Some hosts are considering removing cleaning fees and other surcharges to attract more guests, aiming for transparency and competitive pricing. Instead of removing those fees altogether, including your cleaning fees and other surcharges in your rent display could lead to several advantages for both hosts and guests.
First, it ensures transparency by making all costs clear upfront, preventing cleaning fees or hidden surcharge surprises. Additionally, this approach allows guests to easily compare prices between different listings, facilitating a more straightforward search for the right vacation rental. Finally, hosts who adopt this inclusive pricing model may gain a competitive edge, as listings that are clear and comprehensive in terms of costs may attract more interest from potential guests.
Users subject to the California Assembly Bill 537, effective July 1, 2024, may also find the Property Pending & Auto Cancellation settings support article useful.
- Listing Channels That Support Including Cleaning Fees and/or Other Surcharges Displayed as Part of Rent
- Configure Cleaning Fees and/or Other Surcharges to Display as Rent
Listing Channels That Support Including Cleaning Fees and/or Other Surcharges Displayed as Part of Rent
Here is the list of channels where you can include your cleaning fee and other surcharges in the rent display. If a listing channel is not displayed below, it means that cleaning fees and other surcharges cannot be included in the rent display at this time and this article will be updated as we learn more.
- OwnerRez Hosted & Integrated Websites
- Airbnb
- Book Direct Forgotten Coast
- GuestSmiles
- HomeToGo
- Hopper Homes
- Vrbo
Configure Cleaning Fees and/or Other Surcharges to Display as Rent
Including your cleaning fee and other surcharges in the rent display is a two step process that you can complete in OwnerRez.
1. Navigate to Settings > Pricing > Surcharges > your specific Cleaning fee or Surcharge > Change > and in the Options section, select Categorize this as a 'rent' line item.2. Then, navigate to Settings > Pricing > Pricing Preferences > How Guests See Charges > Rent > Combine all rent lines together with a description > Description of combined rent items: Rent.
Airbnb
Airbnb has very specific keywords that should be used for the configuration of surcharges. However, if you are unable to use those keywords, you can still configure your surcharges to display as rent as long as the following are true.
- Your surcharge is a nightly or percentage surcharge.
- There are no number of nights or number of guests criteria.