To set your price, begin by looking at similar listings on the various platforms, write down nightly charges. You can also use a service such as https://www.airdna.co, which provides market detailed market information on a subscription basis. Calculate the average nightly price for comparable spaces, which will give you a good idea of what is appropriate in the market. Determining the perfect rate is more of an art than a science. If you set the price too high, it will limit rentals; too low, you leave money on the table and lower pricing options for other listings. There is strategy to setting your nightly rate; you may want to start low until you get good reviews under your belt, but consistently raise the rates with each positive review.
Make sure you’re accounting for the cleaning fee in some way. You can either add in a cleaning fee into the nightly rate or you can charge an additional fee. From a consumer psychology perspective, keeping your nightly rate lower by not including a cleaning fee, may attract more budget-conscious folks to your listing. Once they’re there, they’ll see that there’s an additional cleaning fee, but hopefully they will have already fallen in love with your inviting photographs and copy, and not be concerned about the cleaning fee.
On the other hand, if you include the cleaning fee in the nightly rate for your vacation rental, you can claim “no cleaning fee” in your listing, which can make folks feel like they’re getting a bargain. This would be a good option if your location is a primary perk of your unit and that alone will get customers to your listing, but you need something enticing to keep them there.