Hi all,
I’m not looking to make money off of cleaning fees, so I charge guests exactly what my cleaner charges me. Because our target market is generally money-conscious mid-20 year olds, we try to keep our fee low and in return ask for completion of checkout items in our house rules/listing (strip bed sheets, load and run dishwasher, and throw away all trash in garage). My cleaner has only ever charged me extra twice - and the extra mess was pretty bad in both cases (trash all over the house, stains on the rug, food left sitting on the counter, etc.).
The first claim went through fine (also had other issues) but Air is telling me this is a “normal mess”. If my house rules state that extra mess might incur extra charge, why can’t I claim against the security deposit?
To boot, I tried claiming directly with the guest but am getting a website error saying I can’t claim, so it went straight to a resolution manager.
So how do you typically handle cleaning charges? Do you charge extra every time in case one guest is unruly? Do you just eat extra charges as ‘cost of doing business’? Is there a better way I can manage this within my house rules?
I guess it depends… Depends on how bad the mess is, was it really a mess or did it just feel disrespectful? How much money compared to the overall rate? Are you willing to suffer a bad review over a small amount of money?
No real answers there sorry.
RR
Thanks RR. I didn’t see it in person (just photos) but my cleaner charged me. Basically when we were first negotiating the cleaning price she wanted much more ($75 more but we settled on $175 for house that sleeps 10) but I knew guests wouldn’t go for it. So instead I told her if they don’t complete X items, track your additional time and charge me.
I do feel it was disrespectful, but so is leaving vomit near the toilet, which others have done and I haven’t gotten charged for it.
The charge was only $50 (2 additional hours) so it’s not the end of the world if I don’t end up getting it back. But it’s just more frustrating that we can set a security deposit for instances like this, but then it’s up to AirBNB whether or not we get any of it.
Yes it does suck, more reason for us to get our own direct booking websites, mine has been up a couple months and I have been using google pay per click and I am starting to get a few bookings on my own. Also I use VRBO and Bookingdotcom and I get more from those then Air. Diversify, do not depend on air for it all they just do not care about host.
RR
Would you be willing to chat with me? I’ve been thinking about adding more vendors (VRBY/BDC) and making my own website (I can create Wordpress sites). I also have my own merchant credit card account and PayPal already. Here’s an email address: lynickart@gmail.com
