How much cleaning do you require of guests?

[Nathan Gesner]

This host has a healthy balance of what she requires guests to do during their stay or at checkout. What do you require?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/i-was-one-of-those-airbnb-hosts-who-made-guests-do-chores-before-checking-out-then-i-realized-it-was-a-ridiculous-ask-here-s-where-i-landed-on-who-cleans-what/ar-AA12NLuI?li=BBnbklE#image=AA12NPVD|4

[Ryan Moyer]

I'm not gonna hold back here because these childish complaints are really a pet peeve of mine. I say that as a guest that has been staying in STR's since the 90's as much as I do as a host.

Maybe some of the disconnect is big city condotels vs. full houses in the mountains or the beach.  I could maybe understand some of the whining about having to be a grown up adult for 5 minutes at the condotels that are more meant to be direct competitors to a hotel.  But at a full house at the beach or something like that, if you're comparing a few minutes to load the dishwasher in this full house that has to be turned over in a few hours to a 150sqft hotel room that doesn't even have dishes, you're being ridiculous.

Most of the people that complain about this stuff are 16 year olds on Tik Tok just hunting for clicks.  It's become popular in that circle to whine about it, so it's a great way to get clicks.  Seeing full grown adults on an investment forum acting like it's some great burden is frankly kind of sad. 

Why should I have to clean when I'm already paying a cleaning fee?

Throwing your dirty towels into a pile on the floor isn't "cleaning".  99% of hosts ask little more than to start the dishwasher and pile up dirty towels, and 99% of that 99% won't actually ding you in any way if you don't do it.  Maybe some hosts ask to strip the beds or take out the trash.  Plenty reasonable.  The nonsense about being asked to vacuum or mow the lawn is reductio ad absurdum.  A lame form of discussion where someone references the extreme outlier and creates their argument around it as if it is the norm.  "I'm tired of hosts asking me to mow the lawn and re-tar their roof for them!".  Please.

I don't have to do my dishes at a hotel

Well, duh.  Because you don't get dishes at a hotel.  Again, maybe this is a disconnect between tiny NYC condos in the hotel district and your typical vacation rental, but if you rent a 4br Marriott Vacation house in Hawaii you are expected to do your dishes.  If you rent a condo in Aspen through Whyndam they ask you to do your dishes.  If you stay in a timeshare they ask you to do your dishes.  It's been this way for 30 years.

I got a good chuckle out of someone above acting shocked about having to take the trash to the dump 6 miles away, while at the same time mentioning that the checkout list is getting harder, not easier.  I bet he'd be shocked to know that for 20 years prior to Airbnb that was actually the standard, rather than the outlier exception it is now.  I've been staying in cabins in Tennessee, NC, and Georgia since the 90's and it was always expected that you'd take your trash with you when you leave.  Often much further than 6 miles (I remember driving all the way home with it a few times because we couldn't find anywhere to take it.  There just wasn't the infrastructure in a lot of these vacation destinations back then like there is now.  Now, in 99% of cases, you don't have to do that anymore. 

If anything the checkout list has gotten easier and easier (not harder and harder) to the point where it's almost nothing now in most cases. 

Renting a house is just different than renting a little hotel room.  Maybe some people just aren't cut out to be trusted with other people's property.  If you want to check into a place and act like a toddler so some big corporation's $7/hr staff can fix your disaster, then go for it.  If you want to be an adult and stay in a nice place with a kitchen, private pool, and room for 4 families, then do that.

And yea, if you're family is getting into a huge fight because you had to load a dishwasher than that's definitely a "you" problem.  Every day all around the world millions of people manage to successfully load a dishwasher without breaking up their family.  Crazy, I know.