Why does it cost so much to have my Vacation Rental property cleaned? This is not a question that comes up to often but new owners often ask this question. Supply and demand is certainly part of it but there are far more factors involved in the cost of cleaning vacation rentals. The top five reason are as follows.
- Supply and Demand: We have to pay our employees more money because everyone needs housekeeping at the same time. Most cleanings are on the weekends. This leads to a major issues. You do not need many full time employees and to make it worth there time you have to pay your employees more. This obviously has to be passed onto the owner or the guest.
- Seasonal Work: We have 26 weeks to make a years worth of revenue. Our bills do not stop just because we are not working.
- Labor: The hours required to do it right are significant. It takes an average of 1.5 hours to clean a 1 bedroom condo correctly.
- Supplies: The cost of supplies are not huge but they must be considered. Toilet paper, shampoo, soap, cleaning chemicals, mops and vacuums do add up over time.
- Linens: We happen to wash our own linens because of quality issues. We even offer a linens service (shameless plug). You can expect to pay around 30 cents per pound if you wash the linens yourself in a laundromat and this does not include labor and around 60 cents per pound if you have a linen service wash your linens. A typical 1 bedroom ways around 30 pounds or cost $18 to have it washed.
I will use K Tori’s Cleaning Service as an example because I know how much we charge. For a 1 bedroom 1 bath we charge $70 to clean it and make it ready for the next guest. Out of this fee supplies will be in the range of $5, labor $20 and linens $20 for a total of $45 which leaves $25 in revenue. Out of the $25 remaining of revenue we must pay rent, electric, gas, water, phone, marketing, management, insurance, profit and a whole host of other things must be paid for. Individuals are more profitable but can do far less in volume.
So as you can see unless I am dramatically embellishing the numbers the rates that are charged from most cleaning companies are there for good reason. Good reason does not always equate to reliability or quality. If you are not getting the service you and your guest require it does not matter how much you are paying. As always if you would like to volunteer to pay more we would be happy to accommodate.