The short answer: when a guest says the homestay was not clean, answer within the hour, ask for photos instead of arguing, work out whether it was a missed spot, a rushed turnover or a difference in standards, and then offer the smallest fix that actually solves it: a re-clean, replacement linen, part of the cleaning fee back, or in serious cases a move or refund. Then answer the review in public, calmly, within the 14-day window. Here is how that works across 100-plus units in Johor Bahru and Desaru, including the parts that cost us money.
This is the cleaning version of the playbooks we have already published for refund demands and for a bad review we handled badly.
Why is cleanliness the complaint every host eventually gets?
Because it is the one thing every guest can judge in ten seconds without any knowledge of the property. A guest cannot easily tell whether the aircon is the right size or the Wi-Fi plan is good value, but they can see a hair in the shower, a sticky table or a smell in the bedroom.
It also carries real weight on the platform. Airbnb asks guests to rate six categories on a 1 to 5 scale, and cleanliness is one of them. Airbnb states that a Superhost must keep an average overall rating of at least 4.8, and that Guest Favourite status needs an average above 4.9 plus strong marks in all six categories. One 3-star cleanliness review among a handful of recent stays is visible in those numbers.
We do not publish our own complaint statistics, so we will not pretend to tell you "only X% of stays have a cleaning complaint". What we can say is how the first hour is run, because that hour decides whether you end up with a fixed problem or a public review.
What do you do in the first 30 minutes?
The goal of the first message is not to find out who is right. It is to show the guest that a person has seen the problem and is acting.
| What the guest says | What we do first | What we do not do |
|---|---|---|
| "The bathroom is dirty" (message during the stay) | Reply within the hour, apologise for the experience without admitting fault, ask for two photos, ask whether anyone is in the unit right now | Ask "are you sure?" or explain our cleaning process |
| "There is hair on the bed" | Ask for a photo of the exact spot, offer clean linen now if the building allows a runner, check the cleaning record for that turnover | Say "it was cleaned this morning" before looking |
| "The unit smells" | Ask where the smell is strongest, whether windows were open and whether it is damp or smoke, check the last stay's notes | Assume it is the guest's imagination |
| "There are bugs / bed bugs / mould" | Stop treating it as a cleanliness complaint. Treat it as a health and safety issue, offer a move or a safe alternative immediately | Argue about whether it is really a bug |
| "It was not as clean as in the photos" (after checkout) | Thank them, ask for photos, say we will review the turnover record and reply in writing within a day | Reply only once the review is posted |
One person owns the case until it is closed. A complaint passed between the cleaning team, the front desk and the owner in three group chats is how a two-hour problem becomes a three-day one.
Was it the cleaning, the timing or a difference in standards?
Before deciding on a remedy we ask which of four things happened, because each has a different fix.
- A missed spot. Something the cleaner simply did not do: the shower floor, behind the toilet, the bin. This is our fault, plainly, and the fix is a re-clean and an apology.
- A rushed turnover. Same-day check-out and check-in leaves a short window. If the window was too tight, the problem is the schedule, not the cleaner. We look at whether the previous guest checked out late and whether a late check-out was approved. Our article on how a check-out becomes a cleaning job covers where this goes wrong in the system.
- A supplies or condition problem. Missing toilet roll, stained pillowcases that no wash will fix, a mattress protector gone yellow. The unit is "clean" but looks tired. This is a maintenance and replacement problem, and the honest fix is to replace the item.
- A difference in standards. The unit was cleaned to a normal homestay standard, and the guest expected a hotel. Sometimes this is a fair complaint about expectations set by the photos, and sometimes it is not.
The first three are ours to fix. The fourth needs judgement, and we try to be fair to both sides: if our photos made the place look better than a normal clean can deliver, that is on the listing, not on the guest.
What is the remedy ladder?
