One benefit to having a cleaning fee is that it sets an amount to refund in case something goes wrong. Otherwise, you end up negotiating with the guest on how much the error is worth. I eliminated the cleaning fee, too, but am rethinking that decision and may make it a reasonable $100 US (our nightly rate starts at $500US).
So are you saying that if the cleaning was somehow deficient â for example, the guest complained that there was dust under the bed â that by setting the cleaning fee at $X, you would have a basis for saying that the cleaning was at least 75% completed and therefore the refund should be no more than 25% of $X?
BTW, we have rethought our âno cleaning fee policy.â In the winter we rarely get bookings for more than three days. Since the cleaning fee we charge is about half what it costs us, weâve decided to charge the cleaning fee in the winter.
Despite being an engineer by education and career, I wasnât being that mathematical. My point was thereâs at least a reasonable starting place - the cleaning fee - instead of a completely arbitrary request.
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When a guest asks for money back for a perceived âissueâ they do not care where it comes from (cleaning fee, total cost of hosting fee, etc).
A refund due to guest issues is based on negotiation.
If you got a request for refund based on âcleanlinessâ I would suggest that you make it the guestâs determination, not yours. If a guest finds dust and asks for a free nightâs stay, my response would be something like âthanks for finding this! Weâll be right over to clean that for youâ. Airbnb asks that issues be reported to the host and the host should fix.
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Hardly tanking, but when inflation and taxes go the wrong direction, people start holding their money closer and spending less of it. We arenât seeing any out-of-state guests, though.