Cleaning fees seem very polarizing, some people hate them, others love the option to pay and not have to clean.
Would love to have a checkbox similar to Smoking or Pets, as to whether cleaning fee is charged, not charged, or optional. Then have filters where people can search by their preference.
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For now the policy of HE is to enable cleaning fees where really required ( often second homes which the owners can’t go to between exchanges), but for these fees to remain exceptional and not to become the norm. Having a filter could make members, particularly new ones, think that it was common practise to ask for fees, whereas many members are against them.
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I would happily pay to have a cleaning person come in after my stay even in a primary home. Easier to catch early flight, not have the stress of cleaning to someone else’s standards, etc.
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I have no problem people chaging cleaning fees, albeit, we do not. Equally, we also tend to avoid those listings that do. I do not think they should regarded as profit even though some seem to be excessive.
Cleaning fees also appear for primary residences so filtering out just secondary homes (as somebody suggested) is not really a solution. Besides, you would also filter many homes that do not charge a cleaning fee.
We tend to go away in the summer in our motorhome. This is the time we do most of our hosting. We may pay someone to cut the grass but we request to our hosts to prepare the house for any incoming guests. This is why we prefer longer exchanges so as to reduce the number of changeovers. So far, it appears to have worked. We would not wish to charge cleaning fees but I have no problem with those people that do. I can see good reason to do so.
However, I firmly believe there should be a check box filter. In the past (pror to this forum) I even wrote to h/e suggesting this very thing. I did not receive a reply. To me, I see no reason that having this filter would lead to a more transparent and all round better experience.
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In my opinion, it would be very difficult to filter by cleaning fee because it is not so cut and dry. Some have a fee for GP exchanges, but not for reciprocal ones, so it can be quite subtle and variable according to circumstances.
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I think it would screen out a lot of people because a cleaning fee may depend on circumstance. I add the option for a cleaning fee because I would rather have it in some circumstances. For example, if there are 8 people for 4 days and they say no I can’t do anything then I may accept them if they are willing to pay a cleaning fee. However if you are determined that you will not pay it ever well I guess it works for those people. HE will not do it because it brings money into the equation and in many countries they need to stay away from that or it will get re-classified to be a taxed and licensed situation.
In my opinion, there should be a filter for cleaning fees. It could be a separate filter for GP exchanges and a separate filter for reciprocal exchanges, easy.