Should partial Cleaning Fee be refunded if trip is modified?

[Vinnie1]

Hello All, I had made a reservation for 3 nights, a few days later I realized I had a conflict and needed to modify my reservation down to 2 nights. But Airbnb, not the host, is claiming that the Cleaning Fee is none refundable, so I am shy of $100 of a night stay because of that. The total for 3 nights is $600, so the nightly rate would be $200, now I am only getting $100 back. Do you believe the cleaning fee should be evenly calculated and refunded based off of the number of nights of the reservation or is it ok to charge a flat rate for cleaning fee and not have it be refundable? 

Also, does anyone know if there was a policy change Airbnb made to hide cleaning fees during the booking and only show it in the receipt once the reservation is made? 

Receipt after reservation was made. 

Proposed refund w/o cleaning fee

 

[Gabrielle423]

For our listings, Cleaning fee is the same regardless of length of stay. Laundry/linens prep is the most expensive & time-consuming part of hosting… so 1 night or 5 nights+, the linens all have to be redone in addition to every other surface also being cleaned again… even if original trip length is shortened. Non-refundable cleaning fee seems fair in this case. It does seem like a high cleaning fee… but I’m not sure from your post how many bedrooms/how large the space is. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Vinnie1 The cost of cleaning is the same irrespective of a 3 or a 2 night stay. This host does have a large cleaning fee and this would go against them if you fully cancelled the stay  prior to the check in day as it is then refundable no matter what the cancellation policy is.

[Kia272]

@Vinnie1 As others have said, the cleaning burden is the same for one night or a longer stay. That seems pretty obvious. Everything has to be cleaned, regardless of the length of the stay. 

That being said, the cleaning fee on this particular listing is quite high. Hosts do this so that the property will show up with a low nightly rate, but they still make money. Personally, I wouldn't book a property structured like this for many reasons. It would serve you well to be aware of this in your future bookings. 

[Vinnie1]

@Kia9 the problem I noticed after I made this booking was that Airbnb has changed the way of how guests can see the cleaning fee. Before the cleaning fee was displayed in the price breakdown prior to paying. Now, the only way to see the cleaning fee is in the receipt,  after you make the reservation. It is almost like a hidden cost and some guests may be thrown off booking a non-refundable property because they saw there was no cleaning fee, just to find out after they have booked it that there is. 

[Kia272]

@Vinnie1  I sympathize with your situation, but I have to disagree that you don't see the cleaning fee before checking out. AirBnB is not as transparent as they could be regarding the way they display prices, taxes, service fees, etc., but the cleaning fee is absolutely displayed before check-out. 

I'd just be more attentive in the future- not only about the total price, but how it's distributed. And do keep in mind that once a guest has stayed, no matter how long, the entire place needs to be cleaned. 

Good luck with your future reservations. Kia

[Vinnie1]

This is all I see when I am checking out. The cleaning fee is not in there. Just looks like an extremely expensive total.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Vinnie1 I think the cleaning fee is on the screen before. Could you show that one? It's the one before you click to book (where it says you will not be charged yet).

[Vinnie1]

Can't post the screenshot, but it only shows the total price before taxes and fees.

[Vinnie1]

[John5097]

@Vinnie1 

I agree with the others that the cleaning fee has always been the same so if you shorten the trip by a night the cleaning fee would be the same as it takes the same amount of cleaning. Also that was a very high cleaning fee, so much so that it exceeded the the total cost of the the nightly rates you selected. 

Airbnb has changed the way guest view the fees. It's different on each devices, lap top vs the phone app. On the lap top version they show total price and an option to view the total price. I believe if you clicked on "more info" you would have seen the cleaning fee. Airbnb did this so guest could see the total price and not waste time clicking on a listing with $90 nightly rate only to find out there was a $280 cleaning fee. If that makes sense. If I recall the phone app version displayed less information on the fees. 

 It's frustrating to have listings display a lower nightly rate and very high cleaning fee although we can't see the listing and maybe it's a bigger place with significant discount already. 

Thanks for commenting and sharing your concerns. Brian Chesky CEO of ABB did say they were going to prioritize listings with lower cleaning fees, and show the total price with all the fees included. 

As mentioned if you were to cancel prior to checking in the full cleaning fee would be refunded I believe regardless of the individual cancelation policy. 

[Vinnie1]

The screenshots I provided are from the laptop. So neither app nor website show the cleaning fee until the reservation is made. 

[Vinnie1 · Accepted solution]

I figured out the issue. The toggle on the top right to "Show total before taxes and fees" filters out the cleaning fee completely, regardless of what page you are on. The only way to see the cleaning fee is to make sure to toggle that button off.