Is the cost to stay at an Airbnb too much compared to hotel?

[Ben4894]

Are Airbnb hosts charging too much?  I’m finding the cost to stay at an Airbnb is much more expensive than at a hotel.

Airbnb hosts typically offer less amenities, are requiring guests to clean kitchen and bath, strip beds and start the laundry in addition to paying a cleaning fee.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ben4894 Then stay in a hotel.

Our listings are very different to hotels in that we offer a bedroom, a kitchen/dining/lounge and a bathroom. Guests can save money by cooking their own meals etc. 

If guests plan to eat out a lot then perhaps we don't make sense financially - That's fine we are just an alternative for those whose the benefits of our offering.

Oh and just choose a place that doesn't require you to clean and strip beds etc. if you don't want to have to do that. Again its a choice that is not being forced on you.

We had to stay in a hotel recently - Wow it was an eye opener as to how hotels can charge a lot and provide a run down, dingy room with poor service!

[Gillian166 · Accepted solution]

@Mike-And-Jane0  my daughter and her bf both studied and work in hospo. the bf is currently working in a 5* hotel not far from us, and they charge 3x the price. The building is marvellous, historic blah blah blah, and has the wank factor that Lambo owners might need, but he keeps insisting we are too cheap for what we offer. 

and then when you stay in rural Australia you're often paying $130-$200 per night for some daggy old motel that hasn't had a refurb in 30+ years, and wasn't that attractive to begin with !  This is not far from what I charge. 

I will give @Ben4894  this point, we were in SF in 2018 and I wanted to stay in an airbnb, for the personality and living in a local situation, but they were soooo expensive, we opted for a hotel instead. Same situation in NYC. So in some cities they might well be overpriced.

[Ben4894]

What you are saying is EXACTLY what other are saying on Reddit, Twitter and other message boards.  AND to make the stay at an Airbnb worse they are required to strip the beds, start the laundry, sweep, clean the bathroom and kitchen etc.  Last Airbnb we stayed at, for the end of our vacation we had to spend well over an hour cleaning.  But wait, we were charged a hefty cleaning fee to have the place cleaned.  What a crappy way to end a vacation.  But I were were just in Las Vegas and Hawaii where we stayed in a hotel.  There was housekeeping service everyday,, fresh towels and they removed the trash all for no extra charge.  And when it was time to leave, we left.  No need to do any cleaning.

[Ginger128]

I agree that linens are the job of housekeeping, not the guest.

But throwing out food, taking out trash, and starting the dishwasher is reasonable. The housekeeper is not a maid and does not do dishes, just like if I have my own home cleaned the housekeeper is there to clean, not be a servant. 

[Ben4894]

Tossing out my food, emptying the trash and starting the dishwasher is reasonable, but that's not all that hosts are asking.  The want the kitchen counters cleaned, bed linens stripped and in the washer, bathroom/toilet scrubbed, floor swept/vacuumed before leaving.  So if a guest is doing all of this why should they have to pay a cleaning fee?  

[Jennifer2682]

Sorry @Ben4894 , I know this doesn't fit the narrative you're trying to push, but I am both a longtime host in the US (since 2009) and have used both Airbnb and VRBO extensively as a guest over the last decade and a half, and I feel confident in asserting that MOST hosts do not require their guests to vacuum, scrub the bathroom, or do anything more than simply tidy up after themselves and lock up. 

I ask guests to take the garbage out and start the dishwasher.  That's it.  My place takes 3-5 hours to turn over (deep clean plus maintenance, landscaping/yardwork, shoveling/plowing, transferring garbage to the dump myself).  I charge a cleaning fee of $75, which I consider to be minimal.  This helps to cover supplies and amenities (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, bubble bath, bath bomb, olive oil, salt/pepper/condiments, coffee, tea, etc.) and replacement items like towels, sheets, rugs, dishes, and glassware that inevitably get stained or broken.  I clean my place myself so, after expenses I typically don't get paid the cleaning fee, but on occasion I have to hire it out, and it costs me $125.  I am hardly rolling around on a cleaning fee bed of cash, lol!  

I know you want to hate on Airbnb.  Lots of folks do.  And I'm sure there are some hosts out there who aren't great. (Chesky's determination to onboard millions of new hosts before improving customer service certainly is not helping things.)  But there are lots of us who LOVE hosting, who LOVE sharing our spaces with guests, who LOVE traveling and living like a local.  There are lots of us who take a ton of pride in these places, these homes, that we have curated for our guests.  I truly want every single guest to have the BEST experience possible and I think you'll find more hosts feel that way than not. 

