Airbnb Host Drags Greedy Renters Back To Earth: “Treat This As A Business Or Get Out”
If you’ve ever had to travel, you’ve likely dealt with short-term rentals; and while some ensure an excellent stay, others provide more headaches than anything else.
Members of the ‘Airbnb Hosts’ started a discussion about the ins and outs of renting a property after redditor u/Comprehensive_Link67 shared what she thinks about some of her fellow hosts. She stated that people in the hospitality business should be hospitable or not be there at all, and her views started quite a buzz in the comments.
Some people in the hospitality business are often far from hospitable
Image credits: Rawpixel (not the actual photo)
This host let redditors know exactly how she feels about certain business people in hospitality
Image credits: Markus Spiske (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Kaitlyn Baker (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Toni Osmundson (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Comprehensive_Link67
In just over 15 years, Airbnb went from two hosts to over four million of them
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Looking for short-term rentals can be exciting and tiresome at once. It often means adventure time, if you’re planning a long overdue vacation, for instance, but scrolling through endless listings trying to find a suitable one often sucks the joy out of making travel arrangements. Despite that, according to Statista, over 393 million nights and experiences were booked via Airbnb in 2022. (An increase from 193.2 million and 300.6 million during the covid years of 2020 and 2021 respectively.)
Airbnb was founded in 2007 as an alternative for hotels, which was based on people opening their homes for those looking for short-term rent. It all started when a couple of hosts welcomed three guests in their dwelling in San Francisco, and now, there are over seven million active listings worldwide and more than four million hosts.
With such a huge number of listings, there ought to be at least a few bad apples. That’s why even when you think you’ve found the perfect home away from home, certain things can be far from what was advertised or you might meet other unexpected—often unfortunate—scenarios, which typically result in regret and other negative emotions. Research suggests that Airbnb users’ negative emotions deriving from an undesirable experience can even negatively influence their mental health.
Cleaning fees are one of the things Airbnb seems to be actively working on
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
Sometimes it’s not the amenities or unmet expectations that upset the guests the most, but the owners of the property. According to a 2019 study, hosts’ unpleasant behavior was one of the two main sources of distrust for Airbnb users, accounting for over 10% of all bad reviews.
The OP—a host herself—pointed out in advance that she might be downvoted for her opinion, but she felt that certain aggravating things hosts do needed to be called out; for example, expecting guests to clean after charging them a cleaning fee.
Quite a few users of Airbnb appear to be unhappy with such fees, and the company’s CEO, Brian Chesky, seems to be well-aware of the problem and working on solving it. During the Skift Global Forum in New York City just last week, he spoke about the ways to deal with it, one of which has been implementing a toggle button, allowing the guests to see the total price with fees included instead of the latter being added as users proceed with the booking.
“It’s the first thing you see. It’s larger type than the search box,” the CEO, Brian Chesky, pointed out when talking about the tool, Skift reports. He also added that, “This upfront pricing model, with ranking the best total nightly [rate], is essentially very close to the perceived elimination of cleaning fees.”
On his X (formerly Twitter) account a couple of weeks ago, Chesky revealed that since launching “total price display”, nearly 270,000 listings have lowered or removed their cleaning fees. He added that nowadays nearly three million listings are cleaning fee-free.
Be that as it may, the cleaning fees for short-term rentals are just one of the several points the OP made; and whether redditors agreed with her or not, it sure got them talking.
Redditors shared their own experiences and insight in the comments
With all the horror stories I’ve heard about air BNB I will just never use one. Unless you have a huge group of people and need to rent out a home or cottage I don’t see the point anyway. You can get nicer hotels for cheaper and you don’t have to pay a cleaning fee.
I don't ever want to be stuck with that large of a group of people anywhere, lol. I'll never use Airbnb.
Load More Replies...I stayed in an air bnb over summer here in the UK. I found one of the towels was stained PRIOR to our arrival, I have now been so used to the air bnb rules that instead of complaining I washed and treated the stain myself because I was worried that we would be the ones to pay for it!!! Now I think about it I realise how ridiculous this is but it's how it makes you feel with all the rules and restrictions.
AirBNB operators need to realize that if you charge me a 3 digit cleaning fee but ALSO want me to take out the trash, wash the laundry and wash the dishes, I'm gonna give you a bad review regardless. Pick the fee or the chores, not both you cheap bastards.
Too many Air BnB hosts are now wanting to charge hotel-level prices but without hotel-level services. Unless someone is a host in the original spirit of the platform (low prices, homey accommodation), Air BnB is only worth it if you have some sort of specialized need like getting a large group together or no decent hotels in the area. In general, I say go hotels because they A) conribute to the local economy by being properly taxed B) actually provide local employment C) are far less hassle for guests and D) Don't contribute to the housing crisis by locking up homes that could otherwise be bought by owner-occupiers or be used by long-term renters.
