Do you charge cleaning fees? Here's the breakdown

In the trailer rental business world there are times to charge customers and times to let things go. In this episode we discuss the fun topic of cleaning fees. When to charge, when not to and the decisions behind both options.

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A customer brings your trailer back covered in mud. Are you charging a cleaning fee? Well, that particular topic came up in the trailer hustle Facebook group the other day, and naturally the comments were split pretty much right down the middle, right in half, and people said charge them. You know, the other half said, come on, it's just a trailer, that's normal. And honestly, there that's exactly why I wanted to make this episode. So let's get into it. Now, let me start by saying that there isn't one right answer. And if you think there is, you're wrong, okay? This isn't one of those situations where one side's clearly wrong. It's not a legal issue or an ethical issue or anything, it's just a business decision. All right, so every trailer owner has to figure out where they personally draw the line. The right answer is the one that lets you sleep at night, fits your business, and keeps the operation profitable. All right. So some owners charge every single time, some never charge, and I think that most people fall somewhere in the middle. None of those approaches are automatically wrong, though. Okay, let me explain why. First of all, cleaning isn't free. Even if you're doing the work yourself, your time is value. Maybe it's 10 minutes with a you know pressure washer, okay, whatever. Or maybe it's an hour scrubbing mud out of the corners of a thing or buying degrees or paying someone else to do it, whatever. All of that costs money. Charging also sets a standard because customers learn pretty damn quick how they're expected to treat your equipment. If there's never any consequences, some people won't think twice about bringing it back, you know, in rough shape or something like that. And it also protects the next customer. Nobody wants to pick up a trailer that's still covered in someone else's mud, obviously. Plus, if your rental agreement already says there's a cleaning fee, you're not inventing a new charge. You're simply enforcing the agreement that they already expected. All right. And if somebody, this is my opinion, but if somebody absolutely trashes your trailer and gets mad because you charged them for cleaning it, maybe that's not the type of customer you wanted to come back to your business anyway. And think about it hotels charge smoking fees, rental car companies charge cleaning fees. It's not exactly a foreign concept. But on the flip side, there's still many owners who don't charge. Some people look at trailers as work equipment, like they're gonna get dirty, whatever, a little mud, dust, or like grass clippings or something might just be considered normal use. For some owners, it's simply not worth the fight. Now, maybe it takes 10 minutes to vacuum it out, maybe you know they'd they'd rather eat the cost than risk a bad Google or Facebook review. And remember, a repeat customer who rents from you six times a year is probably worth a lot more than collecting a $25 or $50 cleaning fee one time. Um, and a lot of owners, they honestly just don't like confrontation. A lot of people are that way, and their brand is built around being easy to work with, and they'd rather be known as the company that's reasonable instead of the company that's constantly looking for another fee to charge. And that's a perfectly valid business strategy as well. Here's what it really comes down to, okay? And this is really just a conversation about trade-offs. If you charge, you might lose that customer, but you protect your standards, your time, and maybe prevent future renters from treating your trailers the same way. If you don't charge, you probably keep the relationship, you reduce the chance of getting a negative review, uh, but you're you're also accepting the cost of cleaning and maybe teaching that customer that it's okay to bring your equipment back however they want. And neither decision is free. And we do talk a lot about training your customers right and wrong. You know what I mean? So you're paying for this either way. So you just have to ask yourself if I charge this customer, am I okay to never have them rent for me again? If the answer is yes, then charge them. Also ask yourself Am I putting too much weight on the possibility of a bad review? Sometimes we worry about the reviews far more than we should. I'm of course I'm big on reviews, I always care about them. But one unhappy customer usually isn't gonna be enough to destroy your business. But at the same time, if you're just starting out and you only have like 10 Google reviews, getting one star hurts a lot more than if you already have 300 reviews. So the context in that conversation matters, I think. So this is what I would consider. How dirty are we actually talking? You know, are we talking about a dusty floor inside of enclosed or some grass clippings on a utility, whatever? Or are we talking about six inches of dried mud packed into every corner of the trailer and around every little crevice? Did the customer tell you about it? Or are they quietly dropping the trailer off hoping you wouldn't notice? Right? Or was this their first rental? Or are they a great repeat customer who's rented 10 times without a single issue? Is your cleaning policy already written into your rental agreement? How much time is it actually going to cost you? 15 minutes or two hours? What's your local market look like? Here's another big thing. If you're booked solid with no competition, right, you could probably afford to be a lot stricter. If business is slow, maybe customer retention matters a little bit more than the cleaning fee. And where are your customers finding you? If you're if you're renting or advertising through a platform or reviews, make or break visibility, that may influence your decision more than if most of your business comes heavily from like referrals and word of mouth. And I've seen many different ways owners handle this stuff. I talked to a lot of people. Some owners are zero tolerance, okay? Anything beyond a quick wipe down gets charged, no exceptions. There's a lot of them out there. Some handle everything case by case. This is me. Um, you know, we we look at the customer, the severity of the situation, and then others never charge. Instead, they simply build expected cleaning costs into the rental rates and never have the conversation. Others document everything, everything, okay? They take before and after photos, think about it overnight, and make a decision after emotions settle down. And I actually like that approach because you're not making decisions while you're frustrated, which we know is the worst. And another approach I like is the warning first method. Okay, and you can get like, for instance, the first time, send them a friendly message. Like something like, hey, just so you know, our agreement includes a cleaning fee. If the trailers return excessively dirty, I'm gonna let this one slide. But next time there's gonna be a charge, right? That gives people a chance to correct the behavior without immediately burning the relationship. So here's a few things I think every owner should do. Whatever your policy is that you choose, put it in writing. Make sure it's in your rental agreement. Put it on your website, mention it during the pickup process if needed. Take time-stamped photos before and after every rental. Those pictures protect you whether you decide to charge or not. Okay. And if you are charging through a rental platform, use their official process whenever possible instead of asking for a separate payment. It creates a better paper trail and reduces disputes and all that stuff. And if you are going to charge someone, don't blindside them. A polite message explaining what you found, including photos, um, explaining why you're charging, usually goes over a lot better than just sending an invoice or hitting a card. And if the mess is relatively minor, think about alternatives. Uh you know, sometimes let something small slide and simply ask the customer to leave you a Google review if they had a good experience. That review may end up being worth a lot more to the business than a small cleaning fee. And other times, especially with good repeat customers, a friendly reminder about the policy is typically enough to prevent it. The important thing is being rational, not emotional. And at the end of the day, there's no rule book on this. It's your business, right? You're paying for the trailer, you're accepting the risk. And if charging someone fits your standards, do it. If keeping the relationship is more valuable than cleaning costs, don't. Right? Like just don't wait until you're staring at a muddy trailer to decide what your policy is. Figure it out now. Write it down, be consistent because consistency builds a better business than making different decisions every time emotions get involved.