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