Ep 61 - Interview with Superhost and STRA Business Owner: Usha

**Ray** (0:00)
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All right, welcome to this week's episode of Superhosts Down Under. This week, we have Usha on the call. Welcome to the show.

**Usha** (1:15)
Thank you so much, Ray.

**Silvia** (1:17)
Welcome, Usha.

**Usha** (1:18)
Thank you, Silvia.

**Ray** (1:20)
And before we get into your story, we're going to do our weekly topic. Silvia, what's our weekly topic?

**Silvia** (1:30)
Well, Ray, you told me recently that you moved your Airbnb property to using a laundry service. And I'm just really curious on how that all came to be.

**Ray** (1:45)
Yes, indeed. So I have a co-host that manages my Airbnb, as I mentioned on different episodes, and how it works is before we used an internal service. So I would have to buy the laundry, the linens, multiple sets of it, which is a lot of work because then if one gets stained, then they have to take one out of circulation, and then I have to go over and order it, and then I get an invoice or I have to buy them, drop them off, and linen will always wear out. And so I dealt with it for a while, and then I was speaking to my co-host to improve this, and we haven't improved it yet, up until recently. And there was an incident where I received a notification from Airbnb that said, we received a four-star review. And like four-star doesn't feel great, but also I was curious what happened. And it was a guest who stayed from New Zealand who noted that the place wasn't very clean, and there was hair on the linens and on the towels, and I was surprised. And then so I asked my co-host, and my co-host shared with me all the photos of the cleaning. So definitely the apartment was clean.
But there were no photos of like the linens, how they were, the bed was made or the towels, just that there were towels there. It wasn't zoomed in to show the quality. And so I wrote to the guest, and I've mentioned this on the show is that sometimes people might not understand the impact of their actions, like that giving you a four star really lowers your overall rating, if you don't have that many ratings. So I wrote to them and said, would you reconsider this rating because we took photos and we actually cleaned the unit. And she said, no, here are the photos of the hair. And she showed me all these photos in the bathroom and bedroom. And I don't think someone would stage putting hair on the thing because she didn't even ask for refund, she just took photos.
But at the same time, I do ask guests and guests the next day if there's anything they need or if they have any issues with the unit and she didn't write anything. So I just thought it was fine.
But then she also, when she sent the photos, said, I was so tired, I didn't have time to send you the photos, but like, this is really what happened and I don't feel comfortable changing my review. And I said, OK, like, and then I talked to my co-host and we've moved to a linen service where it's similar cost. I don't buy the linens, but the linens get delivered, like washed, and then when they're stains, they get taken out of circulation and just get another set. And it's a company that just, that's all they do. Hotel linens, they just give you a set. That's all they do. They all look the same, just like hotels. And that's great because there's more quality control in this. It's like, it's all wrapped up. So sure, some things can happen, but it's done at such large scale. Instead of me having cleaners take my set of laundry back to the other place, because you can't wash and dry the linens within the time you turn over the unit. So they won't wash it in the unit. They have to take it away, clean it and bring it back. And it's just another thing that a cleaner has to carry. And it's not worth the time to like take it back, wash it, and then like repackage it themselves after the cleaning session. So just easier for them to get fresh ones, put the dirty ones all together, and all the dirty ones get through into the cleaning service. And so I think the lesson I learned there is, you can be really, you can be good at resolving issues when they come up and try.