Do you need to pay cleaning fees at homestays? Netizens question after viral ‘messy’ video surfaces

The holiday season is meant to see a surge of tourists looking for homestays, which are often much more relaxing and comfortable than hotels. However, at times, the experience of hosting can get troublesome for the owner.

A viral video highlighting this incident surfaced from Goa and sparked a debate about the responsibilities of guests and hosts in homestays. The owner of "The Golden Perch," a villa in South Goa, shared a before-and-after video on Instagram, showing the mess left by guests.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by The Golden Perch (@goldenperch_goa)

The owner who hosted the property on a private homestay renting website, Airbnb, said that they were shocked to see the dirty dishes, stained kitchen counters, and an unclean induction stove.

Expressing frustration, they wrote that running an Airbnb is not easy and that guests should be more considerate. The caption expressed further dissatisfaction over guest behaviour with, "When you put in effort and someone destroys it, something dies in you. But we need to get back up again and focus on making things better."

The video ended up going viral and soon sparked an exchange of words between users. Some supported the owner, sympathizing with the frustration of maintaining a clean property. However, others felt the reaction was not justified, arguing that the establishment charges cleaning fees and should expect some level of mess.

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Incidentally, private hosting companies such as Airbnb, charge a custom renting fee which can range anywhere from Rs 200 to Rs 2,000 or even beyond, depending on the type of property and the owner’s decisions.

One social media user commented, "Charge the guests a cleaning fee but expect them to leave the place clean. If the guest damages anything, charge them, but this is pure nonsense." Another suggested, "Include rules about this in your contract and charge an advance stating certain rules." The comments argued that as long as no damage is done, some mess is expected.

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Others, however, took a different stance with “I can understand but it is a part of hosting your home” and “Cleaning charges are often not enough to cover up the mess some guests leave behind”.

As such, a debate on whether cleaning fees on private property hosting should be levied or not has since raged on.