Speaking of cleaning, in looking at Airbnb’s to rent, I am shocked to see what I consider high cleaning fees tacked on. So, between those and the Airbnb fees, rates go up $100-$150. What starts out looking like a reasonable stay does not end that way. And, if you’re one person traveling it’s too much. I may be giving up on staying with Airbnb and I’ve probably stayed at 25 places over the years.
I understand that paying cleaning fees can be a concern, but it’s important to note that a realistic Airbnb fee can ensure their cleaning staff are paid fairly. Unlike hotels, which can distribute their cleaning costs across many rooms, a cabin in the woods often relies on ‘ad hoc’ cleaning staff who charge more for specific cleanings - and rightly so.
Would YOU clean an entire home for $25? Would YOU pay someone $25 for 4 hours of work?
I realize that financial limitations can impact choices for stays, but as a fellow host, you know that cleaning is an essential part of hosting. Some guests might see it as a cash grab, but we both know that the overall cost of lodging includes necessary fees. It’s similar to how hotels have resort fees—although it’s unlikely many people would avoid Marriott solely because of them.
Also, remember that the cleaning fee is usually a one-time charge. For instance, a $150 cleaning fee spread over a five-day stay averages out to just $30 a day.
I did all my cleaning and didn’t tack on a cleaning fee. I just think it looks deceptive to advertise something at $80 per night, when it’s more like $120 per night.
Put cleaning fee in your nightly rates and not at the end of the story.
I don’t charge a cleaning fee, but I think some Airbnbs are easier to do that with than others.
I didn’t want to ever have to clean after just a one night stay, so I’ve always had a 3 night minimum. And I homeshare, just have a bedroom and bathroom to clean for guests (plus making sure the shared areas are clean) and do the cleaning myself. And most of my guests book for longer than 3 nights. So spread out over 3 days or more, I can include my cleaning time in the nightly rate.
If a host gets bookings of approximately the same length, whether it’s one night or a week, the cleaning fee could easily be incorporated into the nightly rate.
But if a host gets bookings of anywhere from one night to several weeks, has a 3 bedroom house to clean, and may also pay a cleaner, it gets harder to include the cleaning cost in the nightly rate.
Also, an experienced host who has data over a couple of years as to the average number of cleanings they have to pay for in a year (whether paying themselves or a cleaner) could more easily average the cost out and include the cleaning fee in the nightly rate, whereas for a newer host who doesn’t have those data averages yet, it would be harder.
But there’s also something to be said for showing a guest exactly where all the money they pay is going- taxes, cleaning, Airbnb service fees, rather than thinking it’s all going in the host’s pocket.
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You do realize that the $150 cleaning fee is intended to ensure the property is properly prepared for the next guest? Dividing this fee among guests could be unfair. How would adding $40 per night for a three-night stay or a 14-day stay work to anyone’s advantage? The cleaning fee is thoughtfully set up, and most guests appreciate how it all works without feeling it’s unfair to them - and that cleaners deserve a fair wage.
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Whenever I hear a host say that, it strikes me as ridiculous, because no guest is going to think it’s fair for them to be paying to “properly prepare for the next guest”. Especially if it’s the kind of guest who stays for one night and barely makes any mess to clean up. In a guest’s mind, it makes much more sense that the cleaning fee is to ensure that they arrive to find the place has been properly cleaned and prepared for them.
And if a guest’s cleaning fee is to cover cleaning for the following guest, then it wouldn’t make sense for guests to get a refund of the cleaning fee if they arrive to find the place hasn’t been properly cleaned, would it?
The place needs to be cleaned between guests. That’s the reality- whether you say the cleaning fee charged to guest A is to make sure it’s clean for guest A, or whether it’s to clean and prepare for guest B is just semantics.
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You don’t understand what I’m saying. Put the cleaning fee in the nightly price so when you’re looking for a rental you’re seeing what the price will be. When you’re looking for a place to stay, for some of us there’s a big difference between seeing it advertised as $80 per night then you notice the cleaning and Airbnb fees jack it up to $150. I’m stating this as a single traveler.
Of course people should get paid a reasonable amount to clean. I just never added a cleaning fee to my rentals as I did it myself.
Are you saying that airbnb does NOT show the grand total, days booked, taxes, fees, etc, when you put in your itinerary? A grand total for your prospective booking?
When I hunt for an STR stay, in the end, it doesn’t matter to me if the host is charging $200 for cleaning or no cleaning fee at all. What I care about is the total amount I have to pay. My wallet doesn’t care whether there is any sort of cleaning fee charged extra or not.
