Cleaning fees

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Satya8
Level 2
Pennsylvania, United States

Cleaning fees

Sorry if this is not the appropriate place for this question.  Looked the best to me among the options.  From a guest perspective, I have always left the host facilities in pretty much the state I found them (cleaned up before leaving). Now I am looking at some places which have a very high fee for leaning included ($65 to $85+). I am wondering if in such cases, it will be reasonable for me not to clean up?  I am not talking about trashing the place of course, but things like making the beds, washing dishes, sweeping floor/s, garbage disposal etc...?

1 Best Answer
Dave333
Level 2
Chicago, IL

Read a thread earlier this week with an excellent answer which really resonated with me. I apologize to the originator because I don't have the exact citation nor will I plagiarize eloquently.

 

My takeaway was hosts following the Airbnb Living Wage Pledge pay cleaners minimum $25/hr (or company employed cleaners at least $15/hr because they presumably get benefits on top of wages - which I assume get translated into higher charge to host)

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1975/what-s-airbnb-s-living-wage-pledge

 

So if it takes 2-3 hours to turnover a unit the cleaner would be paid $50-75.

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74 Replies 74

@Eldon-And-Sayra0 There is no real security deposit on Airbnb. It is all smoke and mirrors. Airbnb will not reimburse for extra cleaning unless you have an invoice from an actual cleaning service and even then you are taking your chances. 

This is bad for the rest of us who can’t clean on our own and pay insured, bonded professional housekeepers. I constantly have people ask me if they can pay less since they only plan on “sleeping and showering” yet I doubt they would want to use a shower that hasn’t been cleaned from the previous guest and using dirty towels and used sheets. The cleaning fee is important and we have to have housekeepers spend an hour-hour and a half in a 1 bedroom 1 bath unit between guests, regardless if they stay one night and leave it clean or 7 and leave it messy. Well, no one has ever really left it super messy so. 


dont ruin it for the rest of us or teach guests if they “leave it clean” they should be rewarded. Sure you can check in 4 hours early, and not pay cleaning fee. Just don’t expect it to be clean. 

 

J-Renato0
Level 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

@Satya8 

 

Cleaning fee is to pay for the laundry and cleaning service.

Everything has a cost.

 

I always have the linens and towels washed and the house cleaned everytime there is a shift of guests. It does not matter if the guest left the apartment clean and organized or not. 

 

Usually, a good and polite guest leave the house organized and clean.

Dave333
Level 2
Chicago, IL

Read a thread earlier this week with an excellent answer which really resonated with me. I apologize to the originator because I don't have the exact citation nor will I plagiarize eloquently.

 

My takeaway was hosts following the Airbnb Living Wage Pledge pay cleaners minimum $25/hr (or company employed cleaners at least $15/hr because they presumably get benefits on top of wages - which I assume get translated into higher charge to host)

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1975/what-s-airbnb-s-living-wage-pledge

 

So if it takes 2-3 hours to turnover a unit the cleaner would be paid $50-75.

Noel102
Level 10
Houston, TX

I do not require or even ask guests to clean the place up before checking out.  My only requests are that they put any dirty dishes in the dishwasher and start the cleaning cycle, place all used towels in the bathtub, and place any food items in the trash. If I have a same-day turnover, I advise them there is another guest checking in that day, and to keep that in mind when arranging their departure.  That's my gentle way of telling them to get out on time and don't leave a trashed out mess behind.

 

Unless the place is completely trashed out and filthy, I don't really care if they tidy up the place before checking out.  I'm going to clean everything in the place anyway, regardless of how clean it is.  I also keep that in mind when reviewing guests for cleanliness - I give them a lot of latitude because they are paying a $50 cleaning fee and I don't think it is appropriate to ask them to do something they are paying for me to do.  It takes a lot for me to ding someone on cleanliness.

Satya8
Level 2
Pennsylvania, United States

Thank you all for your comments.  I now have a better grasp of the issue. 

 

Dave's comment shines the light on a related issue.  How much do we tip a hotel room cleaner, if we tip at all?  I usually tip between $5 - $10 per day, and my average hotel room costs $150 / day.  So it is less than 10% in most cases.  I have rarely left a tip at an AirBnb place except for a few times when a "property manager" has made the effort to help me resolve a issue.  However, I just got back from Cuba, where I stayed at a "casa particulares," (which also appears as a AirBnb listing).  I had a private room in a family home.  The host family was a young couple with 11 year old son.  They treated me as family during my stay, and I did leave presents for all of them, not because I had to (they were quite well off), but because I wanted to.  My AirBnb hosts also on occasions have been the same.  My stays in Armenia, Belarus, Buenos Aires, and Vietnam come to mind for that reason.

