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.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Paola2808 

I despair!!!! 

The cleaning fee is no different to the nightly rate. All Airbnb is doing is transfer its service charge from the guest to the host. As such all fees need to be increased by the right amount and neither the guest nor the host will lose out by more than about 1%.

[Rob7820]

The problem is the cleaning fee. If Airbnb raised a $150 cleaning fee to $174 and that fee is paid directly to your cleaner/co-host through Airbnb payouts, they can now receive $174 instead of the $150 you intended.

The fix is:

1. Put the cleaning fee back to $150.
2. Add a flat $22.19 management fee per reservation.

That $22.19 replaces the gross-up that would otherwise have been added to the cleaning fee. It compensates for Airbnb now taking 15.5% from that part of the booking, while keeping the cleaner’s actual payout at $150.

For a different cleaning fee, multiply the original cleaning fee by 14.79% to get the flat management fee.

This way, the owner isn’t unintentionally giving the cleaner a raise, and the economics stay essentially where they were before the change in the service fee model.

I've tested this out on several rentals, and it seems to be working well. It also works on a co-host + cleaning payout situation.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Paola2808 

The cleaning fee changes when you run the tool, because the Airbnb service fee, which has always been on all components of your fees, will in future be taken off the host prices (instead of having a split fee).

So the short answer is the cleaning fee has to be listed as a higher amount to make sure you still get the same host payout (while the guest also pays virtually the same guest total).

[Rob7820]

Yes, it works out well for hosts who receive the cleaning fee, but when the cleaning fee is directly paid out to cleaners through Airbnb payouts, there is an issue. If Airbnb raised a $150 cleaning fee to $174 and that fee is paid directly to your cleaner/co-host, they can now receive $174 instead of the $150 you intended, meaning the owner/host is eating that whole fee change.

The fix is:

1. Put the cleaning fee back to $150.
2. Add a flat $22.19 management fee per reservation.

That $22.19 replaces the gross-up that would otherwise have been added to the cleaning fee. It compensates for Airbnb now taking 15.5% from that part of the booking, while keeping the cleaner’s actual payout at $150.

For a different cleaning fee, multiply the original cleaning fee by 14.79% to get the flat management fee.

This way, the owner isn’t unintentionally giving the cleaner a raise, and the economics stay essentially where they were before the change in the service fee model.

I've tested this out on several rentals, and it seems to be working well. It also works on a co-host + cleaning payout situation.

[Emilie]

Hi @Paola2808, 

As Mike and Shelley have explained, when you transition to the new single service fee plan, fees such as cleaning, pet, extra guests, etc., are adjusted to keep your earnings the same. 

I hope this helps, and if you have more questions please let us know!

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Lauren5152]

Hi Emilie, 

As a cohost who receives a cohost payout as well as the cleaning fee in order to pay the cleaning team... I am unsure how to handle this increase. We will still be paying our cleaning team the same amount as before. If I lower the cleaning fee back down and manually increase the nightly rate so the change is reflected into the host payout not the cleaning fee would that be the right move?

Thank you

[Shelley159]

The right move is to keep the cleaning fee the way it auto-updates @Lauren5152 

The extra amount that you see, is going to be taken as the service fee portion of the cleaning fee by Airbnb when someone books.

You'll receive the same payout of the nightly rates, cleaning fees and any other fees as you did before.

[Rob7820]

That works fine if the host is the cleaner or if the host pays the cleaner directly and not through Airbnb. The problem is the cleaning fee. If Airbnb raised a $150 cleaning fee to $174 and that fee is paid directly to your cleaner/co-host through Airbnb Payouts, they can now receive $174 instead of the $150 you intended.

The fix is:

1. Put the cleaning fee back to $150.
2. Add a flat $22.19 management fee per reservation.

That $22.19 replaces the gross-up that would otherwise have been added to the cleaning fee. It compensates for Airbnb now taking 15.5% from that part of the booking, while keeping the cleaner’s actual payout at $150.

For a different cleaning fee, multiply the original cleaning fee by 14.79% to get the flat management fee.

This way, the owner isn’t unintentionally giving the cleaner a raise, and the economics stay essentially where they were before the change in the service fee model.

I've tested this out on several rentals, and it seems to be working well. It also works on a co-host + cleaning payout situation.

