So we have stayed at over 100 airbnbs , split between a year long trip, and half way through a second year long trip. I agree that the cleaning fees have gotten ridiculous in the US. Outside the US, they are much more reasonable. One I looked at over Christmas in the woodlands had a $200 cleaning fee. That is insane

Once or twice a year I'll go on a motorcycle trip with 3-4 other people. We will usually stay at an AirBnB. It's cheaper for us to split the cost, we get safer parking for the bikes, we can hang out and cook steaks at night instead of going out, and we can wash clothes/gear easier. We always look at cleaning fees and stuff. We've only had one bad experience so far.

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in Canada, weird Egyptian dude showed up pretending to be the owner and took the refrigerator from the kitchen and the owner was mad at me for not stopping him

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wtf?

Yeah I never quite figured out what was going on, but it seemed they were in a dispute over ownership of the refrigerator. The guy who came and took it was very assertive, so I believed he was the owner of the property. He told me he was just switching it out with something newer and would be back shortly. The next day I sent a message asking for an update because we needed to get groceries (month long stay) and the owner lost his ***** It was kind of unsettling at the time, but now I think it's hilarious.

Thought of y'all when I saw this.

AirBNB going the way of Ebay. $45/day rental, $200/day cleaning fee.

BenFiasco14 said:

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Sucks not having room service or house keeping. If there's an issue, there isn't an on location staff to come fix it. Stuff like that. Plus I think the hotels have become a lot more aggressive in marketing their reward programs. You don't have to be traveling constantly for work to start getting rewards. The short term rentals don't have anything like that and understandably so.

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Yeah, for me it's really more about cost-effectiveness. Points and rewards definitely help with that. For just the wife and myself, it's typically a hotel. It helps that I have lifetime status from significant work travel and always been a heavy points earner due to that travel. That status includes free breakfast for both of us every morning of the stay at a minimum, and often includes free room upgrades and access to the club lounge if they have one on site.

If we're meeting up with other couples or an extended family vacation, it's typically Airbnb/vrbo. No complaints from me and the only truly bad experience I ever had was in Hong Kong in 2015, but that was partially our fault.

Or in a place like Hawaii, I want the resort experience, and I don't care as much about price.

Traveling with 3 kids, in their teens, I would never consider a hotel again - only Airbnb's and similar vacation rental options for family trips. I love 'shopping' for the vacation rentals.

When it's just my wife and I, we would be fine with hotels.

A bit obsessive with the Airbnb reviews, I want "cleanest guest ever" and I treat it like I'm staying at a friend's house. Strip beds and otherwise a leave-no-trace approach. It's dumb, but being judged/rated gets me acting weird.

Never done AirBnB but done a lot of VRBO's. Never had a bad experience, but did have a ridiculously noisy bed once (not romantic at all!).

Once had a fridge go out, called the manager and he brought over a large cooler full of ice so we could keep our groceries cold until the repair man showed up the next day.

Usually just asked to take out the trash and run the dishwasher.

I might paint a bedroom or change out some faucet hardware if things look worn or dated. For the time I am renting, I consider myself a co-owner.

HossAg said:

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Airbnb was cool for like a year and now it sucks ass

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You were like 10 when Airbnb started big guy

We have a beach house we rent using VRBO. The main thing we ask in the summer (booked almost 3 months straight), is to do/start laundry before they leave and leave sheets folded on beds. The reason - we can't wash 8 beds of sheets, blankets, and 8-12 people's towels in 4 hours before the next person checks-in. We will work with renters that forget or get a late start on the laundry.

nukeaggie2000 said:

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We have a beach house we rent using VRBO. The main thing we ask in the summer (booked almost 3 months straight), is to do/start laundry before they leave and leave sheets folded on beds. The reason - we can't wash 8 beds of sheets, blankets, and 8-12 people's towels in 4 hours before the next person checks-in. We will work with renters that forget or get a late start on the laundry.

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Sounds like a you problem. Buy extras and wash offsite instead of being a cheap ass as you turn your beach house to new clients in 4 hours

CharlieBrown17 said:

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nukeaggie2000 said:

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We have a beach house we rent using VRBO. The main thing we ask in the summer (booked almost 3 months straight), is to do/start laundry before they leave and leave sheets folded on beds. The reason - we can't wash 8 beds of sheets, blankets, and 8-12 people's towels in 4 hours before the next person checks-in. We will work with renters that forget or get a late start on the laundry.

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Sounds like a you problem. Buy extras and wash offsite instead of being a cheap ass as you turn your beach house to new clients in 4 hours

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Escatly! How do you not have at least 2 sets of linens and towels for each room?!

Irish 2.0 said:

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CharlieBrown17 said:

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nukeaggie2000 said:

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We have a beach house we rent using VRBO. The main thing we ask in the summer (booked almost 3 months straight), is to do/start laundry before they leave and leave sheets folded on beds. The reason - we can't wash 8 beds of sheets, blankets, and 8-12 people's towels in 4 hours before the next person checks-in. We will work with renters that forget or get a late start on the laundry.

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Sounds like a you problem. Buy extras and wash offsite instead of being a cheap ass as you turn your beach house to new clients in 4 hours

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Escatly! How do you not have at least 2 sets of linens and towels for each room?!

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We do have extra. But it's really not a problem for the renters. We have only 5 stars on our reviews and we rent it out as much as we want. The people that rent it, love it. For families that have 8-12 people, you can have a house for cheaper than 3-4 hotels rooms, you get a living room, large kitchen and everything to cook large meals, video games for kids, outdoor games; but all you have to do is treat it like your home.

If you just have 2-4 people, then I would recommend a hotel.

