You’ve never had to pay a cleaning fee?

These are so egregious and can be 50% of a night cost.

I’ve had so many bad experiences with Airbnb. It’s never like in the pictures. It’s always noisier, low quality mattress and furniture that looks good on pictures but isn’t functional or breaks if you touch it. I also feel like I’m living in ikea showrooms around the world. And given how expensive the cleaning is, it’s rarely passably clean. Moldy corners in the bathroom, dirt under the bed, chipped dishes…

And good luck trying to get Airbnb to help you. Best they can usually do (after you explain your case over from scratch because it’s always a new customer service person) is “alright we’ll check you out, you get a refund, and good luck finding a place for tonight out of pocket”

Never again. It’s hotels for me every time as well.

>It’s hotels for me every time as well.

I like to search for newly built hotels as they usually offer the nicest accommodations.

They clearly meant a surprise fee, from context. The AirBnB cleaning fee is expected and already included in your bill.

Edit: top context is “That is against AirBnB rules” and “refunded” i.e. AirBnB has explicit rules against surprise fees or bonds, and it can enforce rules.

I am guessing you just responded quickly but it is always good to spend time to try to “Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.” - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think you're guilty of what you're accusing the responder with. The exorbitance of a $200+ cleaning fee is a well-known criticism of Airbnb.

And no, not until recently could you see the actual total prior to sunken cost of Reviewing your booking. That too, Airbnb finally implemented once the Biden administration compelled them by law - that is, not before making much fanfare about it with the pretense of them "doing it for the customers"

$200 cleaning fee? How big are the houses you stay in?

$200 isn't even that large of a cleaning fee by AirBnb standards (i'd say that closer to the median for a full home in the markets I travel in).

The last 3 bedroom home I rented on AirBnb had a $500 cleaning fee. We were there 4 days. Its ridiculous, but it's becoming the standard on AirBnb.

When I used a cleaning service 10 years ago, it was $275 for 2 maids to clean 1100sqft house. 1 bath, 1 bedroom, vac+mop everywhere, kitchen dishes. They were done in ~3 hours. NYC area.

> The exorbitance of a $200+ cleaning fee is a well-known criticism of Airbnb.

People criticize all sorts of things they don't understand. Our cleaning service charges us $280 per turnover. Separating the cleaning fee from the nightly rate makes our property more appealing for longer stays, which we (and our neighbors) prefer. It's not like a hotel, where the cleaners come every day; why should guests pay every night for a cleaning which will only happen once, after they leave?

As long as its transparent and included in the per-night price calculation so I can easily compare multiple properties I do not have an issue with any fee regardless of its name.

People are annoyed because these fees are often sneaky or not apparent at first sight which makes the UX annoying.

Not the OP, but at least in my jurisdiction (Norway), AirBnB dutifully lists any cleaning fees before I press the 'confirm booking' button.

I think the point was 'No -surprise- fees.

It is not the hotels, who charge it, but governments, most often the municipality. Usually there is no obligation to hide that from the guest or include it in the price. Just to pay. You can also go pay it straight in the town hall, the hotel is just doing you a favor.

A resort fee is not the same as a tourism tax.

Tourism taxes are per head, per night and generally Airbnbs are required to charge them as well (though they often don't).

A resort fee is a bogus surcharge added by hotels to "cover" advertised amenities, like if a cinema charged you a Dolby Surround fee after you showed your ticket at the entrance.

Anecdotal evidence, I have paid tourism taxes on both hotels and AirBnBs.

Ya we got charged a mandatory 20-30$ a day fee at a hotel recently for their “arcade”, which was 2 pinball machines.., and “bar“, which was a mini fridge in the lobby… (1 “free” drink a day).

I've always refused to pay the resort fee and only a single time has the hotel not caved. Course this only works if the hotel isn't sold out.

I tell them its a separate service because not everyone uses it. So if I am not using say the pool or the gym then I shouldn't have to pay it.

The single time I paid the fee was when it included Internet service which I needed. I wrote the CEO of the chain after my stay arguing that charging extra for Internet is like charging extra for electricity or water. Never received a reply.

I was inclined to say "speak for yourself", but then that would have been rude and your username indicates we are living half way across the planet.

Things are different on this side of earth, rest assured. I have paid extra every single time.

Further, there is always things like "parking available", but then either its not free of charge or always busy or its....public parkings.

Same with internet access. Available, if you pay and if its tourism months. And the internet you get comes from a router in the hallway and is shared and at times it seemed like it has the capacity for one concurrent user.

Airbnb enables hosts to publish such things in the name of revenue.

But if a host gets in trouble, they have a half arsed wannabe collection team which will drop them like a hot potato soon.

There are no reviews of truthfulness of the offers etc.

If you have had a good experience, then irs thanks to the host, not thanks to airbnb.

I have also found some Airbnb ads to be inaccurate.

Online descriptions and reviews should be more regulated.

Google, for instance, keeps removing legitimate reviews from myself and others regarding a builder that rented / sold houses with horrible snagging problems, e.g. bursting pipes and leaky roofs.

I have a similar experience with Google removing negative legitimate reviews while not removing fake positive review from the owners itself + family & friends.