Housekeeping Fees -Advice

[Connie168]

We include the housekeeping fees required to pay the cleaners for a turnover of the property.  The fees certainly don't cover when a guest leaves blood/other bodily fluids on the sheets/mattresses; a sink full of greasy pots and pans (when the House Rules call for the guests to run dishes thru DW before leaving); or a myriad of another excessive cleaning issue. 

Airbnb's policy shows: 

How Host damage protection works with cleaning and pet fees

If you choose to include cleaning fees or a pet fee, please keep in mind that they are meant to cover expected costs.

Host damage protection, on the other hand, covers unexpected costs related to additional cleaning or pet damage—for instance, removing smoke odor or replacing your sofa because a dog chewed it up.

We've had one instance where CS wouldn't pay for excessive cleaning saying our Housekeeping fee was high enough to pay for it!  I don't know what gives a CS person the Karnack abilities to know what our costs are or the right to go against our House Rules,  but does anyone have an issue with Housekeeping fees?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Connie168 this actually makes sense to me. We relatively regularly replace sheets that get stained - If Airbnb paid for all of these they would never make any money and would have to put their fees up. If they had any sense they would slap a $100 deductible on any claims to make sure that Aircover is only used for big, unexpected issues rather than ongoing cleaning that should be expected every few stays.

[Connie168]

I can promise you that Airbnb is making LOTS of money without having to worry about forcing Hosts to ignore their House Rules and/or denying damage claims.

I was specifically asking about how hosts handle their Housekeeping Fees.  We've had to raise our Housekeeping Fees to cover the fees and have compared them to other listings in our area but I would like to get other hosts take.

[Huma0]

@Connie168 

Personally, I don't charge a cleaning fee. However, I know of another host (can't seem to tag him right now) who says that he always puts aside a bit of money from each reservation into a fund to cover minor damages, wear and tear etc. That way, he never has to worry about having to deal with Airbnb for these issues, nor having to confront the guests and risk a retaliatory review.

I am not saying this is the right way. It's just one way. The advantage is that you avoid a lot of stress and hassle arguing over who should pay for it. It does mean that your nightly rate needs to be high enough to allow you to put a bit aside for this fund, but that might be better than raising the housekeeping fees. 

I do not like the idea of good guests having to pay more to account for careless, disrespectful guests, but then if you are raising the housekeeping fee for all guests, it's no different than keeping aside a percentage from all bookings to cover these kinds of expenses.

[Connie168]

Revenue rose 67% from a year ago and 36% from the same quarter in 2019, to $2.24 billion. Analysts expected $2.06 billion, according to FactSet.

[Lenore22]

@Connie168 

Do you pay hourly or a flat rate for each turnover? I love paying the flat rate and my cleaners appreciate it too-- they just focus on getting the property to a certain standard instead of how long it takes. In the end, they make more $$ & the quality of their work goes up as they get more efficient. 

If a guest is particularly messy, I ask the cleaners to tell me, but it doesn't cost me more $$. If I know a guest was particularly dirty, I offer to pay more to cover extra time, but they usually wave it off saying that most turnovers take them less time-- and that it works out in the end. I take this as a sign that for our area, we are probably compensating them well.  I like that the expense is predictable for each stay.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Connie168 some hosts have cleaning fees that fully cover the cleaning, others have no cleaning fee but just get paid /pay for the cleaning through the nighty rate. There is no right way to do it. There are many other costs (heating/lighting/TV licence/insurance that are covered in the nightly rate. As a host the most important thing is to just understand all the costs and make sure they, and the profit, is covered somewhere.

[Connie168]

I wish Airbnb would do what VRBO does and allow an insurance policy.  Last year, with guests getting to be more and more disrespectful, we had over $7000 of actual damages - not cleaning, stains on the carpet, broken chairs, two washing machines, cuts on the leather sofas, crayons and markers on the leather, etc.

Fortunately, I suppose, these reservations were with VRBO and the insurance paid for everything. No hassle. Get this - NO HASSLE. While trying to get Airbnb to pay for a broken DVD player (proven drunk guests who were asked to leave by Airbnb) - Airbnb said they would only reimburse if I could prove it was broken!  I sent photos - I sent photos showing someone attempting to turn it on and the screen not working blah blah blah - nothing. Airbnb gave us nothing. 

[Huma0]

@Connie168 

Yes, it's pretty awful that Airbnb didn't pay out in that circumstance. However, I do wonder why you are getting $7,000 of damages in one year. I'm not saying that the things you mention don't happen. Guests can be very careless. BUT... that's a lot. I see you have a few listings, but several of them look like different configurations of the same space, so not sure how many you have altogether.

There is something else going wrong here. How are you vetting your guests? Do you pick and choose or just take everyone who books/wants to book? In my experience, you have to be choosey and you also have to educate guests on how to behave in your space, not rely on Airbnb to do so or for the guests to have the common sense to do so. People do stupid things when on holiday. 

That's not to say that minor damages and messes don't happen. They do, it's annoying and I wish they didn't, but I've only once needed to contact Airbnb with a claim that I thought was worth it (around £400 to replace something a guest broke) and the claim went through quickly and smoothly. The guest even left me a 5* review. I'm not saying that's how it always works. There are a lot of incompetent CS reps at Airbnb these days. That's why it's more important than ever to really vet your guests and not rely on Airbnb to 'have your back'. They don't.

[Connie168]

We have larger units that are often booked to companies sending crews to do work on contracts here in Alaska during the summer months.  When you have 6 bedrooms with people coming and going, even though we encourage the booking person to notify their crews of the rules, that does not always happen.  

We had a group of 16 Russian sailors who didn't care one bit about the rules. They were here two nights and did considerable damage - even breaking a window!  (The guest who booked for this group had 5-star reviews.)

Alaska is a different market. We have 3-4 months of bookings. Many of our bookings come at the last minute. Guests who didn't anticipate Anchorage would not have loads of hotels available, etc.  

If you do instant booking - what type of 'screening' can you do? 

[Lenore22]

We charge $100 cleaning fee: $90 goes to the cleaners with each turnover and $10 to replace items. Since we pay our cleaners $20 anytime we ask them to stop by the house (a guest changes their guest# or the fact they they are bringing a pet, necessitating us to change the setup), it barely covers, but it does cover the cleaning and replacing any linens that might get stained/ruined. 

Other homes in our area charge $0-150 in cleaning fees. If something is blatant (1 guest's dog ripped a duvet cover and it was covered in blood. It was only $40 to replace and she gladly paid it.)