Contents
Key facts
- From two or three bookings a month, trade sources say a company beats a single cleaner.
- Order of magnitude: CHF 80 to 130 per clean for a studio, CHF 160 to 250 for three rooms, hourly rates of CHF 70 to 90.
- Cover matters more than the hourly rate — with one person there is no stand-in when they fall ill.
- Linen is what breaks the schedule: between an 11 am departure and a 3 pm arrival you can clean, but not wash and dry.
Why this decision carries so much weight
Cleanliness is the most frequent cause of poor reviews — and reviews decide prices and ranking. Cleaning is therefore not one cost item among many but the point on which the economics of a property hang.
Then there is the order of magnitude: CHF 80 to 130 per clean for a studio, CHF 160 to 250 for three rooms, hourly rates of CHF 70 to 90. At twelve changeovers a month, cleaning is the largest running cost — larger than any management commission.
Anyone optimising the hourly rate here is optimising in the wrong place. What counts is reliability: a property not cleaned in time for an arrival costs more than a year of savings.
Your own cleaner: the advantages and the one big drawback
Trade sources name the arguments in favour clearly: lower cost, because there are no company overheads. More flexibility with irregular hours or short-notice requests. And direct arrangement — one person who knows the flat works differently from a changing team.
There is one drawback, but it weighs heavily: if that person falls ill, takes holiday or drops out, the operation stops. With an arrival in four hours there is no cover. On top of that comes the insurance question — individuals often have no comprehensive cover, and if something is damaged during the clean the question of liability arises.
And one point that counts under Swiss conditions: anyone employing a person regularly has to deal with social security contributions, insurance and registration. That is not a formality — undeclared work is a criminal offence, and after an accident in the flat the question gets asked.
Your figures, not our examples
The calculator takes the number of rooms, the neighbourhood and the fit-out and shows you a range — with the arithmetic beside it, not as a single figure you have to take on trust.
Estimate the returnA cleaning company: from what point it pays
Trade sources name a threshold: from regular letting — more than two to three bookings a month — a professional company pays off. With occasional letting, cleaning it yourself can make sense.
What speaks for it: fixed-price guarantees with no unexpected costs, because the effort and the insurance are included in the price. Availability at weekends too, sometimes with an emergency service. And — the decisive point — cover when somebody is absent. A company with eight staff has a problem when one person falls ill; an individual has none to fall back on.
What speaks against it: the higher price, less flexibility on special requests, and changing people who do not know the quirks of the flat. The last point can be cushioned with a checklist for each property — what is kept where, what needs restocking, what to watch out for.
How to recognise good cleaning
The features that have proved telling in practice — regardless of whether it is an individual or a company:
- Experience with short-term letting, not only with cleaning flats — the difference lies in the window between departure and arrival
- Willingness to carry out a condition check with photographs: it is the basis of every later damage claim
- Reliable availability at weekends, because most changeovers fall then
- A named arrangement for cover in case of absence — not «we will find somebody»
- Insurance cover, evidenced in writing
- Willingness to bring linen and consumables and to report stock levels
- Billing per changeover, traceable — not a monthly flat fee without evidence
The underrated part: the laundry
The cleaning gets planned, the laundry gets forgotten. Yet it is the item that breaks the schedule: between an 11 a.m. departure and a 3 p.m. arrival a flat can be cleaned — but bed linen cannot be washed and dried.
From that follows a purchase which is not waste: textiles in duplicate, better still in triplicate. One set on the bed, one set ready, one set in the wash. Anyone economising here pays at every changeover in time pressure — and time pressure is the cause of the carelessness that ends up in the review.
The second decision: a washing machine of your own in the flat, or an external laundry. A machine in the flat saves logistics but takes up time in the cleaning window. An external laundry needs lead time and somewhere to store linen in between. With several properties in one district, the external solution pays off considerably sooner.
Frequently asked questions
Trade sources name two to three bookings a month as the threshold. Below that, cleaning it yourself can make sense; above it, cover for absence becomes the decisive factor — not the hourly rate.
In part. A cleaning fee is customary but rarely covers the full cost, and too high a figure worsens the booking rate. Notably: 45 per cent of active listings worldwide charge no cleaning fee, and Airbnb itself recommends keeping it low or leaving it out.
As a flat rate per changeover, staged by size of flat — CHF 110 to CHF 215. It is fixed in advance, and you see every changeover billed separately. The market range is CHF 80 to 250.
And for your property?
Sources
State of our research: 16 April 2026. Official rules change — check the current position with the competent authority.
