A woman revealed she once refused to book an Airbnb property after seeing it came with a HUGE list of chores - on top of paying a hefty cleaning charge.
Find out why she was fuming below:
Hidden and extra fees are hardly anything new - as you'll know if you've ever tried to book gig tickets and been hit with random 'administration' or 'handling' charges.
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But one woman straight-up refused to book a holiday rental when she saw that she would be paying a £100 cleaning fee, despite having to do a lot of the job herself.
Posting a video on TikTok a couple of years back, Mel (@melworeit) said she’d been looking for an Airbnb for a couple of nights away in February.
She’d noticed a $125 (£100) cleaning fee on one property, which didn’t bother her at first, but that soon changed when she read the online description a little more closely.
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“Where do Airbnb owners get the audacity?” she said. “So I'm just doing some research for a little mini vacation my husband and I wanna take at the end of February.
“Found this place that I liked that’s within our price range. It does have a $125 cleaning fee, as most Airbnbs do.
“And I don’t have a problem with that, but this is what I do have a problem with.”
She then cut to a summary of ‘other things to note’ in the property’s listing.
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It said: “We ask that guests complete a few checkout duties before departing to allow time to prepare the house safely and on time. Removing garbage, removing bed linens, starting the dishwasher and one load of laundry.”
Mel continued: “Now, maybe this is like entitlement or privilege talking, however, if I’m paying $229 a night to stay somewhere, plus $125 cleaning fee, I’m not doing any f**king laundry. Full stop.
“I know it’s one load of laundry, it’ll take me two minutes to do, but it’s the principle that bothers me.”
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It seemed many others agreed, with one TikTok user commenting: “Either I clean or I pay for cleaning... not both.”
Someone else said: “Fees should be included in the original price.”
Another agreed: “I’ve helped manage an Airbnb and even I think it’s SO tacky and I will not stay in one that makes me DO THE LAUNDRY on my vacation.”
Mel later revealed she ended up just booking a hotel – and has been doing so ever since.
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She added in a comment: “This video is 8 months old and going viral again lol I stayed at a hotel and have only booked hotels since!”
A spokesperson for Airbnb previously told Tyla: "In preparation for an anticipated record-setting travel season, today, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced that we’re improving nearly every aspect of the Airbnb service - and we’re doing it based on feedback from our community - including total price display and transparent checkout instructions."
Jess Hardiman