over on the Reddit Airbnb forum the cleaning fees come up over and over. Guests continuously whine about why do they have to pay a cleaning fee when they have to start the dishwasher and bring the garbage out. They are cleaning! I guess if I had a potential guest throw a fit about the cleaning fee and it was a fairly lean month for bookings I might offer the self clean option. But it would be when they came in, knowing they did not pay for the place to be clean. I’d never trust someone to leave the place clean. Thankfully my guests are fine with a cleaning fee.
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I once rented out a room in my house when I lived in Canada, long before the days of Airbnb, to a young guy who was a friend of a friend.
He would always leave his dirty dishes, or cursorily wash the dishes, but leave the pots and pans.
I spoke to him about it several times, and finally he “explained”, as if it were a perfectly logical excuse, “Well, the thing is, I just really hate washing dishes. So that’s why I don’t do them.” 
This past summer, cleaners were in high demand & not enough so the property management companies became creative with ways to use less “cleaning service time”
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The before checkout list was vacuum, wipe off flat surfaces, clean out refrigerator, take out trash, start dishwasher, leave stove, oven & microwave clean, strip beds & bag linens for service. Pay $249 cleaning fee for cleaners to clean bathrooms & inspect & touch up clean.
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Guests do own exit cleaning. Pay $115 inspection fee. If not left clean pay additional $200 for cleaning.
Depending on where you are, the STR property management companies may have already changed exit cleaning to be fully or partially done by the guest.
I have a home share so it would be a little weird. If my place was separate I would only offer it if I peeked in and saw that cleaning needs were pretty average. I don’t know how AIrbnb would react if they knew and your place promised their extra COIVD cleaning protocol.
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I have the appropriate cleaning supplies on hand with a cleaning checklist and recommend guests wipe down high touch surfaces when they arrive. They all say they will do it. Honor system.
We hosts are on the honor system too. Unless there is obvious handprints, there is no way to prove if we do it or don’t.
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We have had guests who leave our place VERY darn neat. Regardless, I always have to clean the shower shelf, polish the faucets, clean and dry the sink, remake bed, etc. Some even take the trash out. We don’t ask for any of that.
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And we are ALWAYS glad when we get such clean guests, Like @kenh, there is no guest who will go as far as we do, and we would not expect them to do so.
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RE: I can guarantee you’d lose.
I sure do admire your confidence! There is a lot you can do with good confidence.
Myself, I would worry making such assertions, as I can imagine a medical negligence lawyer would be unlikely to offer any guarantees on medical court cases, so I try to be measured in areas I am not expert in.
But I appreciate your offer of helpful advice all the same, and I think it’s great we are in a supportive community where we can share ideas as hosts together.
Interestingly, I checked the CDC on surface cleaning and found this
and COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?
Basically they say verbatim: In most situations, cleaning surfaces using soap or detergent, and not disinfecting, is enough to reduce risk of Covid. As in they don’t advocate even ‘disinfecting’ surfaces as a regular occurrence. So Airbnb is probably covering the fear side with their policy more than adhering to CDC recommendations directly, and that is quite fine of course.
There are no known cases of surface contact transmission of Covid I am aware of anywhere in the world, but it would be a click bait headline I imagine, doubly so if there was ever a case AND it was in an Airbnb goodness! The theory is there, just not the reality, hence exactly zero cases formally reported of this transmission form. Which is nice to know at least!
But regards reality on the policy, I checked and found there is no restrictions or qualifications on who you hire to do the cleaning for Airbnb stays, or prohibitions on guests agreeing to waive cleaning or (more technically correct) being hired to do the cleaning prior to their own stay, in return for check in a day early.
I am interested, are you aware of any law or policy that may be a problem if the hired cleaner is also the next guest? I don’t think one needs to pay them formally for this task as in-kind is sufficient I think? Do you still see some policy violation?
I completely see where you are coming from, and so far I’ve never trusted a guest to do the clean for another guest ever.
Just to be clear though, this is not about trusting guests to clean for others, but guests agreeing to do the cleaning for their OWN stay. So they are cleaning up mess from the previous guests. Basically being ‘hired’ if they want to check in a day early and I can’t get a cleaner, then they are welcome if they want to do the clean for themselves.
