Average Professional Cleaning Fees?
Recently received a hefty cleaning fee, being taken out of our deposit. We were renting a 3 bedroom, 1 level house. Half of it was hardwood, the other half carpet. We were charged $109 for the carpet cleaning (per our lease, that makes sense to me), but then we were charged $595 for a cleaning fee on top of that!
Apparently, two people, at $35/hour each, took 8.5 hours (so, 17 hours of work total), to clean our house - and these are professionals! Unfortunately, I was studying abroad during our transition to a new place, so I only know what my roommates told me about the condition of the house, but I trust that they didn't leave it so badly that it warranted that kind of cleaning.
They claim they did the usual (vacuuming, sweeping, swiffering, wiping down all of the countertops, cleaning the bathrooms head to toe, spot cleaning walls, wiping down window sills, and running drain cleaner through the sinks).
Does this seem unreasonable? What are average cleaning rates for this kind of house? I want some opinions from other landlords here. I know we weren't the "tenants from hell" (we paid rent on time, never broke anything, never had neighbor complaints), but we also live in a university town. I want to make sure that we aren't being taken advantage of here.