Sonder Eliminates Cleaning Fees in Short-Term Rentals and Hotel Rooms
Photo Credit: A Sonder property in Chicago. The company stopped making guests pay a distinct cleaning fee. Sonder
Skift Take
Sonder will have to see if it can make its pricing competitive while eliminating cleaning fees as a separate guest charge. There could be some reputational upside if the financials work out.
Property manager Sonder did something that Airbnb can't and most management companies have been loathe to do — the company eliminated cleaning fees for guests.
Until Sonder axed cleaning fees, around three-fourths of the properties Sonder manages, including apartments, condos and hotel rooms everywhere from New York City to Dubai, were tacking on cleaning fees as a separate charge within the total price of the stay. The fee amounts varied by property types and markets, the company said.
Sonder property manager rivals such as Vacasa, Evolve, and Vtrips all typically charge separate cleaning fees.
But Sonder quietly rolled out what it calls "zero cleaning fees" in November, although there was no formal announcement.
"We rolled out zero cleaning fees across our portfolio, to further simplify pricing for our guests," said Nathan Bacher, Sonder's vice president, revenue management. "Pricing transparency was already a part of the Sonder experience, and this takes it a step further."
Bacher added that pricing transparency would help Sonder in its still-small but growing cor
