Cleaning fees

[Mark2914]

Noticed how many hosts are charging exorbitant cleaning fees! often the cleaning fees are 20-30% of renting a place for a week , airbnb just say that they have "no control over what hosts charge" .. well welcome to scammers having free rein on the site .

[Anonymous]

@Mark2914  It's not some kind of scam. The breakdown of fees and total price are clearly displayed to the customer during the booking process - if you find any of the fees too high, you can choose not to book it. Hosts are not allowed to add undisclosed fees after the booking is confirmed.

One thing to keep in mind is that the "cleaning fee" is the only tool Airbnb offers hosts to charge a flat-rate fee on a per-booking basis, so it's basically a short-stay supplement charge. Think of it this way: there's a lot more labor that goes into hosting five consecutive one-night bookings than a single five-night booking, and a cleaning fee ensures that this additional labor is properly compensated.

[Mark2914]

A "flat fee" ? one way of putting it.  Hosts can charge anything from a dollar to....whatever !  the daily rental is a misleading charge with many hosts!

[Anonymous]

@Mark2914  Yes, hosts can charge anything they want. But they can only get bookings from guests who agree to the price.

Pro tip: if you want your search results to display accurate nightly rates, be sure to include the travel dates in your search. Otherwise, only the lowest available nightly price will be displayed.

[Sandra856]

@Mark2914  If it takes 3 hours for a cleaning crew to clean a house and it costs let's say 100 $. Then it's a flat rate of 100 $. The cleaners need to wash, dry, iron all the linens, deep clean bathrooms and kitchen and they have to do that no matter if a guest stays 1 night or 7 nights. It's the same time/price. I can understand it looks like a lot if you only stay 1-2 nights but it's the actual price. Many times the cleaning fee doesn't even cover the actual price. 

[Emilia42]

@Mark2914 

So in your mind, how much should a cleaner make?

[Lawrene0]

@Mark2914 , I can't really charge a cleaning fee here, as I ask guests to practice leave-no-trace camping. They don't always, of course, expecting to treat the place like they do other places, but it is what I ask. I still have to mop, launder sheets and towels, and restock, but I build that into the price I charge. It works, because nearly all of my guests stay only one or two nights.

When I travel, I practice leave-no-trace staying as far as possible, so I am delighted when there is no cleaning fee, but knowing how the system works, I am not bothered when there is one. Cleaners get a living wage, longer-term stays cost less (because that cleaning fee is not per-night but per-stay), and all is well with the world. It is hardly a scam.

The thing is that you and I, as cost-conscious travellers, can pick where we want to stay. If you don't like a place that charges a cleaning fee, just don't book it. Stay with the no-cleaning-fee host. As the others have pointed out, it is right there in the breakdown when you book.

Best advice: If you want to see total costs when you are searching, be sure to enter your dates and number of guests. 

[Alice595]

@Lawrene0  It is good for guests to leave the space clean. However, after each occupancy, there are still cleaning work to be done such as cleaning the bath tub/shower, toilet, sinks, kitchen counter top, and washing linens, and preparing bed for the next guests etc. As @Branka-and-Silvia0 pointed out below, it is actually a turn over fee. There are some other additional labor costs involved for each booking.

If you don't restrict 1 or 2 day stays, a cleaning fee definitely helps to offset the cleaning cost.

[Lisa723]

@Mark2914 My cleaning fees are flat and go directly to my cleaners. I pay a living wage. My nightly rental rate varies according to season, day of week, etc. In your opinion what should be the ratio of my cleaning rate and my minimum nightly rate, to ensure that my nightly rate does not ever drop low enough to make my cleaning fee a “scam”?

[Luana130]

It is not a scam, most times the rate doesn't even cover the entire cost of the cleaning. I have a few apartments and the cleaning rate varies from R$40(brazilian real, about 10 dollars) to R$300 (about 75 dollars), depending on the size and what needs to be done. I do most of the cleaning myself, because If I were to call a professional company to clean the R$40 would have to become R$150, and the R$300 about R$500. It would be hard to get a booking with those rates, so if I have to call for extra help I actually lose on the nightly rate. It is not a scam, it is just the price cleaners charge.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark2914 

as some other hosts already said - this is not just a cleaning fee, it's a turnover fee. Turnovers are time and money consuming for off-site hosts, especially those who live far from their Airbnb properties.

Our cleaning fee doesn't even cover our labor, laundry service costs, lunch/coffee in the city, our time while we are waiting for our guests who are late for hours, time spent on communication,  international calls/texting prior to their arrival, transport to and from the location to meet them, etc... It's a big difference if someone is staying 1 night or 7 nights and this so-called "cleaning fee" covers that at least partially.

[Jim472]

Yeah, I'm with the other hosts here, not a scam in any sense of the word. Even an airline or hotel analogy doesn't hold water. Those two have often been associated with hidden costs tacked on pages down into the booking process. Airbnb puts the total price on their search screen and even a handy little info button that shows you a price breakdown. For that matter you can even set a budget ceiling and not see those above it. So I have no idea why you're irked, you've got all the power as the guest and can just not book.