The plate debate – should you bother cleaning the dishes before you leave an Airbnb rental?
Q: "My husband thinks I’m mad for doing the dishes before leaving an Airbnb rental. Surely this is just basic politeness when you’ve been staying in a stranger’s home?"
A: You’re right, of course. Even though the lines are blurring between hotels and Airbnb, the wildly popular home-sharing and home rental accommodation service, staying at an Airbnb is fundamentally different to staying at a hotel. Hotels have a knack for turning every guest into a spoilt teenager.
In the lobby, we might appear like functioning adults, urbane sophisticates, but as soon as the bedroom door slams, our adolescent rebellion begins. Why bother making the bed when someone else will? How many mugs can we use and distribute around the suite? Let’s use all the bubble bath in one go!
Airbnb tempers the nascent adolescent urges of travellers, purely because we're accountable to a living, breathing person, whose profile picture makes them look charming. And unless it’s a slick, perpetual rental space, you are generally staying in someone’s home. Despite thousands of years of evolution, being invited into someone else’s cave is still a little bit discomfiting.
So yes, you are absolutely right to treat Airbnb rentals with reverence. It’s not that hotel rooms and staff aren’t worthy of respect. It’s purely that we view private and corporate possessions differently. In a rental, make your bed, do your dishes and don’t nick a bottle of shampoo from the bathroom.
But, truth be told, there are other things Airbnb guests do that irk their hosts a lot more than a couple of unwashed mugs. One host bewailed the fact that most of her guests were still there after midday, when she turned up to clean the place. So if you want to be the perfect Airbnb guest, make sure you don’t miss check-out time.
It’s also a classy gesture to contact your host and let them know exactly when you are arriving – and when you are checking out on the final day. If they’re on site or nearby, they might well be organising their entire day around you and getting the flat cleaned and prepped, so give them a chance to rejig their schedules. Just imagine if DHL, the parcel service, was as thoughtful as you.
Another Airbnb host I know wishes more guests would leave reviews. Certainly, it seems a little selfish to rely upon reviews to help you select a place on the Airbnb site, then refuse to leave your own appraisal of the property for the next guest. Through a series of reviews and a sexy interface, Airbnb has successfully manufactured trust, and I feel it is only fair to keep those wheels well-oiled with positive or constructively critical reviews.
Remember that by staying at an Airbnb, you are paying to try out your host’s lifestyle for a few days – and it’s just common courtesy to return their lifestyle to them later, and in pretty good nick.
By booking into a hotel, you are paying for anonymity, for the licence to be whoever you please for the night. Sadly, in most cases – most certainly your husband’s – this person turns out to be our 15-year-old self.
What do you think? Should you clean the dishes before you leave an Airbnb, or is that what the cleaning fee is for? We want to hear your thoughts; comment below to join the conversation.
