Uneven cleaning fees for long-term and short term-guests

[Natya0]

I have requested this before, and I do not think Airbnb CEO addressed my question on the recent summit, if he did, I do not believe the decision was made fairly.

I am addressing the uneven cleaning fees for long-term and short-term guests for shared common areas. I would like address again:

I have 3 room listings, and common areas are shared. I have guests who stay 1 or sometimes 2 months and i have the guest who will stay only 4 days.

Both long-term and short-term guests pay the one-time cleaning fee of $65 which covers essentials and check out cleaning. It is not fair to me and to any hosts to provide ongoing cleaning for long-term guests.

If I was renting the entire place I could just let them purchase the additional cleaning from outside but I cannot do that because I have to clean the house when I have a short guest term arriving.

Sometimes there are 1-month guests and 2-weeks guests, and that is when it gets hard because I should not be obligated to provide ongoing cleaning for the long-term stays, not to mention the fact that they continue using my essentials.

Cleaning one room plus common areas in New York costs no less than $75.
as you see, this is an extremely unfair arrangement of Airbnb hosts.

I brought up this issue in the past and but it was not addressed in the recent summit. My request is that the longer-term quests should be charged cleaning fees on  2 weeks bases.

I genuinely hope Airbnb management considers my suggestion because I find this very unfair and does not make sense when to start counting income and expense. 

I would like to see if there are other hosts who think likewise and are willing to join the forces to demand this issue to be resolved. 

thank you

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Natya0

One way around the problem you mention is to build the cost into your nightly rate, rather than having a separate cleaning fee and to not provide a weekly/monthly discount. You could charge accordingly to provide all amenities for the entire stay or say upfront that a starter kit of a certain amount of TP, soap etc is provided once and guests need to supply for remainder of the stay once they run out. 

Personally, I am not a fan of the cleaning fee to begin with and think it just complicates things more. 

[Natya0]

Jessica, I disagree, that can be a very confusing arrangement. firstly, the global consumer is spoiled and they cannot picture a wholesale without a discount.  If I remove a long-term discount I will face the competition. additionally, the consumers like the break down of the prices. they will not see the cleaning fee in the room charge, instead, they will see the high nightly price. 

Airbnb has to add a tool that will allow hosts to apply the cleaning fees in the in one week or two-week bases.  Airbnb has done a great job with customizable booking feature and they should not have a problem to customize this feature as well. 

I just think that Airbnb cares less about hosts than the guests and is trying to run a cheap hospitality business at our expense. 

[Anjalina0]

I actually quite agree with you @Natya0 I want to put in separate cleaning fees for short stays and long stays. Long stayers will make me do more cleaning and there is the likelihood of me having to even replace certain things such as the essentials. I don't find it fair that I have to charge ONE standard cleaning fee, which I want to keep as high for even some who just stay a night. One night stays may not even want to book after seeing there is a cleaning fee!

It is a shame that this has still not been resolved even in 2019! I'm still going to make a post, and see if anyone has anything new to add. I came across this from the search bar.

I wonder how you're dealing with this issue this year Natya.

[Zacharias0]

you can inform long term guests that the cleaning fee is more and they will receive an additional request for money that they must approve before arriving. having a $65 cleaning is a lot for a short term stay of 4 days. 

[Natya0]

that is not that easy and if you are a host you know that very well.  No one want to hear about additional charges later, that will only earn a bad review.  

 Yes, $65 ( includes essential ) is not a lot In New York is actually very little for 1 months or 2 months guests.  and that is the problem ( a gray area I am addressing here).

Seriously though,  your comment just weakens the problem that many hosts are facing and  I urge you to think through your responses before posting them. 

[Josiah0]

I realize this post is over a year old, but I found it while Googling "cleaning fees for STRs."  If you've resolved this by now, I'd like to know who you did.  Honestly though, I think you are making a mountain out of molehill.

Sounds like you have 3 listings, i.e., 3 separate bedrooms, in 1 shared apartment (or codo, house, etc.), correct?  I have a similar arrangement with 2 listings in my 3-bedroom house: One bedroom is mine, and and other 2 I rent on Airbnb.  I do charge a modest cleaning fee, but very modest.  I do my own cleaning, so there's no need to to hire a cleaning service.

If you're hiring a cleaning service to clean between bookings, why not arrange with the cleaning company to clean the rooms that need to be flipped, and touch-up the common areas as needed?  If having cleaners on the dwelling while other guests are there is a problem, perhaps communicate with guests and in your listing that you have routine cleanings regardless of their length of stay, not unlike hotel service.

Frankly, if hosts are going to have complex listings, I don't think it's Airbnb's responsibility to create fee schemes for very short vs. semi-long-term stays.   Sure, the technology might exist, but I think it might be confusing to new Airbnb hosts to figure out, and makes the whole listing listing process unnecessarily complicated.

If cleaning for longer-term guests is too cost-prohibitive, don't offer long-term discounts and decide for yourself what's the longest you'll go without losing revenue from cleaning costs.  For instance, if you don't want to go more than 1 month without cleaning the room at least twice, have a 30-night max.  On one hand, you'll have a solid block of 30 nights booked, and you might be able to absorb 1 extra cleaning, as opposed to a series of shorter stays and multiple cleanings throughout the month.  Longer stays offer more guaranteed income and less work between bookings.