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No… I think that would be confusing, plus you don’t have control over for which reservations the so called short stay fee is added. It’s simply just part of the booking when it is made.
I spend About five hours cleaning my studio and the property for every guest. Doesn’t matter if it is one night or 20, the same effort goes into it. If they do not wish to pay the cleaning fee, they are free to not book with me. If they ask if the fee can be removed, I decline them. Of all the things that seem to bother guests, paying a cleaning fee is not one of them.
I think this is an endless question. In my opinion, cleaning should be included in the overall price. It is not an “extra” service, it’s a given. Why should a guest care how much time it takes to clean a place? The place should be clean, end of story, and the cost of doing that should be incorporated into the total price.
It would be better to give hosts more options of increasing prices per night according to numbers, imo.
To each his own. We will hav to agree to disagree. If it were a horrible thing or something deceptive or a rip,off it wouldn’t be included in the Air breakdown of things you can add. It’s standard for vacation rentals to be cleaned. And for that fee to be paid by the guest. It’s part of what the guests pay for in deciding to rent a separate unit. But maybe in England it’s not as common as here?
@magwitch I think the reasons why some charge a cleaning fee have been well explored. I’ve mentioned before that cleaning and laundering the sheets cost me £15 each time because I use the laundrette to wash, dry and press them. The only way I can fairly attribute the cost related to this is to charge a cleaning fee.
I’ve been charging a cleaning fee since day one and did have 5 stars for value (until crazy guest who wanted a whole London flat for £32 a night came to stay and gave me ones across the board. To be honest I should thank crazy lady she’s the reason I’m removing extras altogether from my listing.)
I have never had a complaint about my cleaning fee. Not even a comment in a review. I only charge $45 and I have 2 beds to change and offer free cleans and sheet change weekly (guests rarely take it up). I paid a $120 cleaning fee for a one night stay in 2 bed apartment in Bordeaux which was $350 a night and worth every cent. It was divine.
How much (%) is your cleaning fee against your price per night?
I have seen places that charge for the cleaning fee almost the same that what they charge for one night and it looks expensive for me.
My price per night is £32 and my cleaning fee is £20. That makes a one night stay at my place around £55 including fees. Still way way less than the Hilton on my road that charges £220 and marginally more than the YHA on my road that charges £20 per person to sleep in bunks with up to 10 other people.
I used to charge a cleaning fee but have recently changed my rates to price more like a hotel and roll the cleaning fee into the nightly cost, in order to average it out over each night for the month. I also made a base rate and then added an extra guest fee of $10 per night to cover additional cleaning for more than one bed being used. This way I can accommodate fairly all size groups.
So the one night guests actually end up getting a better deal and the longer term guests get a worse deal. This isn’t really fair, but in my particular case I attract a lot of one night guests (especially last minute) so I encourage one night stays, whereas others might not. I needed a way to lower my cleaning fee so as not to discourage one night stayers from helping me to fill my calendar. It seems to be working fine as this was my most lucrative month so far.
In one property I have 3 beds/rooms. My cleaners charge me $30 to clean the house + 1 room, $40 to clean the house + 2 rooms, $50 to clean the house and all 3 rooms.
I charge a base rate for 1 person. Then I charge $10 extra per guest. If two people only use one bed, then I pocket the extra $10. If they use two beds, then it covers the cleaning fee. If I get 6 guests paying an extra $50 then that covers the whole cleaning fee, so all the better for me.
I’ve never had a cleaning fee, mainly because nobody else around here seems to charge one and I don’t want to put us below the competition (and there is a lot). We get probably 95% one nighters and I’m happy with the rate we charge. Whenever someone books more than one night it’s just a bonus.
I’m with @Magwitch and see cleaning as just one small part of the service I provide, it makes sense that’s it’s automatically included in the rate. Maybe it’s cultural, like tipping? Tipping is expected in the USA, ‘nice to do’ in the uk and almost unheard of here in NZ.
I used to not charge an additional cleaning fee, either. But I had the opposite experience as you - when more and more rental homes started popping up they all had additional cleaning fees. That made my initial rate appear to be more expensive. I started comparing my final rate to others and mine ended up being less as the final tally.
So in order to get more views I had to lower my rate and add the cleaning fee. It did actually make a difference. Many people don’t have the patience to go through and see which listings include cleaning and which don’t.
When people look at our direct site all fees including cleaning are still included in the rates. It’s only on the booking engines that I charge an additional cleaning / turnover fee.
I base our cleaning fee on $15 per hour for labour, plus the actual cost of supplies and gas. If I hired cleaners my cost would be double.
Well for me, there’s not just my time to take into account. I use the ‘cleaning fee’ mainly to stock the apartment with amenities such as toiletries, coffee, tea, arrival snacks (and bottle of wine), a few items for the guests’ first breakfast, plenty of loo paper and paper towel, fresh flowers (sometimes from the garden but sometimes from the supermarket) plus things like fresh dishsoap etc.
Before I get a flood of replies telling me I’m daft for doing all that, it’s just my hosting style.
I know it’s not for everyone. It works for me but I realise that it wouldn’t for others.
Edited to add: I realise that these things would make no sense for one night stays but most of our guests stay for at least four days, often two weeks. So it’s worth it for me.
I’m with you and have a cleaning fee for the same reason. These things aren’t built into the nightly price. The nightly pr ice is the nightly price. All the cleaning and all the stuff you name are extra.
Late back to this thread (chest infection and broken toilet - don’t ask )
I would counter your argument for the cleaning fee with why should guests pay more for amenities that you either a) state are provided in your listing or b) things that they might not even want (eg. bottle of wine). In both cases, it is no longer a ‘cleaning’ fee but an ‘amenity’ fee. So, as a guest, I would appreciate that being waived when I don’t need any toiletries or flowers or wine - I just want a bed.
I do get what you say @Zandra about a cleaning fee making it financially worthwhile for one-night stays. But, again, the additional fee should be called something other than for ‘cleaning’. It would be good if Air gave some more flexibility over pricing option.
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