Wear runs on the guest counter, not the calendar
A property doing 226 guest nights and 71 stays a year is putting a household decade of use through the furniture in about three years. The page prices each item against the unit it actually wears in: a mattress against guest nights, linen against stays because every stay is one wash regardless of length, a television against years because electronics age whether or not anybody is there. Added up, the eight items come to $1,409 a year, which is $19.85 a stay.
| Item | Replacement | Life | Per stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linen and towels | $1,500 | 260 stays | $5.77 |
| Television and electronics | $1,200 | 6 years | $2.82 |
| Flooring and rugs | $3,800 | 5,000 guest nights | $2.42 |
| Outdoor furniture and grill | $1,100 | 7 years | $2.21 |
| Paint and wall repair | $900 | 1,400 guest nights | $2.05 |
| Sofa and soft seating | $1,900 | 3,000 guest nights | $2.02 |
| Mattresses and protectors | $1,400 | 2,500 guest nights | $1.78 |
| Kitchenware and glass | $700 | 900 stays | $0.78 |
The order surprises people. Linen is the cheapest thing on the list to buy and the most expensive to own, because it goes through the wash every single stay. The $3,800 of flooring costs less per stay than the $1,500 of sheets. Paint is next, and it is there because suitcases run along a hallway wall.
Breakages are the smaller half
At six percent of stays having an incident, an average incident of $140 and 35 percent of it recovered, the damage line is $5.46 a stay against $19.85 of wear. That ratio is the argument for treating the two separately. A deposit changes who pays for the broken thing; it does nothing at all about the mattress reaching the end of its life, and there is no moment at which anybody reminds you about that one. Set the recovery share to zero, which is a common real answer for small breakages, and the damage line goes to $8.40 without touching the wear.
What it comes to
$25.31 a stay, $7.95 a guest night, $1,796 a year. That is 4.8 percent of a $165 nightly rate, and it is a bit more than a quarter of a $95 cleaning fee — a fee which still has the cleaner to pay out of it. None of this is money you spend this month. All of it is money the property has already committed, and the only question is whether it is sitting in an account or waiting to arrive on a card in the month the sofa gives up.
Questions people ask
How much should I set aside per stay for wear and tear?
For the property in the form, $25.31 a stay — $19.85 of furnishing wear and $5.46 of breakages after recovery. That is $7.95 a guest night, 4.8 percent of a $165 nightly rate, and $1,796 a year. Your own item lives will move it, and the fields exist so it can move.
Why is linen the most expensive line when it is the cheapest to buy?
Because it wears per stay rather than per night. A two-night booking and a nine-night booking are both one trip through the wash, so a $1,500 linen stock rated at 260 stays costs $5.77 every changeover. The $3,800 of flooring, rated in guest nights, costs $2.42. The cheap item that gets handled every time beats the expensive one that gets walked on.
Does a damage deposit cover this?
No, and the two are not the same kind of cost. A deposit changes who pays when a guest breaks something. Wear is nobody being at fault: the mattress reaches the end of its life with a guest asleep on it and you buy another one. On the default numbers wear is $19.85 a stay and breakages after recovery are $5.46, so the larger line is the one no deposit ever touches. What a deposit may be held or used for is set by your platform agreement and your local rules, and this page states none of that.
Where do I get a mattress life in guest nights?
Nowhere published, which the page says plainly. The honest method is to write the in-service date on a label and find out over the next few years. Until then the useful comparison is not between this reserve and a correct one, it is between this reserve and no reserve at all, which is what most listings are actually running.