I have not "couch-surfed" officially (I stayed with someone in Kiev in 1999, that would probably qualify now), but I do think the "people-to-people" and "sharing" aspects of AirBnb, Uber and the like got lost somewhere. It has all become commercial operations. Many times I find it difficult to sort out hotels from listings at AirBnb, and of course full time Uber (and Lyft, Grab, Didi,...) cruisers are ubiquitious!  

My two cents worth! Your comments?

Connie228
Level 2
Oakland, CA

Here are my thoughts on cleaning fees. I am a super host, started listing with Airbnb earlier this year. To me it is imperative to have my apartment professionally cleaned before each guest. Because of a disablity I can't do it myself. It takes two hours, but I do the laundry myself. I charge $60 cleaning fee and 100 percent of it goes to my housecleaner. I often work with her, and I do all the laundry. I also do a little extra after she leaves. I charge the guest as little as possible for cleaning while at the same time trying to pay my housecleaner a fair rate.

I am uncomfrotable that Airbnb charges ME 3 percent fee  for the money collected from guests for cleaning.  I observe that Airbnb asks hosts to pledge to pay a living wage. So I find it curious, unfair, slightly deceptive and indeed hypocritical that Airbnb takes 3 percent of this fee.

The cleaning is a hard cost to me. I give my housecleaner 100 percent of the fee. As I said, I make no money from this fee. I lose money. I find that many Airbnb guests have stained sheets and duvet covers, broken small items, and ruined towels. I absorb the cost of most of this, since Airbnb doesn't honestly allow me to collect from the security deposit.

I have asked for an explanation from Airbnb about why takes a cut of the housecleaning fee in addition to the very substantial overall fee it charges the guest. And/or why does Airbnb not disclose to guests that it is taking 3 percent of the fee, rather than it going to the housecleaner? 

I would be interested in what other hosts have to say. I agree with what's been said here about what the cleaning actually entails and whether or not it's fair to charge for it. (It is!) My question is about Airbnb reaching its hand into this pot and taking money away from the hosts and housecleaners doing the grunt work.

@Connie228, 3% is the standard rate to process credit card fees. So if you were taking bookings through your own website or charging guests through a processing app (i.e. Square) when they arrived, you would still be paying something around 3% (sometimes more.) We live in a world where no one pays by cash or check anymore, so the 3% fee is almost a given. I, personally, think Airbnb’s fee is very reasonable and fair. My family owns a small business where we pay thousands of dollars a month in credit card processing fees. Some cards are as high as 6%.

@Emilia42  I think @Connie228  was referring to Airbnb charging 3% on the cleaning fees, not the booking. I do agree with her on this- why should they be making money off of this? Of course they charge a fee for our listing bookings. That's certainly reasonable. But charging a fee on the cleaning fee seems greedy to me, as the entire cleaning fee generally goes to the hired cleaners or if the hosts do the cleaning themselves, they are just paying themselves for their cleaning time, and usually not much.

Yes, thank you.  I was specifically referring to the cleaning fee. Why are they taking a cut?

@Sarah977@Connie228,  because the cleaning fee is still being charged on the credit card. Airbnb is charged at least a 3% fee on the total amount. We are lucky they don't encompass the tax amount. In my previous example with my family business, we have to charge sales tax and the credit card processing is still taking their cut on the total amount. It doesn't matter if that sale tax portion isn't really ‘mine.’

@Connie228, I don't think of it at all as an 'Airbnb Service Fee.' It is a fee to process the credit card so I don't have to. I could use my own credit card processer and still pay the 3%-6% fee to them. Once Airbnb starts charging hosts the 14-20% service fee (which they plan to this fall,) then they will be taking a very large cut from the hosts.

@Emilia42 :  a business the size of ABB has significant negotiating power,    and likely pays less than 1% on Visa/MC.
6%??!!  Just head on down to your local Sam's Club ... or get a Square ...

Hi , Connie 

How are you ! 
I have the same issues with airbnb cleaning . 

I don’t know how much the room rent will be if I charge guest $50 cleaning fee . If seems that no guest will come when the room rent is higher than 60 and no guest will not complain when I listed more than $15 cleaning fee . ( they will complain about the cleanliness if I listed higher cleaning fee) 

I don’t know whom can I ask for compensate me when the items in public area broken nc no camera can prove who did the damage . 

 Best regards! 
                       May 

Jeanne249
Level 3
Davis, CA

Because they can.  Greed.