> Future hosts will see your reviews and refuse to host.

People keep saying this like it's a universal truth, but it's not actually true for any host worth renting from, and I say it as an honest reviewer who has spent years not being in the same city for more than a few weeks at a time and never has trouble getting a place. How? Because I leave honest feedback _and_ I'm an excellent guest.

You're basically saying that you think it's a good idea to get scammed so that you don't miss the next opportunity to be scammed. It's insane. There are so many good hosts out there. You don't need to be afraid of the bad ones.

For me. I don’t report minor things. If there’s a big problem I call it out in my review and rating. But I really round up for minor to mid stuff.

My biggest issue is hating all the weird host rules. I don't want to tip toe around and abide by your curfew when I'm on vacation. I also don't want to pay an outrageous $250 cleaning fee. At least with a hotel I know what I am getting and don't get any surprises.

They really need to fix the cleaning fee. It’s outrageous. At least they let you compare prices including fees.

But it reflects poorly on Airbnb when an apt is $200 with a $200 cleaning fee.

It’s like back when EBay let you charge $1 with $20 shipping.

Obviously you need to be able to compare fees, but I don’t see the issue with a large cleaning fee if that is what it costs. One friend has an Airbnb in a ski village and he pays the building cleaners $150 to clean his rather small unit because that’s what the resort mandates unless he gets an outside cleaner. Most people won’t want to pay that cleaning fee for a night or two but for a longer trip it doesn’t change the overall cost by much. It would be difficult for him to manage a third party cleaner so he uses the building cleaners and passes the cost on. Sometimes it works for people and sometimes it doesn’t.

I actually prefer this to bundling a cleaning fee into the nightly price. I don’t want the place cleaned every day and it would make Airbnbs unaffordable for longer stays to do so.

On EBay they would just lie and call it all shipping so they didn’t have to pay fees on the “shipping”. With Airbnb, hosts should actually prefer higher nightly prices as they’ll get those prices for every night of the reservation and not just once like on eBay. The comparison to eBay would be paying separate shipping costs when buying several of the same item when they could all fit in one envelope.

I’m sure there are many situations where there are high cleaning fees.

I have my entire house deep cleaned for $200 for 3 people over two hours. There’s no way that takes place for a two bedroom condo.

My last rental charged $140 and we talked to the owner who said she comes and changes the sheets, sweeps up and washes the dishes. The owner of the cabin.

I pay my turnover crew a living wage and it's $350. It's a 6 bedroom and takes nearly all day to do it right. Laundry is a big part of the fees. If it's bigger than an apt and you aren't paying much for cleaning they probably aren't doing it right. And you're likely sleeping in uncleaned sheets.

I don't think most hosts are gaming it to make money, it's just expensive in relation to the nightly. Usually when I explain the costs the guests understand.

Many see the actual cleaning fee, think it's ridiculous even though it's not and then decide to trash the place because they think they paid to do so. And then that causes you to have to go higher to cover the average turnover.

Yes sometimes the owner does it and they are free to value their time as they see fit. If it’s too much I simply won’t stay there especially for a short trip. I would be pissed if it wasn’t clean though.

If I had to do your dishes, I definitely wouldn’t charge a small cleaning fee either :)

The only thing wrong with the cleaning fee is the name. As as host i prefer longer stays rather than having to exchange keys every day because that's what cost me time/money. It's not like i need $200 to clean but i might have to take half day of work, drive a long distance, wait for delayed guests etc. Much easier to just deal with long staying guests.