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They were not there in the house. I didn’t know what the house rules were. No welcome message, no instructions etc. I expect all these if the host do not plan to meet us. But this is just like going to a hostel.
At one point we thought that’s what the cleaning fee is for - to have room ready, clean kitchen and bathroom with amenities. In this case, the 2nd bed of 2 twin beds was not even made. It was done in front of me. So where was the cleaning fee that I paid applied here? I admit, this was our 3rd stay using Air.
konacoconutz -
This would surprise you. Yes, it was in Kihei! I reason I chose this unit is because of moderate cancellation policy as we didn’t know how our schedules with turn out to be. Rest of the listings had a strict policy and min 3 nights.
At 3 places, the first was a hotel, 2nd and 3rd stays are shared. Our 2nd location was also through Air. We had no problems with the host there. She had long list of rules to follow, but we obliged without any issue. There was welcome message, clear instructions to home, pointed us where to leave footwear etc. So we expected the same in Kihei as well.
OK - so Air rep did encourage me to contact the host when I called in. Does anyone think its a good idea? I am averse at this point.
I clearly do not get the idea of “Cleaning Fees”! Isn’t that what you charge rent for? If someone tried to hit me for rent and a cleaning fee, they can rent to someone else, they will never see me paying a double dipper like that!
Rent should be inclusive, you charge what you need to maintain your listing in tip top shape. I charge a Rent. This is what they get.
A large ultra clean guest room with access to clean bathroom. Downstairs they have access to a modest kitchen and dining area, and the living room
All rooms are maintained clean to a military standard. When guest leave, I strip beds and gather towels, and begin the laundry. Kitchen use is given with the understanding guests use and clean to a reasonable standard.
While laundry is going, I clean bathrooms and kitchen to perfection. Then I make beds, clean bedrooms and am ready for the next guests.
That is why I charge rent, I give those services and I get paid.
Can’t tell you how much I do not like the idea of cleaning fees? What, do you offer super low rent, and then try and make it up with fees?
You know, that is what is wrong with this country, everybody tried to use Fees to nickle and dime the consumer to death. From phone companies to banks. Now Air BnB hosts are gonna get in the act.
Flat fee for flat services, no guessing no rip offs. You pay, you get.
I guess we agree to disagree on cleaning fees. It’s not free for me to give up my day to clean (I’m a substitute teacher and not will ing to give up a day’s pay to clean, even though I can make more teaching. ) You may be in the minority James… It would be interesting to ask all the hosts here a survey question:
What’s your low season price?
High season price?
Minimum?
Cleaning?
Tax?
Monthly Discounts?
Home type:
Kitchen:
Best Amenity:
I’ll start:
What’s your low season price? $79
High season price? $99
Minimum Stay? 1 night
Cleaning? $85
Tax? 13.45%
Monthly Discounts? No
Home type: Private, separate, lockable
Kitchen: Yes
Best Amenity: Near secluded snorkeling beach; cool, quiet area.
Curious… thanks for answering about the Kihei accommodations… I guess the lesson MAY be here… you get what you pay for. Maybe they are moderate like that because they are desperate for guests… I don’t know. It’s kinda like shopping at Ross as opposed to Nordstrom. it’s really hit or miss but at least at Nordstrom you know you will get reliable quality. It’s called premium pricing.
I’m sure you don’t want to remember your Hawaii vacation at a pancake place with no clear rules or instructions.
VCurious…you could try to contact them. Apologize for having misperceived the rules, offer to pay with the $12 that was promised to you, and tell them however that you don’t believe it was worth $100 claim. If you tried Air will see that you made a good faith effort and possibly rule your way. If the pancake hosts aren’t receptive then at least you tried.
It’s never easy as a host to confront a guest either. I’m sure neither of you want a negative review. Perhaps they are not experienced hosts. Kind of sounds like it. $134 for one night in a pancake place seems like a lot in my book,
One time someone lit a mosquito coil inside my rental. Impossible to prove, and I confronted the guest through Resolution. Asked for the full $150 and the guest admitted it called my room a bunch of names and surprisingly offered $100 so I took the money and ran.
