Welcome to Sisters In Law, news.com.au’s weekly column solving all of your legal problems. This week, our resident lawyers and real-life sisters Alison and Jillian Barrett from Maurice Blackburn explains the most hated Airbnb fee.
QUESTION: I have booked an Airbnb for over Christmas and it cost an absolute fortune – it’s just a simple three-bedroom house by the coast and we’ve paid over $5000 for 10 days. On top of this, we’ve been charged a $250 “cleaning fee”.
However, I’ve had a note from the property owner saying that it’s a “tight turnaround” on the day we’re leaving so she’d appreciate it if we can leave the place clean.
She said we need to strip the beds and put the bedding in the washing machine and turn it on, empty the dishwasher, take out the bins and “don’t leave any crumbs or dirt on the floors” – which I’m reading as vacuum.
Why am I paying a cleaning fee if I’m basically cleaning before I leave? I’m going on holiday to get away from all of these chores! Are they allowed to charge such a high fee and then get us to do the work? – Brielle, Vic
ANSWER: Like most things Airbnb related, there is no black and white answer.
The reason for this is that Airbnb isn’t regulated in the same way as traditional accommodation providers with rules and regulations enforced by councils and governments.
Airbnb is self-regulating, meaning hosts and guests rate each other, so consistently bad reviews (even relating to cleaning fees and expectations on guests) will impact return business and future bookings.
There appears to be no detailed Airbnb cleaning fee policy in place to identify what is reasonable from hosts and what is expected from guests.
Different hosts seem to have different rules and expectations of guests.
This is very different to a hotel where as long as you vacate the room by checkout time and have not damaged any of the furnishings, you have met their expectations, there is no need to wash dishes, take rubbish out or tidy the room.
Airbnb hosts are told by Airbnb to manage guests’ expectations as to what the cleaning fee includes.
One would expect that the amount of the cleaning fee depends on not only the size of the property but other factors too, such as the number of guests, the length of stay, and whether there are any pets.
One would also expect that the higher the fee, the fewer requirements there are for guests to tidy up and clean.
With respect to the cleaning fee, prior to booking the house, the host should have stated what the fee covers and what they expected of you in terms of cleaning.
This information should have been provided within the listing itself – not in a message after you booked or in a folder at the house – allowing you to then decide if the cleaning fee or the booking itself is worth it or not.
It does sound like you are paying a large cleaning fee and they have not been upfront about their expectations before you agreed to book the house.
We’d recommend you attempt to resolve the situation with the host by requesting a full or partial refund of the fee and pointing out your concerns.
In doing so you should make it clear that their expectations were not communicated to you prior to securing the booking, and as such they cannot enforce them.
As always, ensure you keep records of all of your communications with the host.
If there is no response, or you’re not satisfied with the host’s response, then you should contact Airbnb via their Resolution Centre.
You have 60 days after your reservation’s checkout date to lodge a request via the Resolution Centre.
If you aren’t satisfied with the outcome, you may wish to reconsider your booking with a view to cancelling it.
With respect to Airbnbs and cancellation, each host offers a different type of cancellation policy so you should carefully review it before deciding whether to cancel, and make a note of any relevant deadlines.
For example, the most flexible policy is one that allows free cancellation until 24 hours before check in. This means you will get a refund of the accommodation costs but usually not the service fee.
The “strict” policy offered by many hosts is one that states you can cancel your booking up to seven days before check-in and receive a 50 per cent refund of the accommodation and cleaning fee, but not the service fee, which is an amount payable to Airbnb.
In circumstances where you have not been able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction and you wish to cancel your booking, if there is a dispute about refunds you can also raise a dispute with Airbnb via their Resolution Centre.
This legal information is general in nature and should not be regarded as specific legal advice or relied upon. Persons requiring particular legal advice should consult a solicitor. If you have a legal question you would like Alison and Jillian to answer, please email stories@news.com.au. Get more from Alison and Jillian on their Facebook page.