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Comment by kevincox | Hacker News Reader

> Why isn't cleaning part of staying somewhere???

I think you touched on it but there is some reasonable compromise. Dirt on the floor mats and basic cleaning should be included, but if you are spraying champagne on the walls it would be reasonable not to be included. Where do you draw the line. If you want to charge for the "worst case" it will inflate your prices dramatically. If you charge for the average then people are basically incentivized to be unnecessarily messy. Of course many hosts will be unreasonable and charge extra for the very basics that should be included.

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> "Where do you draw the line."

This doesn't seem that difficult? Hotels have solved this for decades already - if you trash the room they can and will charge you for cleaning it up, but you are also not expected to make the place good-as-new when you leave.

As a two-sided marketplace Airbnb obviously has no direct control over hosts and has trouble enforcing consistent standards... but at the risk of being a bit sarcastic: that's Airbnb's problem, not ours as customers. Other options (aka hotels, B&Bs, etc.) in this industry have figured this out and it's simply not a problem.

Well, yes... even in a hotel if you trash the place you're going to get charged extra. But that's not AirBNB. AirBNB hosts are usually upset if they have to clean anything at all.

> Where do you draw the line.

I don’t think it’s that hard. You have some reasonable cleaning procedure that you always do (quick vacuum, make the bed, tidy up, etc.) and any problems beyond that you charge the guest extra. Of course you could quibble about the exact details but it seems like a stable situation for hotels.

The point that I am trying to make is that the ambiguity is what these hosts are using to slide the line egregiously far in their favour.

>Where do you draw the line.

when it becomes damage versus expected usage would be a good line just like hotels have been doing centuries.

basic cleaning services such as cleaning linens,dishes,furniture,light dusting, basic floor sweeping ,etc.

you destroy the property or require excessive cleaning because you had a party with excessive dirtiness like spilled drinks on walls , linens thrown all over the place and stained, etc. then include an abusive charge.

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