But my latest gripe is the cleaning fees, the pesky one-off charge hosts tack on for cleaning the space you stay in, on top of the nightly fee. This fee is meant to cover the extra expenses hosts incur washing the bedding and scrubbing the toilet when they are getting their place ready for the next guests to arrive.
The last Airbnb I stayed at attracted a cleaning fee of $180 and a service fee of $433. A sizeable chunk of the 15-night fee that was already north of $3000.
Despite the cleaning fee, I was expected to gather all used towels, bedding, throw trash away downstairs and ensure it was tidy. It goes without saying, you leave the property in a neat and tidy condition.
However, I nearly choked on my Weeties when I went to book a spare bedroom in a private unit on the NSW Central Coast with a guy named Craig and his King Charles cavalier, Rodger. Let’s just say you’re taking a bit of a gamble here.
The bed in the listing, styled as a top-of-the-wozza donga, had a bedspread with…
