A recent article in the Washington Post posed the question: Should I leave a tip at my Airbnb?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/airbnb-tip-cleaning-fee/
I do all the cleaning between stays myself and I charge a modest cleaning fee. So, unlike hotel experiences, my guests never see any cleaning staff during their stay. Hence, guests almost never leave any tips on their way out (I think there has only been one case in all the years I have been hosting), and I'm perfectly fine with that.
But, I've been a guest in places where the listing provides a cook who comes in every morning to make breakfast and a cleaning staff who makes the beds, tidies the rooms and even does some laundry (this was in Mexico). The listing makes it quite clear that there is no extra charge for those services. In that case, my friends and I left a generous tip on our last day even though we were sure the staff were at least decently paid even without tips from guests.
In the article, some expressed the view that if the Host charges a cleaning fee, guests should not feel obligated to tip, unlike hotels where typically there is no separate cleaning fee. I'm not persuaded by that argument. Hotels incorporate their cleaning expenses into the their nightly rate. How that expense is expressed to the guest should not determine whether or not a tip is warranted.
Others express the view that if, as a guest, you are leaving the premises in a clean and tidy state, then there is less of an obligation to tip than if you left the place in a mess. However, in my experience, guests almost never leave tips if there is a separate cleaning fee, whether or not they leave the place in a tidy or messy state. In fact, I sometimes feel that charging a cleaning fee gives guests the moral permission to leave the place messy and not feel guilty: "I'm paying for them to clean up the place after me anyway, so why do their job for them?" If that is true, perhaps I should experiment with eliminating the cleaning fee and leave a subtle comment in the Guest Book about how the cleaners would appreciate a tip.
What is your practice? Do you employ cleaning staff? If so, what is your expectation regarding tipping? Do you encourage your guests to leave tips to the staff and how do you phrase that encouragement? I'm also eager to hear from Hosts in non-Western cultures. Please share with us your thoughts and practices.
