A professional Airbnb cleaner says guests leave so much food behind that she saves over $100 on groceries each month
- Diana Cruz, a professional Airbnb cleaner, said there are some grocery items she rarely has to buy.
- That's because guests regularly leave unopened food and drinks behind when they check out.
Diana Cruz, a professional Airbnb cleaner in Florida, has found that her job comes with an unexpected perk: tons of free groceries.
While it doesn't happen in every home she cleans, Cruz, 29, told Insider that guests' leftovers have helped her cut down on grocery bills for her family because there are some items she never has to buy. On average, she said she can save between $150 and $200 each month.
Cruz, who's been cleaning Airbnbs full time with her husband since quitting her office job five years ago, posts regular TikToks about the gig, including all the leftovers she gets to take home. Her videos, some of which have hundreds of thousands of views, show all the things guests leave behind when they check out — like beer, wine, eggs, and more.
This summer, for example, when inflation sent the cost of eggs soaring, Cruz rarely had to splurge on the pricey kitchen staple, she said.
"Let me tell you," Cruz said. "Eggs are still kind of expensive, but when everything was going crazy with eggs, that helped us so much because we never had to buy them."
The same goes for other big-ticket items that people don't finish eating while staying in a short-term rental. Among the most typical groceries Cruz finds are butter, alcohol, sparkling water, chips, and cookies. She also said she finds tons of salad, which she chalks up to renters aiming to eat healthy while on vacation — then giving up.
In one of her videos, posted on August 10, Cruz shared some of the wildly expensive groceries that renters left behind.
The haul included two 12-packs of Bubba Burgers — which retail at about $30 a box — a 12-pack of Corona Light, two bottles of wine, two dozen eggs, two packages of bacon, and more. All of the food was left unopened.
The groceries, which easily totaled more than $100, filled the back seat of her car.
Cruz said she never keeps food or drinks that have been opened, and there are often so many leftovers that she has to give them away to her neighbors or family members. Plus, because her family doesn't drink much at home, she passes out the alcohol to anyone who wants it.
"Once they see my videos, they literally call dibs," Cruz said. "They tell me, 'Hey, can I have that?'"
Elsewhere on TikTok, an Airbnb host has shared similar videos of the wild things guests leave at her property in Miami. As Insider previously reported, TikToker @atouchofclass_miami has posted videos of the items people leave behind, ranging from eggs and butter to a Marc Jacobs tote bag.
"I'm assuming you haven't had to buy eggs or butter in months," a commenter wrote on one of the creator's videos — to which she responded: "That's true."