From the desk:Short-Term Rentals / Airbnb

Three clients want turnover cleaning. I'm not sure I want that business.

I run a residential cleaning operation, five years, seven people, mostly recurring biweekly homes and a few move-outs. Over the last four months three separate owners with nightly rentals have asked me to take their turns. Two of them are in the same small resort-ish town about 25 minutes from my route.

What's on my desk is a quote I have to send Friday. Their ask: same-day turns, Saturday and Sunday heavy, 11am checkout to 3pm check-in, laundry on site, restock supplies, photo report after every clean, and text me if something is broken. They floated $110 a turn for a two bedroom.

My recurring homes are $145 for something that size and I control the schedule. On a turn I'd be paying two people for two and a half hours plus drive, so call it $95 of labor and fuel before anything. At $110 I'm working for nothing, and the work is on the exact days my staff already refuse to give up.

The part that makes me think about it anyway: it's steady volume in season and those owners will pay a premium if I can actually guarantee the Saturday slot. I've thought about $165 with a 48 hour cancellation minimum and a same-day surcharge.

The other thing rattling around is that I've spent five years learning these houses and I wonder if I should own one instead of cleaning it. That's probably a separate post.

So: price it at $165 and risk losing all three, or say no and stay off Saturdays. Genuinely undecided.

Answer

1chriswalton8CC1CPRO8

The owning-one-instead question is the one I'd want to sit with. You know the operating cost of that town's inventory better than any of the owners paying you, which is unusual information. I've been reading about how money gets into these deals and it's mostly one or two people writing a check for a single unit, sometimes a small group with a co-host who gets a share of revenue for running it. If you were already running it, the share you'd be arguing over is the part you currently do for $110.

Doesn't make the Friday quote easier. But $165 with a same-day surcharge sounds like the price of a service they can't get anywhere else, and the ones who say no will come back in July.

2 replies

1joe_delgado5AP4CPRO6

Send the $165. If all three walk you learned in a week what would otherwise take a season.

The thing that actually breaks turnover cleaning isn't the price, it's that you carry the whole risk of the schedule. Guest stays an extra hour, your crew is standing in the driveway, next check-in is at 3, and now the owner is texting you like it's your fault. Build the late-checkout clause into the quote or you'll be eating that six times a summer.

And $95 of labor on a two bedroom same-day is optimistic once you add the linen swap and the photo report. Time three of them yourself before you commit to a rate you're stuck with all season.