As I see it, there seems less worry on trust, as I don’t care if they did zero cleaning! They are the one staying there, so if they want to agree to cleaning then it’s all on them! If they want clean sheets, they have to change the bed. But all new guests get professional cleaning. Only in occasional cases where I can’t accommodate guest requests have I dared suggest the only way they could would be to take on the cleaning responsibility. Just odd that now I have one date change request and two early check in requests in a row, and all three are self cleaning BEFORE their stay. I know it’s not for everyone, in which case I say sorry, I can’t get a cleaner in so can’t accept the request to change!
Helsi,
Thank you for taking time to respond. It’s always appreciated getting positive feedback from other hosts. It’s great to be in supportive community!
Regards risk, all those you listed, and there are a few! These are exactly the same risks people came to say to me about Airbnb when I began many years ago. But now we know not to worry so much, as all what you say is theoretical, but the reality is quite different and almost all guests are pretty nice.
So there is not much difference IMO, to hiring a cleaner and someone getting the dates wrong in a mixup, or things like the cooker or hot water not working even after cleaning and so on.
But I think maybe there is misunderstanding, as this thread isn’t about guests cleaning for subsequent new guests. Rather, it’s guests agreeing to arrive to a messy home, and for them to clean up after the guests who were just there (in return for allowing their change to a day early check in etc).
And having done this occasionally for a few years now (albeit still rare), it seems to work well.
So worry about having to give a refund, well, seems unlikely for guests to be complaining about their own cleaning that they have done! but if there was, then it would be like any event where refunds are given. It is obviously rare from my experience, but if so, would you not just shrug and deal with it? The reality seems the reverse, the guests I accommodate in this way seem extra delighted, and do more cleaning than I would have even asked them, and leave very positive reviews. Maybe because I am helping them. If I was to offer this to others maybe it may be different, but to help others seems very positive on both sides.
So I hear you about risk, and I know some fear more risk than others, but Airbnb is sharing. Sharing your home and your space. So taking it slightly further to sharing the cleaning, as an option to cater to their change request is not a big stretch IMO. Well, it’s an option at least, to saying No to them. There is always risk, but the sharing economy has shown us all it’s ok to risk strangers in our house or in our car. It’s ok to risk hiring strangers for any odd jobs through gig economy platforms like Airtasker… the world has changed, and hiring guests to clean up before they check in, is I guess… just another possibility that may suit some. I think the risk is not much different.
If we put a job out for a cleaner on Airtasker and they took it, would it be any different to putting the ‘job’ out on Airbnb? In both cases they agree to do the cleaning work. That’s how its pitched. If they are ‘also’ a guest, then lucky them, they can clean where they are staying anyway!
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It really doesn’t matter what the policies might be regarding cleaners when it comes to Airbnb. They are judge, jury, and executioner and can basically do anything they want. They suspend and delete listings without even giving a host the courtesy of telling them why.
So run your business the way that works for you and your guests, I was just trying to warn you that all it would take is one guest complaint about the big disgusting mess they ended up cleaning and Airbnb will do as it sees fit.
As far as sterilizing surfaces goes, yes, Airbnb’s protocols were way over the top Covid theatre and they did soften them a bit a few months ago.
But most of us have always sterilized high touch surfaces between guests long before Covid. That’s just what one does when there is a constant parade of guests. The over the top stuff they had on the list was things like washing the walls and ceiling, all the curtains or drapes, etc.
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I didn’t misunderstand what you said .
And the scenarios I made relate to you leaving guests to clean for themselves on check in.
So how you you deal with the situations I outlined ??
At the end of the day it’s your decision as to whether you want to risk it or not.
I don’t live in an area where guests book for one day and then decide they want to come earlier so your situation isn’t one I would encounter
@Chris_Cooper Your home is gorgeous. I really enjoyed reading the stories of your creative and successful approach to STR and Uber. Hats off to you!
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Your self-clean idea, like many things you have done, is really interesting. It may not be a good fit for some of us and only for some situations but - very clever, Sir!
