Airbnb added fee to cleaning fee

[Dan-and-Erin0]

Hi, I just had a guest tell me that their potential reservation total included a $107 cleaning fee, while my listing clearly states an $80 cleaning fee. Is this a new area that Airbnb has tacked on additional fees to guests? Potential guest decided to use points to book Marriot instead. Their reservation for 3 nights came out to over $54/night extra than my per night listing (cleaning fee accounted separately), and exactly $175 more total than my listed payout, for only 3 nights (I calculated slightly differently the per night and total so it's not exact, my apologies). That seems excessive to me. I've been listing on Airbnb for near 5 yrs and it seems the fees have become excessive. I can't find anything that says Airbnb now adds a fee to the cleaning fee. 

[Lawrene0]

Were they Canadians by any chance, @Dan-and-Erin0 ? $80 USD is $107 CAD right now...

[Emiel1]

@Lawrene0 

The listing shows exactly what you are saying, when changing currency.

[Dan-and-Erin0]

yes, that was it. Thank you! 

[Sarah977]

@Dan-and-Erin0  As far as I'm aware, Airbnb does tack on a service fee to the cleaning fee (which is obnoxiously greedy). And like Lawrene says, they may be seeing the amounts in Canadian $s.

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

re. 'service fee to the cleaning fee'.

It's not clear to me what you mean?

Do you mean just the regular means of calculating service fee?

If so, it's hard to draw a distinction between Hosts who set a separate cleaning fee and those that sublimate it into their nightly prices! 

I expect it's a similar situation to websites that charge service fee exclusively to Host, whence I expect the Host price is higher than on Airbnb where Guest pays the larger part of the s.f.

[Sarah977]

@Alon1  What I meant is that they add their normal service onto the entire booking amount, including the cleaning fee. That seems wrong to me, as most hosts who charge a separate cleaning fee, from my reading here, just charge what they actually pay their cleaner. So why should Airbnb get to charge a percentage on top of that? A 20% (or whatever % Airbnb charges on that listing) service fee on an $100 cleaning fee seems pretty harsh on a guest.

It is hard to sort out when some hosts charge a cleaning fee and some build it into the price. I've never charged a cleaning fee on my private room- I clean it myself and have a 3 day minimum, so I just consider my cleaning time as one of my expenses, like coffee, toilet paper, utilities, etc.

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

From a purely personal perspective I don't agree with you re. cleaning fees.

I charge a cleaning fee and believe it's fully justified.

I have a large maisonette, frequently with more than one Airbnb guest.

I do all the cleaning myself and it's time consuming. 

I not only clean and prepare rooms, but have to keep the bathroom and toilet and kitchen clean. Moreover, I maintain it on a daily basis.

I also have to hoover the entire place.

I also give access to washing machine which many Hosts do not.

Otherwise, we've established that Hosts who do not charge a cleaning fee obviously factor it into their nightly prices. Consequently, without Host disclosing how much of the nightly fee includes cleaning fee,  I wonder how Airbnb can distinguish? 

Lastly, of course Airbnb also collect service fee on Host funds, including cleaning fee.

That constitutes the c. 20%.

[Sarah977]

@Alon1  I never said that I thought charging a cleaning fee was unjustified, not sure where you got that. I just meant I base my nightly price on all my expenses, including cleaning time.

Mainly to me, I think it's strange for a guest to see a separate cleaning fee added on. It goes without saying that a place should be clean when a guest arrives, just as it goes without saying that there should be toilet paper, heat in the winter, etc. Why not itemize all those things and list them separately with an amount attached? You see what I'm getting at? 

It makes sense to me for guests to see separate charges for extra people, for laundry usage, for pets, for parking if that applies, in other words, to have separate added charges for things that don't necessarily pertain to all guests and which all guests would not require or expect. 

If I were a guest, I'd want to see all the basic stuff included when I looked at the base price. But of course that would only work for hosts and guests if all  hosts did this, otherwise some places would appear to be much less expensive than others for a similar listing until they got to the point of filling in the form to see what the total price would be.

[Dan-and-Erin0]

yes, they are probably seeing Canadian dollars, good thinking thank you! 

[Lawrene0]

Glad that was it, @Dan-and-Erin0 . Don't worry about missing out on that booking. Your Canadian almost-guests would have seen the $107 all along, and everything else in CAD. It wasn't a surprise. It was just higher than they wanted to pay and they complained.

Never a good start. Bullet dodged. Better suited to their Marriott points 🙂