Cleaning fees definitely vary from market to market. In certain rural markets, you can find an individual housekeeper for as low as $10/hour and in some more expensive destinations (like Hawaii or Destin) you may have to pay upwards of $30/hour. A quick and dirty way to figure out what you may pay for housekeeping is this (where BR is the number of bedrooms and BA is the number of bathrooms):

Cleaning Fee= $20 * (Sum of # of BR + BA)

Ex. A 3BR/2BA would be $20 * (3+2) or $20 * 5 = $100

The factors which will determine whether your cleaning fee is higher of lower than the number above include:

• The number of beds in each of the bedrooms. Naturally, a room with two sets of bunk beds will take more time to launder and make the beds than a room with a queen sized bed.
• Whether you have a washer and dryer onsite or if you use a linen service.
• Additional tasks beyond basic cleaning that you ask your housekeeper to complete like: Draining and refilling the hot tub, mowing the lawn, transporting garbage, etc.
• Whether you supply the cleaning supplies and paper products or if your housekeeper or service does.
• The number of vacation rentals and the cost of living in your market.
• The number of levels your home has. A single level will be easier to clean than one with multiple stories.
• The remoteness of your home. If you own in an area that is off the beaten path, you may have to pay more to have a housekeeper come out due to increased time and gas costs.

How do you determine what a fair price is in your area? First, browse through the listings in your market to see what other owners are charging. If you see that many owners do not charge a separate cleaning fee, you may have to pick up the phone and call other owners to see what they are currently paying their housekeeper or cleaning service.

What factors did you consider when you were determining a cleaning fee for your vacation rental? "We ask our housekeeper to put together a small gift basket for each group of guests.  We review the receipts and reimburse her for the cost of the items and then pay her to arrange the basket." -- James & Cindy M., San Francisco, CA. "I compared cleaning rates of other 1 br/1ba units as well as larger homes, making sure to keep our rate lower than larger rentals. I also cleaned the unit myself to see how long it takes. Averaging aprox. $30 an hour for cleaning I came up with our cleaning rate." -Teri, Disney, CA (VRBO #78703)

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