Short term stay cleaning fee waived by Airbnb

[Maria481]

I had three instances now where guests were not charged my cleaning fee even though I always have this feature turned on regardless of the length of stay. For the first case it was a listing I've had for years and have always charged a cleaning fee. I got two bookings in a row where the cleaning fee ($175) was not charged to the guest and my booking was only $95. After Airbnb took their fees out I lost about $75. It happened the second time while I was waiting for Airbnb to resolve the issue. In either case they didn't reimburse me and said that I turned this feature on. I couldn't even find the feature and seeing that it took the customer service person 2 days to figure out what was going on it's very cryptic!! I don't know if the platform is sneaking this feature in and turning it on without host's approval. It happened again with a new listing I created. I am now short over $500 because of this feature that I would never use. 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Maria481 

There's a lot of talk of this on FB too.  Airbnb have introduced the possibility of having a lower cleaning fee for short term bookings, ie. 1 to 2 days.  The trouble is, that the rate is set automatically to 0$ by Airbnb so you need to go into your calendar and scroll all the way down to "additional fees" and set your price.  It has to be lower than your usual cleaning fee.  1$ lower will work too if you feel that it takes just as much time/money to clean after 2 days than 3!

Those that don't allow stays shorter than 3 days shouldn't be affected but all those that allow 1 or 2 days should go and put in a cleaning fee otherwise guests will not be charged!!

All the best

Joëlle

[Sophia]

Hi @Maria481 , I hope you're well 😊.

Thank you for escalating the issue regarding short-stay cleaning fees.

We have discovered a bug in Airbnb's iPhone and iPad apps that impacted cleaning fees on some listings. We are actively investigating the issue and will be in touch again soon. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Best wishes,
Sophia 

[Tyson61]

@Sophia, I am currently disputing 7 separate bookings that had zero cleaning fee charged by AirB&B, despite a cleaning fee clearly being applied to my listings. AirB&B support has continually tried to blame me for the issue, but I am certain that I have done everything correctly every step of the way. At one point they acknowledged the bug issue (after I pushed back several times) and said they were investigating the issue. It does not seem that they are making any progress on the investigation and I am having to follow up constantly only to be told they are still looking into it. I am having this issue as recently as today (11-3-2023). Can you please provide an update on the issue?

[Bhumika · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone referring to this thread, 

Airbnb discovered a bug in the system that mistakenly removed cleaning fees for some listings’ reservations. We’ve since fixed this issue, and will be paying back impacted Hosts for the lost cleaning fees.

If your listings have been impacted, official communications from Airbnb will be shared on this matter very soon.

We sincerely apologize to our Host Community for any inconvenience this may have caused.

[Natalie243]

Hi @Bhumika ,

Im hoping you can help me with a similar issue. We have had several short stay cleaning fees of 2.00 applied to reservations, however we never setup a short stay cleaning fee. Airbnb is claiming we need to prove some error in our Hostaway software in order to cancel these reservations without penalty. We have already lost 500.00 and have been cleaning huge messes in a 4 bedroom house that sleeps 15 guests, essentially for free.  The representative I spoke with on the phone actually laughed when I started to sound distressed at the 1500 we were supposed to “eat” and continue doing the cleaning for free. It was either that, or pay AIRBNB $$$ for “penalties” and lose our hard earned superhost status. I have been on this platform for 8 years and have 988 mostly outstanding reviews. I go above and beyond,  and really work hard. I think you will see that if you read through some of my reviews. It is extremely disconcerting when Airbnb seems to employ tactics to get themselves more bookings or money (whether it be in bookings or in penalty fees ), and is at most turns unwilling to help the hosts that supply their product.