Bozeman Area “Rental Cleaning Fees” – Get Out of Here With That Extortion

Some property renters should be ashamed and embarrassed by the absolutely STUPID huge cleaning fees they're charging on SOME property rental sites. We found some doozies.

On Airbnb and VRBO, those cleaning fees are almost always set by the property owner, not the rental platform so...although they CAN get steep, they're not nearly as bad as platforms that run "professionally managed" properties. Let's just say the owners of those properties are NOT scrubbing toilets. We can see your cash grab, people. Some of the cleaning fees we found were just downright offensive. A joke, almost. (Again, Airbnb and VRBO are different than hotel property management platforms, FYI.)

Nice properties? Absolutely. Labor is tight? Yes. If this is really a small business for you or a side hustle, clean the place yourself and charge a reasonable price for doing so. Or at least make sure that the platform isn't robbing your patrons. That's how it works.

Charge me a deposit, whatever. If I trash something or break something, we expect to pay for those things. But $400 or $500 TO CLEAN the place? Stop it.

Now, to be clear...according to CNBC: "Unlike AirBnB or VRBO, which is owned by Expedia, the properties in Marriott's Homes & Villas program are all professionally managed by housing management companies." Professionally managed still doesn't make it OK to charge $500 to clean a rental...no matter how good my rental history is.

Sure, a property isn't going to clean itself and it's hard work. But let's take a look at this incredibly cute-looking property in the Big Sky base area...

Looks awesome and I'm sure it is. I would absolutely rent this place. HOWEVER, the rental rate for the property is $315/night. No problem. I plugged in 4 nights of rental...the CLEANING FEE (on top of taxes) is $555.00. What?

This next one is a bit better, but not by much. We took a look at a Saddle Ridge Townhome in Big Sky. Not a mansion, but a very nice 3 bedroom townhome that started at $390/night. So this is what it gave back to us...a $351 cleaning fee:

Property after property we found the same thing. Chalk it up to supply and demand with not enough cleaning crews to go around? Especially if they need to commute to Big Sky? Well, for $550 a DAY, I'll be sending the names and numbers of several people I know who'd be willing to make the trip.