I am thinking the same. Why not just incorporate all the fees in rent price?
Cleaning for me is a part of the deal. I won’t be able to rent it out if I didnt clean it. Its a package. Why not just consider it when I name my price? Why to make it a separate charge. Especially with Airbnb where people are expected to leave their room clean and on top of that there is a cleaning fee. I understand that with separate appartments it’s much more complicated as when a person stays 1 day and you need to pay a cleaning person 50$ out of this one day. But in this case I would just make a minimum stay of 2 or 3 days.
I don’t understand why people are getting so worked up about this. When I stay in a motel, I leave a single tip for the cleaners at the end of our stay, and it’s about the same whether we’re there one day or three. As far as nickle-and-diming goes, it’s not nearly as bad as the ubiquitous “service fee” you pay - per ticket - every time you order tickets for an event. I pick out the ticket online without any help, and print it on my own printer. And then I can’t even change it without paying more fees. So what service am I paying for? I’m old enough that I can remember when you used to actually get service when you bought a ticket - and there was no charge for it. The clerk would show you a floor plan and what your options were and discuss obstructions, etc. And then you’d get a nicely printed ticket that could serve as a collectors item.
In any case, we have a single pair of rooms we rent as a unit. There are two beds. Having a different set of guests every night for a week is a heck of a lot more work than having one set that stays a week. Unless you follow the hotel standard of changing the bedding every night, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to charge what in effect is a “first night” or “bedding” fee. If you have a three-night minimum or something, then I would agree that the cleaning fee is redundant and not justified.
At this point, I’d prefer to continue to offer one-night stays, so we’ve opted for a modest “cleaning” fee (fifteen bucks). As far as actual cleaning goes, we do that continuously in an unobtrusive manner. For longer term guests, towels and bedding are changed at regular intervals for no extra charge - it’s far less of a hassle when you’re not in a panic to get it done before a new guest shows up.
As far as confusing the customer goes, this new thing of being forced to offer a percentage discount for a week or a month is worse than the previous scheme of just specifying a specific rate. For a customer comparing prices, they need a calculator now (ours got pegged at 17%). Stupid. The cleaning fee is simple.
I have a $105 cleaning fee and like you said Mo, you would lose money if you allowed guests to rent for one or two nights and had to absorb a cost like that. My minimum night stay is 2 nights, although it used to be one night. Just last week I had three different sets of guests stay. So if I absorbed the cleaning cost then that would mean $315. On the other side, if I just increased my rates by $52.50 ($105/2) a night then that would be way too expensive for people staying more than 2 nights. There is really no other way around it for the math to come out correctly.
Just FYI - I sent a long polite message to the host explaining my reasons that I have discussed here. I haven’t declined the payment yet. I have 7 hours to do that. I will decline if I don’t hear back from the host in the next 7 hours. Sounds good so far?
Yes, please let us know how it turns out. I really think the host thought he was to enter in the full amount of the damage deposit. I don’t know but if he really thinks he is entitled to $100 then he is whacko.
I also think the host --and possibly others on this thread–are confusing the $100 fee the host is claiming as damage in Resolution with the $100 cleaning fee collected at the time of booking. Two different things.
That’s why I think Air won’t side with them on this claim. You didn’t damage anything! They can’t upload a receipt claiming they had to pay someone to do your dishes.
I think the host is new at this and does not get it.
I have a full studio apartment…kitchen, BBQ, patio area. It’s a lot to clean…not just one room. It takes me four to five hours to do it right.
