Have you ever wondered about the ripple effect of removing cleaning fees on your Airbnb listing? We sifted through a trove of data at IntelliHost, and the insights might nudge you to rethink those extra charges.
A recent statement from Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, highlighted a focus on regulating cleaning fees. But how does this affect your listing’s visibility on the platform? We at IntelliHost delved into this query to unearth the impact of cleaning and service fees on your listing’s impression rates.
Cleaning vs No Cleaning Fees
Upon analyzing, we discovered that listings sans cleaning fees boasted an average first-page impression rate of about 48%, as opposed to those with a cleaning fee, which stood at about 44%.
The data suggests a notable improvement in visibility for listings that opted to absorb the cleaning fee.
Service vs No Service Fees
We didn’t stop there; our curiosity led us to also explore the impact of covering Airbnb’s service fee. Interestingly, properties that included the service fee within the nightly rate had a first-page impression rate of about 48.5% compared to a 43% rate for those that did not.
This indicates a potential incentive in covering the service fee to enhance your listing’s discoverability.
The Gist Is…
The data suggests a positive link between removing extra fees and getting more visibility for your Airbnb listing. However, simply absorbing these costs is likely not the best plan of action (especially in terms of revenue). We would recommend starting by baking the fees into your nightly rate first.
This way, you’re not just getting rid of extra charges, but you might make your listing more attractive to potential guests.
This is where IntelliHost’s automated change tracker can help. When you change your pricing to include the cleaning or service fees in the nightly rate, the change tracker monitors the impact on your listing’s performance metrics.
This means you’re making informed adjustments, seeing the effects in real-time, and understanding the exact impact on your listing’s visibility, clicks, and bookings.
By doing this, you can adjust your pricing strategy based on real data, making sure it works well with Airbnb’s algorithm and your financial goals.
So, as you remove separate cleaning and service fees, the change tracker will help you see the results, helping you improve your listing for more visibility and better earnings.
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Up until a couple of weeks ago, we had no cleaning fees but I just added a low $10 fee to cover the trouble of our many one-night listings and I can’t see that it hurts our revenue at all. I love getting that extra $10 to compensate for the extra laundry and work of a one-nighter and now I don’t want to give it up. What do others think?
The cleaning/laundry fee being absorbed into the nightly rate will only mean that the nightly rate will increase. The problem is, most people only stay for 2 nights in our area. If the cleaning fee is $200 to cover the cost of cleaning and laundry then the nightly rate will go up by $100 per night. If a guest books for 3+ nights the guests are now disadvantaged unless the host offers a discount etc. which is more work for the Host.
Seems to me Airbnb is yet again making it harder for Hosts and not thinking of the flow on effects OR maybe they are and they know most guests in the majority of areas only book for 2 nights and Airbnb knows that if the Host incorporates their cleaning/laundry fees into the nightly rate, Airbnb will end up making more money on the longer stays 🙂
This is the same with the Host covering the Airbnb fees. What guests don’t know is that the Host only incorporates this into their nightly rate. The sad reality is a the nightly rates are going to look VERY pricey when you start incorporating everything into it. A property that was once $220 a night with a cleaning fee of $150 and the guest paying Airbnb fees. Will now be $120-150 more per night and will see guests complaining that it is “Too High” and not booking!
As the old saying goes: Don’t try to fix something that is not broken!
Yeah, it’s definitely a double edged sword. However, depending on the circumstances of the listings like area, competition, typical type of stay, baking in these fees could be quite profitable for hosts. That’s why we recommend using the automatic change tracker so you can see how it affects your listing and if you get more or less bookings because of it, and the net benefit to you. Thanks for the awesome comment!
Based on signals from Chesky fee transparency is a big-ticket issue and will continue to be in 2024. I see your concerns about how to distribute cleaning fees. Perhaps you could experiment with averages and then use your data to come up with a sum that you can distribute within your nightly rates. Otherwise, you can experiment (A/B test) with lower cleaning fees to offset a portion of your costs.
I don’t want to charge for cleaning unless it’s for two or three nights but Air won’t let me do this unless I charge for a longer let then I can charge less I don’t understand this