When reviewing guests, the rating for cleanliness does not take into account if a fee has been charged for a cleaner. It is misleading - guests might be marked down as, technically, the house wonât be as clean as it was left.
Hosts should tick a box to say a fee was charged and wording should be adjusted to say something along the lines of tidiness rather than cleanliness.
I understand your point of view as it is hard to rate a guest for cleanliness when they have paid a cleaning fee and therefore technically donât need to clean. Personally even when I have paid a cleaning fee I have also cleaned, but I appreciate thatâs not what most would do. Iâm just a bit of a clean freak 
I would hope that most hosts would still give a high rating for a guest who has left the home tidy and relatively clean when also paying a cleaning fee. As always with HomeExchange it really is about good communication. When paying a cleaning fee I would recommend clarifying exactly what that fees covers. How do they expect the home to be left for the cleaner?
Hello Ruth
I do agree with you.
How to rate someone who will pay a cleaning fee.
Cleaning fees make the community more dirty and careless. More Airbnb rental.
I donât apply any cleaning fee so i can rate properly.
But itâs a real problem as many charge a fee.
Honestly, if there was no number rating there would not be a problem. It basically should be text on did they do what you asked them to do and if not what didnât they do.
Yes, good idea! I was given a 3 after tidying up, putting everything back and doing the first load of laundry. We left 50 euros as agreed for the cleaner. I asked her why the mark down and she said the house was not clean so it wasnât nice to come back to.
I think thatâs a rather extreme gĂ©nĂ©ralisation Nathalie. If I pay a cleaning fee I dontât leave a place dirty and Iâm not careless. Are you?
You can ask to reply to a review and say that there was a cleaning fee.
Hi Susan,
1/ My husband says :
« If I have to pay 150$ of clearing fee, I donât even launch the dishwasher ! ».
2/ Our host wrote, « donât clean anything, someone will do it ».
Si I have to fight against husband and host to clean before leaving.
Husband says i am stupid and host says it is nice of you but unecessary.
19 years of HE and always 5 stars in cleanliness.
The truth is that you canât rate properly with or without fees.
And the other truth is that it makes the community more dirty than it used to be and more rental as they pay for a service.
Once again â it makes the community more dirty than it used to beâ is very judgemental of other members and is only the truth in your opinion. And I donât beleive for one minute that everyone was perfect before there were cleaning fees. This is your opinion because you donât agree with fees.
Even if there are fees I still leave my hostâs home clean ( and so does my husband) because that ( in my opinion) is respectful. I donât ask for fees but I respect the needs of members that do and either pay or donât exchange. If you donât chargĂ© a fee how can you generalise and say fees make the community dirtier?
Letâs say itâs my opinion SusanJbrn and letâs say it is my experience.
We have been using HE for 19 years.
Your wording is strange. So any opinion or feedback based on what we live would be âvery judgementalâ.
Sorry but i thought we could express real experiences if nobody can be identified.
I respect the needs of members who claim for a fee. To desagree and wishing to exchange for free does not mean not to respect.
I would be very happy to have search ânon cleaning feeâ box to eliminate these listings from the requests. it would allow to have the âgoodâ listings.
People who wish to exchange for free could do it easily. People who wish to exchange and have a cleaning service could do it easily.
To please you, i shall start all my sentences with âin my opinionâ if it can make you more confortable 
To answer the topic, what do you suggest if the member does not do a big cleaning when there is a fee? Should we write 3 - 4 stars for cleanliness?
No, if a member leaves,a cleaning fee and also leaves the home clean ( no dishes even in the dishwasher, no waste in the bins, sheets taken off the bed, no food in fridge, tickets flushed) then the host should give 5. Giving less rarely happens. So saying the community is dirty is unreasonable.
You have 5 stars in cleanliness and you donât charge a fee, so it wouldnât seem to be your experience. Where are you seeing dirty members of the community ?
Once upon a time, the travellers prepared the home for the following guests.
Now I find hairs in the bathroom and the vaccum not used.
And the last time my host worked this way 3 years ago (travellers doing the cleaning for the next group) , even the trash was full of garbage.
Welcome! It was 3 years ago in Canada.
Now there is someone who come to my home between guests.
I cannot take the risk any longer to host without someone checking between 2 groups.
No I have to say that even when I pay a cleaning fee I still clean the home thoroughly as I know the cleaner will feedback to the hosts and I wouldnât want anyone to think I hadnât looked after their home 
The other thing is many today donât consider there is a difference between cleaning and maintenance. Maintenance includes washing your dishes and disposing of trash and how you take care of things on a daily basis. Spill OJ you wipe it up. You should always do the maintenance. Cleaning is the deep down stuff.