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It is good that Airbnb added the possibility to check as a guest BEFORE you book, what you have to do before you leave. (Scroll down to section xx Things to know xx xx Before you leave xx ).
I dont know if it is mandatory now as a host to declare this chores list (I hope so!).
Anyway, I provided these information as soon as I knew about it, so guest know that they have NOTHING to do except of locking the doors and returing the key into the key box …
Of course, I appreciate when they leave it clean, but I dont rely on it and dont expect it.
When they dont leave me a mess and nothing is broken, it is a 5 star guest for me.
(I live nearby and go to the place when the guests leave.)
Btw, I dont charge a cleaning fee …
It seems there was airbnb before covid and after covid, your post reminds me of all the travel and experiences we had with hosts all over the world prior to the pandemic. The stay and meeting a host at a local’s airbnb was part of the experience. Airbnb going publically traded, the influx of the new get rich quick scheme via short term rentals made a foothold in the industry and now stays are many times never meeting the host, instant booking, self-check in, a cookie-cutter stay in a Ikea decorated property, check out, move on…
The influx of “get rich quick” investor “hosts” was happening long before the pandemic and Airbnb going public, though.
The investor hosts were mostly the ones jumping up and down yelling about how unfair it was that Airbnb refunded guests when Covid hit because they had umpteen houses to pay mortgages or rent on and tons of staff to pay.
Spark and Zillacop, I do so agree with you. The B&B SHOULD be clean when guests arrive and it is part of the job you take on when you ask guests to stay and pay.
I often have guests who strip the bed, thinking to help me as I am the only one here and do all the chores. Actually I prefer that I strip the beds myself, then I can check marks in situ and deal with any problems guests have left. However I always thank them for their consideration in helping me!!!
I really noticed it just as we switched out of STR to LR and I’ll never forget when booking a stay in Chaing Mai in Thailand, I kept seeing copies of the same unit for rent in a highrise there. At first I thought it was a glitch in the Aibbnb site, but it was actually about 15 identical units all for rent, they all looked identical, showed the same infinity pool in the pictures, the only difference was the furniture was slightly different or arranged different, but either someone was insane and bought 15 condos and was renting them all out or it was multiple investors all in the same building.
Yep these investors were losing their shirts during that time, and then there were the ‘arbitrage’ hosts who didn’t even own the properties but were renting them long term and renting them out short-term.
The whole thing is very different than the original idea of renting a couch to go see a concert in San Francisco.
Yes, it’s sad how greedy Airbnb became. It really disgusts me when Chesky trots out his “Air mattress on the floor humble beginnings” shtick for the thousandth time.
Many homeshare hosts have sent feedback over the years to Airbnb, asking them to separate homeshares from entire place rentals on the platform, as they are a completely different concept and experience, but it has fallen on deaf ears.
You’d think they would want to promote homeshares, as they don’t generate bad publicity about partiers, don’t disturb the neighbors, and seldom result in major damage claims or mid-stay cancellations due to ignoring house rules. Not to mention, entire place rentals have nothing to do with their “live like a local” and bringing the world together spiel, anymore than renting a hotel room does.
But everyone knows low price rentals such as homeshares don’t generate them enough fees. So Airbnb management and investors will always seek out the giant property management companies.
Airbnb will do what is best for them and I will do what is best for me. I hate a lot of the Airbnb policies and I enforce my policies even if it gives Airbnb a bad name.
I wish we could let guests pick from two different rates: Our current (inexpensive for a whole house) rate, including strip-your-bed, start-a-load, etc. vs. a new “Carefree” rate. We’d have to pay our cleaner more for handling the “care” for our renters in the second instance, of course.
That was just making sure that the listings advertised as “rooms” had elements of shared spaces, so guests were clear on what sort of situation to expect.
What I meant by separating home shares from entire home listings would be only showing guests who clicked on a “homeshare” category, because that’s the kind of experience they prefer, homeshare listings. And Airbnb having a blurb about homeshares, as far as the advantages of staying with a local host in their home, explaining what “shared space” means and the expectations a guest could or should have when booking one. Maybe accompanied by some quotes from homeshare guests’ reviews, talking about in what way the homeshare experience was great for them, how they never would have found the great hole-in-the-wall restaurant on their own as a tourist, or been invited to a family Thanksgiving dinner in a new town, had they rented an entire apartment.
I’d even be content with them separating small-time host, hands-on listings from big property management company listings. There are lots of people these days with a social conscience who prefer to support small mom-and pop operations rather than big business. Sure, they can click on various listings and host profiles to check whether it’s a real host with one or two listings, or a property management co. with hundreds, but that’s time-consuming.
