I own a rental space. I never hire cleaning services because it would be bit expensive. I have employed people to do the cleaning. Having said that there are people who hire professional services for the glazing finishing. I always ensure cleanliness for my tenants. I always prefer steam vacuum cleaning. Normal dusting is not at all practical since you won’t get rid of all the dust. I don’t compromise on accessories needed for cleaning, yet I do it at a reasonable rate. I usually buy vacuum floor shampoos from Vacmaster, vacuum system toronto. There are many brands available in the market like the Electrolux, Eureka, Euroflex to mention a few. It is for you to select the best brand for your homes. Check out for more such brands at https://www.the-vacmaster.ca/central-vacuum/ . Choose the one that fits your requirement.
I just started charging a cleaning fee, $5 for the private room/bathroom. Nominal fee but it does cover cost of laundering and a few minutes of my time.
I used to have this. I changed it to a additional £5 per person after the first guest.
Incorporating the cleaning fee into the nightly rate penalizes longer stays (& rewards 1 night bookings). That’s exactly the opposite of what I want to do so I always have a cleaning fee.
My first trip to England I took a cab from Heathrow to Knightsbridge and the cabbie almost died when I gave him a $60 tip. 
Now when I go,I take the Piccadilly line in like a normal person and know better than to throw away money on tips.
Whaat. $60. HAHA. they’re lucky to get drunk change from us brits. 
LOL @konacoconutz. Yep, it’s different here in the UK. We tip less and tend to get annoyed at hidden extra costs like cleaning fees. I don’t charge a cleaning fee. It’s included in the overall price and also I feel like it may make people think they can leave a mess because they paid an extra charge.
Almost fell off my chair reading this. £60 is so much money! It’s about what I make a day in wages! But yeah, no one tips here.
Sorry it was USD $60… £30 at the time. My bad. But yeah, I only did that dumb thing once. 
You’ve got to be in a major city like New York or San Fran. $40-$80 is absolutely insane for a ‘cleaning fee’ in my opinion. I believe you haven’t had to deal with less than spectacular domiciles and thus are used to people ‘expecting’ a cleaning fee.
If I stay a single night in a Condo where the rate is $150 a night it’s ludicrous to charge $80 to clean the place after I leave. It would 100% ensure I do not stay there. The cleaning fee appears to be used by some to squeeze out extra money per visit. As you said, some people apparently ‘expect’ the fee and thus don’t consider it when looking at all the options.
It does not cost that much to clean a place after a single night. If hotels are able to maintain their linens, bathrooms, and maintenance AND give a single rate there is no reason that Air BnB hosts cannot do the same. The cleaning fee feels like a sham.
OK. I have always maintained that the ‘cleaning fee’ should be referred to as the ‘preparation fee’. Hotels DO charge a ‘cleaning fee’ because they have to pay their housekeepers. This is all added to the cost of a hotel stay (also the parking lot, pool maintenance, spa costs and so on, but hidden within the rate).
It most certainly does involve a lot of work to prepare a place after even a one night stay - thorough cleaning, clean bedding and towels - and remember that hotels buy bulk (cheap) items that are not available to Airbnb hosts. Add laundry costs, cleaning materials and labour costs - but remember, you can always choose a place without a cleaning fee if you wish.
I have stayed in many hotels over the years but have never found that they’ve been supplied with free wine, fruit, snacks, handwritten welcome notes, customised itineraries and all the other little extras that Airbnb hosts provide.
I suggest that you stick to hotels.
And remember all those TV horror shows about cleanliness standards in hotels…
@Jackulas, I’m sympathetic to your not charging a cleaning fee, for the reasons you mentioned. We used to not charge one either. Then we added a $25 fee and it didn’t hurt bookings a bit. So we figure if people are willing to pay it, we’ll charge it. Also, on Airbnb it is very common, so Airbnb guests are pretty accepting of it… I think because they realize they’re getting a great deal compared to a hotel.
But because of the cleaning fee, we love the short stays, like 1, 2 and 3 nights. After reading what I’ve read here, we might try raising it to $35 and see what happens.
@airhostuser, You say it doesn’t cost that much to clean, but you obviously have no idea. You’re taking into consideration the TIME involved. Although my wife and I do it ourselves, it takes 2 of us 3 hours to get the apartment ready for a new guest. I’m talking a THOROUGH cleaning. That’s 6-man hours.
You saying $40 is absolutely insane, is saying $6.67 an hour is insane. Come on! Right now we charge $25. But if we had to pay somebody to come in and do it they’d charge us at least $60. So our guests are actually getting a great deal and we’re making a little extra.
