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High cleaning fees serves three purposes: 1) They artificially lower the listed price per night, causing the home to show up in more searches. This could easil
by rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
High cleaning fees serves three purposes:
1) They artificially lower the listed price per night, causing the home to show up in more searches. This could easily be fixed by Airbnb.
2) It's used as a way to incentivize longer stays. This motivation probably won't go away. Many Airbnbs are empty during the weekdays.
3) It's a way for hosts (and Airbnb) to skirt taxes. This is the real reason Airbnb doesn't want to punish the practice.
Many municipalities in the U.S. tax Airbnbs as a percentage of their nightly rate, and cleaning fees aren't included in that calculation. If those savings are passed onto the guest, they would theoretically lower the effective cost per night.
- gnicholas 4y ago> 3) It's a way for hosts (and Airbnb) to skirt taxes. This is the real reason Airbnb doesn't want to punish the practice. Why would shifting payment from nightly cost to cleaning fee have an effect on the hosts' tax liability? If they actually pay someone that much to clean the place, they get to deduct it from their business income either way. What you call it doesn't matter. I would be curious if Airbnb takes a cut of the cleaning fees, or only the nightly rate. I could see how that might differ, and if so that it would incentivize hosts to shift toward the cleaning fees.
- londons_explore 4y ago> It's used as a way to incentivize longer stays. And for many hosts, the main costs are the checking in/out/cleaning/laundry. So if they could charge $100 check in fee, plus $20/night, they would.