Housekeeping Tips

[Mila1222]

Do you allow your cleaning staff to leave an envelope labeled "Housekeeping Tips ".?   Some back ground,  we use a local management company to help manage our Airbnb.   It's 3 bedroom , 2 bath, 1450 sq ft, max 6 occupants.  The guests are charged a $225 cleaning fee which the listing says goes directly to the cleaner.  ( $75 is an breakage/damage insurance policy; so only $155 goes to the cleaner - as far as I can tell)    If the guest feels they are paying $225  what are your thoughts on a tip envelope?

We have used Airbnbs all over the US and we have never seen this done.   Is this a new trend?

I feel the management company should have consulted us before starting this practice.  They say the cleaning staff has requested to do this and they pool tips.    I do not have an issue with the cleaners receiving tips at the guest discretion,  I have mixed feeling about the "ask" especially in light of a $225 cleaning fee.

What are your practices and/or thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance, 

[Colleen253]

@Mila1222 No, I would not allow this. And I would be in search of a new management company.

[Sarah977]

@Mila1222  Will offend a lot of guests and likely lead to bad reviews.

A guest who has already paid a $225 cleaning fee shouldn't be hit up for tips.

If the cleaners aren't being paid well enough, it isn't up to guests to top it up to a living wage.

I'd be looking for a new management co.

And there is no listing on your profile. ( I looked to see how large your place is and whether $175 seems adequate for cleaning it)  It appears that this company isn't helping you manage, but that you have given them full control of your place. Which means that if you stop using this company, you lose all the reviews and ratings for your place, as they are on the mgmt. company's profile, I assume.

It's really not a good idea to hand over your listing to that extent.

[Mila1222]

Hi,  we are listed as co host on the listing under the property name - no our personal names ,  I just posted this on my personal account because didn't want to post it from the shared account.  

You have a very good point about the reviews, it's  something I have had on my radar since we started this.  The reviews are on the property listing, but the listing says that it's hosted by the management company.  They did give us full disclosure that Airbnb would most likely not let us take the account over if we wanted to do that in the future.   

How should we handle that better? We just started renting the property in September so if there is a change to be made we should do it sooner rather than later.   The listing has 24 5 star reviews.

[Helen3]

If your management company is not willing to allow you to have the listing under your name, I would either manage the listing yourself in terms of the admin and employ a local co-host to manage things on the ground/manage a local cleaning service or employ a co-host to manage everything on the basis that they set up the listing under your name. @Mila1222 

I would do this sooner rather than later, one problem would be that you may have a notice period and future bookings with your current company. In which case when the new listing is set up you will need to block out and dates where you have bookings through the management company and the management company would need to snooze their listing so they don't accept any more bookings. 

[Lorna170]

@Mila1222   No.  Tipping is not acceptable at an AirBnB where the guest is paying a fairly steep cleaning fee.  My guests would slam me in reviews if I allowed tip envelopes.  I agree with @Colleen253 ; you need to search out another management company.  This one sounds like they are lining their pockets at the expense of both you and their employees.