If Airbnb isn't for you, that's ok.  Hotels are awesome too.  My lodging choices vary depending on where I'm going and how long I'm staying, though I always look at reviews and I'm always willing to pay a little more for a quality experience.  (Which is perhaps why I have always had positive stays.)  But please remember that there are a lot of amazing hosts out there who are working really hard for their guests, each and every day.   

[Gillian166]

@Ben4894  i'm not sure if I should be insulted to be aligning with reddit and twitter types 🤣 I rarely visit either of those 2 places, and when I do, I am usually reminded in 5mins flat why I don't like them.  

you are comparing apples to oranges though, and also judging ALL hosts by one unfortunate situation. We stayed in a place for a month and on the morning of checkout we got a list of jobs. I already had to pack up a house of 4 people, cat & dog, and do a final vac to make sure there was no pet hair, AND then do her list of chores, and it was quite stressful and not a good way to end the trip. But that's the worst one and I know to avoid those listings in the future. Same goes for anyone demanding I show them ID during an unnecessary meet n greet, or wanting to see vax papers (even though I'm not sharing their space at all), those people I also avoid. 

If you want a hotel with a daily maid service, then stay in a hotel. 
If you want a whole house in a local area without a million tourists around you, choose an airbnb. There's room for both in the industry and both have cons and pros.

[Ben4894]

@Gillian166I think we are in agreement.  I would argue this isn't an apples and oranges comparison, but more like a apples and cars.  The gripe is about having to pay a cleaning fee and then having to do the cleaning before you leave.  If I'm doing the cleaning, why should I have to pay a cleaning fee?

[Gillian166]

@Ben4894  well, you aren't really doing the cleaning, you're just tidying up after yourself. This has been discussed here before and someone wrote a pretty long list of all the things we do as part of a turnover.  the cleaning fee isn't covering the 3 things you've been asked to do, there's likely 100 other tasks a cleaner does. 

I've never heard of a host expecting a guest to vacuum or scrub the toilet. So if this happened you've a right to be upset, but it's not the norm. Although frankly, if the toilet needs a scrub you don't feel obliged to clean up your own mess? I would be mortified to leave a gross toilet for a cleaner.  
 

[Ben4894]

@Gillian166  Just because you have never heard of it doesn't mean it's not happening.  Please tell me you have heard of the many shooting deaths at Airbnbs.

Here in the US hosts are demanding Guests clean the property, scrub kitchen counters, seep the floor, vacuum,  strip the beds, wash the linens, scrub the shower tubs, toilet, counters and floor before leaving this is in addition to paying a cleaning fee and some hosts are adding a COVID sercharge cleaning fee.  Other posters have verified.   

Just because you have not heard of it doesn't mean it's not occuring.

[Gillian166]

@Ben4894  your shooting issues are not an Airbnb concern, that's a USA concern. You'll notice it doesn't happen elsewhere.....

And also, criminals exist, so blaming the platform or the host for the behaviour of the degenerates is really unhelpful. 

As has been pointed out, there's a new feature coming where hosts will disclose the Checkout Chores as part of the booking, I welcome this change! You are right to be outraged, and consumer sentiment has driven this change. 

If your "verified facts" are coming from Reddit you might want to 🤔 apply some filtering though. I had a look at some comments and I can't fathom these people, you know the cleaning fees before you pay, so why are you complaining? find somewhere else to stay and put those hosts out of business. 

and btw, this whole drama goes both ways. there's plenty of cases of guests "finding" one hair, or a cockroach, or crumbs in the toaster and demanding ridiculous refunds. It has to stop on both sides.  But it won't, because humans are what they are, there are bad hosts and there are certainly bad guests!  

[Helen3]

Oh please @Ben4894 

Just because a few hosts out of the millions that host every day are unreasonable in their check out demands doesn't mean this is the norm.

The Airbnb model clearly doesn't suit your needs and you no longer use it. So why waste your energy joining a community whose platform you don't use just to whinge about the platform.

As you know the moaners forum known as Reddit is not representative of what happens on STR platforms.

[Gillian166]

@Helen3  agreed! I went over to Reddit to read some stuff, they seem to choose the  worst places (no doubt based on price) and then complain when things aren't perfect. 

There's zero proof any of it is real and if the feature of checking out a guest/host profile were re-instated we could all have a look at Ben's recent experiences to see what he's talking about. I miss that level of authenticity we had here in the forums. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gillian166 I guess if the Airbnb's in SF or NYC are too expensive they won't get booked. In a normal marketplace prices change with supply and demand and if people move outside of an acceptable price range then they won't get booked.