How do you manage the cleaning situation?

English Forum Community 🤔 Q&As: Ask the community
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The question often comes up within our members - and rightly so: how do you manage the cleaning situation?

The most important rule here, as in all home exchanges, is COMMUNICATION.

When exchanging homes, communication between members is always a priority. This is the key to avoiding misunderstandings. So talk to each other about the cleaning before the exchange. Discuss it with your exchange partner, so that everyone is in tune with each other’s expectations. As a guest, remember that you’re not staying in a hotel, so don’t expect the same standard of cleanliness.

Preparing your home

Before your exchange partner arrives, it’s essential to prepare your home: put away your belongings, tidy up, and remember to make a little space in the cupboards if necessary, depending on the length of your guests’ stay.

When it comes to the cleaning, there are no specific rules - everyone looks after their own home in their own way. If you don’t know where to start, we’ve prepared a list of the most important tasks: https://help.homeexchange.com/…/9458720242077-How-to…

What about cleaning fees?**

If you have a professional cleaner coming in and you want to ask for an additional fee, it’s important that the cleaning fee is clearly stated in your listing and discussed before the exchange is finalized. Please note: only reasonable cleaning costs are allowed (whether they are “reasonable” or not will depend on the location of the home and its size).

Tip: if a member requests a cleaning fee that you consider excessive (or any other unauthorized fees), don’t hesitate to report it via the “Report abuse” button. The team will examine the case and contact the member if necessary.

What about second homes?

As far as second homes are concerned, it’s important to check your home before each exchange. If you’re not nearby, you could ask a trusted relative, friend or neighbour to do the job for you. This will not only ensure that the house is clean for the next guest, but thye could also check for any damages.

Bonus: prepare a short guide

As a host, you can also prepare a small guide with some housekeeping instructions and slip it into your welcome booklet. It’s also important to indicate where to find cleaning supplies and products, so that your guest can leave the house in the same condition they found it. Some people, for example, ask their guests to collect used sheets in one place, to empty the rubbish bins and to leave the house in the same condition as they found it.

And if you have a swimming pool, be sure to tell them how to properly take care of it, so you don’t end up with a pool that turns green in a few days.

I hope you find these tips useful! :star2:

1 Like
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Home Exchange always has reminders about not paying any fees outside of the network. I need to pay a cleaning fee to a host. It was agreed upon and I’m fine to pay it. My question is, is there actually a way to pay it within the home exchange site? In a previous exchange, I just left cash at the home and that was fine. But if a payment is supposed to be made within the website, exactly how do I do that?

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There is no way to pay a fee through the site, it’s a private agreement between the host and guest. HE strongly advises that the fee is only paid when the excahnge actually has started. Thisis to avoid possible scame and also to avoid the problem of reimbursement if the exchange is cancelled. It is advised to pay in cash on arrival if possible, or through money transfer like paypal at the moment of arrival.

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I never charge anything for cleaning and never ask my guests to do any cleaning as I don’t like annoying guests with cleaning while they just should relax and enjoy,

as this is what I would like others hosts to do with me too when I’m traveling.

When I receive guests I do the cleaning or pay someone doing it, is just 5-10 euro per hour so it’s not that expensive.

But when I search for exchanges as a guests for Guests Points I see some people put exaggerated cleaning fees, 150 euro for a normal average house, when the real cost is no more than 30 euro. This should stop.

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We have people pay for cleaning when they leave, either through a mailed check or one left on the premesis. Never cash. In 20 years, this has worked fine.

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I also think that it is not correct to bother guests about cleaning. I have a personal contract for cleaning with the company https://www.cleaning-master.com/. I have agreed on favorable terms with the company and include the cost of cleaning in the rent.

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Jean, There is no rent. You ask the guest to leave the cleaning fee or if you hire a cleaner pay them yourselves.

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We totally get the surprise over high cleaning fees – but hourly wages vary a lot between countries! We own homes in both Denmark and Sweden, and professional cleaning is not cheap here.

In Sweden, we pay 2,450 SEK (~220€) for 3 hours of cleaning (incl. travel). In Denmark, it’s 1,300 DKK (~175€) for the same. So yes, a 150€ cleaning fee is actually quite fair – even though we choose to cover part of it ourselves, knowing it can feel pricey for many members.

We personally prefer to pay for cleaning when we travel, too – with chronic pain and a young child in tow, it makes our trips so much easier.

Just like people are different, so are our approaches to cleaning. Some prefer DIY, others prefer professionals. And that’s totally okay – we’re all just trying to make it work (without the dust)! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: