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Commission on cleaning fees update
It's been a while since the commission on cleaning fees was added and we'd like to know what other self catering holiday cottage owners think about it. We dealt with it by increasing the fixed cleaning fee on each booking by the amount B.com charge in commission to make sure we weren't losing out. As a result, bookings from B.com have plummeted and we now get nearly all our bookings either directly, or from other channels (Airbnb, TripAdvisor etc) who don't charge commission on cleaning fees. It's a shame as we find B.com good to deal with whenever we get issues, but we don't see why we should lose out to such an unjustified fee.
Are you sure that AirBnB is not charging the commission on cleaning fee?
As I recall the main issue was, where hosts set a very low rate for accommodation but put high cleaning fee with the goal of paying less commission.
Airbnb don't charge commission on cleaning fees. As it happens, we received a booking for 5 nights yesterday and the total fee was just £12.78. Airbnb charge a large booking fee (around 15%) directly to the customer.
I know that there were allegations that some hosts may have been charging large fees to avoid paying commission payments to B.com. I also know that, instead of dealing with this issue, B.com added commission to all fees, whether legitimate or bogus.
I opened this thread to find out what other self catering holiday cottage owners feel about the cleaning fee commission now that it's been in operation for a few months.
From AirBnB site:
"Because the cleaning fee is included in the total guest payment and host payout, service fee apply."
"This fee is typically under 13% of the booking subtotal (the nightly rate plus cleaning fee and additional guest fee, if applicable, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes)."
So to my understanding the cleaning fee in fact is "commissioned".
Originally I had:
"Add Airbnb guest service fees to your price
You’ll pay a 3% service fee out of the price you set. Your guests will pay a service fee of up to 20%, which will be added to your nightly price."
Now I've opted for a fixed commission rate:
"Include all Airbnb service fees in your price
No service fees will be added to your nightly price. You’ll pay a 14% service fee out of the price you set."
So I assume if I would add a cleaning fee I would be commissioned 14% for this fee.