What's the most graceful way of increasing the cost of a one night stay?

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For what it’s worth, I don’t want one night bookings, too much work cleaning, prepping & communicating. I have 3 night min & charge a cleaning fee equivalent to Accomm for one night for one person. I get lots of bookings & nobody ever complained & I use part of that fee to provide lollies/choc on arrival, occasionally a bottle of wine & flowers & feel much less stressed about all the cleaning when the room is left a mess (thankfully not lately, guests have been trying so hard to clean for me!)

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Thanks for the feedback, @Emily,

I’ve added a cleaning fee of Rs. 350 for now. I might increase it at some point. Or do away with 1 day booking altogether. But not right now - I’m a new host, and need the reviews. I’m not sure about a cleaning fee equivalent to one days stay. What do other people here charge?

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For our 90 square meter i have a price that start 142 dollars,cleaning fees 30 dollars

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Thanks @sylvainbg. That’s a big area.

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Our rental’s base price is $125 a night although if I’m desperate I’ll reduce it to $119. The cleaning fee is $50.

But I really DO wish that Airbnb would change it to ‘preparation fee’. That’s what it is. When you take into account laundry, fresh towels, welcome snacks, the first day’s breakfast items, bottle of wine, coffee, tea, bottled water etc., that is cheap! Then there’s miscellaneous stuff such as trash bags, toiletries, dish soap, up to date magazines, newly-laundered napkins & tea towels, cleaning materials.

Plus there’s labour on top - not just the time spent cleaning and shopping, there’s also the time it takes answering enquiries, answering pre-reservation questions AND acting as a concierge when guests are here. $50 is a bargain :slight_smile:

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Hi @jaquo,

Agreed, the term ‘preparation fee’ is more appropriate. Or possibly ‘turnover fee’. Have you tried proposing it to Airbnb? ‘Cleaning fee’ is certainly a poor summary of what is involved. I don’t do half of the stuff you mention - though we would get most of those things for guests if they wanted. Up to date magazines? Really?

Agreed, there’s a lot of overhead. And that’s for the easy guests. I imagine a difficult guest could be a lot more overhead. Though my pet peeve is answering questions from people who never end up booking. Totally wasted time…

My cleaning fee is $6. Is there a formula people using when deciding on their cleaning fee? Like x% of their daily base rate? Or do they just make up a number?

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Definitely and you’re right - we should ALL contact Airbnb for a change in nomenclature. I’ve read people (guests) who have said ‘why should I leave the place in good condition when there’s a cleaning fee?’ It a PREPARATION fee! I hate that some guests think they can leave the place in a tip because they’ve paid a cleaning fee.

Oh yes :slight_smile:

National ones like Time, Food & Drink and Travel & Life. Plus local ‘what’s on’ magazines.Because we promote the listing as Mid-Century Modern, we also have Dwell magazine and Atomic Ranch. Then (phew!) because we are markedly non-discriminatory we have magazines that are specific to African-Americans and gay people.

Even getting the magazines right can be a full-time job :slight_smile:

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So, a petition? :slight_smile:

I’ve never even thought about getting magazines. And I’m not sure people would read them if I did. Though you do charge more than I do. :slight_smile:

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You can use PriceLabs to achieve this! They allow you to increase single nights X%. They also have a few other neat tricks like allowing you to increase you nightly minimum if a guest wants to book further than X days.