You want your Airbnbs to be spotless don’t you? How do you think they get that way? It takes a LOT of work. We’re not just talking about the cost of laundry soap you know.
Remember too wear and tear. Towels, bedlinen and other items have to be replaced frequently because of inconsiderate guests, We do not get the huge discounts that hotels have.
Every time I read loady’s posts, I am reminded of the saying “Do not feed the troll.”
Oh I see. So I am in Hawaii, where the going rate for cleaning is $25 an hour if I had to pay for it. Which I do A LOT when I am out of town. It takes a minimum of 5 hours to clean and do the yard, patio and garden before guest arrival.
If guests want to book one night they can, but clearly that is not a good value at all. If they are here five nights, it’s amortized over the period and is more reasonable. If you want to stay “one night” in a condo and don’t want to pay their cleaning fee, may I suggest the friendly motel 6.
And by the way I am not a hotel, so to compare me to a hotel is, in your words, “absolutely insane.”
Hotels make thousands and thousands every night on their rooms and can absorb all the costs you mention and still make a profit. I make $99 per night. It’s not free for me to live here, so I ask you,
Why do I not deserve to be paid for my work?
Please do not book my place in Kona Hawaii. You are the type of non-appreciative cheapskate none of us want to host.
Oh is this Loady!? I thought he was gone. 
Obviously no one here knows what a Internet Troll is. I’ll enlighten everyone as to not cause confusion. Internet trolls post controversial ideas which they themselves do not typically believe, however, they are posted as to elicit rage or negative emotions.
I’ve done no such thing. And here’s why; I stand by what I’ve said. Your charge a rate for a room. You are getting paid for your work. That’s your fee to use the domicile. It’s absurd to then charge to clean your own property. You aren’t a maid working for some real estate company. You own the property AND profit from it. The fees should reflect the cost of maintaining the property including cleaning it.
I guarantee this concept will not last. And thank you for proving I was correct in my assessment of where your property is located. Your cleaning fee probably amounts to 5% of the average fees for your guests stays.
When hosts are posting fees of $150 a night, then accept 1 night stays it’s unethical to then charge a $80 cleaning fee. The fees for upkeep, including cleaning should be apart of the fees. Businesses have figuredo out how to build these costs in for decades. Just because no one here has thought to do so doesn’t mean it’s a sound business decision. Charge what you want obviously.
When my wife and I went to St Lucie and booked over a week in a private hut everything was included even a butler. There’s no cleaning fee… It’s absurd.
To the person saying their time shouldn’t be paid; guess what you ARE GETTING paid. That’s why yo7 charge X a night. It’s like tiping the owner of a massage therapist when she performs therapy. She gets all the revenue. She has to determine what profit margins she wants and not expect to charge a fee for her services AND then get tipped…
You own theyes places. I say this with respect; learn marketing, take a business course. The other poster has a luxury vacation spot… its like I said. She doesn’t get what airbnb is all about as she’s running a vacation “hotel” not a residential stay over night on short notice business which is most of airbnb.
Youre living in a different world. I respect your decision to charge whatever you want but youvery already had myself AND one other random person mention how the cleaning fees deter customers. Don’t take your luck/good fortune and attempt to apply it to others.
Calling someone a Troll demonstrates your lack of maturity and ability to logically and reasonably respond to what I’ve said. Thank you for that for I know that Ive made a sound argument which you can’t rebuke.
Learn Internet definitions before using them.
This website comes up easily with Google. Perhaps the owners shouldn’t be allowing all the forum posts to be crawled when it’s only about hosting. I had not actually realized that based on all the different types of posts here. Air Hosting is a business market which is comprised of hosts AND guests… it’s not obvious this site is Only dedicated to hosts.
I do think that AirBNB has configured the guest interface so that the price with cleaning included shouldn’t be a surprise. The dollar amount that you see when hovering over a calendar date AND you have entered a start and end date, shows the net amount per night. The surprise happens when someone is reviewing places without entering the reservation dates.
Any extra person charges also show, but only when you have entered the correct number of people.
In general, when I have rented apartments in Europe [never through AirBNB] there is a cleaning fee associated with the nicer properties. I now expect it, but do look for a cleaning fee that seems fair based on the average cleaning fees in that general area. I have chosen to charge a nightly fee that is all-inclusive. I wish that I had more options for fee breakdowns on the AirBNB platform.
So, I am not disagreeing with you, but I can not agree either. As to the focus of this forum, the name of the domain is air hosts forum, so I do think it is fairly obvious that this is a water cooler for hosts.