Complete Idiot said:

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Traveling with 3 kids, in their teens, I would never consider a hotel again - only Airbnb's and similar vacation rental options for family trips. I love 'shopping' for the vacation rentals.

When it's just my wife and I, we would be fine with hotels.

A bit obsessive with the Airbnb reviews, I want "cleanest guest ever" and I treat it like I'm staying at a friend's house. Strip beds and otherwise a leave-no-trace approach. It's dumb, but being judged/rated gets me acting weird.

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AirBnb now has the switch to see the total all-in pricing when you are searching the list or map. Really nice since the fees are so much.

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-taking-action-annoying-checkout-chores-cleaning-rating-2023-5

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Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced on Twitter that checkout instructions would now be available on a listing's page ahead of booking. Users would also be able to provide ratings on checkout tasks, he said, adding that listings would be removed if they receive enough negative feedback.

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Some AirBnb / VRBOs we've had, there was absolutely nothing we had to do.... not even take out the trash. Then there was the one back in 2020 in Monterey CA where we had to do the dishes, put them away, wash and dry the sheets and put them back on the bed, wash, dry and fold the towels and run the vacuum. That was a beating.

Make sure you read the 'fine print' or ask the owner what the rules are about this before booking anything.

Had friends this past week in an airBNB off Wash Ave in Houston get broken into…. Owner got pissy about it so they reached out to corp AirBNB and it has been a fiasco. They think and purely speculation it was an inside job like with the cleaners or something. I just told them Wash ave aint what it used to be with the type of crowds there and Rice Military struggling with traffic and noise etc now, so it could have been a random incident but that is really random….

TX04Aggie said:

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Had friends this past week in an airBNB off Wash Ave in Houston get broken into…. Owner got pissy about it so they reached out to corp AirBNB and it has been a fiasco. They think and purely speculation it was an inside job like with the cleaners or something. I just told them Wash ave aint what it used to be with the type of crowds there and Rice Military struggling with traffic and noise etc now, so it could have been a random incident but that is really random….

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My wife stayed in an AirBNB recently and a $13,000 triathlon bike was stolen during her stay. They have video of the person (not my wife) taking it.

Owners said it was my wife's fault and tried to charge her for the bike. My wife pushed it up to AirBNB and we were totally shocked when they sided with the owner and tried to charge her for it.

So I'm not surprised that your friend is enduring a fiasco. Not sure if VRBO is any better but we are done with AirBNB after this deal.

TX04Aggie said:

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Had friends this past week in an airBNB off Wash Ave in Houston get broken into…. Owner got pissy about it so they reached out to corp AirBNB and it has been a fiasco. They think and purely speculation it was an inside job like with the cleaners or something. I just told them Wash ave aint what it used to be with the type of crowds there and Rice Military struggling with traffic and noise etc now, so it could have been a random incident but that is really random….

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The AirBnB Host Protection Policy specifically covers the loss of guests belongings while stored in the STR during a booking. Should be as simple as filing a claim with AirBnB.

Yeah i need to follow up with them to hear the latest to see what has happened.

bagger05 said:

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TX04Aggie said:

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Had friends this past week in an airBNB off Wash Ave in Houston get broken into…. Owner got pissy about it so they reached out to corp AirBNB and it has been a fiasco. They think and purely speculation it was an inside job like with the cleaners or something. I just told them Wash ave aint what it used to be with the type of crowds there and Rice Military struggling with traffic and noise etc now, so it could have been a random incident but that is really random….

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My wife stayed in an AirBNB recently and a $13,000 triathlon bike was stolen during her stay. They have video of the person (not my wife) taking it.

Owners said it was my wife's fault and tried to charge her for the bike. My wife pushed it up to AirBNB and we were totally shocked when they sided with the owner and tried to charge her for it.

So I'm not surprised that your friend is enduring a fiasco. Not sure if VRBO is any better but we are done with AirBNB after this deal.

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I want to hear more about how they tried to pin it on your wife and what the eventual outcome was? No chance I pay for that bike if inwas in your shoes and would be canceling whatever card is associated with my airbnb account so they couldn't try and charge me.

AgLA06 said:

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Or you just don't want to be around a bunch of strangers in a hotel with kids running down the hall and it sounding like a porno is being shot in the next room.

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I remember a few years ago, we could hear our next door people in the hotel having sex in their room at 2am and the woman was moaning very very loudly. Dude was probably drilling her good.

House rules were that she had to go in and out through the garage.

She parked the car in the garage and hit the button on the way in. Door starts to shut and she goes inside.

Next morning she comes down to find the garage door open. Car looks undisturbed so she thinks nothing of it.

This super expensive bike was just sitting in the garage. Not in the house in the padlocked room that was off limits to guests. Not inside the house at all. Not locked ip in the garage. Just sitting there.

Also the owners had an app that could open and close the garage remotely.

Was this all just a bunch of bad luck coming together at once? Maybe.

Was it something shady by the owners? Possibly. I'd like to think not. But we're dealing with the type of person who at best is trying to hold an AirBNB guest liable for a theft that they have video evidence someone else committed - instead of just claiming it on your freaking homeowners insurance.

That is so out of the realm of the way my brain works that I can't say much about what this person would or wouldn't do.

Even if it is the bad luck plus theft, these aren't damages CAUSED BY the guest. The whole time this was going on I was thinking there is NO WAY that AirBNB would try to collect this money.

Just to be safe, we did cancel that card. I guess either the hosts or AirBNB could try to sue her but she was there for work. She confirmed with her company that if that happened the company is who would be on the hook for it.

The whole situation was absurd.

That is insane. Sometimes things happen that are so absurd i just can't wrap my head around it or figure out how other peoples brains work and how they came to that conclusion.