The same total, a different shape
Take a $165 nightly rate with a $95 cleaning fee, drop the fee to $45 and raise the rate until a three-night stay costs exactly what it did. The rate goes to $181.67 and the three-night guest pays $590 either way. Everybody else moves.
| Nights | Before | After | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $260.00 | $226.67 | -$33.33 |
| 2 | $425.00 | $408.34 | -$16.66 |
| 3 | $590.00 | $590.01 | held |
| 5 | $920.00 | $953.35 | +$33.35 |
| 7 | $1,250.00 | $1,316.69 | +$66.69 |
| 8 | $1,415.00 | $1,498.36 | +$83.36 |
The swap is a pivot around the length you chose to hold. Below it the guest pays less, above it more, and the further out you go the larger the move. The one-night guest is $33 better off and the week-long guest is $67 worse off, from a change that did not alter your prices in any headline sense at all.
It does not, by itself, make you money
If the platform takes its cut on the whole booking including the cleaning fee, then what you keep moves only where the total moves, and at the held length the two are the same to a cent of rounding. The $680 gain shown across the default booking mix is not found money: guests pay $800 more and the platform takes 15 percent of it. It happens because the average booking in that mix is 4.2 nights against the three that was held, so the mix as a whole sits on the dearer side of the pivot.
Switch the platform setting to charging on the nightly part only and the answer changes sign. Moving money out of a sheltered cleaning fee and into a rate that gets taxed costs $7.49 on a three-night booking even though the guest pays the same. That is the one input on the page that decides whether the swap is about money at all, and it should be read off a payout statement rather than a summary.
The part no calculator has
Which way demand moves is the whole decision and it is not on this page. A large cleaning fee next to a modest rate is what short-stay guests filter out and complain about; a large nightly rate is what loses you the search results and the price filter. The two push opposite ways and their sizes belong to your market and your season. The response field is there to hold your guess and show what it would have to be worth: a ten percent lift in short bookings adds $279 to the swap on the default numbers. Change one thing, wait four weeks, read the enquiries.
Questions people ask
Should the cleaning fee be high or low?
It depends on which guests you want, not on which one earns more. Moving $50 out of a $95 cleaning fee and into the nightly rate to hold a three-night stay at $590 makes a one-night guest $33 better off and a week-long guest $67 worse off. If the platform charges its fee on the whole booking, what you keep at any given booking is unchanged — the split is a decision about how the price looks and who it attracts.
Does moving money into the cleaning fee save on platform fees?
Only if your platform charges on the nightly part alone, and you should check a payout statement rather than a policy page. With the fee inside the platform base, the swap is neutral at the held length. With it outside, moving $50 out of the fee and into the rate costs $7.49 on a three-night booking while the guest pays exactly the same.
Why did my total revenue rise when I only changed the split?
Because your booking mix does not sit on the length you held. In the default mix the average booking is 4.2 nights against a three-night reference, so most bookings are on the dearer side of the pivot: guests pay $800 more across 40 bookings and you keep $680 of it after the platform. That is a price rise for longer stays wearing a different label, not a saving.
What stay length should I hold the price at?
Your median booking, taken from your own calendar rather than from an impression. The reference length is the pivot, so choosing three when your median is five tilts the whole table and quietly raises prices for most of your guests. Run it at both and compare if you are not sure which your median actually is.