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Airbnb excessive fees
Airbnb may no longer be the cheaper alternative to a hotel stay. Vacation rentals now come with extra fees that really add up, and they may be here to stay.
Airbnb customers taking to Twitter to voice their frustrations over what they are calling excessive fees.
One Twitter user tweeted "we gotta stop Airbnb." Underneath she posted a screenshot detailing how much two nights will cost her, a total of $413.95 of which $215.95 are cleaning, and service fees.
It’s the cleaning fee that has many scratching their heads. James Benson was recently looking to stay in an Airbnb. He was shocked to see his total when he checkout.
"I was booking for an Airbnb for $49 a night what I thought it was going to cost based on what I saw with Airbnb and by the time I checked out, it cost me $129, almost three times the price that I paid. The cleaning fee itself was more expensive than the actual per night fee," said Benson.
FOX 5 NY reached out to Airbnb and a spokesperson directed us to a blog where the company explained the breakdown of the fees.
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It reads in part, "Hosts set their cleaning fee and nightly rate based on a number of relevant factors including the home’s size, location, guest capacity, amenities and more." It added, "cleaning has taken on added importance and costs for hosts since the pandemic was declared in 2020."
"There were COVID-19 cleaning standards that were put into place that were much more exhaustive cleaning, like super deep cleaning and hosts had to agree to that during the pandemic and that is a much more extensive cleaning process and more expensive," said one Airbnb hosts.
The company also made it clear that they set their own service fee and the occupancy tax is set by the city, county, or state where a guest is staying, hosts do not get any of that money.
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Meanwhile, Airbnb says it wants to be more transparent when it comes to its fees. A team will now conduct a comprehensive review of its fees and make recommendations. That team will aim to have the review and recommendations in place by December 15.