How Much Should the Cleaning Fee Be?

What the cleaning fee actually covers

The cleaning fee is meant to pay for turning over the property between guests: washing all linens and towels, cleaning bathrooms and kitchen, vacuuming and dusting, and checking that everything is in working order. It is not a surcharge on top of your margin. Most hosts calculate it as the true cost to hire a cleaner for that property, plus a small percentage buffer for things like extra laundry when a guest has been particularly messy or replacing items that got damaged.

A two-bedroom bach with one bathroom in a regional town typically costs $60 to $80 to clean professionally. A four-bedroom bach with two bathrooms in a high-use tourist area might cost $120 to $150. A small studio might be $40 to $60. The exact amount depends on how thorough the cleaning needs to be and how quickly the cleaner can work. Tourism hotspots often have faster turnaround expectations. A property hosting consecutive bookings during peak season needs cleaning fast, which sometimes requires paying premium rates for same-day service.

Beyond the obvious cleaning tasks, the fee also covers checking appliances, restocking basics like toilet paper and dishwasher powder, doing touch-up repairs if something minor broke during the stay, and managing a change of bed linens. During winter months when laundry takes longer to dry, or in busy seasons with very frequent turnover, the buffer portion of the fee becomes essential to avoid running at a loss on the cleaning side.

How to calculate your actual cost

The simplest method is to get a quote from a local cleaner for a full turnover of your property, then add 10 to 20 percent as a buffer. If you are cleaning the property yourself, that labour still has an opportunity cost even if you are not paying cash. Many hosts underestimate the fee because they do not factor in the time required, laundry costs, cleaning supplies, and the strain of quick turnarounds during peak season.

Once you know your true cost per stay, compare it against what hosts of similar properties in your area are charging. If your cost is $75 but competitors are charging $40, either your competitors are absorbing the loss or the market expects a lower fee in your location. If your cost is $75 and the market rate is $120, you have room to charge competitive rates and still cover costs with margin left over.

If you manage multiple properties, track your actual costs per clean for a few months to establish a baseline. A spreadsheet noting the property, date, cleaner hours, supplies used, and laundry time will show you exactly what each turnover costs. This data removes guesswork from the fee calculation and gives you confidence that you are not leaving money on the table or pricing yourself out of the market.

The competitive balance

Guests often compare cleaning fees across multiple listings before booking. A property with a $150 nightly rate and a $140 cleaning fee will lose bookings to one with a $150 nightly rate and a $60 cleaning fee, even though the total revenue is similar. The psychological impact of a cleaning fee matters. Excessive fees make the total cost feel unfair even if the nightly rate is reasonable.

One reality that surprises many new hosts is that guests often perceive the cleaning fee as pure profit, not cost recovery. This is unfair, but it is the psychology at play. Keeping the fee reasonable and clearly justified in your listing description helps. Some hosts note 'Professional cleaning fee' or 'Turnover cleaning' in the description to make clear it is a cost, not markup.

Benchmarking against local competitors is essential. If ten similar properties in your area average $80 cleaning fees, charging $140 will put you at a disadvantage even if your property is superior. Guests do not assume that higher fees mean better cleaning. They assume higher fees mean you are greedy. If you genuinely need to charge higher fees due to property size or location factors, justify it clearly in your listing or offering. Otherwise, match the local market and find your competitive advantage elsewhere, like through property film, unique features, or exceptional reviews.

Fixed fee versus per-night cleaning charges

Most New Zealand hosts charge a fixed cleaning fee per stay rather than a per-night charge. This is simpler and aligns with the actual cost structure, which is mostly fixed work regardless of whether a guest stays 2 nights or 7 nights. A per-night cleaning charge can make sense for very long stays or management situations, but it is unusual and often confuses guests. Stick with a fixed per-stay fee unless you have a specific reason not to, such as managing very frequent short-stay turnover where the cleaning load genuinely scales with stay length.

Consider what actually happens. A guest staying 2 nights and a guest staying 7 nights both require the same property setup before their arrival, the same bathroom and kitchen cleaning, and the same checkout inspection. The actual additional cleaning load from the extra 5 nights is laundry. If you charge a fixed $85 fee, you make the same on both stays. If you charge $15 per night, the 2-night stay costs the guest $85 ($15 x 2 nights + base), but the 7-night stay costs $165 ($15 x 7 nights + base), which becomes absurd and likely loses bookings. A fixed fee aligns with the real economics and guest expectations.