Confessions of an Airbnb cleaner: Disgusting reason why I’ll never stay in a short-term rental

• Cleaner alleges he was told to ‘cut corners’
• Company manages 50-60 Airbnbs in WA 
• READ MORE: How two brothers and a groom are accused of raping three women in a 24-hour buck’s party at a luxurious Newcastle AirBnB

A cleaner has exposed the ‘gross’ list of requests a property management company in charge of 60 Airbnbs sent him prior to a job.

Jason Shipway, owner of Enhanced Cleaning, claims the Western Australian firm, which he chose not to name, sent him an email detailing ways to ‘cut corners’ and save time including not washing bed sheets or towels.

‘The day before we were supposed to send one of our teams in, we got an email from the management company,’ he told Yahoo News.

‘In this email, they informed us that they have a procedure they’d like us to follow in order to save money on turnover times.’

Jason Shipway revealed his company was sent a ‘gross’ list of requests by a management company that runs between 50-60 Airbnbs in WA

‘The more I read this email, the more horrified I became.’

The company informed Mr Shipway it had a specific procedures they wanted the cleaners to follow in order to save money.

These included avoiding washing bedding after every stay, refolding towels that seemed to be clean and putting away dishes that weren’t ‘obviously’ used. 

‘Every second clean… they just wanted us to take the linen off, flip it around so that the top was now at the bottom in order to make it look like they were cleaner,’ Mr Shipway claimed.

‘They also said they’d supply us with a little spray bottle that we could spray on the sheets to make them less crinkly, to appear like they hadn’t been used by the previous guests.’

The list of requests included not washing bed sheets between stays, refolding towels that didn’t look dirty and packing up dishes that weren’t ‘obviously’ used in order to save money

READ MORE: Is YOUR bed a breeding ground for germs? How poor hygiene habits can spread infections, cause skin issues and increase your risk of allergies

‘They told us towels that don’t look dirty can be put back on the beds and in the cupboards.

‘They basically said any dishes leftover in the sink or in the dishwasher that had been used but didn’t look dirty, could just be put back in the drawers for the next guest as well.’

The company even advised Mr Shipway to only spot-clean the floors where it looked like there were obvious marks of dirt or fingerprints.

According to Mr Shipway the disgusting practices are commonplace in some short-term rental properties.

‘Most Airbnbs really do lag behind hotels, and it’s because of greedy people like this,’ Mr Shipway said. 

‘They just want to make that little bit of extra money from the stay and so they sacrifice on cleaning big time. 

‘It’s really gross and unsettling to think that the next Airbnb that you could be going to could be run like this.’

The cleaner turned down the job after seeing the ‘gross’ list of requests and has since reported the incident to Airbnb.

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