Cleaning fee’s

[Gary-And-Rose0]

We have been running our Airbnb for a few years and over 65 stays. Superhost etc. 

we have never charged a cleaning fee. My thought on it is it’s a cost of doing business. 

my other thought is if I’m staying in a place and you are charging a cleaning fee I would be less inclined to keep it cleaned. 

I state in my welcome message on arrival that we don’t charge a cleaning fee to save you money. All we ask is you keep it neat and tidy. Take out garbage and recycling. 

I think people appreciate this and go the extra mile for that great review.  

thoughts?

[Lorna170]

To each their own.  I charge a cleaning fee that I pay to my housekeeper.   I am not able to clean the cabin myself (for various reasons).  While my guests are tidy in that they will wash their dishes, pots and pans,  and remove their belongings when leaving,  they cannot be expected to sanitize the bathroom after their use; vacuum, dust and wipe down every surface, nook and cranny of the cabin; empty, refill and chemically balance the hot tub; pretreat and wash all of the linens and towels, remove the pet hair and pet debris, wash the windows and floors and leave the cabin ready for the next guest.   

If you are a guest who thinks that paying a cleaning fee means that you can take liberties with my home, then I would not like you to stay.  

[Emilia42]

@Gary-And-Rose0 Do you do the cleaning yourself or hire it out?

[Gary-And-Rose0]

We do have someone in doing our cleaning. My rate more than covers the cost. Top to bottom clean and sanitize. 

This is more a thread on the psychology of charging a small fee and whether they leave it tidy or messy. 

[Mary996]

I wondered about this as growing up we regularly youth-hostelled and did the cleaning in exchange for very low rates

[Kia272]

@Gary-And-Rose0  I'm with you in this. I don't charge a cleaning fee either. It IS the cost of doing business. I know I have to clean after guests stay, so I work it into my nightly rate. 

How would we all feel if we stayed at a hotel, went to check out, and they handed us a bill for the stay AND for cleaning. They know they have to clean after us, and they've worked it into their price. 

I actually don't have a lot of "rules" or signage about cleaning. My checkout page basically says that I don't expect them to mop the floors or clean the whole house, but if they could more or less leave it like they found it, that's fine. Most guests have been really decent about it.

Several have offered to strip the beds and start laundry. I generally decline by reminding them that they are supposed to be on a relaxing getaway, and please not to worry about it. I always appreciate the offer and tell them so, but honestly- I want the bedding left on the bed so I can check for stains, etc. before putting things in the wash, and the towels are not a big deal. 

I also think that guests get annoyed by the way things are done on AirBnB. With dynamic pricing, they almost always see the low price when they are scrolling through, but when they click into the property and put in dates, it can be SO much more. That, coupled with a cleaning fee and then AirBnB fees can piss people off, or at a minimum make them decide to ditch that property and look elsewhere. 

I've been pretty lucky overall with guests and how they treat my property. I hope it continues! Kia

[Gary-And-Rose0]

Great to hear us too. No issues knock on wood. No one likes to be nickel and dimed to death. 

I have passed many a place due to the extreme cleaning fees. I’ve clicked because original price is attractive. Then find the “hidden” fees at the end. Not cool. 

we have been asking people to put towels and sheets in the basket but I like your thinking. 

everyone’s been unbelievably great and appreciative. 

[Elaine701]

@kia272, @Gary-And-Rose0 

We also don't charge a cleaning fee. It is part of the price. And guests will get testy about it. 

We have few problems. Some guests are extraordinarily clean and conscientious, while others can be a bit messy, rarely, one or two will leave it filthy. That's just a risk you take as a host. Your only recourse is to write it in their review. 

We simply won't accept bookings from any guest inquiry with bad reviews. It's just a policy of ours. And it works. 

For those with no reviews, we ask (friendly) questions about their intentions, and so on, and judge whether we'll accept their booking on the basis of their responses. If they sound dodgy, we tell them so, and decline. 

That doesn't always save you. Some are really crafty and convincing liars. But again, that's just a risk you take. Price it in. 

Having said that, I'd say about 95% of the guests we get are really outstanding. And we also write that in our reviews. 