My first AirBnB experience was an apartment in Montreal. We arrived to a street level apartment with no air conditioning - we booked it for a/c because it was extremely hot. The neighborhood felt unsafe and we couldn't open the window because the screen had an a/c sized hole in it. The kitchen was draped in spider webs. Ended up leaving after finding two last-minute hotel rooms. The host refused to refund us and AirBnB only gave us a partial refund and credit. I canceled the rest of our reservations on the site and booked hotels. When I went to use the credit the next year, it was gone... move 7 years into the future and we use AirBnB again. We cleaned up and the host said we still had to pay a cleaning fee! This after she came checking on us all day and night - we couldn't even use the gated yard because there was no key! Canceled my account and deleted the app. Never again.
I hate what Airbnb is doing to many towns and cities so I no longer use them. I'll just use a hotel, which doesn't take away actual housing stock from a community.
I am so done with Vrbo and Airbnb. I am not going to strip the sheets from the bed when I paid over $100 for cleaning. There is a huge list of things to do. Full on booklets. Last time I stayed at one I got harassed endlessly by the owner, she mentioned a million times to hang towels, to remember this was her second home and to treat it with care. I was on a work trip and wanted to treat myself with a few days in the woods. Never again. I told the owner if she contacted me again outside the website I would report her. I don't know how many times I need to tell someone what time I think I might arrive or what my license number is, just stop emailing me and texting me non-stop. Horrible. I paid almost a $1000 for someone to talk down to me about towels (which no, I did not leave on the floor) and send me a million and one repetitive questions that I did reply to but she didn't bother to check.
There are bad hosts and there are good hosts. I was with a group of 6 friends who packed an Airbnb without extra guest charges. We were meticulous about cleaning up and had no problems. I don't understand cleaning fees unless the property is left in bad shape. Otherwise, they should be built into the rental fee, the same as hotels do. It's the cost of doing business. Don't slap customers in the face with extra fees unless it's an egregious error.
In a BnB in Wales, the handle broke on my full cup of tea, my bed had 5 thin mattresses, the drain in the tub was clogged with hair and the smoke coming from the owners downstairs gave me asthma so bad we had to tape around the door. Ill never set foot in Wales again.
I've stayed in several and have never once had to do cleaning. The only thing we've been asked ever is to take trash to outside dumpster, leave our towels in one spot, and put all dishes in dishwasher (we've never even been asked to run the dishwasher-just put dishes in it). These are all things we would do anyway. We love vacation rentals. We always get one with a pool, and a pool table. We spend the day out seeing the sights and then we get an entire house to stay in to relax, with amenities we don't have to share.
I'm not doing anything more than a hotel would expect. No extra fees beyond tipping housekeeping.
Load More Replies...I had many good experiences in airbnbs, mostly in France, but also in Québec. Only once, in Brittany, we were faced, on arriving, with the long list of chores to be accomplished before leaving. And the heating had not been lit before our arrival. In January. Nice place, facing the sea, well furnished, but we were not amused. In the others we were never asked to do heavy cleaning. Just to leave the house in order, remove the sheets from the beds and pile them up, things like that. We're not pigs, and treat any house as if it was ours, so we always had good reviews.
I sometimes stay in AirBnBs because I need a kitchen. I have a family member who has a lot of food issues and can't trust food prepared commercially. If she's not with us, it's hotel all the way. That said, I'm very careful about choosing a property, only ever book superhosts and read all the reviews. Been lucky so far. Once I broke a coffee pot but bought an entire identical machine to replace it. Host was happy.
My former neighbors wanted to make money off their second bedroom but didn't have extra parking in front of their house, so guess whose house they parked in front of??
I'm a cleaner and have done MANY AirBNB's. Those cleaning fees they charge u? I average between $100-$150 to clean a 2-3 bedroom AirBNB house. So those $200+ charges r ALL pocket! And many do it themselves
I used to be an AirBnB host and really enjoyed meeting so many great people. I had great reviews and never asked guests to do anything at all before leaving - not even take the trash out. I treated them like royalty in every way I could. Although, I won’t stay in AirBnBs, as most hosts aren’t like I was. I’m not cleaning while on vacation! One thing to note about the cleaning fee - if hosts built it in, it wouldn’t be fair if you were staying more than a night or two. It costs the same to clean whether you are there one night or seven. To cover the cost, the host would have to make sure it was covered in the price of the minimum stay, costing you a lot more if you stayed a week. All hosts should treat guests the way they would want to be treated!
With all the horror stories I’ve heard about air BNB I will just never use one. Unless you have a huge group of people and need to rent out a home or cottage I don’t see the point anyway. You can get nicer hotels for cheaper and you don’t have to pay a cleaning fee.
I don't ever want to be stuck with that large of a group of people anywhere, lol. I'll never use Airbnb.
Load More Replies...I stayed in an air bnb over summer here in the UK. I found one of the towels was stained PRIOR to our arrival, I have now been so used to the air bnb rules that instead of complaining I washed and treated the stain myself because I was worried that we would be the ones to pay for it!!! Now I think about it I realise how ridiculous this is but it's how it makes you feel with all the rules and restrictions.
AirBNB operators need to realize that if you charge me a 3 digit cleaning fee but ALSO want me to take out the trash, wash the laundry and wash the dishes, I'm gonna give you a bad review regardless. Pick the fee or the chores, not both you cheap bastards.
