re: Airbnb finally trying to get owners to stop treating guests like maids

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Airbnb is only worth it if you have a big group or you’re staying in a small town and your hotel options are shite

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Not my experience. Whenever I travel to the SW I almost always use Airbnb because it’s cheaper and better. The pools are significantly better than a hotel- almost water park quality for the same price as a Hilton.
It does suck you can’t drop off your bags early or leave after checkout though.

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Is that not a maids job in a hotel?

The list has no doubt become larger, but 10-12 years ago when staying in an AirBnB it was "run the dishwasher, take out trash, maybe strip the beds"

All of those I would consider maid jobs if I was in a hotel.

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Yes and no. It's the maids job to do all of it, not a couple of items off. If I'm at a friend's house after a dinner party and they ask me to throw the trash, "maid" doesn't even cross my mind. If they ask me to wash the linens and then mop the floors, I certainly would

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The housekeepers at my rental love to take some of that stuff from the refrigerator. Why throw away a carton of eggs, an unopened container of milk, or some oranges if they want it?

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It's a timing issue. If the plan is to get housekeeping in immediately, it's not necessary. But back in the day, most AirBnBs weren't running that kind of turnover, so it might be a week or two before they send the cleaning crew in. You don't want food festering in the fridge or the trashcan for that long.

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Many Airbnbs are not cheaper places to stay, and customers are already paying a substantial cleaning fee. 90% of our guest leave the place super clean and we don't require them to strip bedding or load the dishwasher. We do request that they throw out trash if there is food waste. Only a handful have left the place a mess, those few guest we've noted that in their review.

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This all depends on your location, normal customer, cost per night, etc.

If you have a crappy condo in Panama City your experience is going to be drastically different than if you have a $5 million house in Jackson Hole.

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When I started seeing cameras, that was the end for me. No more.

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Truth…I bought some sweeping equipment just for cameras in Airbnb….

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But back in the day, most AirBnBs weren't running that kind of turnover

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Back in the day, AirBnB's were typically someone's primary residence. They left town for the weekend while you rented their actual space.

Post covid, its pretty much all investment properties

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It's a timing issue. If the plan is to get housekeeping in immediately, it's not necessary. But back in the day, most AirBnBs weren't running that kind of turnover, so it might be a week or two before they send the cleaning crew in. You don't want food festering in the fridge or the trashcan for that long.

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yes. to your point, the items that should be expected before departing are thing things that should reasonably be done with the assumption that a cleaning crew wont be there for several days or a week. trash out, food out, and MAYBE strip the beds. outside of that, no way.

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Many Airbnbs are not cheaper places to stay, and customers are already paying a substantial cleaning fee. 90% of our guest leave the place super clean and we don't require them to strip bedding or load the dishwasher. We do request that they throw out trash if there is food waste. Only a handful have left the place a mess, those few guest we've noted that in their review.

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Do you have a cleaning fee and how much is it?

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Most of these reasons are due to Airbnb, not the hosts. What you don't understand, is that you as a guest should be trading leaving the place "clean" for a larger/ cheaper place to stay.

Why do you think you can leave a place abused and a disaster, and have it for cheap? Honestly asking, I'm curious?

I agree some people go way too far. Again, I don't require anything. But stripping the beds, starting the dishes, and taking out the trash isn't hard.

Its not about saving the housekeepers time, its about holding the guests responsible for not being pigs and destroying a place.

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Clean kitchen, taking trash out, and bedding stripped is not a big deal, but cleaning fees on top of that are why I'm not a fan of them.

Do hosts get their AirBnB professionally cleaned after every stay? Or is it case by case? As in, if the guests we good about keeping the place neat, why hit them with a cleaning fee?

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Obviously, hosts will likely just up cleaning fees

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I don't think Airbnb even lists the cleaning fees anymore, do they? The last few times I've gotten one, the prices were just listed as all-in. Like, I know the fee is built in there, but it's not like it used to be where the listing would get you to bite with a $150/night rate and then tack on everything at the end. Now, you know from the get-go what the all-in rate is.

Airbnbs have their place, especially for longer stays or larger groups. We had to vacate our house for a few weeks for some work, and it made more sense to get a house for those few weeks than go to a hotel for that long. I love my kids, but there's no way we'd all stay sane in a hotel suite for that long. The airbnb was cheaper, too. All we had to do before we left was strip the beds and start the dishwasher. Ain't no biggie. Before Airbnb, choices would've been limited to a hotel or a 6-month rent on a house, if you could even find a landlord willing to do that.