cleaning fee increase

[Paola2808]

Why is the cleaning fee increasing as well? this is another cost that we need to swallow because we still need to keeo paying our cleaning crew and you are increasing our cleaning fee so you can deduct another 15.5%... airbnb is so desperate to polish their revenue reports to look like they are improving YOY at the hosts costs.

[Paola2808]

Yes, and adding a "management fee" as others here mention, makes it look like we are overcharging, in my opinion. Just the fact that airbnb decided to make this change due to "simplification" and "transparency" is a contradiction as they are adding a "Guest service fee $0" line for every confirmed reservation, making it seem as if there are no airbnb fees and all the cost is coming from the hosts. 

But I refuse to be the bad guy in the eyes of the guests and so for every new reservation I haved edited my welcome message to say:

"Hello (guest name), Welcome and Safe travels!

You might notice that your price breakdown shows $0 in Guest Service Fees. We switched our account over to a host-covered fee setup, which means we cover the Guest Service Fee on our end so you don't get hit with an extra 15% price increase at checkout.

We'll send over the check-in info and door code the day of your arrival........ etc, etc"

At this point, It is our job as hosts to educate our guests how Airbnb is still charging fees.

[Dinamarta-Jose0]

@Paola2808 Yes, and this is exactly where the transparency question becomes important to me.

If a guest sees “Guest service fee $0,” I can understand why they might conclude that Airbnb is no longer charging a service fee at all, when in fact a service fee is still being collected — it is simply being deducted from the host side under the new structure.

And I agree with your concern about adding another visible “management fee” just to recover that cost. That can create yet another charge associated with the host and potentially reinforce the impression that the host is adding fees.

The one thing I would be careful about is the wording in the guest message. Rather than saying that we are “covering the Guest Service Fee,” I might explain that Airbnb now uses a host-only service fee structure, so the guest service fee appears as $0 while Airbnb deducts its service fee from the host’s payout.

That keeps the explanation completely factual while still giving the guest the transparency that I think is missing.

And it says something interesting that hosts now feel responsible for explaining a platform fee structure to guests simply so they understand where the costs actually went.

[Elaine701]

@Dinamarta-Jose0 

Can you show us where the guest sees "Guest service fee $0"? 

[Paola2808]

 

[Vanessa2864]

Hi @Paola2808 ! If the line you show in your screenshot is from the host interface, then the correct distinction would seem to be the one @Elaine701  pointed out:

° Host interface: “Guest Service fee $0” may be visible both before and after the reservation is made.

° Guest interface: the “Guest Service fee” line does not appear either before or after the reservation.

So that rules out the idea that the guest discovers “Guest Service fee $0” after booking.

If that’s the case, we have to conclude that the guest doesn’t actually see the change in the fee structure. They see the final price. They compare it with other prices. They decide.

A new guest sees no change. There is no “before” for them to compare it with.

A returning, attentive guest may of course notice that there used to be a guest service fee and now there isn’t one, if they remember what the old price breakdown looked like.

But in the new guest interface, they are not shown either “Guest Service fee $0” or, apparently, anything equivalent telling them that the fee structure has changed.

If they want to understand why the guest service fee has disappeared, they have to go looking for the explanation in Airbnb’s documentation. The price they see in front of them certainly isn’t telling them.

There is a general Help Center page dedicated to service fees, where Airbnb describes the single fee as a single fee paid by the host.

There is also a guest-facing Help Center page, “How pricing works for homes”, which explains how the total price is made up.

[Dinamarta-Jose0]

@Vanessa2864 Thank you — that distinction is very helpful.

If Paola’s screenshot is from the host interface, then I agree that we should not use the “Guest service fee $0” line as evidence of what the guest actually sees. That was the part I wanted to establish before drawing a conclusion about the guest-facing breakdown.

That also helps separate two different questions that were becoming mixed together: what information Airbnb actually displays to the guest about the fee structure, and how the pricing itself appears to the guest after the transition.

The second question is still the one that concerns me most. The guest may not be shown an explanation of the change in fee structure, but they still see the prices presented by the listing and compare those prices with other accommodation options.

So I appreciate the clarification. If the guest interface does not display “Guest service fee $0,” then I would correct my earlier assumption on that specific point.

[Shelley159]

This is what the host sees @Paola2808 , not the guest? 

[Shelley159]

Hi @Paola2808 

I've checked to see what you mean, but I can't see:

they are adding a "Guest service fee $0" line for every confirmed reservation, 

Can you post a screenshot?

Here's what I see when I try to book the 1st listing on your profile:

 

 

My concern is that you're warning guests about something, and they may have no idea what you mean.

Is there some additional text on the invoice after a booking has been made, that I'm not aware of?

[Paola2808]

Clearly you are not a host or you havent received new reservations under this new structure.

Once the reservation is confirmed airbnb shows guests a breakdown of what they paid. They dont show the host fee. However they do add a line "Guest Service fee $0" 

[Dinamarta-Jose0]

@Paola2808 That distinction is important. If the “Guest service fee $0” line appears in the guest’s payment breakdown only after the reservation has been confirmed, then that would explain why Shelley did not see it while going through the booking preview.

A screenshot from a confirmed reservation showing that line would probably be the clearest way to establish exactly what the guest is seeing under the new fee structure.

[Paola2808]

 

[David-and-Jenn0]

This is very helpful, thanks for posting. My question is do they see this breakdown only after paying and confirming the stay, or do they see it when they move to the final step before confirming?  Either way, if you have a moderate cancellation policy like we do, I think when the Guest sees our clean fee (which now has to show 170 for a one bedroom apartment), they will start looking for other options showing cheaper cleaning fees and cancel the booking penalty free if more than 5 days out from arrival and in the window to cancel. 

Perception matters. Even if the total cost is the same, if some Hosts are able to bury their cleaning cost into the rent (which we cannot based on how we book), and show a zero cleaning fee they are going to get the booking.

[Paola2808]

Quite frankly, my main concern is that guests think we are making so much money and getting 100% of the profit when in reality thats not true and the issue is that whenever theres an issue they mention the cleaning fee, the overprice etc. They automatically leave a bad review and then airbnb refuses to remove the review. I already had a bad review stating that i am overpriced for a 1 bedroom apartment and the guest left 2 stars. I submitted my despute. Of course airbnb refused to remove. in the end, airbnb will also get hurt when my ratings go down.

[Shelley159]

Hi @David-and-Jenn0 

This question 

or do they see it when they move to the final step before confirming?

A screenshot from host view was posted. The guest sees the two screenshots I posted (guest view). There's no $0 there.

This part I'm not sure if I understand 100%:

Hosts are able to bury their cleaning cost into the rent (which we cannot based on how we book), and show a zero cleaning fee they are going to get the booking.

Any host can set their cleaning fee at any amount. It doesn't have to be what you pay the cleaners, it's a pricing structure tool. You can split your price between the per-booking cleaning fee and the per-night rate any way that suits you.

[Dinamarta-Jose0]

@David-and-Jenn0 Yes — “perception matters” is exactly the point.

Even when the final total is comparable, guests don’t necessarily evaluate listings only by the final mathematical total. They also see how that price is presented and may react differently to a higher nightly rate or a higher cleaning fee.

And I agree that we still need to establish exactly when this breakdown becomes visible to the guest — before they confirm and pay, or only afterward. Paola’s screenshot is very helpful because it confirms what the breakdown can look like, but the timing of when the guest sees it is an important part of this question.