Feature properties with No Cleaning Fees

Feature properties with No Cleaning Fees

I think you should feature properties that don't have an additional cleaning fee!  I work hard to keep my properties in beautiful shiny condition and don't feel I should charge extra for it.  When guests are "shopping" for lodging, it becomes complicated to figure out what the actual price of a property is with cleaning fees, service fees and taxes.  Mine may look like it's higher priced than others but when the cleaning fees others charge is included in the price, mine may actually be less.  No fair!!

11 Comments

I totally agree! Cleaning fees cost (or absence of it) should be immediately visible in the search result page.As a host, I would love not to charge for it, but only if it was highlighted as an added benefit and immediatly visible. When I travel as a guest I really don't like the surprise of the cleaning fee cost (sometimes ridicolously high). If it would come up immediately the booking process would be much more straighforward and transparent.

Heather133
Level 10

@B-0 and @Elisabetta-and-Julian0

 

If we had to work a cleaning fee into the nightly rate it would be very difficult for us. I pay cleaners $125 to clean a house. If I had to work that in to cover a two night stay as well as a four night stay, the guests booking the longer stays would be penalized. I've also had guests request a cleaning in the middle of a week long stay and I find in those cases it works out well to have an established cleaning fee.

 

That said, I wouldn't have a problem with a "cleaning included" designation somewhere on the listings or a "cleaning included" filter. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

@Heather0,

Yes of course I am not reccommending that everybody stop charging a cleaning fee, but only that cleaning fees be more visible, appearing immediately under the nightly rate in the search results. This is more advantageous for the guest than the host, but overall a more transparent disclosure of fees would be a benefit for all. Then different accomodations can be compared on true parameters.

B-0
Level 2

I WOULD recommend everyone stop charging a cleaning fee, in a perfect world.  Hotels don't have an extra fee tacked on for cleaning.  When you add in many folks cleaning fees, it is cheaper to stay in a hotel.  I think the fee can be a turn off for guests as more of them learn about the extra charges for cleaning etc.  I think folks are looking for easy, straight forward products and services. The price for the stay should be the price, period.   

And, for those of us who clean our own, I guess our nightly fee does have to include our time and supplies, so it may look like our rates are higher at first glance.  Heather, I don't understand your comment about working in the fee to cover a 2 night stay.  I clean just as hard after a 2 night stay as a longer stay.  EVERYTHING gets meticulously cleaned.  Are you saying that you don't have the cleaners come in if someone stays 2 nights?? 

Sandra126
Level 10

 Wish that everyone had their cleaning fee included in the price for a level playing field.

BUT I would like the option of discounting from the second or third day, which is what the cleaning fee essentially does.

Steve55
Level 4
For owners who contract out the cleaning and meet and greet, this fee is a large fixed overhead which needs to be recouped. There's also a fixed time factor in managing each reservation irrespective of the duration. For these reasons and because the minimum stay is 2 nights, I like to keep the cleaning fee high to discourage short stays which cause more wear-and-tear than long stays and greater risk of vacancies.
Emilia42
Level 10

@B-0 I agree. I do not charge a cleaning fee and do find that in some cases an added cleaning fee can drastically increase the price of the listing. However, if a guest does a search with selected dates the nightly price of the listing will reflect the added cleaning fee. It is only when the guest goes to the direct listing page that the nightly rate and cleaning fee are broken out. So if a guest is searching in your area for selected dates then they will see that your listing is one of the bested priced and will hopefully continue from there. 

Douglas109
Level 8

When you're searching for an specific timeframe, the available results have calculated already cleaning fees & discounts into the nightly rate. Only before the timeframe has been selected can the numbers be skewed and make your listing appear more expensive than others.

 

We probably wont see users who don't charge a cleaning fee featured since it would alienate those who do. As a host I've tried both and prefer not to charge, but as a guest I would definitely want to be able to filter out properties based on fees.

Leslie7
Level 10

If you specifically enter in dates, as most guests do, the results returned are a nightly rate that includes all of the taxes and fees. If you do a general search with no dates, then the current nightly price does pop up without factoring in the fees and taxes. This is no different from doing a hotel search, if you don’t put in exact dates it will give you a nightly rate, but then when you check availability with dates, then you always get a different, higher rate with all the stuff included. I charge a minimal cleaning fee of $25 because I am one of the few places which does not require a minimum stay in the summer, and in fact over half my guests are one night stays and they are always extremely happy to have found a place to do that. So think about it. If I don’t charge a cleaning fee and I rent my cottage out 20 single nights, I have to clean it 20 times. If I rent it out 20 nights and they are all two night stays, I only have to clean it 10 times, but my income is exactly the same as when I cleaned it 20 times. The cleaning fee makes it worth my while to rent single nights. Right now with my cleaning fee a single night $75 (excluding Airbnb fees and taxes), and if a person stays two nights their nightly fee is $67, if they stay 3 nights the nightly rate is $63, and it continues to get lower with a longer stay. If I did not charge a cleaning fee but instead just made my nightly rate enough to make single night stays worth the work, then the longer staying, more desirable guests who require less work because of fewer cleanings are actually paying more for their stay than if I charged a cleaning fee. Honestly if I could not charge a cleaning fee I would not rent single nights, which would eliminate a very valuable service to many guests who just need a place to sleep for the night. If Airbnb is going to feature places that don’t charge a fee, then they should also feature places on high tourist areas that offer single night stays, because that would “level the playing field” as someone else said.

Zappa0
Level 10

I disagree with this idea. Jeez..how many factors are they going to throw in there just to get your listing featured? Airbnb is getting to complicated as it is.

 

Cleaning fees are one time, so guests booking longer stays get a deal vs. putting it in the nightly price.

 

Cleaning fees also allow guests to get some refund back in the event of a strict policy cancellation. So if you have a $100 cleaning fee and they cancel, they get something back.