Cleaning Fee - Yes or No ?

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Fil
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Cleaning Fee - Yes or No ?

Post by Fil »

What is your views on the introduction of a cleaning fee ? I am hesitating on this and would like to hear other opinions.


I see as advantages:

- the "lowering" of the price first shown to equirers, which will probably lead people to open your add that would never do it and then, hopefully, conclude it was worth the full cost.
- lower the daily price progressively according to the lenght of the stay. The bigger the reservation period the smaller the average daily price.This would allow to reduce the minimum stay criteria and reach more potential customers.

The disadvantage would be:
- irritate enquirers with an extra fee (adding to the servive fee charged by most sites nowadays which is not identified as not belonging to the owner) and loose some business this way. But maybe people got used to this and are not so negative about it anymore.
Frenchlady
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Post by Frenchlady »

We clean gites for a living and charging a "cleaning fee" to your guests could spell trouble for your caretakers (or you if you do the cleaning). If guests pay a separate fee they have done their bit and why would they do anything to leave the house in good order ..... they have paid you for someone to do that for them. We have only had 1 gite that went down this road and every changeover was dreaded as people had just packed their bags and gone.

If you build it into your costs you can then just ask people to leave the house clean and tidy and point out that they could lose some of their security deposit if the condition of the property is unacceptable. Usually does the trick in making them attempt todo something before they depart.

Also I personally hate finding a gite I would like to book and then seeing the "add on's" which increase the price. Just my opinion as a caretaker.
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PW in Polemi
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Post by PW in Polemi »

+1 for Frenchlady's comments.

Unless I was desperate/there was nowhere else available - I would NOT even consider booking somewhere that was not up-front with costs. I hate getting to the payment stage and finding that there is this fee added on, plus that fee, and by the way, such and such is extra. Grrrrr!
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tavi
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Post by tavi »

NO.

I hate seeing a cleaning fee added as an extra. It really makes the owner look sneaky in my opinion. If it's mandatory then how is it an extra? And if it's optional then they'll pay it but they won't even take the rubbish out.....I wouldn't.

Consumers are sick of extra charges being added to everything. Include it and then use it as a sales tool...highlight everything that's included in the price quoted.....wifi, linens towels, cleaning.

And yes, to make your price look lower you could add some short breaks in low season....?
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

A big no from me too, for all the reasons that have already been cited.
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Post by Ecosse »

We have an optional cleaning fee and have never had a problem. About 50% of our guests pay the fee, which is made clear at booking. Most of our guests are French, mind, and are used to paying separately.

I can't see the rationale of cleaning fee = messier place. What is there to stop 'all inclusive' guests leaving it a tip? In our experience, excluding our misadventure with some students, all our guests, whether they've paid for cleaning or not, have been very respectful and have left the place tidy, if nothing else. Conversely, when I used to clean next door's 'all inclusive', it was often left in an utter tip... you could almost hear them saying 'oh, we've paid for the cleaner to sort that out'!
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

How do you guys create a nightly price model that works for different length of stays without including a fixed component?

I've been forced to show a separate cleaning fee on certain listing sites just to make it work. On my own website or anywhere that does not demand automatic quotes then my price is all inclusive.
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Post by Pamski »

We say that a short end of stay clean is included but we like the chalet left tidy and the kitchen clean. And that there will be a deduction from the security deposit if an 'excess' amount of cleaning is required. We have never had to make this deduction.
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Fil
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Post by Fil »

kevsboredagain wrote:How do you guys create a nightly price model that works for different length of stays without including a fixed component?

I've been forced to show a separate cleaning fee on certain listing sites just to make it work. On my own website or anywhere that does not demand automatic quotes then my price is all inclusive.
That's exactly the point.

Sites like HA already include the fee in the total price, so there are really no surprises to the enquirer when checking out.

This fixed component allows for diferent prices according to the duration of the stay. These sites don't permit diferent daily prices for diferent lenghts less than a week.
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Post by Mouse »

We've booked places with a clean in fee. Mainly in cities. It doesn't put us off as we realise that some prefer to do this seperately. But we're quite laid back about things like that (as long as we can it's jusified)

I can understand that maybe more owners will want to do this now that some of the sites make it difficult to get the pricing right.
I also don't agree with them taking a % commission on things like that.

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Bunny
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Post by Bunny »

I do not charge a cleaning fee and totally agree with Frenchlady's rationale. However, when I do business lets I do charge a separate cleaning fee because I know business guests will do nothing and literally get up and go.

I find generally, that guests do very little upon departure anyway. At best, they empty the bins and do a cursory wipe around the kitchen surfaces. So, if they paid a separate cleaning fee I doubt they would even do that.
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Post by Sam V »

kevsboredagain wrote:How do you guys create a nightly price model that works for different length of stays without including a fixed component?

I've been forced to show a separate cleaning fee on certain listing sites just to make it work. On my own website or anywhere that does not demand automatic quotes then my price is all inclusive.
I've had to do the same on short breaks to get the pricing right.

I had to pay a 'cleaning fee' on a two week holiday villa in Florida last year. We had no mid stay clean and had to wash our bed linen and towels mid stay. On leaving there were instructions to leave the villa clean, put the rubbish out, strip the bedding, fill and put the washing machine on!
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Post by e-richard »

Sam V wrote:I had to pay a 'cleaning fee' on a two week holiday villa in Florida last year. We had no mid stay clean and had to wash our bed linen and towels mid stay. On leaving there were instructions to leave the villa clean, put the rubbish out, strip the bedding, fill and put the washing machine on!
Did you know all this when you selected the Villa to rent?
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Post by Sam V »

e-richard wrote:
Sam V wrote:I had to pay a 'cleaning fee' on a two week holiday villa in Florida last year. We had no mid stay clean and had to wash our bed linen and towels mid stay. On leaving there were instructions to leave the villa clean, put the rubbish out, strip the bedding, fill and put the washing machine on!
Did you know all this when you selected the Villa to rent?
No, it was in the info book.
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Post by Bunny »

Sam V wrote:fill and put the washing machine on!
:shock: :o

I'd be very disappointed if guests did this. The thought of set in stains doesn't bear thinking about.
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