How To Handle Cleaning Fee Increases

What is the correct way, to handle price increases for cleaning fees?

If I have someone cleaning & they raise their rates, how do I handle this for all the guests that are already booked at the old fees? Does this just have to be paid by owner ?

I have a cleaner who is increasing the cleaning Sept. 1, 2022- Of course any new bookings will need to reflect the increase, obviously, but what about the guests that have already booked their reservations how do you handle these?

Thanks

Best way to handle this?

Yes, you pay if you agree to pay the cleaner’s new fee and wish to continue hiring your current cleaner.

It’s up to you whether you want to have a separate cleaning fee, and to have one that captures your entire cleaning fee. Discussion in this forum has touched on public attention and distaste for cleaning fees, with some guests not feeling that they should need to be as clean or tidy since they after all are paying the cleaning fee. Some guests just don’t understand ‘all’ the fees and taxes, and who gets what, with a cleaning fee just making that confusion or frustration that much worse.

Some Hosts build the cleaning fee into their daily rate, not exactly but approximately so. For example, suppose your cleaning fee were $100; your current daily rate $150, your minimum stay three nights with four nights being your average.

You could increase your daily rate to $175, eliminate your cleaning fee altogether and assuming that four nights continues to be your average stay you’d recoup the $100 cleaning fee. On stays longer than four nights you’d recoup more than your cleaning fee. On those three night stays you’d recoup less. But overall it would average out.

Food for thought.

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You don’t @KVL you obviously can’t increase the price to existing guests as a) that would be unfair as they booked in good faith based on the price you gave b) it’s against Airbnb’s T&C

Just increase pricing for future guests if you decide to keep the cleaner on or absorb increase if it would make you uncompetitive in terms of your pricing.

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Buckle up and pay the difference on existing bookings. Upcharge new bookings.
or
Do your own cleaning – it’s cheaper, and you control the level of clean.

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Many hosts include the cleaning fee in their nightly pricing. Guests don’t like the additional fees.

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If it was me, I would eat the increase for all existing reservations, and build it into future ones.

Once we agree to a reservation, we have entered a contract with the guest. In that spirit, we cannot change the terms unilaterally. In my opinion it would not be worth the risk of aggravating guests by trying to get them to agree.

YOMV, of course.

Hi all-

Yes, of course I have to leave the price for guests who have already booked-

Im just going to have to pay the different for cleaner out of my end, as she is fantastic!

Her new rates go into effect 9/1/22 -

That’s fine-

Thank u all for your input!

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