AirBNB is asking for an upfront cash cleaning fee

[FlyingFiona]

Has anyone been charged a cleaning fee for an AirBNB rental off the books?

I have booked an apartment in France. This is only my third AirBNb rental so I'm still very new to it all. When I emailed to confirm the street address the owner replied and included a request to pay her mother 40€ on arrival to save her having to return at the end of the week when leave to collect it.

There's no mention in the listing or any reviews about a cleaning fee being payable outside of the AirBNB platform. I don't mind paying it (there isn't one included in the list price) so much as it being unexpected.

Any comments, advice, or suggestions from those of you with more AirBNB experience will be gratefully received.

 

[Mattg]

This doesn't sound right to me. Isn't the cleaning fee (if applicable) normally charged through Airbnb?

 

[Skyring]

Has anyone been charged a cleaning fee for an AirBNB rental off the books?

I have booked an apartment in France. This is only my third AirBNb rental so I'm still very new to it all. When I emailed to confirm the street address the owner replied and included a request to pay her mother 40€ on arrival to save her having to return at the end of the week when leave to collect it.

There's no mention in the listing or any reviews about a cleaning fee being payable outside of the AirBNB platform. I don't mind paying it (there isn't one included in the list price) so much as it being unexpected.

Any comments, advice, or suggestions from those of you with more AirBNB experience will be gratefully received.

I’ve never heard of something like this. I’ve been using the platform almost since it began and everything goes through AirBnB. Including messages.

Check out the reviews of the property and the owner. While sometimes there can be a web of fake accounts giving each other high ratings and glowing reports these are usually pretty easy to spot. Look for ratings from people who travel widely, giving and receiving reviews from a wide variety of unconnected users.

If the owner is bending the rules in one area, they may be doing it in others and similar off-the-books fees might pop up at the end of the stay.

They may have some very good reasons for wanting cash payments - such as avoiding tax - and they may be on the level, but for me it’s a big red flag.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Thanks for your responses. I thought it was odd.

She said it's mentioned in the listing but I must be blind if it is because there's no blurb on the listing at all. Also it'd be odd if it is seeing as it contravenes AirBnB's own recommendations. She said she does it to avoid the cut that the company take from it.

Reviews seem genuine though and dribbled out over years. If I cancel now I'll lose 50% of the booking (plus I do think she's probably genuine) - but the principle of it is bugging me. Plus if I pay cash I'm not covered by AirBnB for it so I would prefer to pay through the platform.

Not really sure how to play it. I might go back and insist it's not written there, could she show me...

 

[Princess Fiona]

Yeh it’s a bit of a scam but not uncommon in Europe. Has happened to me a couple of times but the properties were actually ok.

For the sake of €40 I’d just pay it to be honest.

 

[Steady]

Off topic but similar......:
I have made a number of bookings in Italy (AirBnB + Booking.com etc) and half of the booking.com ones sent a message post booking saying I needed to pay XX Euro in cash (one mentioned leaving it on the kitchen table/bench) for the tourist tax? The first seemed odd, but now two have sent similar messages I am assuming it is legit. Have others come across this?

If you come by car, please note that our property is located in the Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL) in Rome; contact us for any information about it.
Would you also check that your credit card will be charged by Booking.com; at check-in only the city tax is due; you are kindly requested to pay the tourist tax in cash; the tax is due for all guests older than 10.

PAYMENT Payment is made automatically through the website you used to book. The value does not include the tourist tax, which in your case is 18,00€. I kindly ask you to leave the amount on the kitchen table before check-out. Tourist tax is not needed if you booked through Airbnb. If you need an invoice, we ask you to notify us upon receipt of this message and to indicate billing information during online check-in

 

[NoName]

We had a cleaning fee included in the booking price (a line item specifically mentioning it so totally transparent) for a place in Venice back in 2018. Arrived at the 3rd or 4th floor apartment where the owner instructed us to take the rubbish to the bin down on the ground level. Maybe I was being petty but there was no way I was doing that when paying $50-ish for a cleaning fee.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Off topic but similar......:
I have made a number of bookings in Italy (AirBnB + Booking.com etc) and half of the booking.com ones sent a message post booking saying I needed to pay XX Euro in cash (one mentioned leaving it on the kitchen table/bench) for the tourist tax? The first seemed odd, but now two have sent similar messages I am assuming it is legit. Have others come across this?

I dare say it's done off the system so that the booking platform doesn't take a cut of the tax money - which makes sense, but you'd think the platforms themselves would be able to collect the money at the time of booking without touching it for a percentage.

We had a cleaning fee included in the booking price (a line item specifically mentioning it so totally transparent) for a place in Venice back in 2018. Arrived at the 3rd or 4th floor apartment where the owner instructed us to take the rubbish to the bin down on the ground level. Maybe I was being petty but there was no way I was doing that when paying $50-ish for a cleaning fee.

I think that's a fair request. AirBnBs started off (and many still are) as people's home's rented out while they aren't there. My brother's place is an example. He goes away a lot for work and so rents his flat out while he's not there. He may not have a change over of guests while he's away so any cleaning would be done on his return. If that's a week after guests leave and it's the height of summer it'd stink the place out having garbage left behind.

