LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — You might want to look again at that sweet Airbnb beachfront deal you planned this summer. Tack on cleaning fees, service charges and taxes, and suddenly it doesn’t seem like such a bargain.
That’s what travelers are likely to find as they budget for vacation, according to analysis by Forbes Advisor. Summer Airbnb vacationers face an average of 36% in added fees, the Forbes Advisor study reveals.
Forbes said it looked at 32,000 listings for July in the 100 most popular Airbnb markets, including Las Vegas. The breakdown on the 36% average in fees added to the nightly rate is 11% for cleaning, 15% for services and 10% for taxes.
In Las Vegas, which ranked 66th in markets with the highest fees, the breakdown means the average nightly rate of $233, plus 34% in fees, jumps $79 to $312, Forbes found. (Las Vegas breakdown: 15% for cleaning, 15% for service fees, 4% for taxes.)
The study said the fees can be frustrating for those planning travel. While service fees were found to be relatively stable across all the markets studied, average cleaning fees ranged from 4% to 20%.
The average cleaning fee is $160, with the lowest at $95 for sprucing up a rental in Cleveland and the highest at $313 for scrubbing in Telluride, Colorado.
The highest total fees — cleaning, services and taxes combined — were found in Atlanta (48%), Phoenix (47%) and Fort Myers Beach, Florida (46%).
New York City, with an average nightly rate of $319, came in with the lowest average percentage of fees, 23%.
The highest nightly rate was $1,280 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, followed by Montauk, New York, the easternmost tip of Long Island, at $1,019. Good thing the average fees are more reasonable — 29% in Nantucket and 25% in Montauk.
Forbes said for each location it searched hundreds of properties listed for July “to establish regional trends for nightly rates, cleaning fees and taxes.”
