"Cleaning Fees" listed separately, deceptive AirBnB

[Nu0]

AirBnB is a joke with published rates. Hosts lowball on the nightly rate, then charge $70 for a cleaning?  That's for one night or 5.
Looking at a room in Nassua, $80 for the night, $69 cleaning = $149. Seriously, pathetic excuse for transparent pricing.

This site asks us to be nice to each other, how about being nice to travellers by being honest. Any Host can lowball the rate and rack up the cleaning fee. Anyone else agree this is deceptive?

They need to include all fees in pricing. 

Another host lists a $100 fee and $29 cleaning fee = $129.

It's impossible to compare without going through each listing.

And this is a good service?

[Leah96]

I am depating whether or not I want to book a place with similar rules. The price per night is $159 with a $75 cleaning fee. This wouldn't seem so high if I was staying for a week or more, but for one night it gives me pause. Especially because the listing states that the guest must wash and dry all towels and bed linens before checkout at 11am. 2 beds plus towels for 4 people mean we'd have 2 or 3 loads of laundry to do. Who wants to get up at 7am to do chores on vacation? Especially when you're paying a $75 cleaning fee! The house rules also state the guest must take trash out, clean dishes, and leave the property as they found it. These are things that I would have done regardless, but again make me wonder what the cleaning fee even covers.

I think that Airbnb could implement a more thoughtful and comprehensive cleaning fee. Perhaps they could take into account things like: length of stay, reviews of each guest (people who have glowing reviews from past hosts vs people who have left homes in a bad state), how much additional cleaning the host is asking the guest to do, etc. 

[Matthew285]

@Leah96 requesting that the guest to do the laundry is very unusual; I don't think I would book that place for that reason alone.

There are many reasons AirBnB does not get involved with the setting of the cleaning fee, but the biggest one would probably be this: AirBnB isn't the one doing the cleaning, so they have no idea what is involved.

The way it is done now makes the most sense: let the person doing the cleaning (or hiring the cleaner) set the price.

[Gord4]

The cleaning fee covers extra money for the host.  

[Lisa723]

@Nola7 I hope you reviewed the stay accordingly. My cleaning fee is $60, which goes directly to my house-cleaner. She spends on average 2 hours cleaning, and I am committed to paying her a living wage. We do not expect guests to clean the place themselves.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

Was the list of required duties in the house rules or clearly described in the listing?  If not they can't just add it on without warning.  I would have spoken to the host about it.  I would have said  that they need to inform guests before they book that they will require this. 

We don't charge a cleaning fee.  We do ask guests to do their own dishes if they cook or use the kitchen.  We do ask them to separate their recyclables from their trash (because it is quite unpleasant to have to go through a bag of garbage with coffee grounds, banana peels and eggshells in order to pull out cans or bottles.) 

Other than that we hope that polite people will leave the space in nice condition but we expect to do the cleaning ourselves.  We don't leave them a list of things they have to do.

[Aruni8]

I agree with majority of the guests on here.  I really used to enjoy using Airbnb, but I've had a few bad experiences that cause me to take a break from the site.  Some of you are accommodating, reasonable hosts and most of my stays have been great.  With that being said though, I never quite understood the cleaning fee charge because some places don't charge it at all and they have all kinds of amenities and breakfast in the morning, some charge a small fee which is still understandable, and others seem to charge a ridiculous amount on top of a weekend rate, and expect you to leave the place as you found it and not even have added perks.  The last one, I don't get at all and that's the one I've unfortunately come across as @Nola7 had.  I've been on the receiving end of experiencing price injustice a handful of times now and feel that I shouldn't have been charged a cleaning fee majority of the times.  Some of you hosts try to justify it by stating that you're covering the charge of your cleaning person, you're not a hotel, etc...sure.  But in the end, you're also competing against the hosts in your neighborhood who have somehow figured out not to charge a cleaning fee or to keep in under $50.  What's your rebuttal then?

I recently rented a three bedroom, two bath house that charged a weekend rate of $190/night plus $120 cleaning fee for two nights!  We decided to book it instead of a hotel (which would've been less) because my friend decided to bring her dog.  So, I thought fine: gated community = safe, house = more room for the dog inside and out, we're splitting the cost between four of us...whatever.   The listing mentioned that you had to take your trash out at checkout.  Still, didn't think anything of it because I didn't know where we were staying in relation to where the "Members Office" was.