 

[Zinger]

Check your receipt from AirBNB.

It will list a price breakdown of charges..

If cleaning is listed it is built into the total price and will be collected by AirBNB and charged to you as part of the total price.

If in doubt contact AirBNB through their chat function at bottom left. I have always found them very helpful.

https://www.airbnb.com.au/d/anz-pro....com.au/d/anz-prohost-resource-centre-support

 

[NoName]

I think that's a fair request. AirBnBs started off (and many still are) as people's home's rented out while they aren't there. My brother's place is an example. He goes away a lot for work and so rents his flat out while he's not there. He may not have a change over of guests while he's away so any cleaning would be done on his return. If that's a week after guests leave and it's the height of summer it'd stink the place out having garbage left behind.

This is not my concern, it’s for the owner to sort out. And when being charged a $50+ fee for cleaning I would expect that to go towards paying someone to spend an hour or two actually cleaning immediately after I leave.

I’m not suggesting to deliberately make a mess or leave things unusually untidy but a cleaning fee is to cover the cost of restoring the accomodation to a satisfactory condition for the next customer to use. That includes removing normal rubbish accumulated in the bins over the course of a stay.

If there was some clause that said you need to tidy/clean yourself or you will be charged a fee that’s a different story. But when the fee is compulsory and unavoidable then it’s on the owner to take care of.

 

[dajop]

I dare say it's done off the system so that the booking platform doesn't take a cut of the tax money - which makes sense, but you'd think the platforms themselves would be able to collect the money at the time of booking without touching it for a percentage.

Yes, exactly. If the owner is being charged 40 Euro = $65 AUD by their cleaner to clean the property, then they would need to list the cleaning fee as $67 (airbnb take a 3% + GST/VAT cut) and the guest would pay around $75. So on this $75 airbnb would take $2 from the host and $8 from the guest, leaving $65 for the cleaner. So paying cash could save the guest $10 on the cleaning fee (which TBH I don't think most guests would care that much about the $10 saving)

The reason why the platform still takes a percentage is that otherwise instead of renting a place for2 nights for $300/night + $50 cleaning fee you could rent it for $50/night + $550 cleaning fee! (and you can rig it accordingly by altering the % discount for longer stays),

We're toying with the idea of eliminating the cleaning fee altogether, and playing around with the nightly discount. So instead of charging $650/night plus cleaning fee of $300 (which only covers 60% of what our new cleaner charges to clean, strip and make beds), we're looking at increasing the nightly rate to $800/night and have no cleaning fee (we have minimum 2 night). Then offering a 6% discount for 3 night stays, 10% discount for 4 night stays etc. So if you are staying at a place without a cleaning fee, take a closer look, you might defacto be getting charged that cleaning fee anyway.

 

[RooFlyer]

I am assuming it is legit. Have others come across this?

I haven’t experienced it at B&B but as I think tourist taxes can only be charged at check in ( for all accommodations - happened to me at chain hotels in Europe recently), I reckon it’s legit.

 

[VPS]

This is not my concern, it’s for the owner to sort out. And when being charged a $50+ fee for cleaning I would expect that to go towards paying someone to spend an hour or two actually cleaning immediately after I leave.

I’m not suggesting to deliberately make a mess or leave things unusually untidy but a cleaning fee is to cover the cost of restoring the accomodation to a satisfactory condition for the next customer to use. That includes removing normal rubbish accumulated in the bins over the course of a stay.

If there was some clause that said you need to tidy/clean yourself or you will be charged a fee that’s a different story. But when the fee is compulsory and unavoidable then it’s on the owner to take care of.

I agree. One place I stayed in the UK left a big bag and asked you strip the beds and put all the towels and sheets in which I thought was a bit much especially as I was there for a week, and when they knew there was only one person coming they gave me one towel for the week which I thought was a bit mean

 

[Pushka]

Has anyone been charged a cleaning fee for an AirBNB rental off the books?

I have booked an apartment in France. This is only my third AirBNb rental so I'm still very new to it all. When I emailed to confirm the street address the owner replied and included a request to pay her mother 40€ on arrival to save her having to return at the end of the week when leave to collect it.

There's no mention in the listing or any reviews about a cleaning fee being payable outside of the AirBNB platform. I don't mind paying it (there isn't one included in the list price) so much as it being unexpected.

Any comments, advice, or suggestions from those of you with more AirBNB experience will be gratefully received.

It’s normally charged by Airbnb. Check your payment details and cleaning fee should be there.

 

[FlyingFiona]

I finally got to the bottom of the cleaning fee! The host insisted it's mentioned in the listing and when I said not only is it not listed, there is no description of the lodging at all she copied the text on the listing and pasted it into the message.

At this point I had a light bulb moment and checked the airbnb.fr site and yep, there was her paragraph and it did indeed mention the cleaning.

So lesson learnt - I will always check the listing on the local site, not the Australian one, from now on. (Stupid AirBnB!)



and the French site: