What kind of mess is acceptable?

Question

The answer should be none of it but that doesn't always happen.

I have stayed in several vacation rentals with kids and a dog and always treat the home with respect and leave it in a pristine condition.

We had a group of 5 including kids over the weekend who left crumbs all over the house, food stains on sheets.

My question is what kind of mess do you tolerate and do you include it somewhere in your instructions to leave the house as you found it or clean up after themselves? I know they are paying for cleaning but I think it's just basic etiquette to be respectful of the home.

John Underwood · Answer

That is a great question. I agree with @Ken Boone that is is just the cost of doing business. Sometimes the cleaners will have a easy cleaning (no discount for those) sometimes it will be intensive (no extra paid for these). It should average out that MOST people take pretty good care of your house. At least that is my expereince.

You could put something in your rental agreement that an extra cleaning expense is charge for XX.

Pet fees should handle a little extra cleaning for pets. You could say no pets on beds or furniture and include an extra cleaning fee for not following this rule.

We don't charge extra for any non damage.

Ken Boone · Answer

What you are describing is just what kids do and what some parents don't clean up after.  I would chalk that up to cost of doing business.  Fortunately every guest isn't that way but every now and then you will get some like that.  Part of the business.

Michael Baum · Answer

@Queenie Pinto You know I have been of 2 minds on that. Part of me says that they only do it when they aren't responsible for the cleanup. I am on vacation and I don't need to clean up after ourselves. The other part of me says their house looks like crap all the time and that is just who they are.

I have been leaning towards the second scenario. Mostly because of all the other guests who leave our house in great shape. Our Valentine's Day guests left the house like it wasn't even used. They even vacuumed the place.

Queenie Pinto · Answer

Thanks for your responses! Comes with the territory I guess.@Michael Baum I could visualize everything as I read your post and I feel your pain. I wonder if they would do that in their own homes?

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey @Queenie Pinto, so we had some AirBNB guests recently and we called them the mung people. They left mung, whatever that is, on every comforter, sheet and pillow case. Plus the spilled coffee on all the nightstands which have a square decorative place mats.

I didn't charge them anything for all the extra cleaning as it appeared to be mud from the dogs on the bed. We provide these bright yellow towels with embroidered "Wipe your feet" and dog paws on them for people to use for dog feet.

Took a ton of loads of laundry to get it all cleaned up. Plus I missed some areas that had the faded mud stains set after drying. That necessitated me using bleach directly on the faded stains which finally came out. The benefit of using a percale weave 70/30 sheet in white.

What kind of mess is acceptable?

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