r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 8h ago

Society New Airbnb rules ban hosts from making guests wash dishes, do laundry & other checkout chores

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/new-airbnb-rules-ban-hosts-from-making-guests-wash-dishes-do-laundry-other-checkout-chores-3420832/
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u/ACasualRead 8h ago

I just got back from an Airbnb this week. I usually clean up after myself, clean the kitchen, run the dishwasher and start the laundry on my way out. I personally wish there was a way to dodge a cleaning fee if you go out of your way to keep this place clean. Similar to how a rental car works.

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u/Hacym 8h ago

They use the cleaning fee like some places use shipping fees: pure profit or to keep the advertised price low. 

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u/DigNitty 3h ago

just FYI part of the problem is Airbnb doesn’t take a percentage of the cleaning fee. So hosts are incentivized to up the cleaning fee instead of the rental fee.

The last few times I’ve looked for places, the site has shown the total price anyway.

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u/Procrasturbating 8h ago

No one is marking up shipping anymore.. it’s a matter of how much you eat in the cost. That shit got expensive.

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u/Hacym 8h ago

I just ordered a record from a place. 

Mailer: $1 (if you don’t buy in bulk, cheaper if you do) Shipping cost, as printed on the label: $4.11

My shipping cost as a customer: $12

Pretty sure they’re making out pretty good on the basic minimum of running an online store. 

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u/Procrasturbating 7h ago

That shipping or shipping and handling? Someone probably had to go to the post office on something like that. I meant actual retailers.

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u/Hacym 7h ago

So you mean like Amazon? Sure, they eat costs on shipping because their scale makes it minuscule. 

If you order from smaller stores they 100% make a good profit on shipping. 

I don’t think they charge $8 to go to the post office to drop off dozens of packages at a time. 

For the record, (excuse the pun) this was a mid-size music dealer, not some random person on eBay. 

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u/Procrasturbating 7h ago

Well I stand corrected then.

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u/colako 8h ago

Cleaning fees are justo stupid, and the same idiotic concept as tipping.

Bundle the cleaning cost into the price per day!

Airbnb loves it because it allows them to advertise a lower price per day in search results. Doesn't work in Europe where consumer protection forces them to show the total final price, including fees in the search. 

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u/GUMBYtheOG 8h ago

If anything needs this first it’s DoorDash/etc. $20 total with no delivery fee somehow turns into $50. The $2 delivery fee was never the issue

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u/Economy_Page_399 7h ago

Having both the cleaning fee and requiring the guest to clean is offensive.

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u/Andromeda321 8h ago

They do this now and have for some time?

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u/Alive_Store_6298 2h ago

I don’t own any rentals, but if I was to do so, I figured hiring a cleaning service makes the most sense. You pay services based on time and number of visits. As a result, I don’t get the daily cleaning fee. That being said, it is possible to set the cleaning fee as a base day fee.

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u/ACasualRead 8h ago

this is what im saying tho, it would be a good incentive to bring back from traffic to Airbnb. Citbike does this in NYC where they have "Bike Angels" that earn points or credit back for riding bikes from popular locations to bike stations in less popular locations. Uber only charges a cleaning fee if someone leaves their ride dirty.

Do this for AirBnb. I would 100% clean for an hour to save $100 cleaning fee as i already keep a tidy environment by default.

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u/userhwon 8h ago

Cleaning service is a basic element of a hotel rental.

You shouldn't be charged extra for it in an AirBnB.

Also, fuck car rentals that have decided to make you detail the car.

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u/Shivs_baby 7h ago

That’s different. Hotels have full time cleaning staff so their rates bake everything in. Traditional AirBnBs do not (maybe the ones run by bigger management companies do but that’s not the majority of them). So if you have someone staying only one night, then place still needs to be cleaned for the next guest. But if someone stays a week the place just needs to be cleaned after checkout.

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u/AgtNulNulAgtVyf 7h ago

Fuck that, it's the cost of doing business. The entire point of using AirBnB is that it's cheaper. If you're paying cleaning and other bullshit fees on top the appeal goes away. I'm back in hotels and loving it. 

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u/Shivs_baby 7h ago

I don’t think the point is that it’s cheaper. Most of the time it’s cheaper, but as I said in another comment I still prefer Airbnb over hotels because you get more room, it’s more homey, and you have a full kitchen. Some hotels have these kinds of setups too but they’re mostly in places designed for business travelers so if you’re vacationing, finding these kinds of setups is less common. And two or more people sharing an Airbnb is going to be cheaper most of the time than separate hotel rooms.

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u/AgtNulNulAgtVyf 7h ago

Great that works for you, it's still the cost of doing businesses for the owner. Cleaning fees are and always have been double dipping. 

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u/userhwon 7h ago

A lot of small hotels don't keep a huge staff. The owner is also pulling shifts as the clerk and cleaner.

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u/WorkingClassWarrior 6h ago

The cleaning fees are just an automatic 250$ profit so that the hosts can tell you to go fuck yoyrself

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u/TheeCatFather 7h ago

So you start the wash and then just leave the wet laundry for the owner to switch to dry? 

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u/OvulatingScrotum 5h ago

Generally rental car cleaning fees are included in rental.

This change will only boost the cost. Not that I complain about it because I don’t use Airbnb