We go up the ladder only as far as the problem needs. The amounts below are illustrative examples, not our price list.
| Step | When it fits | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Fix it now | Guest is in the unit and the problem is local | A cleaner or runner returns the same day, or fresh linen is delivered |
| 2. Partial credit | Problem fixed but the guest lost an evening or a night's comfort | A small credit on the stay, or an extra night's late check-out |
| 3. Cleaning fee refunded | The unit was clearly not cleaned and the guest has photos | Example: a RM60 cleaning fee returned |
| 4. Partial refund of nights | The problem made part of the stay unusable | Example: one night of a three-night stay credited |
| 5. Move or cancel with refund | Serious issue (pests, mould, a unit that is plainly unfit) | Move to another unit if one is free, otherwise cancel and refund the remaining nights |
Steps 3 to 5 are real money. A refund comes out of the revenue of that booking, so we decide it with evidence, not on a mood. The reverse is also true: refusing a fair step 1 or 2 usually costs more later in a review and a platform dispute than the fix would have cost. Our longer piece on when a refund is fair goes through the reasoning in detail.
What does Airbnb expect, and how long does the guest have?
Airbnb's guidance to guests is to message the host first, collect photos or video, and then submit a refund request if the host cannot help. Guests have 72 hours from discovering the issue to report it to Airbnb. If the case is covered, Airbnb may give a full or partial refund or help find another place. For bed bugs, mould or other health risks, Airbnb advises the guest to contact local emergency services if needed.
What that means for a host:
- The first message is the one platform support will read. Keep it polite, specific and quick.
- A slow reply is itself evidence against you. If the guest waited a day and then escalated, the case looks different from one where you answered in 20 minutes.
- Offer a fix before the guest asks Airbnb to step in. A genuine offer that the guest refused reads very differently to a support agent than silence.
Platform terms change, so check the current policy for the platform you use.
What if the complaint is exaggerated or not true?
It happens, and we do not assume it. Our check is the same every time: look at the cleaning record for that turnover, compare against the photos from the previous check-out and the guest's own photos, and ask the guest a neutral question about what they saw. If the unit was cleaned and the photos do not show a problem, we say so politely and offer what is reasonable, usually nothing more than a courteous reply.
We do not label guests by nationality, race or age, we do not publish photos of guests, and we do not name them anywhere. A guest who complains is not a "problem guest" by default. Most are simply telling us something we need to know.
How do you answer the review?
Airbnb gives hosts and guests 14 days after check-out to review each other, and hosts can reply publicly below a review. Future guests read the reply as much as the review.
A reply that works has four parts, in about five lines:
- Thank them for the stay and for the feedback.
- Acknowledge the specific thing without arguing ("the shower floor was not cleaned to the standard we expect").
- Say what changed ("we have added it to the turnover checklist").
- Stop. No excuses, no "as you can see from the photos", no mention of the guest's behaviour.
We learned this the hard way. In our earlier article on a guest who could not open the smart lock, we explained that we left a bad review unanswered, and that silence made the review look uncontested. Our aim now is to reply to every review that mentions a problem.
What do we deliberately not promise?
- We cannot promise a unit that never gets a cleanliness complaint. Cleaners miss things, and turnovers get tight in peak season.
- We do not always win the argument, and we do not always try. Sometimes we refund because we think the complaint is half fair, because that is cheaper than a three-star review sitting on a listing for two years. An owner should know this, and it is a fair question to put to any manager.
- A good review reply does not remove a bad review. It only limits the damage.
What should an owner take from this?
Cleaning is where homestay quality is won or lost, and it is also the easiest thing to judge from outside. If you are choosing a management company for a unit in Johor Bahru or Desaru, ask them to show you what happens between a guest's first complaint message and the public reply: who answers, how fast, what the cleaning record looks like, and what it costs you when a refund is decided. If you would like to see how we do it, tell us about your unit.
This article describes how we operate and summarises the public policies of the platforms as we understand them at the time of writing. It is not legal advice. Platform policies change, so check the current terms before you rely on them.