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I understand your point of view, but I have learned much from my property managers and house keepers.
In my town my competition is hotels. Some hotels even have free standing cottages similar to what I offer. I watch hotels closely.
In a rural area where there are no hotels anywhere near by, you can do things differently perhaps.
But your competition isnât hotels. One of the whole points of guests booking an Airbnb is that they get something different, often with more character, often eclectic, the whole âlive like a localâ thing, rather than a hotel offering. If you try to make your place like a hotel, why would someone book your cabin instead of a hotel cabin? The whole strategy is to offer something different, not the same. You want travelers to say âHey, look at this cool place. This would be so much more fun than staying in a hotelâ.
A friend who used to host a very eclectic suite, with a hodge-podge of furniture styles, in her big old house, had a guest show up in a brand new Lexus. She took one look at his wheels and said jokingly, âHey man, whyâd you book my place? Thereâs high end hotels in town, ya knowâ. He laughed, said he travels all the time on business and hates generic hotel rooms, he prefers staying in a homey, interesting place.
I donât understand at all what you mean by âmaybe in a rural area where there are no hotels nearbyâ. There are millions of listings in cities, towns, villages, where there are plenty of hotels. That doesnât mean Airbnb hosts try to emulate the way a hotel operates, nor that they donât get booked because of it.
There are thousands of rentals in my town, both hotels and str rentals like Airbnb. No Airbnb hosts try to make their places like hotels, and everyone gets plenty of guests.
Iâm always open to learning from those with more experience/expertise but I wonât be dictated to,
Iâve been doing this for many years and know what works with my target customers .
And my five star cleanliness feedback evidences that my approach is working.
I live in a major city with many hotels but theyâre not competitors.
For better or worse, my market my competition is âhotels.â This includes corporate owned free standing cabins/cottages. I am solidly booked, but I keep an eye on what hotels are offering and at what price.
I do not offer an eclectic experience such as you are describing. Sounds lovely! But that is not really what I have, if Iâm being honest. I have two of my own paintings hanging on the walls but other than that, nothing too unusual.
I am trying to keep my town location quiet here so I can speak my mind freely 
but people who know my town would agree immediately, here all STRs compete with corporate owned free standing units and suites.
I donât know what is in that stuff but it is wonderful. First time I saw it was in DollarTree. No one else sold it.
It is one of the few cleaners that can remove the powdery black mildew (I guess) that occurs on my screen porch walls & ceiling & on the patio furniture AND not kill the grass around the porch. Oxyclean works too but requires more rinsing.
My other favorite is âTotally Awesomeâ cleaner.
A friend purchased a condo with a magnificent waterfront location. The prior owner lived there full time & chain smoked indoors for many, many years. The walls, ceiling, cabinets, & light fixtures were covered with nicotine. Popcorn ceiling was removed however the walls needed help. She washed the walls & cabinets with Totally Awesome-as they sprayed the cleaner the nicotine rolled down the walls. The walls looked good but you could still smell the tobacco. 2nd wall washing with Fabulouso, smell gone.
Lots of tile & grout comments here.
Rust Oleum has a newer type of tile paint made to adhere better so easier to use. Iâm considering it for updating a rental.
My neighbor used the tub refinishing paint & it looks good. We shall see how it holds up. Thanks to having to replace my washer/dryer & a couple of other financial hits, I canât replace my tub with a shower this year. The prior owner used abrasive cleaners so the gray fiberglass shows through. It always looks dirty. I may paint it to buy me another couple of years.
https://www.rustoleum.com/project-catalog/bathroom/rustoleum-home-bathroom-floor/
We have a cream-colored floor tile with small royal blue squares inset where some corners meet. It was such a large amount of tile that I didnât want my floor tiles to stand out individually - it would be too âbusyâ looking since the space is so large. Unfortunately, the grout was a dirty dark yellow, so I used Grout Renew (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-Building-Products-Polyblend-381-Bright-White-8-oz-Grout-Renew-Colorant-GCL381HPT/203498062) in a custom-blended off white to change the color of the grout. I have to redo it in high-traffic areas every two-three years but it really changes the look from where it started!
Thanks for the tip on Grout Renew!
The link you provided includes a video that is very helpful.
It doesnât stick well to the grout on my countertops no matter how much I use degreaser to clean it first. (Iâm happy weâre going to remodel next fall!) But it works on the floor tiles. Just be careful on scrubbing the Grout Renew too hard. Hereâs my favorite brush for the occasional deep-clean of grout: Fuginator brush
We use and love colored linens too. We also use white. Both have their issues. White doesnât look as nice matching color schemes and shows dirt and permanent stains more. Colors look nicer but are subject to guest bleaching them out with permanent bleach stains that take out the color by using certain facial creams or peroxides that remove the original color. There is no one âperfectâ solution.
This is exactly why my original housekeeping company insisted on white linens, which I already had.
Also when a guest permanently stained my white linens (happened once, nail polish remover seems to have been the culprit), I bought new sheets and was reimbursed by AirBnB Host Cover.
The other huge advantage of white linens is that you can use a peroxide bleaching detergent as a sanitizer without causing the linens to fade in color, perhaps unevenly, over time.
Hereâs my tip for dealing with hair in the shower/tub surround. If I have time to let everything dry, I run the fan and wait to clean until the shower walls are dry. Then I use the nozzle attachment on the vacuum cleaner to pick up hair throughout the bathroom. Then proceed to clean as usual.
Areas cleaners often miss â the microwave interior, particularly the âroofâ, the toaster insides/ crumb catcher, the interior of the coffee maker, the undersides of trash can lids, inside ceiling light fixtures.
Something I learned long ago when I used to clean homes to earn money as a high school student: If you want to make a space look clean, have a white object in that space â maybe a small table, a throw pillow, a decorative dish. Then ensure that your token white object is always very clean. It tricks the viewerâs brain into assuming that the surroundings objects are just as clean. Obviously this doesnât work miracles, but it is a trick that can make a space signal the brain as âcleanâ.
A few areas some cleaners donât know about: