How to price Airbnb and vacation rental turnover cleaning

Short-term rental hosts need a cleaner they can count on, and they need one often. That makes turnover cleaning attractive work for a small cleaning company. It also makes it easy to price badly, because a turnover looks like a regular clean and isn't one.

A turnover is a standard clean with three extra things attached: a hard deadline, a pile of laundry, and a host who usually isn't there to see the place. If your price ignores any of those, you will feel it by the third booking.

Know what a turnover actually includes

Before you quote anything, get the host to agree on what "turnover" means for their property. Every host has a slightly different list, and the differences are where your time goes.

A typical turnover covers:

The clean itself: kitchen, bathrooms, floors, dusting, trash out, the same as a standard clean
Beds and linens: stripping every bed, remaking with fresh sheets, swapping towels
Laundry: washing and drying on site, or bagging it for a linen service
Restocking: toilet paper, paper towels, soap, coffee, whatever the host leaves for guests
Staging: pillows, towels folded a certain way, the welcome card on the counter
A condition check: looking for damage, missing items or anything the host needs to know

Some hosts also want things you should price separately: inside the oven, the grill, a hot tub, windows, a deep clean every few months. Put those on the quote as add-ons with their own price, not as favors.

Write the list down and send it with the quote. When a host later asks why you didn't wipe out the fridge, you can point to what you both agreed to.

Time it by the property, not the bedroom count

Two three-bedroom rentals can take very different amounts of time. One sleeps six with one queen bed per room. The other sleeps twelve with bunk beds and a sofa bed. The second one has far more linens, more towels, more dishes and more mess.

So when you estimate, look at:

How many beds and how many guests it sleeps. This drives linens, towels and dishes more than square footage does.
Laundry on site or off. Washing and drying three sets of sheets on site can keep you at the property longer than the cleaning does. If you have to wait on the dryer, that is your time.
Typical stay length. A one-night stay usually leaves less mess than a week-long family stay, but it means more turnovers.
Extras the guests use. A full kitchen, a grill, a hot tub and a game room all add time.

The best way to get real numbers is to time the first few turnovers at a property and write them down. Those numbers will beat any estimate you make from a listing photo.

Pick a pricing model

There are three common ways to price turnovers. None is right for everyone, so pick the one that fits how you work.

Flat rate per turnover. One price per clean for that property, worked out from your timed average. Hosts like it because they know what each booking will cost. It works best once you know the property well.

Hourly. You bill the actual hours. This protects you on unpredictable properties, but some hosts dislike not knowing the cost ahead of time. It is a good way to start with a new property, with an estimated range, until you have your own times.

Flat rate plus laundry. A flat price for the clean, and a separate charge per load or per set of linens. This keeps your price fair when a host sometimes books four guests and sometimes ten.

Whichever model you choose, check that the price covers your real cost. Your rate has to cover wages and payroll costs for the people doing the work, travel to the property, supplies, and your overhead and profit. If you are restocking the host's supplies, decide up front whether the host provides them or you buy them and bill them back. Don't let them quietly come out of your margin.

If you want a rough starting range, our free cleaning quote calculator gives a low-to-high estimate from bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet. Treat it as a starting point, then adjust for beds, laundry and the extras above.

Price the problems before they happen

Turnovers come with surprises that regular clients rarely give you. Decide how you handle each one and put it on the quote:

Same-day turnovers. When a guest checks out at 11 and the next one checks in at 3, you have a short window and no slack. Many cleaners charge more for tight windows or limit how many they take on the same day.
Trashed units. Sometimes a guest leaves the place in rough shape. Agree ahead of time that heavy messes are billed at your hourly rate on top of the turnover price, and that you'll send photos.
Late checkouts and lockouts. If you show up and the guest hasn't left or the code doesn't work, your time is still gone. Set a trip charge and say when it applies.
Last-minute bookings and cancellations. A rush fee for bookings made with very short notice, and a cancellation fee if a scheduled turnover is canceled late.
Damage and missing items. Your job is to report what you find, not to replace it. Say that clearly.

These rules feel awkward to write the first time. They are a lot less awkward than arguing about them after the fact.

Photos are part of the job

The host isn't there, so photos are how they know the work got done. Take a few photos of each finished room before you leave, plus any damage or problems you found. Those photos protect you if a guest complains later, and they give the host a reason to keep you.

It helps to work from the same checklist every time, so the bed, the towels and the welcome card look the same no matter who on your crew did the turnover.

Put it all on the quote

A turnover quote that holds up should say:

What is included in every turnover, and what the add-ons cost
How you charge: flat, hourly, or flat plus laundry
Who supplies the restock items and how they are billed
Your rules for same-day turnovers, heavy messes, lockouts and late cancellations
How long the price is good for

Once a host signs off on that, every turnover is just a visit on the schedule.

Where BlastoClean fits

We built BlastoClean for this kind of repeat work. You can save a checklist on each property and it is copied onto every visit, so the crew works from the same list for every turnover. On Pro, you can mark tasks like the final bedroom photo as requiring a photo before they count as done, which gives an absent host the proof they're looking for.

If you want to try it on your next rental property, you can start free here, and we're happy to walk you through setup on a free 30-minute call.

Call or text (585) 200-6753.