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Airbnb host finds unexpected benefits from not charging guests a cleaning fee

Host Rachel Boice went for a more "honest" approach with her listings—and saw major perks because of it.

@rachelrboice/TikTok

Many frustrated Airbnb customers have complained that the separate cleaning fee is a nuisance.

Airbnb defines its notorious cleaning fee as a “one-time charge” set by the host that helps them arrange anything from carpet shampoo to replenishing supplies to hiring an outside cleaning service—all in the name of ensuring guests have a “clean and tidy space.”

But as many frustrated Airbnb customers will tell you, this feature is viewed as more of a nuisance than a convenience. According to NerdWallet, the general price for a cleaning fee is around $75, but can vary greatly between listings, with some units having cleaning fees that are higher than the nightly rate (all while sometimes still being asked to do certain chores before checking out). And often none of these fees show up in the total price until right before the booking confirmation, leaving many travelers feeling confused and taken advantage of.

However, some hosts are opting to build cleaning fees into the overall price of their listings, mimicking the strategy of traditional hotels.

Rachel Boice runs two Airbnb properties in Georgia with her husband Parker—one being this fancy glass plane tiny house (seen below) that promises a perfect glamping experience.

@rachelrboice Welcome to The Tiny Glass House 🤎 #airbnbfinds #exploregeorgia #travelbucketlist #tinyhouse #glampingnotcamping #atlantageorgia #fyp ♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim

Like most Airbnb hosts, the Boice’s listing showed a nightly rate and separate cleaning fee. According to her interview with Insider, the original prices broke down to $89 nightly, and $40 for the cleaning fee.

But after noticing the negative response the separate fee got from potential customers, Rachel told Insider that she began charging a nightly rate that included the cleaning fee, totaling to $129 a night.

It’s a marketing strategy that more and more hosts are attempting in order to generate more bookings (people do love feeling like they’re getting a great deal) but Boice argued that the trend will also become more mainstream since the current Airbnb model “doesn’t feel honest.”

"We stay in Airbnbs a lot. I pretty much always pay a cleaning fee," Boice told Insider. "You're like: 'Why am I paying all of this money? This should just be built in for the cost.'"

Since combining costs, Rachel began noticing another unexpected perk beyond customer satisfaction: guests actually left her property cleaner than before they were charged a cleaning fee. Her hypothesis was that they assumed she would be handling the cleaning herself.

"I guess they're thinking, 'I'm not paying someone to clean this, so I'll leave it clean,'" she said.

This discovery echoes a similar anecdote given by another Airbnb host, who told NerdWallet guests who knew they were paying a cleaning fee would “sometimes leave the place looking like it’s been lived in and uncleaned for months.” So, it appears to be that being more transparent and lumping all fees into one overall price makes for a happier (and more considerate) customer.

These days, it’s hard to not be embittered by deceptive junk fees, which can seem to appear anywhere without warning—surprise overdraft charges, surcharges on credit cards, the never convenience “convenience charge” when purchasing event tickets. Junk fees are so rampant that certain measures are being taken to try to eliminate them outright in favor of more honest business approaches.

Speaking of a more honest approach—as of December 2022, AirBnb began updating its app and website so that guests can see a full price breakdown that shows a nightly rate, a cleaning fee, Airbnb service fee, discounts, and taxes before confirming their booking.

Guests can also activate a toggle function before searching for a destination, so that full prices will appear in search results—avoiding unwanted financial surprises.


This article originally appeared last year.

Joy

Airbnb cat serves as Appalachian Trail guide for guests, earning nickname 'the concierge'

Cinamen will even warn people when they're straying from the path.

Sebastian S. Cocioba/X (used with permission)

Cinamen makes sure guests don't get lost on the trail.

Imagine going out for a hike along the Appalachian Trail when you find yourself accompanied by an orange tabby cat, who not only walks along with you but lets you know when you've strayed off the beaten path.

That's what happened to Sebastian Cocioba when he and his partner stayed at an Airbnb in Phillipstown, New York.

"Went with my partner upstate and the AirBnB host's cat took us for a guided hike along the Appalachian trail," he wrote on X. "Apparently this is what she does with every guest. She would complain when we took a wrong turn off the trail and knew the way back."