[Sarah977]

@Gary-And-Rose0  My listing is a private room/private bath with use of my kitchen ( haven't hosted since March because of COVID, but had been hosting since late 2016)  and I clean myself and have never charged a cleaning fee. It takes me about an hour and a half to clean the guest space and I have a 3 night minimum, so spread over 3 days (and most of my guests stay longer) it's not that big a deal.

I do understand, however, why hosts with large homes that sleep a lot of guests can't build it into the nightly rate- it's a one time charge and they usually pay a cleaner, which can cost a couple hundred bucks or more for a clean. And even if the guests only stay a night or two, the same cleaning has to be done as if they stayed a week. Some people can make a huge mess in 24 hours, and others can leave it spotless after a week, you never know what you're going to get.

One thing I do think is a poor idea is when hosts charge a hefty cleaning fee and then also expect guests to strip the beds, start a load of wash, take the garbage out to the dumpster, etc. My son-in-law travels a lot on business and told me he really resents this. He understands and accepts a cleaning fee, and isn't someone who leaves wet towels on the floor, dirty dishes or garbage strewn around, but he doesn't want to have to do housework when he has a meeting to get to, a plane to catch, etc.

If he knew that the host expected him to strip the bed, etc, he simply wouldn't  book those listings, but those things aren't mentioned in the listing ad, he just finds those pre-check-out requests in the  house manual when he arrives.

[Clare167]

My so called cleaning fee is just a means of making sure that the effective nightly rate is higher for a short stay. The cost and trouble of cleaning and laundry each time are enormous and a short stay is just not worthwhile at a cheap rate. If I set a longer minimum stay throughout the open calendar, I have no cleaning fee, as I agree that it could be off-putting and/or make the guest feel that that it's OK to leave a mess. I make no demands at all about how they leave the place at checkout. As a guest, I find such demands irritating, why should I have to strip beds after paying for my stay. Almost everyone leaves the place tidy anyway.

[Ann72]

@Gary-And-Rose0  To each his or her own is the appropriate response.  The psychology of it is that some people care and some people don't.  Because every Airbnb is unique, you can't make blanket assumptions about any aspect of hosting.

The other side of the psychology is that hosts who don't charge a fee, yet do pay someone to clean, MIGHT stint on what they pay their cleaners because it's coming out of the entire payout.  I'm not saying that's what you do, but I can well imagine hosts who do this.  My cleaning fee is a separate line item that comes in and goes right out to my housekeeper.  And don't forget that Airbnb takes a piece of it, so I cover that percentage.

I pay my housekeeper better than the vacation rental agencies she works for.  She is my right arm and as a woman paying a woman I like to show the respect for her work that charging and paying a separate cleaning fee entails.  She actually reads the reviews to see if they mention how clean it is.  She takes enormous pride in her work.

In seven years of hosting I've never had a single guest complain about the cleaning fee.

[Li75]

I charge AU$80 cleaning fee purely as a deterrent to those who just want to stay for one or two nights. It's not enough to cover the time and cost I spend doing the cleaning up myself (admittedly it did cover a bit), but increasing this fee might deter other guests. So far, most guests managed to leave the apartment in acceptable state.

Last month a guest proposed to do cleaning herself and not be charged the cleaning fee. As it happened, I had not done cleaning yet for the previous guest, so I suggested that she did cleaning before commencing her stay. She accepted. I still need to do laundry, but I did not need to vacuum the apartment or to clean the bath tub etc., besides, I had control if I wanted to refuse too short a stay. So I'm contemplating offering this self-cleaning option to future guests under some condistions.

[Alexandra316]

@Gary-And-Rose0 Whatever works for you. I have fixed costs related a turnover: linens and cleaning. The cleaning fee I charge doesn't cover the costs, but it does help to mitigate them when the guest stays a shorter period. On the other hand, for guests who stay a long time, it works out to very little  - for my last guest about a dollar a night. It's more of a tax on short stays than anything else. 

@Kia272 But the bill doesn't get presented at the end of the stay: the guest knows what they're paying before they agree to stay there. Peronally, I would prefer to pay a nominal cleaning fee than have to return a unit to how it was when I checked in. 

I tell my guests they don't have to do anything on checkout, not even the dishes. They can leave them in a bus bin and they will be taken care of. I've very rarely had a guest leave a mess. 

It does annoy me as a guest when I find a place and the cleaning fee is close to or more than the nightly rate, but I can choose not to rent that place if I don't feel it's worthwhile.