Should you charge extra for cleaning on your Airbnb listing?
This is a great question and we're going to talk about that today.
Hi there, I'm Angela Brown and this is Ask A House Cleaner.
This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question
and I get to help you find an answer.
Now, today's show is brought to us by a brand new Facebook group that we started called
The VRBO Airbnb Cleaning, and it is for questions just like this.
We have a whole bunch of questions that are coming in from Airbnb owners that want to
know about the cleaning process and how they can work with professional house cleaners.
So we have our professional house cleaners group on Facebook.
Now, we have a separate group that is for Airbnb owners and then also the house cleaners
that service that industry.
So come on over and join us.
I'm going to leave links in the show notes.
Okay.
Today's question is also from an Airbnb owner and she wants to know should she charge extra
on her Airbnb listing for a cleaning fee.
All right, here's how that works.
It all comes down to marketing and advertising.
Because they're guests, and I myself am an Airbnb guest.
We've traveled all over the world and I've stayed at all different kinds of vacation
rental by owners and Airbnb's.
So when I look for, and I'm speaking from my personal experience, when I look for the
listings, I'm looking for the highest rating review at the lowest price, right?
That's how most savvy consumers are.
They want to get the most for their money.
Now if you charge a cleaning fee, the cleaning fee can be separate, but that raises the bottom
dollar and so it's the overall price.
So if you have a two night minimum, I would recommend it for two nights, you build the
cost of the cleaning into the price of your room.
So it doesn't look like you have on an added fee and so somebody that's going to come and
stay for one or two nights.
If you have a single stay, or you have like a two nights, two nights stay, I would recommend
that you build that into the price of the night so that it's just the flat feet.
And they come and they stay and they go.
That way, it still allows you to hire a cleaner or to pay yourself.
Now, if you've clicked on the little, option on your Airbnb listing that says you pay a
living wage promise, that means whoever comes in to clean your place, you promised to pay
them living wages.
And so if you click that, that also applies to you.
So if you are an Airbnb host and you do your own cleaning, you still need to check that
button and you still need to get paid.
It's your time and your energy resetting the place and cleaning up and getting ready for
the next guest.
So you have to pay somebody or you have to do it yourself.
And if you do it yourself, you should still get paid.
So there needs to be a cleaning fee, but now when you go to a hotel, which is the competition
for an Airbnb, you just go to the hotel and you don't pay a separate cleaning fee for
the staff that works at the hotel, right?
They come in and they cleaned the rooms and they put new linens and stuff in the showers
and they come in every day.
And it's nice if you tip the hotel staff or you tip the Airbnb staff, but that is not
a separate charge at the hotel that is built into the price of the hotel.
So if you are having a two night minimum, you may want to add, take the price of the
cleaning and split it in half and add that onto the each night price so that you are
able to pay yourself and pay your cleaning person.
And so that charge, I mean you got to get it from somewhere.
If you have a week long rental or you have a vacation rental or something.
There is unexpected cleaning fee that is either a resort fee or it's a service fee.
I don't care what you call it, but there is a fee of some sort, usually 75 or $100 that
pays for the person that's coming into clean.
And depending on the size, it might be much more than that.
But depending on the size of your place, and how much there is to do, you may end up charging
a higher service fee.
Now there's also a damage fee that you're going to charge the customer as well, which
is just a damage deposit and so there are added fees that add up the price and of course
we're in a competitive market so you want to keep your prices low, but my suggestion
is that you figure out a way to build in the price of the cleaning into your price because
even if your room is a little bit more expensive and it's not bottom rate, have you have great
ratings interviews and it's because you yourself do the cleaning or you pay an excellent cleaning
service to do it for you.
Then a customer will stay at your place, all things being equal because it's a better product
and a better value than a cheaper place that has a lesser rating and review and they don't
focus as much or spend as much time or pay for a cleaner.
So I'm not saying that you have the cheapest place in town
and that you don't do a great job.
What I'm saying is that it's okay if you charge a little bit more, but you are able to provide
the amenities and the cleanliness that people are expecting when they come to your place.
Now we know by Airbnb that the five star ratings get 20% more bookings on average, and one
of the things that's probably the biggest thing that drives those ratings and reviews
is amazing cleaning.
So when somebody comes to your house with the, there's just this outstanding experience.
They're going to be so pleased and so delighted of course, as a host, some of that is you're
welcoming charisma, but the rest of it is going to be your cleaning.
So it is really important that you focus on your cleaning and as an Airbnb owner, you
will burn out if you don't pay yourself in the process.
Airbnb cleaning is grueling, you're resetting your place two, three, four times a week sometimes,
and that's a lot of cleaning from top to bottom every single time, so you need to make sure
that you pay yourself so that everybody gets their living wage.
Alright, that's my 2 cents for today.
Until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when
you found it.
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