Dennis Shirshikov
Dennis Shirshikov is a 32-year-old Airbnb owner.
Initially he cleaned his property himself, but this quickly became a problem, especially when he had multiple bookings in a row. Now he’s charging his tenants $400.
Shirshikov says he has no problem with his high fees: “If I have less stress from losing competitors, that’s fine with me.”
This essay is based on a conversation with Dennis Shirshikov, a 32-year-old Airbnb owner who owns a place in Whitney Point, New York, and charges a higher than usual cleaning fee. It has been revised for length and clarity.
Two years ago I noticed that a lot of people I knew were looking at their properties Airbnb offered. It was in the middle of the pandemic and I heard people were less keen on staying in big hotels and more keen on renting houses or apartments.
My wife and I recently purchased a former bed and breakfast in upstate New York
We decided to turn it into a family home that we can rent out through the platform. We bought the property because of its location. It is close to state land and gave us many options for rental, airbnb or a possible refurbishment and sale.
We were new to the area and just moved here from New York City a few months before purchasing the property. We’ve noticed that people travel to the Whitney Point area for a retreat, for events (like weddings or conferences), or for seasonal activities like fishing or snowmobiling. So in 2020 we started renting the house through Airbnb.
At first we cleaned the house ourselves
Initially, my wife and I fully managed the property. Not only did we take care of the bookings, we also did the cleaning ourselves.
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Being a newcomer to the platform, we were keen to get reviews. We kept our cleaning fee low, about $75 an hour, and we used that money for supplies to clean the house ourselves.
This quickly became a problem, especially when we started having multiple bookings in a row
On-site cleaning chores interrupted our week and full-time jobs. We had to be away from work for three to four hours at a time to make sure the house was immaculate before the next guest arrived.
While some guests left the apartment in tidy condition, for others it was a mess. I grew more and more frustrated with having to do this work and decided it would make more sense to increase the fee and hire professionals.
In 2021 we have decided to increase our cleaning fee
We went from about $75 per stay to between $200 and $400 per stay. The cleaning fee varies depending on the time of year and can increase to $400 in the summer.
This is because we also have a pool that opens in the summer and needs maintenance between stays.
In general, we also find that when the weather is nice, people stay indoors longer and leave more dirty dishes or rubbish behind (in contrast to winter, when they are more likely to leave the house to go to the ski slopes).
There are a handful of reasons why our cleaning fee is so high
First, it’s a big house. Not only does it have five bedrooms and two bathrooms, but the entire property is 1.5 acres and the home is over 2500 square feet. A cleaning crew can take anywhere from two to three hours to clean this property, depending on how efficient they are or how many people come to clean.
Because we live in such a rural area, there aren’t too many options for hiring cleaning services. So we have to pay a premium to have a good, reliable and sometimes last minute team (when our original team fails).
We also decided to increase our fees because we’ve heard many complaints about Airbnb hosts requiring their guests to check out the apartment before they leave to clean up, for example taking out the garbage, putting things in the laundry, sweeping the floor or even washing the dishes. We didn’t feel like we wanted to ask this of our guests because it detracts from their experience and they shouldn’t care.
We charge more than our competitors, and that’s okay
Looking at houses nearby, cleaning fees range from $100 to $150.
We may get fewer bookings than other properties nearby, but we don’t really know that. We have found that we have had many repeat customers over the last two years which shows us that people are happy with our home and the upfront cost they pay to stay there.
If the loss means I’m less stressed, then I’m fine. I’d rather not have to worry about having to pay cleaning costs out of profits and instead charge a higher fee.
People can leave the place in a mess
Since this is the first Airbnb property I’ve ever operated, I learned pretty quickly how dirty people can leave the space.
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In addition to the garbage that is lying around and the furniture that is being moved everywhere, there are often stains on the bed linen, broken dishes or missing kitchen utensils. I suspect some people feel like they’re constantly cleaning their own house so that when they go elsewhere they can take a break from that responsibility.
Once we went into the house after a guest left and saw that a wall was broken
We never found out how it happened but there was a huge hole in the wall separating the kitchen from the living room and instead of fixing it we tore down the whole wall. This worked for us because it made the room appear larger.
When this happened we were new Airbnb hosts, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and not make the guest responsible for the damage. Today we might do things differently and either make an insurance claim or even reach out to the guest.
We don’t operate an Airbnb in a busy city or area. Our home is very rural and we have found that the guests who stay with us mostly respect the home.
How much we pay the cleaning team varies
We pay the cleaning team between $150 and $300 per service, depending on how much cleaning is required. They are independent contractors and set their own prices.
It’s more expensive when we need more people, need to get ready quicker, or need a one-time deep clean after a particularly bad stay.
If there’s anything left over from the cleaning fee Airbnb guests pay, we put it into a fund that we use to replace broken items so we don’t have to bill guests for them—whether it’s broken dishes or accidental fallen decoration.
Most of the time we break even and rarely have a balance left in this fund at the end of the year.
A clean house is more important than anything else
Before most people book an Airbnb, they usually read all the reviews. If someone reads that the sheets were dirty or the guest needed to do a light cleaning before checking out, it can have an impact on whether someone stays in a place or not.
We want guests to leave our home feeling that their stay was everything they hoped for, without having to worry about a dirty room or doing the cleaning themselves.
Maintaining the property costs money
As an Airbnb property owner, we face a lot of costs. For example, we pay a mortgage and property taxes on the house and are responsible for everything working (like heating and air conditioning). Most of the profits we make from renting out this property go straight back into upkeep.
We hope to continue to rent out the property and generate income from it
We don’t think this will ever fully replace the money we make from our full-time jobs. However, we try to save some of the money we make for our own travel, primarily to local areas like the Adirondacks where we stay in Airbnbs.
When we stay there we are happy to pay a higher than usual cleaning fee because we know it means that we as guests can have a good and hassle-free experience.
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