Many online marketplaces give the user the option to click on “private sales”, “dealers”, or “all”.
But of course you are correct- Airbnb would rather cultivate and promote entire home listings, as those earn them more service fees.
Which is what I meant about it being sad that their greed had led to them show no appreciation to the hosting situations that follow the original Airbnb model and allowed them to grow into a multibillion dollar corporation.
I thought you can filter for the home shares, but maybe I don’t understand how those filters work. With my current travel patterns, I haven’t needed to book a homeshare in a few years, but the “live like a local” part was great while it lasted.
If it says it in the listing, and people agree to it beforehand, I don’t know why it would be a problem. I’ve stayed in cabins and other accommodations that weren’t hotels before Airbnb’s and there was a short list of cleaning. Stripping your beds, loading and starting the dishwasher and putting things back where they came from doesn’t seem egregious at all. It’s a whole house, not a hotel room, and people put things everywhere.
Because there are no cleaning services that will commit to the variety of days and hours of cleaning required, I even ask them to clean their toilet messes because I have to clean them. So, if they don’t want to, they don’t stay at my well priced home. That’s ok with me. But the cleaning fees are high in other places, so to not have to pay one and have to do 15 minutes worth of cleanup in a whole house that you rented for less than 1 room in a hotel seems kind of worth it to people I guess. Based on the bookings anyway.
Arduous cleaning rules are unacceptable. As a host, I have none, and I offer daily cleaning. As a guest, I don’t follow them and I’ve been a guest for 8 years. Though, to be honest, I barely ever see arduous checkout rules, like less than 1% of the time. I recently read an STR book where the host was promoting her cleaning rules. If I was a host in that market, I would highlight no cleaning/checkout rules and make it my competitive advantage.
I remember those days. Outer banks rentals were always week long and check in either Saturday or Sunday. Meaning a house was either a Saturday house or a Sunday house. You picked your house out of an agency catalog and everything was done over the phone and through the mail. You could choose whether to clean before you left or pay about $100 to have it cleaned for you.
It was because there weren’t enough cleaners to turn over all of those houses during that short window twice a week. Now the big houses have cleaning fees of over $300. I have a 4 bedroom 4 bath on a caribbean island and since I retired I am cleaning it myself and charge $100. My fellow STR owners would probably vote me off the island if I didn’t charge anything.
Also I dont have any check out chores…just leave the keys, close the gate and come back next year.
[quote=“TristaG, post:54, topic:58749”] If
it says it in the listing, and people agree to it beforehand, I don’t know why it would be a problem. I’ve stayed in cabins and other accommodations that weren’t hotels before Airbnb’s and there was a short list of cleaning.
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For sure, there are places, usually cabins in fairly remote areas where it has been traditional for decades for guests to not only have to clean, but bring their own towels and bedding. You’d basically get 4 walls and a roof, sometimes quite rustic, some basic furniture, often old and stained, a fridge you have to plug in and give time to cool before transferring your food from your portable cooler, and a stove, sometimes old and rusty if the place is by the ocean. The family would have to spend a couple hours sweeping out the cobwebs, wiping everything down, making up the beds.
They got cheap accommodation, usually at a lake or the ocean, just the basics, in exchange for not having anyone clean it before arrival, and no amenities provided. And everyone was fine with that.
But Airbnb is a rental platform and guests come to expect a certain standard of cleanliness and basic amenities. So it can cause problems when guests are asked to do a bunch of chores they’ve never been asked to do in the other Airbnbs they’ve stayed at.
As guests have no idea what hosts expenses are, they won’t necessarily realize they got a really good deal, the exchange for which might be vacuuming the place and washing the towels and bedding.
I hope the link works. I’m new with airbnb but used Vrbo for years. My husband and I retired and moved permanently to the island two years ago, but he died of a heat attack 6 months later. I’ve had a hard time coping, and waited for a year to decide what to do. I’ve bought a small house here and decided to stay and rent out the big house again. I need a purpose and reason to get out of bed frankly. I think it’s going to be great for me. Thanks for taking the time to write,
Oh wow, I am so so sorry about your husband. You are amazing to find your path and the link worked perfectly. I will plan a family vacation at your beautiful home this spring - we have two sons, one is engaged and will be married the fall of 2024 and the other will celebrate 10 years this February with his girlfriend, so lots to celebrate. You are always welcome at our River House Waterfront Apartment at Moot Point Farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and here is the link: https://abnb.me/WPt4pKfQsDb. My husband is bilingual Spanish and has been wanting to visit PR. Thanks so much for the link.