"Amazing cat," he added. "Would apocalypse with."


What Cocioba didn't know at the time was that the cat wasn't a she but a he. He's 8 years old, his name is Cinamen, and according to his owner, Trisha Mulligan, this is just what he does.

“I call him the concierge, because he just loves people,” Mulligan told Backpacker magazine. “You know, each color, they have different personalities. And there’s something about an orange cat that’s very social, and we have a very social cat.”

Other guests have left reviews sharing their adventures with Cinamen and some have shared with Mulligan how he kept them from getting lost on the trail. Some people even return to the Airbnb just to have Cinamen be their trail guide.

“There’s this one guy, this Russian guy who comes back regularly. He never leaves reviews, but he always sends me pictures—he’s a photographer—and he books because he wants to be with Cinamen and he wants to do the trail with Cinamen,” said Mulligan.

Of course, Cinamen is a cat, and in typical cat fashion, he cannot be coerced into anything. Mulligan said that he comes by his guiding behavior naturally—no training involved—but there's no guarantee that he's going to join anyone on a hike. (Or that he's going to refrain from judging you if you go too slow, as Cocioba can attest with his "camera roll full of judgment.")

People love the idea of having a cat as a tour guide.

"Pretty sure the cat is the host there," wrote one person.

"Please drop the bnb so I can book them for a year just me n the travel cat," wrote another.

"That cat was originally a human and is desperately seeking for one of the guest to take a hint and complete the necessary ritual to transform it back," shared another.

Even Airbnb weighed in with "the purrfect trail guide."

Some people shared that they've had similar experience with Airbnb host's pets in other places.

"My daughter and her bffs had the same experience with their AirBnB's dog! Apparently the dog is the unofficial tour guide and person herder--not only did she lead them to a couple of cool waterfalls but she kept everyone together and not wandering off," shared one commenter.

"My family & I once went for a walk and were joined by Labrador who'd been at end of his driveway," wrote another. "We weren't sure of route and ended up following the dog. We did a full circular walk back to the dog's house. Later met the owner who said dog often did this when he fancied a walk."

"I remember when we toured kasteel de haar in the netherlands, there was a cat who toured us around the grounds too," shared another.

Perhaps that should be a new feature hosts can tout on their Airbnb listings: "Pet tour guide provided." Judging by people's responses to Cinamen, it could be a big draw.

You can find Cinamen's listing on Airbnb here.


Joy

Airbnb guest meets a blind dog who takes her on a daily beach adventure

“I would follow that dog anywhere it wanted to take me.”

@notalabamahannah/TikTok

Apparently, beach walks with Soldier are just part of this Airbnb experience.

While it might not be a huge surprise for an Airbnb host to show a guest around, no one would anticipate their local guide to be a friendly neighborhood dog. But this was a sweet, unexpected perk for Hannah Brown and her family.

Brown had booked a stay at Sail Away Cottages, nestled right along the coast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Little did she know that a surprise amenity would be morning guided walks to the beach, led by Soldier, a deaf and blind dog who lived on the property.

Brown posted a video of their daily ritual to TikTok, showing Soldier confidently strolling along the stone path, effortlessly moving through the sand and finally making it to the water for a refreshing dip.


Soldier quickly became famous online, as the video racked up over 12 million views with thousands praising his concierge skills.

“I would follow that dog anywhere it wanted to take me,” one person wrote.

Several even chimed in with their own experience of having Soldier as a tour guide. One person shared, “I took my family there in 2019…he hung out with us the whole time. Best Airbnb ever!” This pup has certainly earned a good reputation.

Watch Soldier in action below:

@notalabamahannah We get so scared that Soldier is going to fall off the front walkway every single time #airbnb #vacation ♬ Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison


Sail Away Cottages quickly hopped on Soldier’s virality to share his backstory, writing on their Instagram page that he arrived one afternoon with a pack of roaming feral dogs (as is customary for the area) on Canadian Remembrance Day, hence his name.

By the way—the mixed breed dogs found on the Turks & Caicos Islands are called potcakes. How adorable is that?

Although the other potcakes chose to leave the next morning, Soldier stayed. And in doing so, he gained not only a new home but a new brother named Skipper.

