Cleaning fee vs Profit

[Matu25]

Hi all,

I am a new host and am having some issues with pricing and cleaning fees. My property is nice, and I believe my price is reasonable; my guests seem to agree as well. Initially, I did not include a cleaning fee in my cost because I did the cleaning myself. I realized that I couldn't keep up with cleaning up after each guest while also having a lot of other responsibilities. I hired a cleaner for the first time, and they did a fantastic job. I want to keep this level of cleanliness. However, after paying the cleaner, I am left with very little. I do not include my cleaning fee in my listing because the cost of cleaning at each turnover is so high that I will not make much money. I want to either raise the price of my listing or charge a cleaning fee, but I'm concerned that it will be too expensive for guests - I'm about to add a third room, which will raise the cost of my listing. I'm not sure what to do to attract guests, cover cleaning fees, and generate income. Your feedback and suggestions  will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

[Margaret1088]

Hi - we went thru a similar process & decided to separate our price + the cleaning fee. That seems to have been OK, especially because we always meet our guests and make a point of dropping “the young lady who cleans for us” or something like that into the welcome. We’ve had some guests leave an extra tip for her!

Also, some hosts put a 2 or 3 night minimum stay on their listing, especially during their busy season. (That means only 1 cleaning for multiple night’s income.)

And, we just had our taxes done & were able to itemize her pay, that of our gardener, the cost of the new washer/dryer set needed to do larger loads, detergent & cleaning supplies, etc.  … it all adds up to reduce the costs of hosting. 

I hope this helps!

[Matu25]

Thanks so much Margaret, I appreciate this. Can I message you? 

[Paula · Accepted solution]

Hello @Margaret1088  and @Matu25, I hope everything is going well for you two.

Since both of you have Host profiles, you can directly message each other by clicking on the profile name; underneath the profile picture, you'll find a button to send a message, similar to this one:

I hope this helps.