08 January 2024 , 09:54
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An unimpressed holidaymaker previously slammed an Airbnb stay in 2022 for the enormous list of chores guests need to complete - despite also being charged a hefty cleaning fee.
When booking an Airbnb or other holiday let it is no great surprise to have a little extra added on to the final bill in the form of a cleaning or processing fee. Similarly, the host will often ask guests to leave the dishes clean or strip the beds before they leave.
Sometimes these requests and the charges go a little far however. Two years ago TikToker Mel (@melworeit) told of how she was looking to spend a couple of nights away in February only to be put off completely by the high cost of the extra fees.
“Where do Airbnb owners get the audacity? So I'm just doing some research for a little mini vacation my husband and I wanna take at the end of February," Mel said at the time.
“Found this place that I liked that’s within our price range. It does have a $125 (£100) cleaning fee, as most Airbnbs do. And I don’t have a problem with that, but this is what I do have a problem with.”
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Mel's issue lay with the checkout duties asked of guests. It read: “We ask that guests complete a few checkout duties before departing to allow time to prepare the house safely and on time. Removing garbage, removing bed linens, starting the dishwasher and one load of laundry.”
Mel continued: "Now, maybe this is like entitlement or privilege talking, however, if I’m paying $229 a night to stay somewhere, plus $125 cleaning fee, I’m not doing any f**king laundry. Full stop. I know it’s one load of laundry, it’ll take me two minutes to do, but it’s the principle that bothers me."
Mel is far from the only person to be irked by these kinds of asks. People staying in the holiday lets have previously told of property requirements including taking out the rubbish, washing the sheets and mowing the lawn at the end of their stays.
One Airbnb host asked on Reddit whether it was "normal for a host to tell the guest to mow the lawn themselves?" "Seems like a strange response given the premium being paid for staying here (to me, at least), but if that's standard then I'll roll with it," they wrote.
"I just don't want to be penalized/charged/poorly reviewed for 'neglecting' the lawn if I don't do it."
The post attracted more people who said they had been burned by the high expectations of Airbnb hosts, who were also charging cleaning fees.
"Place was expensive but figured worth it to be able to hang out," one man wrote of a stay.
"The whole fam did all the dishes, swept the entire place, wiped down counters, took out the trash, stripped all the beds, took all the towels down to the laundry room, did two loads of laundry and left. Dude said I didn't treat his house like a home...because a throw blanket was on the couch."
A spokesperson for Airbnb said: "This TikTok video is two years old and since then, we have made significant changes to the platform based on feedback from our community to prevent this type of behaviour. Following these updates, over 260,000 listings lowered or removed their cleaning fees – on top of nearly 3 million listings that don’t charge one. We regularly share guidance with Hosts on this topic, and repeatedly low ratings may lead to removal."