@Mariann4
What @Ben551 wanted to know and myself, we set a nightly listing amount and want to know what comes out of our pockets to achieve that goal.
As a third party what you are saying is correct and if I had to pay someone to come and do my cleaning, that would be a cost I would have to take into account.
As far as my profit and loss statement to the government is concerned I claim $30 per listing turn-around as a cleaning cost, because I am entitled to! I am entitled to claim my efforts spent in order to earn an income. But the laws of business say, what one earns and what one pays tax on are two entirely different things!
Cleaning cost me nothing out of my pocket apart from a few cents worth of cleaning consumables...detergents, toilet cleaners, polishes, cleaning cloths.......it is my effort rather than my cost. Those other costs you mentioned, phone, internet, car are all physical costs!
My 'Cleaning fee' is a potential damage fund and the only time I access that is to return something in the listing to the condition it was in before the last guest.
Gardening is something else that I cannot put a figure to as far as hosting is concerned because I would have to do it anyway and the fact that I host is irrelevant to gardening!
Garbage disposal is another thing. I already claim a percentage of my council rates under indirect costs which includes garbage disposal, so I cannot 'double dip' and claim it as an item again!
All other items on that list are costs which come out of my pocket so Mariann, what Ben has done here is provide me with is a 'quick reference' framework to work out exactly how much I spend as a pecentage of how much I receive for each hosting night!
Re the property photos, you would love where I am at the moment. I spent yesterday cleaning out the potting shed. I was so full of junk that had built up over time I could not put the lawnmower away. Now after yesterday you could almost eat a meal out of there......almost!
I am a lot slower than I used to be but, everything gets done in the end!
I have just started another mozaic for daughter Sarah and her partner. I have my moxaics scattered all around the place and when Ade drives me mad enough mozaicing is good therapy....
The one for daughter will be a Rhode Island Red Hen on a white background, something they can hang in their chook house!
Cheers......Rob