Airbnb - is this unreasonable

[lostinleaves]

I've never booked an Airbnb before and am looking for a place for one night. I've found the ideal place but then checked the price, it's £140 for one night which is within budget for our group but then there is a cleaning fee of £75 and a service charge of £36.

Is this normal for Airbnb or are they being CFers?

I'm going to book a normal B&B instead if that's the norm.

Normal. Works out expensive for short stays

People can charge what they like. You can choose whether you want to pay it or not.

The service charge is standard, this is air BnB who charge it. The cleaning charge varies hugely, from nothing (and you expected to clean before you leave) to whatever it would cost to clean the whole place. £75 sounds a lot to me from my experience.

However back to my first statement, are you happy with the total cost (in which case book) or not, in which case find something else.

Premier Inn would be cheaper!

Sound usual for a large place.

Sorry, I should have said - it's a cottage to sleep 3.

I think there is often a cleaning fee if it’s only a short stay, as the income from one night isn’t worth the hassle/expense of cleaning a whole property

You don't say how big the place is but you refer to a group of you so not just a room. Cleaning fee sounds reasonable, doesn't matter if you stay 1 night or 1 week the same cleaning/bed linen change etc needs to be done. I used to have rental apartment and £75 is what the property management company use to charge for clean and laundry ready for change over.

Cross post. Yeah tbh for a cottage for one night £215 sounds reasonable to me. If it's 3 adults sharing the cost that's £70 each. If you want really cheap go to a travelodge

We've booked a normal B&B now - £140 for 3 adults, 2 rooms - as it's rural (Cumbria, one night in term time, midweek) there aren't travel lodge type places that are convenient.

I rent a cottage regularly - not airbnb, but if I go for a weekend rather than a week, the cost per night is a lot more, not much cheaper than a week.
Laundering linen, cleaning etc costs will be the same whether you're there for a week or one night.
A budget hotel or B&B may be less convenient, but probably a lot cheaper for a single night.

I work as a cleaner for a company who owns air b&bs and this is pretty much standard for all places. I clean quite large properties and sometimes can be there for at least 5-6hrs if it's left in an awful state, normally around 4hrs if it's been left in reasonable condition. I'm paid a fairly decent wage so they have to factor that cost in. I think the whole point of air b&bs is that large groups use them so works out cheaper than a hotel as your all splitting the cost.

I think for short stays it's fairly standard, otherwise they have to do a full-clean for not very much income afterwards.

YANBU to not want to pay that.
They ANBU to want to charge any amount they choose.
Sounds like it wasn't the place for you. I'm always super leery of the hidden charges some holiday cottages slap on, especially if the nightly rate is expensive to start with.

It’s normal, that way they can keep costs per night down.

I've never had a cleaning charge for all the Airb&bs I've stayed in

The point with Airbnb is that the per night charge is scalable for the duration, whereas the admin and cleaning fees are per stay. So it ends up being disproportionately expensive for a one night stay, far less of a bargain.

The cleaning cost is the same for an airbnb property no matter how long you stay in it. So they don't work out well for very short stays, while still keeping the total reasonable for week's stay.

I've never had a cleaning charge for all the Airb&bs I've stayed in

I've never not had cleaning charge included in the quote. Are you sure you just didn't notice it?

Surely you'd notice it as the quote for the one we looked at was clearly laid out with nightly rate, cleaning charge and service charge on different lines.

If the hosts use a professional laundry service for bedlinen that’ll account for about half the cost and then the other half will be to pay a cleaner.

Sorry to derail OP ... we're staying in an Airbnb in May, first time.

We've paid a cleaning charge that's all fine but what's the "etiquette" with what cleaning we need to do on departure? For example when we've stayed in a cottage I'd strip the beds, all dishes in dishwasher and put it on, sweep kitchen floor, rubbish and recycling put in appropriate outdoor bins. Is this sufficient?

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz
I wouldn't strip the beds but I would do everything else you've noted.

Thanks TAR

normal. Which is why I wont use airbnb. Same cleaning fee for 1 night or 14.

Hotels generally work out cheaper