Turnover cost

Turnover cost is what a single changeover costs you, counted properly. The cleaner’s invoice is the visible part and rarely the whole: laundry, consumables, restocking, the occasional replacement, and the coordination time all belong in the figure.

It matters more than its size suggests, because it is charged per stay rather than per night. Two listings with identical monthly revenue and identical cleaning invoices can differ by thousands a year if one averages two-night stays and the other averages seven — the first pays for three and a half times as many turnovers to earn the same money.

This is why minimum-stay rules are a cost decision as much as a demand one, and why the effective rate of a one-night booking is far below its nightly rate. Divide turnover cost by average stay length to get its per-night weight, subtract that from the nightly rate, and the resulting contribution per night is the number that tells you whether a booking is worth taking.

The figure most hosts underestimate is their own time. If you coordinate turnovers yourself, price that hour at what you would pay someone else to do it — otherwise the calculation quietly assumes your labour is free, and every conclusion drawn from it inherits that assumption.