I hear Billy’s theory that a fee will encourage messiness…the idea that because the guests have already paid a fee for cleaning they get to leave a mess. It’s just not true. In 5.5 years of hosting, and of me charging $85 to clean, I’ve never had people leave a mess because they felt entitled to it. Only one doofus --a newbie Air traveler-- asked why he couldn’t leave a mess because he paid a fee! And complained in a review about a cleaning fee he knew about and agreed to. I explained that the fee was to ready the apartment for his arrival not to clean it after he left. Dumb bunnie. Everyone else, 99.9%, have left things nearly spotless… The ones who pay a fee and understand it are generally going to be top tier guests.
You can’t use college behavior as a metric Billy. My son wrote me on Sunday that someone had partied too much of their four suite mates and tossed their cookies in the toilet room. No one would claim responsibility and they all let it go all day before the culprit came and cleaned it up. I got the update by text all day long. “mama the puke is still there.” I even got photos! You do things in college that are not relatable to grown up life! Thank goodness.
I have no minimum but try to talk guests out of one night. It’s just not a good value. But I won’t waive a fee just because a guest stays one night. Whether they stay one night or three weeks, I clean the same.
By the way I’m under $100 most days of the year except for Christmas week.
I didn’t realize the clock was still ticking while you are having the discussion. You did your part. Give him a chance to respond and if he doesn’t do it soon, decline. Remember Hawaii is several hours behind the mainland.
I hope it works out to your satisfaction. Everyone will learn something. Maybe Dad and his pancakes will stay out of the way of the next guests. Or just go to Zippys for breakfast while guests are staying.
Kona, I do cleaning myself. With changing bed and cleaning it doesn’t take me more that 40 min. I look at it as part of my whole hosting job. I understand what BillyBob means. The separation of your cleaning time and rental.
I look at it as I provide: clean sheets, water, gas, toiletries, towels and cleaning . I am not charging extra for other things,why cleaning is separate?
I was a bit surprised to hear in my early years of travelling with Airbnb that a host charges me 30$ to clean and thenit appeared he does a job himself.,so, basically he is paying extra to himself for doing something he will have to do anyway, otherwise he won’t be able to rent the room out.
Most of my guests are very clean, rooms are always left in order. Sometimes I get very messy guests , and I just sigh and go on with my cleaning. The last guy left popcorn all over the floor and bed and spilled juice even on walls.
I am surprised a weekly maid would wash dishes when you were in college. The housekeepers I know will wash up a few glasses left in the sink but washing a week’s worth of dirty dishes (or even one day’s worth of dirty dishes) is not something they include in their price. They come in to dust, vacuum, wash floors, and clean bathrooms. Any “messes” that the family leaves are just kind of tidied up in piles.
Yana… It IS work though. Why should any work be unpaid?
On the days where I have back-to-back cleanings, I have to turn down substitute teaching jobs. Teaching pays $160 per day. The cleaning pays $85. So I’m losing money to stay home and clean. If I’m out of town, I have to pay a friend or relative to clean it in my absence. So cleaning is not really free.
I just had a guest ask to shorten their stay by two days. I agreed to split the difference and refund one day. It worked out for both of us, because it eliminated the back to back cleaning. Now I can take a teaching job on that day and make almost double what I would cleaning.
If I were only offering one room in my home it would be different. I might charge less or no cleaning. But I have a full apartment to clean and I do the yard work also so their view of the ocean is not compromised by a weed pit. With all the rain we’ve had, I have to weedwhack at least twice a week sometimes more because the weeds can grow two to three inches a day in the tropics!!!
I have one price year round. Cleaning is simply part of your overhead. I figured cleaning costs as overhead and this is included in my rental fee. Each party who stays is roughly equal in my costs. I do all my own cleaning, my labor is paid for out of the rents.
I just don’t see a need to add a fee onto the rent, when simple math tells you your overhead cleaning costs.
So my guests see Rental Price, and that is it.
Don’t people who pay a Cleaning Fee then feel “heck, I paid for it, so who cares what a mess I make”. That is what I would fear, charging this fee would make people care less, While if it is included in Rent, they would not feel that way.
