243 thoughts on “Nickle-And-Dimed To Death | Hawaii Visitors Reeling”
PegM
I thought I’d look up a place we used to own in Palm Springs, which has a much lower cost of living than anywhere in Hawaii. I also know the costs of vacationing in San Diego have skyrocketed recently. It is a 1300 sqft home and is simple to maintain. We never used it as a rental.
The cost for 3 nights is $1977. Host fee $659, Admin fee $132, Cleaning fee $527, Service fee $315 for a total of $1,633, so nearly the cost of the ‘rental’.
Just wanted to point out that this situation is not just happening in Hawaii.
Cleaning fees are set and collected by the host, not VRBO. An average price of $175-250 has been the norm for at least 5 years, and is more related to labor costs.
It’s not a way to make more money. Many hosts pay *more* to their cleaners than what they charge their guests, not less. They are actually losing money on the cleaning.
Cleaners need to live in Hawaii somehow, which is no small feat these days. Prices for everything (housing, food, utilities, etc) are astronomical. The entire vacation rental industry would fall apart without cleaners. Not to mention that vacation rental cleaning and laundry is a lot of hard, hours-long, exacting work – much different than a normal cleaner.
Visitors usually look at the total price of accommodations. If they like it and can afford it, they book it. It doesn’t really matter to them what the price is made up of – taxes, fees, cleaning, etc. It’s the bottom line that they look at. The ones who care about the individual fees simply don’t travel, I guess, since most accommodations “Nickel and Dime you to death”, including hotels.
PegM
I do think that the fees become important to lots of people when they almost double the cost of the per night listing.
1
PatG
Not when the total amount is acceptable. It’s futile to get so hung up on this.
If it was required that there be no fees, what do you think would happen? The accommodation would simply raise their prices to compensate. It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) make any difference to the guest. Are people hoping that if they complain about fees enough, they will be removed and the total price will go down? That’s a pipe dream.
It’s all “funny money”.
Chris r
PatG the problem with all the fees is that they are often times not disclosed until you get to payment. When searching for spaces to rent, the base price is listed. If all fees were disclosed during the search then I agree the cost is the cost.
3
PatG
It’s not true anymore though, Chris. Most platforms have a “Display Total Price” option on the first page that you can now select, and then the total pre-tax price for the stay is what is shown in the initial search results. See the Airbnb main search page for an example of this option.
GaryB
Here’s a brief idea why we chose Europe. A VRBO low dollar condo:
$185.00 x 9 nights
$1,665.00
Cleaning Fee
$225.00
Service Fee
$241.00
Tax
$350.83
State- Hawaii
General Sales and Use Tax
Accommodations Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
$79.16
$193.73
$10.09
County- Kauai
Accommodations Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
$56.70
$9.89
$1.26
I have not used VRBO before, but reaction to your breakdown is:
1) Why is the cleaning fee so expensive? It is like 3 times what I pay to get my 2BR apartment cleaned in LA.
2) What is the “service fee” for, and who get that?
VRBO/AirBnB as well as others charge this fee, many times to both landlord and renter. Cleaning fees have always been high by mainland standards. I believe it took a jump during covid due extensive additional cleaning, but like many fees, it never adjusted. Seems like it could be a nice living for cleaning crews. Our fees in Europe were from $75-$100 for a comparable size apt.
I’m going to say that the best comment is the one that says all this “nickel and diming” yet we still have a 3rd world travel and tourism coordination in Hawaii.
I think if the press ever bothered to let the mainland and international travelers know how bad Hawaii is dollar for dollar, and how much they are being taken advantage of, it might take a bite out of advance bookings.
Not that I would want to hurt Hawaii, but how do you force the hand of our gouging government?
I thought I’d look up a place we used to own in Palm Springs, which has a much lower cost of living than anywhere in Hawaii. I also know the costs of vacationing in San Diego have skyrocketed recently. It is a 1300 sqft home and is simple to maintain. We never used it as a rental.
The cost for 3 nights is $1977. Host fee $659, Admin fee $132, Cleaning fee $527, Service fee $315 for a total of $1,633, so nearly the cost of the ‘rental’.
Just wanted to point out that this situation is not just happening in Hawaii.
Hi Peg
Thanks for that perspective. We’re finding the same situation in terms of costs when planning a trip to Europe later this summer.
Aloha.
Cleaning fees are set and collected by the host, not VRBO. An average price of $175-250 has been the norm for at least 5 years, and is more related to labor costs.
I don’t care who the fees are set by that’s still exorbit amount to pay to clean a one or two bedroom condo.
I think it’s a way to make more money. I have seen cleaning fees of 500! 😳
It’s not a way to make more money. Many hosts pay *more* to their cleaners than what they charge their guests, not less. They are actually losing money on the cleaning.
Cleaners need to live in Hawaii somehow, which is no small feat these days. Prices for everything (housing, food, utilities, etc) are astronomical. The entire vacation rental industry would fall apart without cleaners. Not to mention that vacation rental cleaning and laundry is a lot of hard, hours-long, exacting work – much different than a normal cleaner.
It’s hard to believe that people would agree to pay that much money
Visitors usually look at the total price of accommodations. If they like it and can afford it, they book it. It doesn’t really matter to them what the price is made up of – taxes, fees, cleaning, etc. It’s the bottom line that they look at. The ones who care about the individual fees simply don’t travel, I guess, since most accommodations “Nickel and Dime you to death”, including hotels.
I do think that the fees become important to lots of people when they almost double the cost of the per night listing.
Not when the total amount is acceptable. It’s futile to get so hung up on this.
If it was required that there be no fees, what do you think would happen? The accommodation would simply raise their prices to compensate. It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) make any difference to the guest. Are people hoping that if they complain about fees enough, they will be removed and the total price will go down? That’s a pipe dream.
It’s all “funny money”.
PatG the problem with all the fees is that they are often times not disclosed until you get to payment. When searching for spaces to rent, the base price is listed. If all fees were disclosed during the search then I agree the cost is the cost.
It’s not true anymore though, Chris. Most platforms have a “Display Total Price” option on the first page that you can now select, and then the total pre-tax price for the stay is what is shown in the initial search results. See the Airbnb main search page for an example of this option.
Here’s a brief idea why we chose Europe. A VRBO low dollar condo:
$185.00 x 9 nights
$1,665.00
Cleaning Fee
$225.00
Service Fee
$241.00
Tax
$350.83
State- Hawaii
General Sales and Use Tax
Accommodations Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
$79.16
$193.73
$10.09
County- Kauai
Accommodations Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
General Sales and Use Tax
$56.70
$9.89
$1.26
Gary B,
I have not used VRBO before, but reaction to your breakdown is:
1) Why is the cleaning fee so expensive? It is like 3 times what I pay to get my 2BR apartment cleaned in LA.
2) What is the “service fee” for, and who get that?
VRBO/AirBnB as well as others charge this fee, many times to both landlord and renter. Cleaning fees have always been high by mainland standards. I believe it took a jump during covid due extensive additional cleaning, but like many fees, it never adjusted. Seems like it could be a nice living for cleaning crews. Our fees in Europe were from $75-$100 for a comparable size apt.
I’m going to say that the best comment is the one that says all this “nickel and diming” yet we still have a 3rd world travel and tourism coordination in Hawaii.
I think if the press ever bothered to let the mainland and international travelers know how bad Hawaii is dollar for dollar, and how much they are being taken advantage of, it might take a bite out of advance bookings.
Not that I would want to hurt Hawaii, but how do you force the hand of our gouging government?