Cleanliness Counts

I recently took a trip out west from San Francisco to Seattle with my man.  We are big wine lovers and so we blazed the Pinot Trail, taking planes, trains, automobiles and even boats to our destinations.  Being Airbnb hosts of multiple properties of course we stayed at Airbnbs along the trail.  We stayed at three different places in Mill Valley, California, Medford, Oregon and Salem, Oregon. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to Dean and Amy for The Hideaway at Hidden Lake Ranch, in Salem, OR.

As the title of this article indicates it's about cleanliness.  Five stars and kudos to Dean and Amy for The Hideaway at Hidden Lake Ranch, in Salem, OR.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32271579  They set the standard for cleanliness and hospitality.   We can't compliment them enough.   

The others well, we found, it does not matter how cute they are if it is moldy and dirty.   We were both very surprised that these other two had five star reviews.  

--One shower was so bad that they had signs out, to leave the shower open because of the mold. --

Mold in the cracks,
bottom photo is from their
listing.

The #1 offense is mold or mildew in the bath or shower.  I fired one of my man's housekeepers because I found mold in the shower.  One place we stayed, the mold was so bad that they had signs out, to leave the shower open because of it.  This of course sent me rushing to the grocery story for my favorite bathroom cleaner with bleach and athletes foot cream.  It had that sweet sickly smell of when your star athlete kid takes his shoes off and you realize he's got it.

Upon close inspection of the listing photos the mold is visible.  Mold or mildew anywhere is inexcusable when it is so easily fixed by simply spraying it down with a little bleach, and you don't even have to scrub.  I keep telling my man just buy stock in Clorox.  😄

--Did you know that athletes foot can survive both a hot water wash and a regular dry cycle. --

So this got me thinking....if they are not bleaching the bathroom, what about the sheets.    Did you know that athletes foot can survive both a hot water wash and a regular dry cycle? And they did not have white sheets, so I highly doubt that they bleached the sheets either.   Have you ever had a bad case of the heebie-jeebies?  Yep that was me.  You really do need to either bleach or dry with a sanitize cycle on the dryer to kill all the germs and fungus.  There is a reason that hotels have white sheets and towels, it is because they can be sanitized with BLEACH. 

Mold in the refrigerator

--I was afraid that a spider would drop on me while I was sleeping. --

The #2 offense is cobwebs in the corners.   The ceiling and fan in the picture below was covered with cobwebs.  The bed was right under the fan.  I was little Miss Muffet and terrified that a spider would drop down beside me while I was sleeping.  I ended up sleeping on the futon/couch because of the fear. 

I know it's easy to forget to look up, but this ceiling was covered with cobwebs.  Just grab a dust mop and do your corners. 

The #3 offense is the untruthful guest.  The guest who feels so sorry for the host that they won't give them a truthful public review, is lying to the rest of us.  At first I wondered who are these people that are giving five star reviews for moldy showers?  I found that my man is one of them.  Despite giving us athletes foot and an allergic reaction from all the mold in the shower he still gave them good ratings for cleanliness.   Bad him.

Cobwebs on the ceilings

This couple of moldy spider infested places I noted here are a minority.  The vast majority of Airbnb's like Amy and Dean's are spotless.   Unfortunately the bad apples are the ones that give Airbnb a bad name and go on to give all Airbnb places bad press. My man gave me the opportunity to review these places before we booked.  So shame on me for not looking closer at the pictures.

--The units we host always get ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for cleanliness. --

Just to note, for our Airbnbs' that we host, we have a check list with some 50 plus items to do and/or check between guests.  We may have an edge in that my man is a hospitality major from Cornell and we like our housekeepers have to have hospitality experience.  But we practice continuous improve and double check each other all the time.  We wash with bleach the inside of the refrigerator, the entire bathroom, and the bath floor too.  Our linens are white and get bleached or dried on the sanitize cycle.  We even put the pillows through a sanitize cycle in the dryer. Proud to note that we have always had 5 stars on the cleanliness.  

Cobwebs on the ceiling and fan.

I want to know, what you think.   

1.  Do you give truthful reviews?
2.  What should I do with my man, untruthful reviewer?   

___________________________________________

About Trish:  https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/187805284

Trish's Airbnb listing in Armada, MI:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/24843312