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.

Here is a quick way to figure out what you may pay for housekeeping (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 that 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 up than a room with one 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 cleaning 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.

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