STR- do I raise the cleaning fee or eat the cost?

Question

I have had the same cleaner for about a year, and she has been good to me. Her prices are fair and she even has done some runs to Walmart to get stuff for the house.

But I recently switched from a mid term by the room to a STR for the full house, which is her bread and butter. I have had a few guests message me privately to say the cleaner didn't do a good job, fridge wasn't clean, some dirt on the floor etc. I spoke to her about it and she agreed to do better.

Yesterday I had a guest leave after one night and request a refund due to the house not being clean. A couple items were legit- there was something sticky on the floor (spilled juice?) and the fridge had not been wiped down. I went to the house myself to clean it and noticed my cleaner really hasn’t been sweeping or vacuuming and so did a deeper clean today.

I had someone come meet me to bid it out, and she is way way way more detail oriented than my usual cleaner. She charges $250/clean and requires a deep clean which is $450+. My usual cleaner charges $90.

Any idea what might happen to my Airbnb revenue if I increase my cleaning fee to $250? This is a 5 bedroom house and I rent it out for $175-200/night. It’s a fairly new listing (2 months) and in a college town and not a luxury rental.

I would appreciate any thoughts and feedback on 1. Switching cleaners and 2. Upping the cleaning fee.

Thanks guys!

Bill B. · Answer

That’s a boat load of work. Could you talk her in to getting an assistant and paying her an extra $40? I assume you don’t have any friends/relatives/kids that would like a high paying lower supervision job?

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

First, you should have extra sheets and towels present so there is zero time wasted with the washer/dryer stuff (as @Theresa Harris said)Second, I think a $250 fee is appropriate for a house that size and you are going to have to pay up or your ratings will fall. Plus it's not fair to your guests to have your STR not spotless.Sounds like a change in cleaners and a raise in rates are in order....

Theresa Harris · Answer

Get a second set of sheets for all the beds and towels, so you can wash them at home and not have to wait for the laundry to finish. I'd get a second quote from another company and see what they charge.

Lauren Kormylo · Answer

2 hours for your current cleaner to clean a 5 bedroom house is not nearly enough. No wonder she’s not doing a good job. I have a 4 bedroom/3.5 bath and my cleaners spend 4.5 man hours on it plus they take the bedding off site to wash it, so that’s more time. (I have 3 sets of all linens). They do charge $330 total, but I constantly gets compliments on how clean it is, and all 5 star reviews. I used to charge guests the full $330, but I’ve found if I only charge $230 and up the daily rate a bit, I get more bookings and more total net revenue. Too high of a cleaning fee turns some people off, but you have 5 bedrooms and guests have to pay to clean all that one way or the other, despite your low daily rate. So it’s a balancing act, and you’ll have to experiment to see what’s best for you. If you think it’s worth giving the current cleaner a second chance, tell her you require more hours of cleaning at each turn, and pay her more. The new cleaner’s price is fair for all that work, but you don’t yet know how she’ll really do when she’s been on the job awhile.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

If it were me I would make it the $250 and see how it effects bookings and then bring it down if need be. Flip side of the coin you can start inching it up slowly and see if it effects bookings.

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

I had to have laugh at this comment because it's one owners tell STR companies all the time. "It can't be that dirty or take that much time, because my personal residence it only $-- to clean." It actually is a whole lot more work since guests know they don't have to deal with the repercussions of leaving a mess, and many times they sure leave one! Not to mention changing all the beds and making sure the property is literally a showroom for the next guest. STR cleaners are the backbone of the industry and too often they walk into a mess that is uncalled for; a cleaning job most people wouldn't do. It's why if a good cleaner is found you hang on to them for everything and treat them like gold!

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey @Heidi Kenefick, yeah you are not getting the best cleaning on a house that size.Ours is 2700sqft with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. King, 2 queens and 4 twins (bunk beds).That takes our cleaners 4-5 hours to clean top to bottom. That is 2 people. They charge us $300 for that.We get great reviews on cleanliness. We also have a 3 day minimum stay.Now, we charge $250 on the cleaning to our guests so we eat the $50. You might have to do that if you are actually charging $90. Run it up to $150 and update that cost every year or whatever.

Bill B. · Answer

I assume you thought you were charging “market rates: when you set your prices. Now you’re suggesting raising the rates at least $40/night if the average stay is 4 days. (Obviously no one is going to pay $250 cleaning for 1-2 days, so those bookings will go away.)I guess I would probably do it myself one time to see if you’re talking about 1-2 or 4 hours of work. Then you’ll know if you’r being charged $60/hr or $250/hr. I don’t have any STR but we do have a couple of cleaning ladies that come in and spend a couple hours at our house for $100. So that’s basically $25/hr and I can’t find any faults. And that’s a house we live in every day. I assume people staying in your property are there for an event or to sightsee and shouldn’t be “that dirty”.

Heidi Kenefick · Answer

@Lauren KormyloThat’s great advice, thank you.I will up the cleaning fee a bit and see what that does and I just joined price labs so we shall see how it prices vs Airbnb dynamic pricing.

Zachary Cain Humphrey · Answer

I would also take a look at other 5 bedroom houses in your market to see what their cleaning fee's are. In more "local" and nonvacation style markets its not uncommon that some of these hosts are keeping cleaning fees down by cleaning themselves. This is something I cannot do as I invest in Airbnb and have a full time job. Its been a balancing act of probably paying a little more for the 5 bed cleaning, no more than one more chance for the cleaner (potentially withe her taking on an assistant -something she probably wont want to do because she will just want more money), OR getting more quotes from local cleaners to see what they say. On top of having at least two sets of linens per bed to change beds fast, etc. If you find that your instructions are not being followed, create check list that the cleaner is required to check boxes for finished tasks and sign it at bottom so if you get further complaints from guests you can compare to the paper the cleaner said she signed off on and can hold cleaner more accountable in that way.