What a turnover costs
What actually drives the cost of a turnover on this coast
Veyra Property Care · Published
Search what a vacation rental turnover costs in Florida and you will get national averages and Orlando. Orlando is a theme-park market of inland homes with no sand, no salt and no Saturday.
A six-bedroom Gulf-front house on 30A with four bunk rooms and a same-day changeover is a different job, and the number that applies to it is not on any of those pages.
We do not publish prices, for the reason set out at the foot of this page. What follows is more useful than a number anyway: the eleven things that actually move a quote here, so that when you are holding two of them you can tell whether one is cheaper or simply smaller.
The one-line version
Two quotes on the same property usually differ because they are for different amounts of work, not because one company is dearer. Look first at scope that was never identified — beds that were not counted, linens somebody assumed you were handling, or outdoor space nobody mentioned.
Eleven drivers
Roughly in order of how much they move the number
None of these is exotic. They are simply the things a quote has to make an assumption about, and the things a company that has not seen your property has to guess at.
01
Sleeping surfaces, not bedrooms
The largest single source of difference between two quotes on the same house. A four-bedroom listing that sleeps fourteen has bunks, trundles or sleeper sofas, and every one of them is a bed to strip, launder and make. A quote priced per bedroom has not counted them, which is why it is cheaper and why it changes later.
02
Where the linens are laundered
On-site laundry means the crew is in the property for the length of a wash-and-dry cycle whether they are cleaning or not. Off-site or swapped linen stock costs more per turn and takes hours out of the changeover window. Neither is wrong; they are different cost structures, and a quote that does not say which it assumes is not comparable to one that does.
03
The changeover window
Check-out to check-in on the same day is a different job from having until tomorrow. A same-day turn needs enough people in the property at once to finish inside the window, which is a staffing cost, not a cleaning cost.
04
Access
A driveway and a lock code is the cheap case. A Panama City Beach tower with front-desk registration, a shared service elevator and loading-dock hours adds time to every trip in and out, before anybody has cleaned anything.
05
Proximity to the Gulf
Sand and salt load onto floors, tracks, glass and rails continuously on a front-row property, and they come back in with every guest. Sliding door tracks and glass are high-touch coastal surfaces that need attention on every turn, and keeping ahead of them is real time.
06
Outdoor space
Decks, balconies, outdoor kitchens, showers, pool surrounds and furniture are part of what the guest photographs and are frequently missing from the scope entirely. On a Gulf-front house they can be a meaningful share of the work.
07
Restock scope
Whether consumables are counted, supplied and replaced — paper, soap, bin liners, coffee, dishwasher tablets — and who buys them. A turnover that includes restocking is doing shopping, carrying and inventory that one without it is not.
08
Square footage and floor count
Obvious, but it interacts with everything above. Three floors means carrying linens and equipment up and down them, and a stairwell is not floor area on any plan.
09
Pets, and whether they are allowed
A pet-friendly listing needs hair managed on soft furnishings and floors every turn, not occasionally, and the tolerance for missing it is lower than for almost anything else.
10
Hot tubs, grills and specialist items
Each is a separate task with its own standard, and each is a common source of an unexpected line on a first invoice from a company that did not ask about them.
11
Season
Peak weeks are when every property on this coast wants the same Saturday afternoon. Capacity is the constraint, and capacity held for you through a peak season is worth something — which is also why the cheapest quote in November is not always the company that shows up in July.
Comparing two quotes
Five questions that make them comparable
How many sleeping surfaces did you count? Not bedrooms. If the answer matches your listing’s sleeps number, they have counted properly.
What happens to the linens? Washed on site, taken away, or swapped from stock — and whose stock.
Is this priced for a same-day turn? If the quote assumes a next-day clean and your calendar is back-to-back in July, it is a quote for a different job.
What is excluded? Outdoor space, hot tub, grill, appliance interiors, windows, garage. The exclusions are where two quotes diverge, and they are rarely volunteered.
What happens when the property is left badly? Every calendar has a departure that leaves more than a normal turn. Whether that is absorbed, charged, or discovered by your next guest is a real difference between companies.
Why there is no price on this page
A number without a property attached is a guess
Given the eleven items above, a published rate would have to assume a particular property and then be wrong about yours. The ones you see advertised generally assume the cheap end of every one of them — which is how a quote becomes a different number after the first clean.
So we quote in writing, against your property, with the scope agreed before the first turnover rather than added to afterwards.
If you want the number for your house, the fastest route is the turnover estimate form, which asks for the things on this page. What the work itself covers is set out under vacation rental turnovers.
The two markets this coast actually splits into are covered separately, because the work genuinely differs: 30A and South Walton and Panama City Beach.
Also worth reading
Management agreements
Can you use your own cleaner when a management company runs the property?
Usually not while the agreement is live, and the clause that decides it is rarely the one owners expect. What to look for, when the answer is genuinely yes, and what changes at renewal.
Read the answer
How the week runs
The Saturday turn, and why capacity matters more than speed
This coast changes over on one day. What that does to a cleaning company's calendar in July, the questions worth asking before peak season, and how Panama City Beach differs from 30A.
Read the answer
Tell us the property and we will quote it
Bedrooms, how it actually sleeps once the bunks are counted, where the linens go, and how it turns over. You get a written quote against those, not a rate card.