Cleaning fee--to charge or not to charge?

[Karen77]

I've been happily hosting for over a year and have been charging a modest cleaning fee.  

After a a guest made it clear he was unhappy about this, I find myself wondering.  Do you charge a fee?  Why or why not?   If you do, what do you say to the occasional guest who thinks you should be like a hotel?  

[Dawn33]

@Sylvia0, please check into tenant rights in your state. I won't accept requests over 30 days because of them. Google Airbnb + tenant rights.

[Diane34]

Hi, I have thought about that too. I came up with the solution that it is better for me to get in and clean at least twice a month. Especially if it is a male guest since the toilets can get dirty and their cleaning standards are not as good overall.

I expected one guest (a male) who stayed here for two months to do his own laundry, it would have been better for me to do it, so they were not ruined. I would suggest a schedule where you tell them you will be cleaning twice a month, and have two sets of sheets so they can strip the bed, put the sheets in a special place and you make the bed, that gives you a chance to see how they are treating the place and make any adjustments. Hope that helps. ~ Diane

[Sara2]

You need to be careful with four months it's a tenancy I know most host won't go over 29 days

whoever thinks men leave more mess than women have obviously never had a female guest who left a huge gush of menstrual blood on sheets mattress and duvet and went shopping only remembering to text the issue to me at the end of her busy shoe shopping!!!!!!that happened to me recently where my last four male guests were immaculate     Try not to judge on gender.

[Diane34]

I would not be afraid of a four month booking if it works out well for you. I have not had any problems with any Airbnb guests. ~ Diane

[Dawn33]

I just did a quick googling and found this re: California

https://www.cnet.com/news/airbnb-guest-stays-30-days-gets-tenants-rights/

Hopefully, it will go smoothly for you and without a problem.

[Cindy65]

I live on Vancouver Island.  Everyone in the business that I know charges a cleaning fee.  It depends on the size of the apartment and the hours it takes to do a complete cleaning.  The going rate here for the cleaning staff is $20 - $25 per hour. then you add the cleaning supplies and a bit more for unexpecteds.  I had someone spill coffee on the bed and the extra cost to me was $50 in staff for cleaning all the bedding.  (No one is supposed to bring food or beverages into the bedrooms.)  As for the long term visitor,  the charge goes up because it is wise to have some evaluation during their stay of the condition of the place.  I have a 4 month booking, and I am sending in a cleaner for 2 hours at the end of each month and they can report any concerns or damage to me.  Thus I am charging a $250 cleaning fee for this booking.  So far I have not had anyone complain about the cleaning fees.  I think if you do the cleaning yourself, pay yourself same as the going wage for any cleaner and don't forget a bit extra for supplies as they sure can add up.

I know one host charges the extra 2 hours on a monthly stay as they send in a cleaner in 2 weeks and that gives the host a change to evaluate the guest's care of the place before too much damage can be done.  I hope this helps make your decisions.

Claire

[William108]

I had some builders stay for 1 1/2 months, they were very good guests but left in a hurry on account of their work demands, doing little or no cleaning. My house rule on cleaning is to leave the place as you find it (clean and tidy). I charge a cleaning fee, which covers 2 hours to bring the house back up to professional standard. On this occasion it took my cleaners 4 hours to clean up. I considered whether it was reasonable to expect this over a long stay as potenitally I had benefitted from a guaranteed income for that duration in an industry that makes no guarantees. However my place is in very high demand at a popular destination and has had no vacant gaps since I listed it. I had also provided some extras, which I had not charged for. So I compared the situation with any other sort of longer term let, where you would expect the property to left how it was found or lose a part of your deposit. So I politely explained the situation and asked the guests if they wouldn't mind footing the bill for an additional 2 hours. They paid.... and I got a 5* review. So did they.

However you go about it, after such a long stay you will need to budget a deep clean. After six months, you will be looking at a full house clean. 8 hours or more. 

Lastly, I would be careful about a 4 month contract through AirBnb as your guests could acquire tenure over your property. Especially if they have exclusive access to it for that time and it becomes their primary residence. In the UK that would mean a court order to make them leave. Major trouble! Make sure they remain licencees for the duration of their stay, which is as simple as making sure they have a home address and that they state the purpose of their visit as something temporary (e.g. business or vacation).

[Diane34]

I have experimented with a cleaning fee, I rent a whole house that takes about 4 hours to clean. In that case I think the customers appreciate the $75 cleaning fee, they know it will be clean upon their arrival. For shorter stays the home stays cleaner, but every surface does have to be cleaned regardless of how clean they leave it...and to do a good job it requires hard work.

For rooms I rent in my home I have started incorporating the cleaning cost into the nightly rate (by raising it). That way there are no additional costs. I like to test but this is hard to test due to seasonality. Hope this helps. I go back and forth but not sure what works best for my bottom line since I am in the first year of business.~ Diane

[Andrew90]

I charge a cleaning fee. I find it's easier to have them and provide discounts or adjust reservations down. In particular I use this as insentive for some guests and offer something like if leave the place in great shape when you check out I can refund the fee.

It also provides incentive for longer stays. I for example charge $100 cleaning fee for a 3 night stay that 33/night and that can be as high as 20pct of the cost. Whereas for a 7 night stay it's under 15/night and under 10pct of cost.

[Sandra126]

No cleaning fee. Why? Because I like the transparency of knowing how much to pay straight up. It is all part of the cost of the stay.

[Marie-Claire3]

I'm an ABB guest as well as a host, and as a guest I will never rent rooms where a cleaning fee is required as I find it terrible that people would charge extra for cleaning--aren't they expected to rent clean rooms, istn't that part of our business?  It's really a dirty trick, when you find that the cleaning fee represents about half of a night's fee!

As a host, I don't charge a cleaning fee and have a 2-night minimum requirement where I feel comfortable that the cost of my time, water, and products is covered.  If ABB allowed it, I would charge more for one night's stay, but as they don't, or you have to go manually change the price for odd single nights between reservations which is irksome, I'm happy to leave it like that, it gives me a day off here and there.

[Jackie20]

I kind of dropped in on this conversation by accident. But I'm happy to share what I do about cleaning charges.

I do not charge for cleaning or the taxes that are charged by my County (12%).

I have sold high end product in my career as an artist and been successful. This is what I learned then and it's still what I practice in my new business, Airbnb since 2015.

The buyer NEVER wants extra charges, period. They want the advertised price, or sometimes they want a discount. 

What I do; is include the value of cleaning and the taxes to the price that is advertised. I never have any problem, this way.

Yes my price per night might be higher than someone else's, but there won't be any additional costs to my guests than the advertised price. 

Good Airbnb Everyone