Cleaning Fees for monthlyrenters.

[Verna39]

My condo has been renting mostly to monthly or multiple month renters.  Fees on the site are geared to weekly renters.  I charge a $100 cleaning fee which covers our cleaning service and laundry for a weekly renter yet  my monthly guests are still provided with laundry and cleaning services that are costing me several times that fee.  With the increase of monthly renters, I wish that Airbnb would allow for charges designated specifically to this type of renter.  I recently had a monthly renter whose Electricity bill came out to $800. USD and was not able to collect from them.  Between that and the cleaning/laundry I actually lost money on the rental.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Verna39 Another good reason to ignore Airbnb when they want us to rent for longer terms. Airbnb are a SHORT term rental site and are not fit for anything longer.

[Debra300]

@Verna39,

We charge for electricity usage for long-term rental of our spaces, and have it stated in the listing details :  

Longer term stays (28 nights and longer) will pay for electricity. Each space has its own meter, and we charge only for what is actually used at $0.35 per kwh. A deposit of $10 per night will be collected via Airbnb payments system prior to check-in. Guests will be refunded any unused amounts at checkout.

It is within Airbnb policies to charge for services not covered in the nightly rate.  The transaction just has to occur via Airbnb's payment system.

[Caroline1936]

That is a very fair and transparent way of charging for the utility costs, I like that, thank you,

[Debra300]

@Caroline1936,

I think that charging for electricity also holds the guest long-term guest accountable to not be wasteful.  It's unlikely that these types of guests are solely on holiday, and they usually are more cognizant of costs, because they have to budget for a longer period of time.  

The energy meters are located along the walkway between the suites and the guesthouse entrance/exit door where guest can easily see them and can track their total usage (there is US-110v and UK-220v in each suite).  The meters are reset to zero after each stay to avoid any claims of carryover from previous balances.