Too many Air BnB hosts are now wanting to charge hotel-level prices but without hotel-level services. Unless someone is a host in the original spirit of the platform (low prices, homey accommodation), Air BnB is only worth it if you have some sort of specialized need like getting a large group together or no decent hotels in the area. In general, I say go hotels because they A) conribute to the local economy by being properly taxed B) actually provide local employment C) are far less hassle for guests and D) Don't contribute to the housing crisis by locking up homes that could otherwise be bought by owner-occupiers or be used by long-term renters.
My first AirBnB experience was an apartment in Montreal. We arrived to a street level apartment with no air conditioning - we booked it for a/c because it was extremely hot. The neighborhood felt unsafe and we couldn't open the window because the screen had an a/c sized hole in it. The kitchen was draped in spider webs. Ended up leaving after finding two last-minute hotel rooms. The host refused to refund us and AirBnB only gave us a partial refund and credit. I canceled the rest of our reservations on the site and booked hotels. When I went to use the credit the next year, it was gone... move 7 years into the future and we use AirBnB again. We cleaned up and the host said we still had to pay a cleaning fee! This after she came checking on us all day and night - we couldn't even use the gated yard because there was no key! Canceled my account and deleted the app. Never again.
I hate what Airbnb is doing to many towns and cities so I no longer use them. I'll just use a hotel, which doesn't take away actual housing stock from a community.
I am so done with Vrbo and Airbnb. I am not going to strip the sheets from the bed when I paid over $100 for cleaning. There is a huge list of things to do. Full on booklets. Last time I stayed at one I got harassed endlessly by the owner, she mentioned a million times to hang towels, to remember this was her second home and to treat it with care. I was on a work trip and wanted to treat myself with a few days in the woods. Never again. I told the owner if she contacted me again outside the website I would report her. I don't know how many times I need to tell someone what time I think I might arrive or what my license number is, just stop emailing me and texting me non-stop. Horrible. I paid almost a $1000 for someone to talk down to me about towels (which no, I did not leave on the floor) and send me a million and one repetitive questions that I did reply to but she didn't bother to check.
There are bad hosts and there are good hosts. I was with a group of 6 friends who packed an Airbnb without extra guest charges. We were meticulous about cleaning up and had no problems. I don't understand cleaning fees unless the property is left in bad shape. Otherwise, they should be built into the rental fee, the same as hotels do. It's the cost of doing business. Don't slap customers in the face with extra fees unless it's an egregious error.
In a BnB in Wales, the handle broke on my full cup of tea, my bed had 5 thin mattresses, the drain in the tub was clogged with hair and the smoke coming from the owners downstairs gave me asthma so bad we had to tape around the door. Ill never set foot in Wales again.
I've stayed in several and have never once had to do cleaning. The only thing we've been asked ever is to take trash to outside dumpster, leave our towels in one spot, and put all dishes in dishwasher (we've never even been asked to run the dishwasher-just put dishes in it). These are all things we would do anyway. We love vacation rentals. We always get one with a pool, and a pool table. We spend the day out seeing the sights and then we get an entire house to stay in to relax, with amenities we don't have to share.
I'm not doing anything more than a hotel would expect. No extra fees beyond tipping housekeeping.
Load More Replies...I had many good experiences in airbnbs, mostly in France, but also in Québec. Only once, in Brittany, we were faced, on arriving, with the long list of chores to be accomplished before leaving. And the heating had not been lit before our arrival. In January. Nice place, facing the sea, well furnished, but we were not amused. In the others we were never asked to do heavy cleaning. Just to leave the house in order, remove the sheets from the beds and pile them up, things like that. We're not pigs, and treat any house as if it was ours, so we always had good reviews.
I sometimes stay in AirBnBs because I need a kitchen. I have a family member who has a lot of food issues and can't trust food prepared commercially. If she's not with us, it's hotel all the way. That said, I'm very careful about choosing a property, only ever book superhosts and read all the reviews. Been lucky so far. Once I broke a coffee pot but bought an entire identical machine to replace it. Host was happy.
My former neighbors wanted to make money off their second bedroom but didn't have extra parking in front of their house, so guess whose house they parked in front of??
I'm a cleaner and have done MANY AirBNB's. Those cleaning fees they charge u? I average between $100-$150 to clean a 2-3 bedroom AirBNB house. So those $200+ charges r ALL pocket! And many do it themselves
I used to be an AirBnB host and really enjoyed meeting so many great people. I had great reviews and never asked guests to do anything at all before leaving - not even take the trash out. I treated them like royalty in every way I could. Although, I won’t stay in AirBnBs, as most hosts aren’t like I was. I’m not cleaning while on vacation! One thing to note about the cleaning fee - if hosts built it in, it wouldn’t be fair if you were staying more than a night or two. It costs the same to clean whether you are there one night or seven. To cover the cost, the host would have to make sure it was covered in the price of the minimum stay, costing you a lot more if you stayed a week. All hosts should treat guests the way they would want to be treated!
71
25