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I am sure that people were equally dismissive in the early days when Chesky started Air 
You keep innovating and it is a sure sign that you are doing something cool when a bunch of folks are telling you a ton of reasons why not!
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Mostly it is for early check in requests. So if I have cleaning booked for the morning, and they want an early check in, then I can’t, so then I say you can only if you want to take on the cleaning, and then you can arrive 11am, not 4pm. But often if I can, I offer the day earlier. So it is less common to have a date change request, but far more common to have an early check in request. So this is sometimes a solution. If cleaning is done already then I just say no problem, but if not then I offer this, or sometimes anyway.
But to reply specifically to your scenarios
What would you do if the guest turned up and the previous guests hadn’t bothered to check out.
Chris > I would contact the previous guests immediately and ask them to leave, as well as refund the new guests a night, and apologise they need to wait while the old guests leave. But it’s never happened before over hundreds of bookings that the cleaner finds them, or at worst maybe 30 mins slow… though the cleaner turns up at check out time, where new guests will not be so prompt. Either way it doesn’t seem likely, and if does happen, it’s no difference who is doing the cleaning really. It’s just a regular issue to deal with, like guests getting dates wrong - which has happened, so this scenario you gave has already occurred once, though not due to self-cleaning!
What would you do if the new guests turned up and there were drug remnants and a filthy mess?
Chris > The expectation is regular cleaning. If it was a newsworthy level of mess, then I would ask them to photograph the mess, and offer a discount or refund. But again, this never happens. Maybe a hint of drugs once in many years renting, and filthy mess is pretty rare, so unlikely. If it happens, and it does, then we would of course accommodate the new guests. But such scenarios are like ‘What if the hot water died’. Possible but unlikely, though may mean the stay can’t continue, and that is just life. It happens, and we deal with it… just that fortunately, renting your home to others generally is trouble free. So self-clean or not, there can always be trouble sure. Just not much to worry about.
What would you do if the new guests turned up and the bed/cooker/sofa was broken?
Chris > I would offer a discount and organise a repair or replacement. At worst it may mean they can’t stay. This is no different self-clean or not. If the bed breaks and we can’t get it sorted in time for new guests, then this is just another problem to deal with. I don’t see self-cleaning being much different. Things can break all the time, and if the cleaner finds it or the self cleaner finds it, either way you need to fix it, and that’s ok.
What would you do if after the new guests checked out you found major damage - you can’t choose whether they did it or the previous guest.
Chris > Correct. But you would expect the damage to be reported at check-in self clean, I ask them to photo any unusual stuff for this reason, to address this sort of concern easily. There are no 100%'s in life though… so MAYBE the new guests caused major damage on checking in, and maybe you can’t attribute it. That’s life. I think you would report to Airbnb (if it was booked there) under the AirCover policy. If the old guests really denied the damage, then you may struggle a bit, but I think you would probably be fine, especially if the self-clean guests do as requested and take a pic of damage or big mess on arrival. Really, this is no different to any other cleaner coming in to clean. It doesn’t matter that the cleaner is ‘also’ then going to stay there after the clean IMO.
What would you do if Airbnb gave your incoming guests a full refund on arrival for a longer term booking because they found the place filthy.
Chris > If the guests had written to agree to the cleaning themselves, then it would need to be pretty bad for them to complain, and if so, then I would support the guest and see the refund as fair. I presume you and others would to? Self-cleaning is only for light mess, not for major filth, so if this was found, I would expect a much higher cleaning bill or if self cleaning, they get a refund of a night or something, or even their stay. This seems fair to me.
But fortunately, in many years of hosting, the number of filthy cleans is pretty low, so it’s not likely to be a problem. I think the worry is more than the reality. It’s like people used to think it weird to offer your own home to strangers. Now it’s normal. So in all these scenarios, they can and do happen, but extremely rarely, and if so, you just deal with it. It isn’t a major concern I think.
If guests want to self-clean then they need to be aware of the risk, and I make it clear. We can’t know what the last guest was like, just like you don’t know when booking any Airbnb what the actual quality of cleaning is. Maybe it will be sub-standard for any reason that day. Who knows. That’s just life. Not a big deal, we just fix what’s wrong and carry on 
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