Charging Cleaning Fees. Your experience?

21

Technically not important but a HE, Ryan, wrote the article and his fiance is a woman.

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22

Part of this is the fault of Airbnb and their advertising. No?

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23

LOL! K9 you are catching way too many of my reading typos…!!! I think I need a new Rx for my contacts.

But then again, the type on this iPad is way too small. :smile:

24

I thought you assumed because of the picture of the woman, but yeah, I’m a close reader.

25

The way it was written sounded kind of prissy but I guess guys can be princesses too. Either way that guest is not welcome at my studio.

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@zeeris We are, surprise!, located in Chelsea. We could in principle do the linen – and we often do the cleaning – ourselves, but not on a same-day turnaround. Chelsea Green Valet does the laundry including ironing the sheets (which we could of course do without) in 3 hours. We also offer 2 IKEA terry bathrobes. We have 3 one-month bookings this year (4 if you count the scammer we had to sue to evict when he tried to convert an Airbnb “licence to occupy” into a sitting tenancy; we were lucky because he got violent when served with legal paprers, was arrested & bailed and that got him out).

We’re relatively new to short-term lets; we’ll learn more as time goes on. But the main thing in a crowded market is to keep the void (vacant) periods to a minimum.

27

I started off with no cleaning fee for about a month. Then I added a fee of $75. No ones ever questioned the fee and bookings have gradually increased over the 5 months I’ve been hosting.
It takes me 3 hours just to clean and make beds. Plus the time and cost to wash and dry the 4 sets of sheets/doona covers and towels for up to 6 people. Then there’s the ongoing outdoor labour: pool maintenance and gardening and sweeping paths…So I’m not making any money out of this fee. I wouldn’t consider building it into my nightly rate as I want to encourage longer stays (and less work for me!)
I also do expect people to tidy up after themselves, put rubbish in bins and throw dirty towels on the bathroom floor (they even have to lift the lid on the electrical box to leave the key on the way out!! :open_mouth: )

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28

Thats a very good suggestion. At present i request that it’s returned in the same condition as received to avoid “additional fees”.

29

You would not be able to collect any fee afterwards except for damage and even then you have to provide proof of damage. Get your money up front by charging a cleaning fee before they arrive. Think of it as a turnover fee.

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30

Thank you ALL for the responses:

@konacoconutz - in terms of requesting that they leave it clean to avoid fees, this is more to pre-empt them leave it the way the found it.

Based on what everyone is suggesting here, i think implementing a cleaning fee is needed.

@cassid: i can relate to the make up. There has been a few occasions where guests leave make-up smudges on soft furnishings. Ultimately if they don’t come out in the wash, they get binned.

@Cabinhost: I don’t know where your listing is, but i want to go and stay there :slight_smile:

@chelsea: I’ve only had 2 situations where the turnaround was same day and it’s quite manic. 3 1 month bookings? That’s impressive. Would you say this length of stay is down to your location (a superb area) or down to your pricing? Do you offer discounts for lengthy stays?
That sounds incredibly stressful re the guest you had to evict. In hindsight was there anything that might have given away the guest was that “type of guest”.

31

I charge $5, mostly since I change sheets vacuum and dust. Everyone I’ve had are wonderful and usually try to leave the room the way they found it. No problems at all…

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@zeeris The scammer ‘guest’ unlike 100% of our other guests was local. I would not accept a local booking again. I have also learned to look carefully at verifications and recently insisted that a professor from Berkeley provide more than email & telephone ‘verify’. Since I don’t have many (2 I think) reviews I can’t be as selective perhaps as I’d like. Our price is competitive with weekly & monthly discounts but substantially higher than Airbnb’s ‘suggested’ rate. We’re booked through October; after that I’ll reconsider. It’s a basement flat on a garden square.

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34

Yaay!..Spotted the Pillow guy first!

I win!!

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35

We have a winner!..

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36

Is this some game I don’t know about? Also, you’re hurting Mr. Conway’s feelings. He’s hoping to advertise his services here without being noticed. I believe this is called “sneak advertising”.

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37

I booked a 3 bed/ 2 bath home in big bears for a two nights totalling $850. Included in this transaction was a $125 cleaning fee. Upon departure I received a message from the host stating that I causes damages to her home (restroom trash can not taken out, paper left on one of the room floors, a spill on the carpet and a juice spill on one of the blankets) and requested that I pay an additional $125 for the damages. I believe those issues were not damages, but cleaning issues, and should be cover by cleaning fee that was already paid. Do you think this was fair?

38

I think this person is a totally self-centered, entitled twit. However, he/she has one valid point. According to the article [and that might be a lie], it was the morning of check-out that they received the message about the requirements for cleaning, etc. This should be part of the house rules or at a minimum, the listing narrative, not a checklist produced the morning of checkout.

This forum can say that the cleaning fee is a preparation fee all it wants to, but AirBNB doesn’t call it that. Guests don’t call it that. The perception is that it is a clean-up-after-me-fee. I think this is a problem for many reasons, but what I think doesn’t seem to affect AirBNB all that much. :wink:

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39

The spills are, in fact, an issue. They have to be cleaned with special equipment that your host may have to rent or use a service that owns the equipment. Why were you spilling juice around the space? Spills of juice, not on the table provided for eating, are not normally covered by the cleaning fee. I think the trash and paper on the floor are minor in comparison, unless you agreed in the house rules to leave the house as your found it.

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40

There was kids in the home not saying that should make the spills excusable just answering your question. Spills were not throughout the home there’s one spill let’s say the size of a saucer plate one carpet and a the spill in the blanket the size of a baseball. I could have washed the blanket myself, but there was a note on the washer and dryer stating “do not use”. An a additional $125 would have been totalling $250 in cleaning fees for minor spills and trash pick up.

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The carpet alone will take about $100 to clean. Spilling juice is not minor. Juice stains are notoriously difficult to clean and the sugar content only complicates it.

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