How Much Should Your Cleaning Fee Be?

Owners tend to set a cleaning fee once, by copying a neighbor, and never revisit it. It is worth more thought than that, because it is one of the few numbers a guest sees separately and judges. Savannah STR Cleaning will quote your property properly at (912) 666-2994.

Start with the cost, not the market

The first number is what the turnover actually costs you: the cleaner's rate, consumables, linen laundering if it is billed separately, and any regular add-ons. That is your floor and it is not negotiable downward without either subsidizing bookings or underpaying somebody.

Have the property timed rather than estimated. A historic property with heart pine floors, multiple bathrooms and a courtyard is a different job from a modern one-bedroom, and a fee copied from a listing down the street may bear no relation to your costs.

The fee is a pricing decision, not a pass-through

The second number is what you charge, and it does not have to equal the first. Some owners charge the full cost, some charge less and recover it in the nightly rate, and some charge nothing and build it in entirely.

What drives that choice is how guests search. They filter and compare on total price, and a listing with a low nightly rate and a high separate fee looks worse on the results page than the same total presented differently, especially on short stays.

Short stays are where it hurts

A cleaning fee is fixed regardless of length, so its effect on the per-night price is inversely proportional to the stay. On a one or two-night booking it can be a large fraction of the total, and that is exactly the booking a guest abandons.

Savannah runs on short stays. Weekend visitors, wedding parties, people in town for two nights around an event. If your market is weekends rather than weeks, a high separate fee is working against you on most of your inventory.

Two responses work: fold more of the cost into the nightly rate, or set a minimum stay that makes the fee proportionate. Both are better than a fee that quietly suppresses your shortest bookings.

Guests notice unfairness more than size

Review analysis across the industry keeps finding the same thing: guests object to a fee that feels disproportionate, not to a fee that exists. A modest amount on a large house reads as reasonable. A large amount on a studio reads as a hidden charge.

The other trigger is being asked to clean and also pay a fee. Checkout instructions that require stripping beds, running the dishwasher, taking out trash and vacuuming, alongside a substantial fee, is the specific combination that produces an annoyed review.

Ask for the minimum: dishes in the dishwasher, trash in the bin, doors locked. Leave the rest to the people you are paying.

Do not use the fee as a profit center

It is tempting because it is separate from the nightly rate and therefore invisible in some comparisons. Guests see through it, platforms increasingly show total price prominently, and the practice generates exactly the reviews that damage a listing.

If you need more revenue, raise the nightly rate. It is more honest and it performs better in search.

Review it against your costs annually

Cleaner rates rise, consumables rise, and a fee set three seasons ago is now subsidizing every booking. Owners discover this when the cleaner asks for an increase and the fee no longer covers it.

Check it once a year against actual invoices rather than against memory. Also check it against what the property has become: an extra bathroom, a hot tub or a bigger guest count all change the turnover without changing the fee automatically.

Savannah has its own cost drivers

Historic properties take longer. Original floors need specific handling, older bathrooms have more grout and more awkward fixtures, and courtyards and porches are outdoor space that guests use heavily and that collects pollen and Spanish moss debris.

Event weekends compress everything. St. Patrick's, graduation weekends and wedding season all produce heavier use and tighter changeovers at once, and a cleaner working those days is doing harder work under more pressure.

A single flat rate across the year quietly underpays that. Either price the season differently or make sure the annual figure is generous enough to keep your cleaner available in March.

Be transparent about what it buys

A short line in the listing describing what the fee covers, professional turnover, fresh linen and towels, restocked essentials, converts a charge into a service. It costs nothing and it removes most of the objection.