[Rob7820]

I was in your exact shoes and it took a little while for me to work out what to do, but I have a suggestion.

If you already used Airbnb’s transition tool, don’t raise your nightly rates again. Airbnb already did that. 

The problem is the cleaning fee. If Airbnb raised a $150 cleaning fee to $174 and that fee is paid directly to your cleaner/co-host, they can now receive $174 instead of the $150 you intended.

The fix is:

1. Put the cleaning fee back to $150.
2. Add a flat $22.19 management fee per reservation.

That $22.19 replaces the gross-up that would otherwise have been added to the cleaning fee. It compensates for Airbnb now taking 15.5% from that part of the booking, while keeping the cleaner’s actual payout at $150.

For a different cleaning fee, multiply the original cleaning fee by 14.79% to get the flat management fee.

This way, the owner isn’t unintentionally giving the cleaner a raise, and the economics stay essentially where they were before the change in the service fee model.

I've tested this out on several rentals, and it seems to be working well. It also works on a co-host + cleaning payout situation.

[Rob7820]

The tool is very helpful, especially for hosts who clean themselves or who don't use Airbnb to pay their cleaner. The problem with the cleaning fee is if Airbnb raised a $150 cleaning fee to $174 and that fee is paid directly to your cleaner/co-host through Airbnb payouts, the cleaner can now receive $174 instead of the $150 you intended.

The fix is:

1. Put the cleaning fee back to $150.
2. Add a flat $22.19 management fee per reservation.

That $22.19 replaces the gross-up that would otherwise have been added to the cleaning fee. It compensates for Airbnb now taking 15.5% from that part of the booking, while keeping the cleaner’s actual payout at $150.

For a different cleaning fee, multiply the original cleaning fee by 14.79% to get the flat management fee.

This way, the owner isn’t unintentionally giving the cleaner a raise, and the economics stay essentially where they were before the change in the service fee model.

I've tested this out on several rentals, and it seems to be working well. It also works on a co-host + cleaning payout situation.

[Patricia2526]

Hi @Paola2808 

Even under the current split-fee structure, Airbnb’s host service fee (typically around 3%) is calculated on the entire booking subtotal, not just the nightly rate, but also extra guest fees, cleaning, Pet fee if you have one.

[Elaine701]

@Patricia2526 

@Paola2808 

@Dinamarta-Jose0 

@Rob7820 

Not to mention that the 15% guest fee was also always applied to extras like cleaning and pet fees. That hasn't changed. 

This exemplifies why the split fee system was more complicated and confusing to hosts especially.

Many hosts didn't even realise there was an additional guest fee added to their prices, as if it were invisible to them. (ironically, not particularly "transparent"?)

And that explains much of the confusion surrounding this shift to a simpler commission model that's standard throughout the industry. 

[Rob7820]

I think most of us know that the 15% guest fee was applied to those things you mentioned. That's why my tool adds in the equivalent shift from the guest paying it to now the host paying it. I also think a host had to be pretty oblivious to not realize that the guest was paying an Airbnb service fee. It was a line item on the booking confirmation email, listed within their reservation, and all over the reporting. If a host missed that, I don't see how they could have even operated their business. Also, I don't think many people are arguing that the shift isn't a simpler commission model or that it isn't standard in the hotel industry. Thanks for double checking though.

[Shelley159]

@Rob7820 your assumptions are very reasonable, but unfortunately from posts in this forum, there does seem to be quite a number of hosts who:

1) Didn't realise at all that guests were paying the bulk of the service fee on the split fee model. They're the ones who believe that Airbnb has "increased it's service fee from 3% to 15.5%"

2) Many hosts are indeed actively arguing that the single fee model isn't simpler. If one was never aware of how the split fee worked, one doesn't seem to see the point of simplifying it. Instead, they say the simplification angle was invented by Airbnb to mask a "3% to 15.5% fee increase".

3) We've repeatedly argued that the hotel industry, food delivery industry, online retail industry and many others, all tend to charge single, supplier-side commissions that aren't disclosed to customers. The argument we tend to get in return is that we "work for Airbnb" 😀

Maybe you can jump in with a fresh way of phrasing these things, that will help put at least some of the host's minds at ease.