Gratuity for a vacation rental?
 

Last February we rented this wonderful home on Maui. We want to rent it again next year. I found the place on vrbo.com , but it is no longer listed there. It is listed on homeaway.com also where much to surprise in the area where cost are mentioned it says "15% Gratuity".

I have never seen this before. Have you?

There is no daily maid service at this home and nothing else that would warrant a tip. It seems like a rip off to me and I wonder if they wanted more money why didn't they just raise the rent by that amount? That would make more sense to me,

I emailed the owner and asked her about it and have not heard yet, but it will be interesting to see what she writes back.

They also added a $150 cleaning fee and there wasn't one before and they did raise the rental rate by $25 a day.

Has anyone ever paid a gratuity for a vacation rental?

Nope. Never will either.

No, and when I rented apartments, I didn't tip the landlord either.

HTTY

I have seen a card placed near the door suggesting a tip for the housekeeper at a beach rental in Bandon. I think the cleaning fee was $75 and we didn't leave a tip because we didn't think about it when we were packing up.
Part of me understands that someone is just trying to make a living and the other part is annoyed because, as you mentioned, this isn't a place with a daily maid service. It's tiring to be hit up for tips right and left.

I rent from vrbo and homeaway all the time in Hawaii, and I am with you just raise the rent(which they obviously did also). I would have to look at other properties there are a lot of very nice ones out there.
Happy planning.

Never a required percentage. I usually tip the cleaner, $10 or $20 for the week. I call it my lost charger insurance. We are forever leaving things and if you tip, usually the cleaner will help you get your lost belonging back.

So you're saying that they have:

1) increased rental rate by $25/day
2) Added a $150 cleaning fee
and
3) asking for a 15% "gratuity"? 15% of what? And for whom?

I've never seen a rental place asking for gratuity. As far as I'm concerned, the cleaning fee goes to the cleaning crew. Or in other cases where there's no cleaning fee, the rental rate includes the fee already.

I guess I don't understand the theory behind this. If renting through VRBO and there's no daily housekeeping service who exactly is the 15% gratuity for? Same with the cleaning fee. It seems to me that the owner should determine the costs they incur renting out their home, factor in a reasonable profit and price the rental accordingly. The rental rate should include the cleaning fee (after all the place has to be cleaned when the renter leaves). If the rental rate is competitive the home will "rent", if it's set too high there will be few, if any, takers.

I certainly can understand the rental rate being higher this year compared to last year and the renter voluntarily tipping the housekeeper (assuming there is one) but to require a gratuity or to add on 15% gratuity for an unstaffed home is just plain odd 9or perhaps greedy).

yk, 15% of the total charge! I have no idea who it goes to. That was one of the questions I asked the owner when I sent the inquiry.

I forgot to add that Maui has outrageously high taxes on such rentals, so on top of all the above, add 14.25%! With all the add ones, a week's rental ends up costing almost a $1000 more!

It has really soured me on this place and there is no way in hell I would ever pay such a charge. It just makes me sad, as this place has been in the rental pool for so long. We finally stay there, love it and think it is a place we could return to again and again and then they take it out of our reach with all these new added charges. Blech!

I suggest not thinking about all the various terms and subdivisions of costs.

A much simpler approach:
1) Add all the costs to derive a total for your stay.
2) Decide if amount calculated from step 1 is worth it to you to stay in a particular home.

iamq, now that you've explained it more in detail, I think it's a gimmick the owner is using in order to make his/her rental rate still look "competitive" or even "cheaper."

On vrbo, one can rank the rentals by rate, or # of BR etc. For many people, they probably want the listing by rate (from low to high).

In your case, the owner effectively "lowered" his/her rental rate by probably $50 a day by splitting the "cleaning fee" and "15% gratuity" off from the actual rental rate.

bardo1, I did that and there is no way I would pay the $$$ required for the house now. It was stretch as it was before.

yk, you've hit the nail on the head!

iamq, This sounds like a huge rip off and so disappointing when you've found your perfect 'little grass shack'!

I've not come across gratuities for rentals but we've left tips for maid service when using vrbo in Mexico however, this was left to our discretion.
In the information guide left at the 2 bedroom apartment it stated that daily maid service was included but the suggested tip was $5 a day.
We were also able to decline maid service at any time if we wished but we didn't as it was fantastic.. invisible fairies swept away every grain of sand and washed our dishes.

We also rented an apartment in Iceland this summer and brought gifts for the landlady as she'd been so helpful (she let us view the apartment 6 months before our stay when we were passing through Reykjavik and made us soup when we arrived late at night in July).

I hope this addition of a phony gratuity isn't something that becomes more widespread.. good luck with your emails to the owner.

Sounds like they figured a good way to raise the price but hide it to the unsuspecting.

