How Investors Should Budget Cleaning Costs for a Short-Term Rental

Cleaning is one of the few short-term rental costs that scales directly with bookings. Under-estimate it and your pro forma is optimistic by exactly the amount you forgot. Here is a way to budget it that holds up.

Start with turnovers, not nights

A cleaning happens once per stay, not once per night. A property booked 20 nights a month with 2-night average stays has about 10 turnovers. The same 20 nights with 5-night stays has about 4. Use your market’s average length of stay, and run the budget at two or three different values.

The formula

• Monthly turnovers = booked nights ÷ average stay length.
• Cleaning cost per turnover = the cleaner’s price (get real bids for your bedroom and bathroom count).
• Add laundry if it is not included, restocking supplies, and the occasional deep clean.
• Subtract the cleaning fee you charge guests, if you plan to pass it through.

Assumptions that break pro formas

• Assuming the guest cleaning fee covers the whole cost. It often does not once laundry, supplies and travel are included.
• Ignoring same-day or rush premiums on busy weekends.
• Forgetting periodic deep cleans, carpet care and linen replacement.
• Using a national average instead of bids from your actual market.

The fastest way to get a real number is to post a sample job and collect bids from cleaners in the property’s city before you commit. Host Wingman’s job posts are free, so you can price a turnover for a property you have not bought yet.