New Airbnb rules

Sorry, you are making no sense. If it's £250 +£250, then when you amalgamate them into one charge, it's £500, not £550.

I'd rather the property charged a transparent, all in charge of £500, rather than saying £250 and then slapping on a fake £250 cleaning charge.

It's dicking around like this that is the problem. Factor your running costs into your rental price and charge a transparent all in fee.

I notice you didn't actually answer my question, you changed it and answered a different one .. For longer stays they won't be the same, for the fixed cost / variable costs described above
Your choice of course...

Presumably it wouldn't be £500 v £550 if the properties were identical? It would be £500 v £250+£250. I'd choose the £500 one, as I'd object to the hosts dicking around with an excessive cleaning fee.

This policy is good, as it adds transparency to the pricing. The price you see is the price you pay and you know it includes all cleaning with no unreasonable rules. It's easier to compare like with like.

So if there were two otherwise identical properties for your holiday
Property A - Flat Rate £550 for your stay
Property B - £250 plus £250 cleaning fee

Which you choose?

And if at some point in the future we say no cleaning fees, do you think the cost of Property B will remain £250, or become £550?

So why is it called a cleaning fee then? This may well be an Airbnb thing rather than the property owners. (I should add that it's not the money, that doesn't bother me, it's the principle of paying an additional fee for something that you have already paid for in the accommodation cost).

Yes I make a profit but it's my job. It's not extra income it's my only income, it's a business. Making a profit is the way I pay my mortgage and bills.

I have 2 units in my garden, both one bed so no where near £3k a week. But many people with properties that size aren't breaking even at the moment because the costs are so high. If you pay a mortgage and for cleaning it wipes it all out. Which is why so many people are selling up at the moment.

Then that needs to be transparently factored into the standard rental price rather than charging a fake fee.

Not really. I don't go on holiday to stay somewhere regarded as 'budget'.

Honestly, I'd wash up after myself and tidy up as standard. I'd put rubbish in the bins and take it to the outside bin in the garden if necessary, but I don't expect to be told to take the rubbish off site. I'd pull up the bed and leave it tidy, but I don't expect to be told to strip the beds or put the washing on. Rubbish disposal and linen changing really should be factored into the operating costs of running a short let business.

She has just explained to you the small cost is not for actual cleaning, it's to make a short stay worth doing the cleaning and laundry for.

People staying in Airbnb's are quite likely to have more rubbish than someone staying in a hotel.

If you cook at all there is going to be some rubbish. Obviously you don't cook in a hotel. If you are staying for a week or maybe longer that is likely to be a fair bit of rubbish so why would you not take it out?

Some posters really seem so lazy and slovenly if they can't even put out a bit of rubbish or just keep somewhere clean as they go along.

Don't even get me started on people who say they don't go on holiday to make their bed every day! Oh yes straightening the bottom sheet and pulling up the duvet is such hard work and so time consuming

Just seems to be reinforcing the idea that staying in a budget hotel is a better option where you are not expected to do any cleaning whatsoever. This is why hotels will never go out of fashion.

I had to book an AirBnB for my son once in our road as we had to unexpectedly put MiL up and he was visiting at the same time. The host made some absurd spiel about the shower not working properly and you had to point it in a certain direction. So I said why don't you just get a plumber in to fix the shower? Why is this a problem for your guests? He was also insisting that all guests take their shoes off inthe house as he was a Muslim. I actually think shoes in a house is unhygienic but can't see how you can enforce that on guestsl

But it's not good for any guest long or short stay because a property should be clean as standard, it's not an optional extra. Whether it does or doesn't exceed your actual cleaning fees is irrelevant as your cleaning fees should be covered in the cost of the rental. It's like going to a restaurant and ordering spaghetti bolgnese only for them to charge you a 'pasta fee' on top.

As a former host and a guest maybe twice a year- I think hosts should expect basic decency and cleanliness from guests which to me includes doing the dishes or setting the dishwasher. I am also not personally put off by stripping beds either. I don’t consider that cleaning and does not fall into what guests are paying for in the cleaning fee. Now if you’re requesting guests clean the toilets, showers, change sheets, etc (which I’ve personally not come across) that’s different.

