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We used to incorporate the cleaning cost into the rental MANY years ago. Then I found that our nightly rate appeared higher because of it so I lowered the rate and added the cleaning cost. Airbnb since changed how the rates are shown, which is better.
We offer a 4000 sf home and the fee is $400 for a 24 man-hour cleaning - which happens to be the $1 /10sf rate that was suggested by @Miyima . So even at that rather high fee, here in Canada the cleaning fee is subsidized.
We ask people to leave the kitchen as found (it still always requires at least an hour to perfect) and we charge extra âby the hourâ if the kitchen was far from original condition.
I appreciate hearing your perspective that you would prefer to have the fee absorbed into the cost of the rental rather than an added fee. We already have discounts for longer stays, so it would now be easy to re-introduce that on the Air platform. I believe it will help encourage guests to leave the place better since they arenât paying a direct cleaning fee.
Usually only when itâs something which is advantageous to guests and generates more bookings. If itâs only something that affects hosts, I donât see them taking almost any of those suggestions on board.
Yes. There is an area on their website that you can give feedback. I used to give a LOT of feedback and theyâve actually implemented a few suggestions.
I find this interesting since (1) bottom-line price is whatâs important (2) even when the bottom-line price is the same there are situations where a cleaning fee will be refunded when the nightly rate will not be, so it would work out better for guests in some situations.
Iâm not sure what you mean by âif necessaryâ because cleaning and preparation have a very real cost and cleaning and preparation are absolutely necessary.
Additionally, if a host is being fair about incorporating the cleaning fee into the nightly rate, then they have to base it on the average number of nights stayed. Since you wonât stay at a listing with a cleaning fee, I assume you believe hosts are being fair when they incorporate it. Airbnb has published information that the average Airbnb stay (worldwide) is about 3 days, so basically, if you stay at a listing without a cleaning fee, and you stay less than 3 days, youâre getting a deal, but if you stay longer than 3 days, youâre paying too much. Iâm curious where your stays have fallen and whether you are OK with part of your nightly stay paying for other guests cleaning or whether youâre OK with other hosts of that guest paying for your cleaning?
To be clear, Iâm not talking about hosts that are just adding a cleaning fee for profit, but hosts that are calculating their cleaning costs based on labor and supplies, etc.
How does this work? Do you have all single beds and only make the number of beds that match the guest count? If not, what prevents 3 guests from sleeping in 3 double beds or what prevents 2 guests from sleeping in 4 single beds just because they want to try them all out?
Neither if these are true. Cleaners definitely can and do charge by sqft. I have also seen cases where cleaners are plugged-in to the Airbnb system as cohosts and they charge (or surcharge) by the guest count. I donât know how practical this is, though. The biggest problem with guest count should be obvious: one slob can make more of a mess than 6 normal guests, regardless of sqft.
However, I think what youâre generally saying is the ideal case, where to be fair, hosts should charge a guest for actual cleaning time. In theory, that would encourage guests to clean up after themselves to save themselves real money, and it would probably work with some percentage of guests. However, we all know that it isnât practical because (1) the cost wouldnât be known until after the fact and (2) messiness/cleanliness are subjective (3) greed (whether it be on the part of the guest, the host or the cleaner).
If I were to charge cleaning fees by historical experience at my places those with shorter stays would be charged higher cleaning fees than those with long stays. Iâm wondering if those that stay a month or more tend to clean all along, as this is where they live. While those there a short while can live around any mess they make. But all and all, it evens out.
We charge $130. We donât mark it up, not a profit center for us. Lately weâve been giving more attention to cleaning. We spend at least four hours, usually five. Plus we have âdeep cleaningâ projects throughout the year now to really get it super clean. So, $140 does not seem too much to me. Like you, we donât charge for the yard work, which is considerable. Our feeling is that we lose money on the cleaning and just suck it up. If we thought that the market would bear more, weâd like to charge as much as it costs but for especially short stays like 3 days it âfeelsâ too much. Yet there is as much work for a short stay as a long stay but perceptions matter.
I find that it costs us pretty much the same if guests are clean or messy. Sure, some can make a mess that takes HOURS to clean, like melted wax on fireplace and floors. But with an exception for that we go through the same procedures for each stay, and itâs time consuming, about the same time per stay, with periodic deep clean projects throughout the year.
I agree that it does not make sense to build the cleaning fee into the daily rate because the length of stays vary so much. We have many 3- and 5- day stays but also 7- and 14- day, one 39-day stay.
