24/10/2026
AirBNB has introduced new policies where I cannot expect the guest to tidy up nor wash dishes. I have had a long think about this and I am pushing back.
For starters, in the 5 seasons I have running a gite (vacation rental in France) my guests have been great. There is one outlier and that's fine. It happens.
However with this new policy and AirBnB making a big deal about it it may mean guests will not do dishes, and will not tidy because they know they can without any fear of being charged extra.
What AirBnB forgets is that there are gites and then there are hotels. They are not one and the same. A gite is a self serve kind of vacation rental that used to require people bring their own linen. We don't require that.
I do a full clean and if I had to also clean the dishes that were sitting a week like in the picture I would stop running the gite. It would not be worth it.
A hotel for the very large part does not have facilities like a gite. There are no cooking facilities, there are no private pool facilities, there are private outside sitting facilities, there are no large private dog yard facilities, and the list goes on. I am not a hotel room, and AirBnB is making a serious mistake making me become a hotel room.
My site is clean and people are happy at how clean it is. I am definitely cleaner than hotels. But if people leave encrusted plates and damaged pans then I have to do a spring cleaning each and every time. I clean myself and it takes me 6 hours to clean a one bedroom gite that has a wellness area and pool.
A spring cleaning takes days for me. I do one every time the gite is opened. I will put everything in the dishwasher. I will move all of the furniture, I will take furniture apart. I will inspect and clean all of the plumbing pipes. I will hosts some friends for a dinner to make sure everything is working. That takes time.
Does that mean during the season it is not as clean? Absolutely not. I still inspect everything in the gite. I will literally look at each and every glass, each and every fork. If anything has fingerprints on it or is not clean enough then I clean it. I assume that the guests (correctly) will use the dishwasher properly. Of course is a pan has encrusted food, or a plate is broken I will replace. And depending on the damage I will ask for extra monies.
If that is taken away from me I will not continue as a gite. It simply is not worth it then.
Of course as people say, well then don't advertise on AirBnB. Yes I will exactly do that.
