Short term cleaning fee set to $0 by AirBnB

[Mary5092]

I had a strange situation come up. I received a last minute booking for this weekend for 2 nights but no cleaning fee was charged. We have a fairly high cleaning fee of $225 because we are set up for 14 guests and we have outsourced cleaning and laundry. We had some pretty steep discounts already because of the upcoming unbooked weekend. As you can imagine, it was a pretty big disappointment to realize we lost out on 40% of our take home income.

After looking into it, I realized there's a new "short-term" cleaning fee. AirBnB set this to $0 without our knowledge! We spoke to AirBnB support but were told "we make changes all the time and it's your responsibility to watch for them."

We quickly updated our cleaning fee, but now we're out of pocket $235.

I actually like the ability to vary the fee to make short stays more appealing but I'm shocked by how we were treated. Did anyone else have this happen to them? Was I the only one not aware?

[Erin31]

Same just happened with us, affecting 3 reservations and costing us $200 per clean. They did not make hosts aware of this change. I believe this coincided with my decision to turn Smartpricing back on after a year or so of using pricing tools. I have been on the phone with support several times. We have always had the option turned off to offer discounted short stay cleaning.

[Judy983]

Complain more to aribnb. Have all the hosts you know do it too if they experienced the same thing. I’m still going back and forth with them. Something was/is wrong. 
Has anyone incorporated a short term cleaning fee since this happened? I’m afraid to turn the setting off I case I get another 2 day booking. So I have the setting off under the listing but a short term cleaning fee of one dollar less in the calendar settings.  

[Judy983]

 

Sooooo in the last day or two guess what airbnb did? They deleted the section under the listing in booking settings about cleaning fees….

this option….

thats EXACTLY WHAT I WAS SAYING that the calendar setting and the booking setting weren’t talking to each other properly. It’s was TECHNICAL ISSUE and we deserve our cleaning fees reinbursed to us. You guys need to call them again-I have a screen shot of the picture dated Monday and if you look now for that section it’s gone. 

[Jessica3433]

I am currently trying my best to get Airbnb to take responsibility for doing this to me as well! The app clearly shows I have not ‘opted in’ to have a $0 cleaning fee for short stays. The website, however, defaulted my short-term cleaning fee to $0 without my knowledge or approval when I updated my cleaning fee (for any stay duration) back in July. I have video and images showing the website info does not match the app info and that I never set a lower short-stay fee. I most certainly did not and would not have set it to $0! I have missed nearly $3,000 in cleaning fees over the past few months and just realized what they did when I was bookkeeping this week. I am enraged.

[Judy983]

Please keep me posted with what happens. I’m still arguing with them and they keep denying any responsibility. I believe this has happened to many of us but some people don’t relieve it yet. 

Also now any issues pertaining to my case are sent to me in the middle of the night. I’m up now at almost 4 am because they just sent me an apology for replying in the middle of the night. Horrible unprofessional useless customer service for this matter. 

[Genevieve319]

Hi!

I’ve had that too except that in my case (I’m in the Netherlands), it doesn’t even say “short stay cleaning fees: 0€”,

it simply suggests to put a lower cleaning fee to attract more guests (see image attached).

I was also on the line with them just now and they refused to take responsibility. I would say, if anything, short stays are the ones for which you definitely want a cleaning fee!! It’s pretty much the same amount of work but for a smaller income…rather disruptive usually, but I keep offering shorter stays because I know sometimes one needs to book only one or two nights.

In any case, I have asked the support team to resend me the original email in which they informed me of the update.  I am waiting for it…

 

[Genevieve319]

I think it’s also worth saying that as Hosts, we usually receive updates (see picture attached), so it doesn’t make sense for them to say that it’s our responsibility to notice the changes they make…

The version of the App I am using is current and up to date (at least here in the Netherlands) and it still has the “set cheaper cleaning fees for short stay” as an option to attract more guests (see my prior reply). 

I think they made a big boo boo and are trying to avoid taking the financial responsibility… 

 

[Judy983]

You’re correct!

[Judy983]

I hope you didn’t give up on getting your money reimbursed. They’ve admitted there was a bug. They even told me I was going to get my cleaning fees but then changed their minds and said there isn’t a bug and I’m not getting the lost fees. I’m asking for an additional $500 for the time, effort and distress I’m going through dealing with them. Then an attorney will be asking for a considerably larger amount. 

[Paul10197]

Any Update from Airbnb? I had the same situation happen and have 3 reservations coming up that are missing cleaning fee. Airbnb told me to request the fee from the guests and they don’t want to help at all. 

[Judy983]

I’m still waiting for this thread to be taken down. I saved each of the hosts listings here just in case! I can’t imagine airbnb getting away with this without some lawyers getting involved. 

[Judy983]

I hope you didn’t give up on getting your money reimbursed. They’ve admitted there was a bug. They even told me I was going to get my cleaning fees but then changed their minds and said there isn’t a bug and I’m not getting the lost fees. I’m asking for an additional $500 for the time, effort and distress I’m going through dealing with them. Then an attorney will be asking for a considerably larger amount. 

[Heather-And-Gio0]

We had the SAME thing happen. Airbnb took until today to get back to us about it and after they reassured us they would either cancel the reservation or reimburse us the cleaning…. They informed us today that they were blaming it on us and not taking any responsibility.

[Heather-And-Gio0]

I just spoke with Airbnb about the 2 reservations that came on Oct 14th with no cleaning fees added, even though it was supposed to be $99. They explained that it was our fault because we used the app and the app is not as reliable as the desktop. So they advised us to only use the desktop to make these changes. I tried to explain to them that if their app glitches and makes people loose a bunch of money it is still their responsibility. I truly hope that for those of you who lost much more that the $200 we lost that they will reimburse you! It is totally unjust. We were told on a recorded line 10/14/2023 that we would either be reimbursed or have the reservation canceled because Airbnb was taking responsibility for this issue that they were aware of and that was affecting many hosts. 

[Judy983]

I have called them at least 6 different times to open a case up and everytime airbnb closes the case saying, basically, I lose. I send pictures, websites, all the proof they need and still I get treated like I know nothing. I have multiple listings and know what I’m doing. This problem is growing and they aren’t going to be able to hide it much longer.