Airbnb now adding cleaning fee to nightly rate! No breakdowns for travelers.

[Bobby32]

I was wondering why my bookings were so light. Great house, great reviews. Then I did a search of my home and realized I no longer show up in traveler searches because I'm not an Instant Book home. I was not informed of this change by Airbnb. Okay fine. I'll switch to Instant Book and risk having an unvetted guest so that I can maintain my livelihood. Doesn't stop there though...

Today, I did a search for my listing as a traveler and my nightly rates are highly inflated from my calendar rates. They are now wrapping the cleaning fee into nightly rate and no longer including a breakdown of nightly rate! I called airbnb and they were as surprised as I was to this change. I sent screenshots and asked them to escalate since I'm not getting bookings because my rates are much higher than my neighbors. Yes, I charge $180 for cleaning fee. I have a big home and I want my guests to have an immaculate experience. My neighboring hosts charge $100 for cleaning fee so they are less expensive and more economical option for guests. Is that fair to showcase a cheaper cleaning fee home giving the illusion that it is a cheaper nightly rate when in fact it is not? Trying to provide a quality experience to my guests, but Airbnb seems to be moving towards a bargain basement approach to traveler offerings.  Airbnb seems to roll out changes to increase revenue, but don't inform hosts of the changes nor do they consider how these changes will impact hosts. I have a mortgage to pay Airbnb. If you don't break down true fees and accomodation fees to guests, I'll be forced to pull my listing since I can't compete with cheap cleaning fees.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Bobby32

Hi Bobby - you need to separate out a few issues. Yes, AirBnB has alwasy given priority to  those hosts that offer instant book. No surprise to most hosts.

Your pricing just needs to reflect both what you will accept and what the market will bear. It;s a bit unfair to point to other houses with a lower cleaning fee and infer that they must be dirty

Finally, AirBnB is not there to pay your mortgage - it would be a very brave person to rely on that alone. Why not list with some other sites too and see if you can get more traffic that way.

Good luck

[Bobby32]

Hi Gerry and Rashid,

Not inferring anything other than a change in the way Airbnb markets my home, which I assess is an unfair representation of my nightly rate. This marketing change is a surprise and an impact to my bookings. I'm simply alerting hosts who may not be aware since this was a surprise to me and a may be a surprise to them as well.

Good luck to you too

[Willow3]

@Bobby32 

I too recommend reading the other post if you haven't yet. There is an explanation from Airbnb in that thread and I offer some screen shots. 

TL;dr - if a guest designations dates in their search, the price will include the cleaning fee amortized over the duration of the stay, but shown as a nightly fee. 

If a guest want only a one night stay, they yes, it's the base+cleaning fee.  But it's not personal, all properties have the same results shown. 

[Ange2]

@Bobby32   There is another thread on this, might be interesting to take a look, explains a bit about it.

[Paula-and-Gill0]

So, I went to your listing as a traveler. I see it says, $240 per night before I book. On the calendar I select today through 3 more nights and I get a price of $220 per night, plus a one time cleaning fee of $180. Is this what it should look like? 

[Bobby32]

Thank you for checking Paula and Gill! I appreciate it. Yes it should be that way, but I show $285 a night  (wrapped in cleaning fee) when I search as a traveler, which is a huge mark up from $220 a night. Not sure why this is inconsistent on the airbnb site. 

[Bobby32]

Screenshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7W0IR8QlXcXFxYmw2YTBaRVk/view?usp=sharing

[Ida55]

My nightly rate of $85 displays in searchs as anywhere from $95 to $105 a nite.  My cleaning fee is $35.  Airbnb rolls the cleaning fee into the nightly rate on searches.  This higher rate causes me to lose  bookings, as airbnb lets me know that people who looked at my place booked a place at least $10 less.  I deleted the cleaning fee and in my airbnb website  added  there would be an additional $35 cleaning fee, paid in cash, on site.  I have been booked solid and have not had a problem collecting the money or complaints.  However, airbnb contacted me and told me I could not ask for the cleaning fee separately and would have to add it to my charges in the website.  I explained that would raise my nightly rates and I would get less bookings.  They suggested I contact the support group and see if they could assist me.  Has anyone had this problem and what have you done to resolve it?

[Letti0]

@Ida55 I posted on another thread this is not happening on my listing.

[Ida55]

Hi Letitia, I checked the airbnb search and found my place.  They have made some changes and now it is not showing the cleaning fee added to the nightly rate.  I am glad I dont have to deal with this issue anymore.  Thank you for your response.  Ida

[Sterling6]

Hey Bobby, are you sure you don't have a Chrome Plugin enabled that adds the cleaning fee to the Nightly rate automatically? I have a TamperMonkey script that does just that...