“This is how Soldier started his walks to the beach - he went every day after his morning walk with his brother Skipper for a quick cool down before the day starts 🐾” Sail Away Cottages wrote.

Skipper has sadly crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, but Soldier continues their tradition with each new friend he meets through Airbnb. Sail Away Cottages playfully notes that in addition to accompanying folks to the beach, he even “guards” their stuff. As much a blind, deaf dog could, anyway. He’s also quite fond of sitting in his new friends’ lap while in the water.

Needless to say, guests adore him.

If you’d like to try to book this good boy host, you can do so through Airbnb or directly through Sail Away Cottages.

To follow along on more of Soldier's adventures, you can find him on Instagram.

Plus follow Potcake Place K9 Rescue to learn about other potcake dogs just like Soldier who are still looking for a home (a resource shared by The Dodo).

A young gay couple laying in bed.

There is a subtle form of prejudice that LGBTQ couples face when their relationships aren’t seen as viable or genuinely loving as heterosexuals. Some may believe that LGBTQ attraction is purely sexual or that their relationships are somehow inferior because they aren't "traditional."

The result is that LGBTQ couples can be made to feel that their love is seen as lesser than that enjoyed by straight people.

A 29-year-old gay man felt that his husband’s mother-in-law disrespected their marriage, and her homophobia was so blatant that the couple had to leave a family vacation. A Reddit user, throwaway5289392, went on vacation with his husband at an Airbnb with his family. The group was comprised of five couples—his husband’s three siblings and significant others, and his mother and father-in-law.


When the couple arrived, the mother-in-law pre-determined their bedroom selection. Strangely, the gay couple was given a room with two twin beds instead of a double bed, so they had to sleep separately. The couple tried to bring the beds together, but their headboards were attached to the wall. In contrast, all of the heterosexual couples got to sleep in double beds.

The room selection seemed suspicious to throwaway5289392.

reddit aita, lgbtq couple, family vacations

Young couple laughing in bed.

via Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

“I asked my [mother-in-law] why she had chosen a house that didn’t have enough double beds to hold all of the couples that were invited, and she told me to stop making a fuss because it wasn’t that big of a deal,” they wrote on the AITA subforum.

Now, the poster could have easily chalked the mother-in-law’s decision to chance, not malice, but her response showed that she harbored some homophobic feelings toward her son and his husband.

“I then asked why she hadn’t mentioned it beforehand, and she rolled her eyes at me, saying that I was overdramatic, a ‘walking stereotype’ and that me not clinging to her son for a little while might be for the best,” he wrote.

A caring mother-in-law would have apologized and tried to find a way to fix the situation. But instead, she called him a “walking stereotype,” referring to the age-old gay drama queen trope. Instead of seeing the situation humanely, she resorted to diminishing him by seeing him as little more than a stereotype.

Also, would the mother-in-law have accused any of her straight kids' spouses of being too clingy?

“Considering she has made some borderline homophobic comments in the past (she claims they’re jokes), I was quite uncomfortable, and based on her remarks, I felt like she had given the room with the single beds to the only gay couple on purpose,” throwaway5289392 wrote.

So, the couple decided to pack their bags and stay in a hotel room a few towns over where they could sleep together. Their decision didn’t sit well with the mother-in-law, who accused the couple of “dividing” the family and ruining the vacation.

vacations, gay couple, reddit aita

A young gay couple watches TV.

via Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

Throwaway5289392 asked the forum if he was in the wrong for leaving the vacation, and he received overwhelming support.

“From what you've said, it does sound like she intentionally gave ‘the gay couple’ separate beds. You didn't ruin the vacation. Her homophobia did," Rredhead926 wrote.

“If it was not a big thing, MIL could have taken the room herself. She did this on purpose. You handled [her] well,” TinyCost2291 added.

SevenCarrots made the important point that someone who isn’t homophobic would have taken a much more thoughtful approach to the bed situation.

“This woman is hostile towards you and homophobic. A kind, sensitive person would make sure they DIDN'T give the gay couple the room with two single beds, precisely because they wouldn’t want it to seem intentional,” SevenCarrots wrote.

Overall the commenters agreed that the couple was right to stand up for themselves and to refuse to be treated as a second-class couple on the trip.