Vacation Cleaning Fee Vent

However the bizarreness of VRBO charging 10% Australian GST on a US property rental is something I still don’t get. I could see if we were renting in Australia. My mum paid for the first half of the rental with her Australian Visa card do assume that’s why, but I paid the balance with my US card.

Wow! Our house in Yosemite will be $90 for cleaning and $30 insurance. We’ll be placing it with The Redwoods. (Hopefully within the next two months.)

Not only the cleaning fees, but the additional charge for guests. We are renting a 4 bedroom house in St. John, VI, that sleeps 10. The price went up as soon as I put in 7 guests under number of guests. Your house sleeps 10 for goodness sake, why do I have to pay more for any guests over 4? Irritating.

We don't do this because our place only sleeps four anyway, but it's laundry. Extra towels, extra sheets that all have to be washed and it isn't cheap. Plus the time for the cleaners to change over that many more beds.

Host's point of view: The cleaning fee is sometimes used as a strategy to avoid having a lot of one or two night stays when the host prefers to have longer (week or two) stays that will require less input from them. It's kind of like saying, sure, stay just one night, I'm fine with that, but since your stay may well keep the place from being available for the guest who was going to come and stay for a full week, I'm going to put this big fee on it to make it less attractive to you and less of a loss for me. At least, that's what some hosts are saying their thinking is on short term rental forums

I personally don't charge a cleaning fee, because I hate having them pop up when I am booking as a guest. I do my own cleaning, I'm very efficient, and I have my system down so I can get the place immaculate (well, we try) in about 90 minutes. I actually put "No cleaning fee" upfront in my listing, since my nightly rate might look high at first glance, but when it's all told, I'm more economical than the place down the road that is $20 cheaper but charges $100 cleaning fees.

Charging more $ for more guests is not unreasonable. More people use more bed linen, more towels, more water, more electricity and sewer fees, more wear and tear on the property, more chances for broken dishes or furniture. The most difficult clean ups come with large groups. Sometimes short term rental insurance coverage is capped at 4 guests, or sometimes the city or county has legal limits on the number of guests, and while the host has space for more, it's a bit of a gamble to take more than 4 given legal and insurance issues, so they hedge their bets by charging more. I personally charge the same for single or double occupancy, but I charge $15/night for the 3rd and 4th guest, as I serve a breakfast and I have additional set up and washing to do.

Pet fees that are super high are another strategy I've been seeing hosts use to avoid having to say "No Pets". On host forums, people are shocked when guests actually pay the exorbitant rates for including a dog in their stay, when they set the fee really high to avoid having pets in the first place. But it's one of those, "well," shrug, "if they want to pay $500 to have their dog with them for 3 nights, we're good with that. Tell them to bring two dogs next year and we'll make sure it's a charge per dog."

I still enjoy hosting and traveling via Airbnb, but it's changing a lot in some areas, to the point where it's not even close to the original idea of "home sharing". We're lucky that the vast majority of our guests have been pleasant, easy-going, and generally willing to be pleased.

I used to opt for VRBO rentals until the ridiculous fees. Now I'll rent by friend recommendation or finding the rental via VRBO and then searching for the owner/manager and rent without VRBO. There's a significant savings bypassing VRBO!

The listing should state that x$ per additional person after 4 guests.  This would cover the extra cost of washing towels, stripping & washing of bedding and the extra time needed for the cleaning staff.

A lot of the listings aren't clear as to what the cleaning fees are, insurance fees and other items.

Edited to add: That there will be additional electrical charges, water/sewage use (which need to be paid for) and other upkeep after the 4 people.  

The listing should read that the rental price is based on 4 people staying there with an additional fee of X$ per additional person.

Agreed!

I've never found a rental that was comparable to a hotel in the same price range. I priced rentals for three different trips we took last year, and they were never as nice as the hotels in that price range.

I am not going to spend $300 - $400 a night to fix my own bed.

We priced beach front condos last year and they were more or slightly less than the 4 star beach front hotel they're next to. We chose the hotel.

I just reserved a small VRBO in the PNW and the cleaning fee is only $45 - yay for small towns!


ETA: I totally disagree - I think VRBOs are sooooo much nicer when we travel. Unless it is just myself, I now always try to get a cabin or condo when we travel. Especially if it is all 5 of us, basically impossible to stay in a hotel, or if we get two rooms it's like $700 per night, crazy. I can usually get an entire cabin or house for < $400/night. Even if its just 2 or 3 of us I get a VRBO and it is just soo much nicer to have more space, be somewhere walkable etc.

We often have smaller groups book our place that sleeps 9. This keeps the property within reach for these groups. We only charge $10/person/night above 4.

It’s not just additional laundry. It takes the cleaning crew extra time and labor to clean bedrooms/other spaces that wouldn’t normally be touched and significantly more utilities. It’s also the increased usage of provided items such as laundry items, toiletries, coffee and other pantry items, etc.

At the end of the day, hotels can afford to charge less for certain items because of economies of scale, a luxury that short term rentals do not have.

And lastly, hosts are setting prices competitively to the market. Many also use pricing strategies to ensure their target customer is the one booking. To put it bluntly, higher costs can weed out bad tenants, such as people simply looking for a place to throw a huge party.

This is true where we are. Most places only rent for full weeks, Saturday to Saturday. One of the ways we’ve differentiated ourselves in a crowded market is to do a three night minimum even during the high season. One benefit to us is because the Saturday turns are so heavily booked that the cleaners do the bare minimum to get on to the next place. On a midweek turn, they have time to do a more thorough job. I feel like it keeps our place more clean in the long run. We also have fewer logistical issues with midweek turns overall.

We set our prices and minimum stays to attract the sort of guest we want. Most of our guests are older, tend to be adults only, and value privacy, access to town amenities, and the 1849 charm of the house, above getting the absolute best rate possible. We could have crammed in more beds and appeal to families with children who want to stay for a week, but our location is not ideal for that, and frankly we don’t want the extra wear and tear on the house that come with small children.

There’s something for everyone, though. I think people who weigh price above everything else on vacation are perhaps better off in a hotel setting, where prices and amenities are more predictable.

I know it feels to guests often that the host is nickel and dime-ing you. Maybe that’s true in some places. For those of us renting in a market with only a three month tourist season, it’s a struggle to meet expenses. We actually lose money in cash flow on our property every year, but as it’s a rapidly appreciating retirement investment, that is not our primary concern. I’m just trying to keep the mortgage paid and the lights on so that it’s all there when we’re ready to retire.

So. Stay with vacation rental owners or don’t. I’m offering a unique space with room to spread out, nice towels and sheets like you’d have in your own home, a fully stocked kitchen, and privacy. My cleaners are paid well and do an exceptional job. If you’re the type to seek value above everything else, we’d probably both be happier if you stayed at the La Quinta down the road.

I stopped looking a vacation rentals. The fees were more expensive than a hotel, in the areas I was looking at.

We try to do that when possible.  It definitely saves money.