Why is this such a sensitive issue? The platforms give us the option so set up fees. There is no right or wrong. Some hosts utilise the fee in order to push down the nightly rate others use it because their accommodation is very high in maintenance or very large where it wouldn’t make sense to add it to the nightly rate.
Nobody is forcing us to use it - or not. What IS annoying if there are any hidden fees. That would definitely set me off.
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So you are covered, as airbnb shows your total when you put in your itinerary. I don’t understand the anguish you have when you see what a host pays their cleaners.
The ‘day rate’ you see on an airbnb location does not account for different rates for weekends (for example); are you also ready to leave the platform because they do not show that?
Of course it does. The issue is that guests have to click on every listing that looks appealing to them and input their dates in order to see the total price. That takes a lot of time, whereas if there is no cleaning fee, they can more easily see which listings are within their budget.
Airbnb could solve this by adding something like “Cleaning, extra guest, and other fees will be added and shown after inputting dates and guest numbers” to the search pages, or “No added host fees when booking”.
Are you asking me this question?
I just stated my opinion that I only care about the total price for a stay and not if there is fee X,Y and Z included or not.
I’m confused. When I do a search for a location with its dates that I’m looking for, it already shows the total price of the stay (including fees, with or without a cleaning fee).
In the filter section a guest can set their budget, the available listings are sorted roughly by popularity and rating, they can see the images. To me, it’s fairly convenient to quickly identify accommodations that are appealing.
Hunting STR is not a 2 minute job, but the search function and its filters make it pretty efficient IMO.
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Until late summer, that was how it worked… but not having anything more than a ‘day rate’ made the Karens go nuts. Airbnb made it easy to see the totals, and that is how it is now.
The real issue here, I think, is that some guests have issues with cleaners getting what the guest feels is ‘too much’.
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I read The Atlantic and A Letter From an American - and feel sick at what I read. I generally agree with the articles.
As an Australian, I felt great dread at the approach of the US elections.
How could such a despicable man possibly get voted in?
But he did!!! Why???
I now wait in a state of numbness, to see what he will do.
So many of you wanted him though!!! Why???
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I disagree with that theory. I think very few guests are of the attitude that people, whatever job they do, shouldn’t be paid a living wage.
I think it’s more that guests tend to have an unrealistic idea of how much time it takes to clean an Airbnb to the standards that will ensure a listing can maintain 5 star cleanliness rating, don’t realize that a place needs to be thoroughly cleaned regardless of the length of stay, and that just because they themselves didn’t make a mess or did a stellar clean-up job before they left, the host can’t assume that all guests will be like that, and has to charge for cleaning based on averages. And also the misguided notion that “hotels don’t charge cleaning fees, so why do Airbnbs?” (Whereas of course hotel guests pay for cleaning, they just don’t see it listed as an added fee.)
I’ve read many threads over the years talking about cleaning fees and those are all the reasons guests give for objecting to cleaning fees- I’ve never read any guests complaining about cleaning fees on the basis that the host is paying the cleaner “too much”.
I think it is BOTH. Many times these discussions online question the costs of everything an airbnb provides; I have had folks tell me that I charge ‘too much’ for THEM and their pocketbooks! The culture of “just ask” has made questioning costs and using that to describe value normal.
Yeah, well, that’s more a matter of those kinds of guests thinking people providing services should cater to their own financial situation, rather than objecting to someone getting paid too much. They’re just self-centered and don’t consider how their entitlement affects others. And/or they think Airbnb hosts are making gobs of money and can easily afford to lower their prices.
@Muddy, you describe the process of searching for a house in a way that seems unusual to me. When I plan a trip, I start by entering the city name, the travel dates, and the number of people, rather than looking at properties first and then applying my filters for each one.
This way, the search returns only the properties that match my criteria. Over time, I’ve noticed that the results displayed on the map are often much better than the limited list of properties shown in the search results, which are influenced by the so-called ‘ranking’ system.
The results on the map are very useful because they show the full daily price, including all taxes. It’s only after selecting a specific property to view that the price is broken down into individual costs, such as the daily rate, cleaning fee, Airbnb service fee, and so on.
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@Rolf is right - you can have AirBnB show the total for your stay or show the nightly rate without fees when you search. When you choose the total, you don’t have to click on every listing.
Frankly, after all the bad press about high fees, I’m a little surprised AirBnB still supports just showing the nightly rate in a search. I would have thought they at least would have the total as the default and would make the option to see nightly rates pretty hard to turn on.
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