It’s all PR for Airbnb. He wants to be seen to be responding to concerns that have been voiced. He’s in a corner now that the cleaning fees have been displayed and can’t just hide them without looking sneaky. Another thing for hosts to accept and adjust to - Airbnb is still pretty amazing for hosts.
I try to look at things through the “corporate lens” when I hear about articles/statements like this. How would AirBnb benefit? More revenue. If you eliminate the cleaning fee (which is not subject to the fee surcharges for the guest or owner) it forces us to increase pricing to cover the cost. The daily rate becomes higher, which means the fees are higher. They make more money, we make less and the guest pays more. For guests who complain, this isn’t the way to go. The only one who wins is AirBnb.
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I believe the cleaning fee IS included in the base on which Airbnb fees are calculated. From the platform:
“Most guest service fees are under 14.2% of the booking subtotal (nightly rate + cleaning fee + additional guest fee, if applicable—excluding Airbnb fees and taxes).”
" Most hosts pay about 3% of the booking subtotal (nightly rate + cleaning fee + additional guest fee, excluding Airbnb fees and taxes)."
Eliminates the social media chatter that is anti-Airbnb = improves reputation = gets more or loses less business.
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It costs the same to bring a crew in to clean my 3 bedroom house, whether guests stay one night or a week. Guests may complain about that cost but when I travel for just one night I start by looking at hotels. If staying a week then I start with AirBnB. One night stays don’t usually make sense on airBnB unless cleaning costs are negligible as they are in some inexpensive destinations.
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Which was why we adjusted our minimum stay from 3 days to seven days three years ago. We have a location where that is possible, and that’s not true for many hosts. I also do not think we could have got away with this if we were newbies without a well-established five-star rating and a shelf full of effusive reviews.
They are very well trained – to be slippery for the benefit of AirBnb
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Wait, if we don’t charge cleaning fees like hotels, does that mean the guest needs to tip housekeeping? Like hotels?
If you visit progressive countries that pay a decent minimum wage you don’t need to need to tip anyone for anything.
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I admit, I didn’t think about that and left tips for housekeeping on our last trip abroad. I’d guess Norway and Iceland pay housekeeping a decent wage and we didn’t need to tip.
I think it depends on whether the country has a tipping culture or not, not only whether people are paid a living wage.
I was born and raised in the US, but left when I was 17, so really didn’t have adult experience there- eating out, taking taxis, staying in hotels, etc.
Later in life, when I realized how much Americans tip I was shocked, and even more shocked to find out how little some employees, like restaurant servers are paid, because I then lived in Canada.
I had an Airbnb guest who worked as a hostess in an upscale restaurant in Denver who told me she didn’t get paid any salary at all- she was expected to earn her living off of tips.
Canada has a minimum wage, which varies somewhat from province to province, and is currently from $14.75 to 16.77CAN. An employer can’t pay less than that, even if you just hire someone to do something unskilled, like dig a ditch, and regardless of whether they work in an industry where employees usually earn tips. Canada does have a tipping culture, but it tends to be 15-20%, because we know that employees get paid a reasonably decent salary, whereas Americans know their server may only be getting paid $2.50/hr. and totally depends on tips to live, so seem to tip at least 30% in a restaurant (in my experience with American friends).
Other countries may not have a tipping culture at all- customers don’t expect to tip and employees don’t expect to get tipped just for doing their job. But I’m sure that no matter where in the world you are, no one is going to be upset about getting a tip.
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We booked a tour to the Middle East- Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Our tour documents provided this information.
As Australians do not have a tipping culture, your tip has been included in the quote.
There were 4 Australians on the trip and listening to the conversation the Americans were having was a educational experience!
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I do think it’s important to inform oneself of tipping culture when travelling outside one’s own country. What can happen in touristy places where uninformed travellers tip extravagantly or tip when it isn’t common to do so, is that employees come to expect those kind of tips, which screws up the economy for residents who live there.
I was once out for dinner in my Mexican town with some friends and we discussed how much of a tip to leave, as the level of service we received was pretty poor (three servers yakking between themselves over by the bar sharing photos on their phones, not paying attention to their customers trying to get their attention, or bothering to come over occasionally to see if we needed or wanted anything)
We left a tip, but not a particularly generous one, and the servers had to balls to follow us out the door onto the sidewalk to complain that we didn’t leave a big enough tip.
How did you respond? And did you review them on Yelp? (Is Yelp a thing in Mexico?)
We told them we would have left a bigger tip if we had gotten good service. But one of our party (there were 3 of us, 2 of us being locals, the third being here on vacation), the tourist, pulled out more money and handed it to them. I sure wouldn’t have.
Never paid attention to whether Yelp has reviews from Mexico. But the restaurant was actually owned by a friend of mine, and I told her what happened and I’m pretty sure she gave those servers a talking to.
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