After checking in, we realized where we were staying in relation to where we had to take out our trash, and it wasn't a convenient walking distance.  It became unclear as to why we were being charged over $100 on top of a weekend rate that was already high (which is $55 more each night).  If someone was coming in to change the sheets, clean the bathroom, etc., why couldn't that person have taken the trash out?  It would've made sense to request this of us if we stayed for over 5 nights because trash accumulates, but for two nights? And there were more requests that weren't even covered in the house rules on Airbnb.  At checkout I went down the long list of to dos and took out all of the trash from each room, brought it to the dump site, washed all the dishes used, and more, and left it almost as clean as check-in.  I think in that situation, the weekend rate should've included the cleaning fee.  It's absurd to charge $190/night plus $120 and ask guests to "leave the house in the same condition as check-in".

That wasn't even the worst experience.  I stayed at a place once that looked nice in pictures (advertised as a luxury apartment in a prime location) to justify the higher nightly rate and charged a cleaning fee.  When I got there, the apartment was filthy: dust bunnies the size of shoes, trash was piled up by the door, pee stains on the bathroom floor and side of toilet, the bed wasn't even made, and there was only one towel for two guests!  She also had a roommate that was inconsiderate.  They turned the living room into a bedroom (which I was unaware of because it wasn't in the pictures or the description), she spoke extremely loud on the phone at all hours, and stayed in the only bathroom for hours.  On top of that, I was asked to remove my sheets, wash that and the towel at checkout!  I shouldn't have even bothered after my **bleep**ty experience, but I'm an extremely tidy and considerate guest.  That was the most horrific Airbnb experience and the first time I had to involve the resolution center because she wouldn't refund the cleaning fee after all that.

Point being, after my rant, if you're going to charge a cleaning fee, keep it reasonable.  We're already paying a nightly rate and a service fee.  If you're worried about getting sketchy guests, then charge a refundable deposit for incidentals.  Some guests don't have issues with paying cleaning fees and weekend rates...great for those hosts.  Others that are complaining are because we've had bad experiences with hosts that don't justify the cleaning fee.  Others also feel that Airbnb needs to update certain features for both the host and guest user experience. 

[D12]

All of my $75.00 cleaning fee goes to cleaning. I have two properties on Airbnb with a two night minimum stay.  It all goes to my cleaner except for $10 which I use to pay clening products and washing powders. It’s worth every penny! I know that my homes are clean and all sheets, spreads etc are spotless when they are cleaned. 

[Joseph272]

Calm down! Have you ever been a host and cleaned someone’s nasty towels or sheets? Have you had to buy large quantities of cleaning supplies, toilet cleaners, shower scrubs, launder fees for large comforters, and pay a living wage to a regular cleaning person? I say calm the f down. If you don’t like it stay at a **bleep** hotel! The fee is charged to offset costs incurred with cleaning after some sloppy guests (not all are sloppy) but geez, do you work for free at your job or minimum wage? Calm down!

[Ann600]

Just add it to the nightly stay instead of putting it in as a fee. After all, the places should be clean upon arrival. You can charge whatever you'd like, but don't act like it's such a chore to present your guest with a clean and sanitary place. It's to be expected. Geez.

[Ali10930]

Derp- that's called being a host and renting a room out. 

[Debra161]

I have a large house 3 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 stories.  I tried to incorporate the cleaning fee into the nightly rate but it isn't covering the cost effectively.  If I raise my nightly rate it prices me out of the market. I've decided to add the cleaning fee separately more to cover myself.  Instead of my housekeeper charging me by the hour she'll get a flat rate. I averaged what she charged all season and will set price based on that. It's a business after all. We're just trying to find what works.

[David2482]

I don't really care whether cleaning fees are separate or not. I only care about the bottom line so need a means to search/see the bottom line without having to click on each and every listing and manually note the final price such is a complete PITA. I'm sick of clicking on potential listings only to be faced with an outrageous $300 cleaning fee. A complete waste of my time!

[Matthew285]

David,

If you enter your travel dates when you search, then the nightly price shown in the search results should include the cleaning fees prorated over the length of your stay. No need to click on each listing.

[Letti0]

@Matthew285 It's not prorated on my listing. 

[Matthew285]

@Letti0 I wasn't referring to the detail page of your listing.

The prices display with the cleaning fee prorated in the search results list, where it allows the guest to compare the prices with the cleaning included for your listing and the other listings.

See the very same dates for your listing below, with the cleaning fee prorated to make the nightly price $276.