The cleaning and cleaning fee issue came to a head and went off a cliff after Covid. To maintain their business, AirBNB wanted to guarantee guests that places h

The cleaning and cleaning fee issue came to a head and went off a cliff after Covid. To maintain their business, AirBNB wanted to guarantee guests that places had been disinfected. Hosts didn't want to pay for that out of their end, so fees were added. I moved cross country and around for a time in that period and I ended up staying in many many airbnb's. I was asked to clean up after myself, and I was paying a hefty cleaning fee, and ... and I would walk barefoot in my AirBNB for 5 minutes and get filthy feet, so the place wasn't ever actually being cleaned at all. I switched to hotels, which were a complete bargain during Covid anyway. Also, if you're living free-n-easy, extending your hotel stay is generally easy; extending your airbnb because you are liking the location, if it's a nice airbnb, nope, somebody else rented it for the weekend. Also, the whole "5 star rating system" (and this goes way beyond airbnb) where the host gets punished for ratings imperfection, puts a lot of pressure on calling out a grubby but really nice host elderly couple. These rating systems should always be on a curve, 5 out of 10 means average and most of what you are offered is 5 out of 10, pay more to get more, or something. I remember some the earlier days of airbnb which were days of innocence, friendliness, and unique experiences.