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I run a property management business in Australia and just joined the forum.
Due to Covid, we have had to increase cleaning fees for the extra time and care that is required. What this has meant is that our cleaning fees appear quite expensive. Guests have become pickier about the cleaning and we are often dealing with refund requests, particularly for with a large portion or all of the cleaning fee.
We have often had to refund at least 50% or 100% of the fees.
What are some of the approaches that other people take in these situations?
We have had some bad experiences in the past with the resolution centre and ended up paying anyway and then also getting a bad review. I am talking about tiny things but just a very vocal guest. So therefore we try to save the review but giving a discount so that the issue doesn’t escalate.
We have also had big problems in Australia where the number of cleaners available has dropped right off as they have either not been allowed to come into Australia or moved back overseas.
Just up prices to a good “nights x price = revenue” model that works for you and eliminate or fix the cleaning fee at an attractive lower rate such as $25 US.
In the case of your business, I guess you would have to charge hosts something additional to cover your costs and make a profit.
We get it, no need to make every post sound like a sales pitch.
Sounds like you’re either trying to screw your guests, “due to Covid” or your previous standard of cleaning wasn’t too clever.
The subject of cleaning during this current health crisis has been discussed ad nauseum on here, and the opinion of many experienced hosts is that if you’ve been cleaning your property to a high standard pre Covid, the additional measures now required aren’t actually that onerous.
Sounds like you’re doing a pretty piss poor job of managing properties if you can’t even get them clean.
I suspect the majority of hosts on here don’t get themselves into “these situations” because they do their job properly in the fist place.
Maybe you should get the mop and bucket out yourself…
It seems like the cleaners are not doing a good job. After the property is cleaned, does a manager do a quick walk through? If you have so many requests for refunds, I would think that the cleaners are cutting corners, especially if no one is checking on them.
I agree, look first to your quality control. I do it myself and I’ve never had a refund request for cleaning issues. You’re not listing “Covid Cleaning Surchage” similar to those very irritating “Resort Fees” are you?
@KieranHometime
Never had a guest complain about the cleaning, quite the opposite, they usually mention in the review how immaculately clean it was.
And as John says, although I’ve been closed to bookings for a year now due to it being a home share where guests normally share my kitchen with me, cleaning to COVID standards wouldn’t involve any more time or doing cleaning any differently than I always have.
Interesting that you have a hard time finding cleaners because it sounds like all the cleaners are foreigners. Maybe you have been paying far less to these cleaners because they are from out of country and willing to work for less than an Australian and that’s why the cleaning hasn’t been up to snuff?
Honestly, your cleaning dilemmas just prove what many guests have found to be true- that property management companies don’t do nearly as good a job in the hosting dept. as hands-on hosts managing their own listings.
Haven’t seen any venom, just the usual blunt, take no prisoners, assistance that is usually offered.
The foreigners mentioned are usually international students who have been like muted at getting into the country.
The active folks in this group manage their own properites. Most of us don’t care much for property mismanagement companies because their lack of care has often given unaware guests a bad impression of AirBnB rentals.
AND this is another of the monthly posts complaining about the quality of cleaning by hired cleaners. The problem is usually that the complainant is a cheapskate.
I go back and forth between having a cleaning fee ($5-$25) and none at all. Try raising your prices a little and lowering or eliminating the cleaning fee for 3 months. You can always add it back in later. Eliminate the stress of haggling over cleaning. I’ve never had a dispute about the cleaning fee in the 7 years I’ve been doing Airbnb. Make sure your overall price is competitive and set the cleaning fee so that it isn’t a focus point.
Another thought on this subject… There’s a problem with the fee structure that Airbnb has never addressed, which is the ability to set the cleaning fee according to the length of stay. If this was a flexible option, a monthly guest would not pay the same fee as someone who stays for 1, 2 or 3 nights.