I agree about gratuity, who gets the $$ ? And since one expects a cleaned rental, it is owner's responsibility to see that it is cleaned - sort of goes with the territory.

FWIW- you cannot sort listings on vrbo by rate. You can only sort them by # of bedrooms high/low and "sleeps" high/low.

I think it is sneaky and speaks ill of the owner.

I'm really interested to see if they respond & how they answer your question about what the 15% is for!

We do not tip on house/condo rentals, although we do in hotels. Because I was curious, I asked a friend of mine who rents out her beach condo about half the year. She said SHE tips her housecleaner, which is what I would expect.

imaq

I think it is sneaky and speaks ill of the owner.

You nailed it. Bad business practice.

I have never seen this and would not pay an additional gratuity when already being charged a cleaning fee.

imaq -

If you choose not to stay in this rental, I suggest you send a note to the owner explaining why. Perhaps if they get enough negative feedback regarding the additional add-ons, they'll rethink this bizarre policy.

Absolutely Melnq8. Bizarre indeed.

iamq, did you hear back from the owner???

Nope. I have not heard anything, which is not unusual for this person. Last year, when I was arranging for the rental, a few days would go by between and then I'd hear from her.

I will be sure to let you all know when I do hear from her.

Still haven't heard and have decided not to pursue it.

This is appauling. I rent out my house in Maine on homeaway.com and would NEVER consider listing a gratuity. I tip my house cleaner quite well at the end of the season...as it should be.

This is a sad story. I remember your enthusiasm for the property last year and even tried to find it when I was on Maui in May. My decision would be the same as yours, though, to not pursue. The slow response to emails is a deal breaker for me. What if you had a problem while renting and couldn't reach anyone? The gratuity thing is so ridiculous I have been thinking it must be a mistake or something!

Hi Barbara, yeah we are very disappointed. I don't think it is a mistake. If it were you would have thought I'd have heard back from her by now so she could make sure I had the real story. I do know the property has been in the same family for generations and that there was a death of either the matriarch or patriarch last year, so maybe someone else is running the financials on the property. Who knows?

We just sealed a deal on a rental in Hanalei for next summer though and are thrilled. It is a guest house for a large estate on the beach side of Weke Road and we'll have access to the beach in like 20 seconds. The price was right and the location is really our first love.

Well, I finally heard from the owner and here is part of her message. Basically she blames being incommunicado on a crashed computer and the information in her ad on HomeAway's change in format.

"You aren’t the first to ask about the HomeAway listing and the rates/gratuity fee. It appears they changed/upgraded (they say) their “dashboard” and the all the different rates were not visible and a gratuity fee added. There is no gratuity fee."

She is offering us the house at the same rate that we paid in February. Good to know that there is no gratuity and no cleaning fee and since we would be returning guests we would pay the same amount we did last time, but the daily rate did go up $25 a day for first timers.

Now that we've found a place in Hanalei, we're not sure what to do. Good news is that we don't have to put any money down on the Hanalei house until January.

Maybe a week at each place???

I'm glad this got sorted but I'm not sure if I buy her explanation. However, at least she offered you the "same" rate as in the past!

Let's just say this interaction has not engendered a feeling of trust with the home's rental agent/owner/representative.

Let it go - there are thousands of other options...

bardo1, while there may be "thousands" of options island wide, there are actually only 3 or 4 options for vacation rentals in this area of Maui. We liked this one the best.

We've decided to stick with our plan to head to Kauai instead. It has been 4 years since we'eve been there and it is calling.

I have been reading this with interest as I am a vacation rental homeowner in CO. We hired a new cleaning service 3 years ago when our cleaner moved away. I found out a few months after they started that the cleaners were leaving tip envelopes. I told the cleaning service owner I thought it was tacky and reflected poorly on us. They might think we didn't pay the cleaners well.

I think the owner did this as a way to recruit cleaners and/or pay them less, but I am not sure. We pay her $25/hour and I don't know what she pays her cleaners. I decided to let it go after emailing many past guests and surprisingly most saw nothing wrong with it and the ones who didn't like it just said they didn't leave a tip.

1 1/2 years later I added a $100 cleaning fee per stay, which doesn't cover our actual cleaning cost. I did this in lieu of raising the rate, and because most other properties in the area were doing it.
I would never require a gratuity nor would I add a cleaning fee and raise the rate in the same year.

Let me add that I have heard similar stories from owners on sites like homeaway -- that the form filled out by the owner was confusing and contained elements not pertinent to the particular property. Maybe her story isn't so farfetched, since hers is a new listing on homeaway and she may have been unfamiliar with the listing process.

Believe me, I'm a real skeptic and tend to think the worst about these matters, but this has a slight ring of truth to it.