Part of the reason hosts request the above is so that the turnover doesn’t have to take as long- which means cleaning fees can be lower and check in/out times can be civil. Ultimately if guests aren’t doing this and cleaning takes longer- you’re going to find that cost passed to the guest. When I was a host, turnover costs were just about covered by the cleaning fee- the general consensus was to keep it as a low as possible to ensure bookings. I had one hour for a standard turnover plus a few deeper cleans each month. Cleaning, running a business, etc isn’t cheap and this just feels like a move that’s quite guest oriented to appease those who have no clue the other side- but if airbnbs have to raise cleaning rates and change times then people might think twice before booking via airbnb anyway- so airbnb might be shooting themselves in the foot tbh… people already go to other sites due to Airbnb’s own fee and cleaning fees 😂.
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We have a small cleaning fee, £20-30, I forget the exact number. It's not really a cleaning fee as it comes no where near covering the cost of a clean, it's a fixed cost fee, but the only option we have under the AirBnB pricing formula. As above, cleaning, laundry, welcome packs are all the same 1 night or 7+ nights. If we didn't have the option, a 2 night stay would be the same nightly rate as a 7 night stay, and longer stays would subsidise shorter stays. A fix/cleaning fee is good for the guest if you want a longer stay. If people think it really covers "why should I keep the place tidy, you charge a cleaning fee?", it really really doesn't cover that in any way

Tidy up yes. No to taking out the rubbish. The cleaner/owner can do that (assuming you don't produce so much that you haven't already taken out one bag and put a new one in during the week). Hotels don't ask me to empty bins and neither do B&Bs.

Thanks, that's useful to understand. It makes sense on a short stay. I suppose I'm looking at it from the perspective of a longer stay - 1 or 2 weeks. I'm paying anything up to £3k so to be charged an extra cleaning fee seems a bit of a pisstake. But I can see why it eats into your profits for a shorter stay. Although presumably you are still making a profit on short stays otherwise you wouldn't do it.

Nor did I until I had a holiday cottage! It sounds like you don't have one as you can't get down the drain without one. It's a kind of cup with a little water in it. It gets hair and gey slimy stuff in it ( soap scum/shower gel/poo once) I soak it in the sink while I'm cleaning the rest of the bathroom ( obviously the poo one didn't go in the sink)

In your own home you can do what you like though. Nobody's reviewing you or asking for a refund if it's dirty.

I'm not sure if I want to admit this, but I'm not sure exactly what cleaning the shower trap entails. I've got long hair so go down the shower plug hole about once a week with the drain snake, is that the equivalent? And if it ever starts to drain slowly I chuck some Mr Muscle down.

Again, not my experience at all.

Maybe the window cleaning is not absolutely necessary but the shower trap is. How often do you clean your shower trap. I clean ours every 3 or 4 days and there is only me and DH and we both have very short hair but it needs cleaning that often.

I have stayed in over 50 Airbnb's here and abroad and never found a dirty one so not sure how you have been so unlucky.

What we get as customers is a living room with comfortable sofas, a fully equipped kitchen with a dining table, a separate bedroom, often a garden or balcony we can sit on to eat meals. To get that in a hotel would cost a fortune

I’ve never done a household chore on holiday either.

Can you find me a budget hotel that has a kitchen, dining room, living room, three double ensuite bedrooms and either an enclosed garden or a hot tub. If you can we may possibly consider staying in a budget hotel, otherwise, no thank you. We don’t go on holiday to sleep in a shoebox with pub style carpets.

I didn't say it wasn't. I was replying to the comment that I spend too much time cleaning.

The new rules make no difference to me. I don't ask guests to do anything at all, although in over 800 stays only one person has left dirty dishes so I've never felt the need to. I've also never stayed anywhere that has asked me to do any cleaning and I've done 30 stays. But for Air BnB it was a problem because there is a perception that all properties give cleaning jobs. That's why they've made this announcement.

Yes, to clean interiors of windows and the shower trap being cleaned. These are basic requirements. Maybe not the exterior of the windows, but they're probably done by window cleaners every month or so rather than the changeover cleaner (especially if not all at ground level). A manky shower trap is a definite no - that must be cleaned between guests. Guests aren't going to accept marks on windows nor hairs in a shower trap.