The short answer
The RPMTX rate steps down as the door count goes up: $14 to $16 per door under 150 doors, $12 to $14 from 150 to 500, and $11 to $13 above 500. Those figures are for a five-night schedule at a garden-style property, and they are illustrative. Your actual rate is set after a free property walk, because route length, floors and access all factor in.
For context, vendor pricing guides commonly quote $8 to $15 per door per month nationally, and Texas vendors publish ranges of $12 to $18 and $10 to $25. Ask what any quote includes before you compare it, because a low headline rate can leave out setup, fuel, containers or extra nights.
| Doors | Per door, per month | Example monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Under 150 | $14-16 | 120 doors: $1,680-$1,920 |
| 150-500 | $12-14 | 300 doors: $3,600-$4,200 |
| Over 500 | $11-13 | 600 doors: $6,600-$7,800 |
What moves the price
Four things set the per-door number. Door count and nights per week move it most.
- Door count. The per-door rate drops as the property gets bigger, so small properties pay more per door.
- Nights per week. In Austin, RPMTX runs one to seven nights a week in the window your property picks. At one to three services a week a route minimum applies, so RPMTX prices those schedules after the walk. Extra nights scale it up.
- Building type. Our published range is a garden-style baseline; other building types are priced at the property walk.
- The route itself. Route length, floors and access are priced at the property walk.
What residents typically pay
Communities typically bill residents $25 to $35 a door each month, usually as a fee charged to every resident under the lease. Fee schedules from two Austin communities, cited in a 2024 UT Law Housing Policy Clinic report, list valet trash at $26 and $35 a month.
Austin's Rental Fee Transparency Ordinance changes how that fee is shown. From October 1, 2026, housing providers managing 50 or more dwellings must give prospects a written, itemized list of mandatory, optional and variable fees before quoting rent or accepting applications, and the city names trash as a mandatory fee. Advertisements that show a rent figure must list mandatory recurring fixed fees alongside it. Providers managing 5 to 49 dwellings follow from January 1, 2027. See the City of Austin summary, and ask your counsel how it applies to your leases.
The amenity spread
Because residents are billed more than the service costs, valet trash usually runs as a net revenue line. In our worked example, 400 doors at an illustrative $12 per door costs $4,800 a month. Billing those doors a $28 amenity fee recovers $11,200 a month, a gross spread of $76,800 a year before occupancy, lease terms and other property expenses.
Put in your own doors, fee and nights with the calculator on the pricing page.
What a quote should include
Ask every vendor to put these in the base rate:
- Lidded containers for every unit, replaced as they wear, and move-in kits for new leases
- Collection on the nights and in the window your property picks
- The compactor area policed every service night
- A door-level report in your inbox by morning, with exceptions photographed
- Crews who are the vendor's own employees, not subcontractors
- Certificates for general liability, commercial auto and workers' comp naming your ownership entity
- A written remedy for missed pickups
Austin multifamily properties with 5 or more units also have recycling and composting requirements under the Universal Recycling Ordinance. RPMTX can add doorstep recycling on the same route, so get that scope priced in the same quote.
Fees to watch for
A per-door rate can only be compared if it is all-in. Look for:
- Setup or startup fees
- Container deposits
- Fuel surcharges and admin fees
- Extra nights or recycling priced outside the quote you signed
- Bulk item charges with no price list
- Automatic renewal into a new full term, and long notice periods
- Termination fees calculated on a headline rate
RPMTX charges $0 setup, no container deposit, no fuel surcharge and no admin fee. Scheduled bulk hauls are priced per haul by the size of the load, with before and after photos.
Contract terms
Some national providers write initial terms of 36 to 60 months that renew automatically, often for 12 months at a time. RPMTX offers terms of 12, 24 or 36 months and quotes all three, so you can weigh the rate against the commitment side by side. The contract includes a 30-day cure clause on any service failure, on top of the 24-hour make-good.
Buyer guides tell managers to insist on a defined remedy for missed pickups, because many contracts say nothing about what happens when service slips.
What a missed night costs you
A per-door price only means something if the doors get collected. At RPMTX, every miss is made right within 24 hours at no charge: collected on the next service night, and if that is more than 24 hours away, the crew comes back within 24 hours. If we miss the same unit twice in one billing month, that unit's RPMTX fee for the month is credited on your next invoice. If the nightly log shows nothing was set out, that is not a miss, and you have the timestamp to show the resident. More on the make-good promise.
Already under contract? Send us your price per door, notice date and renewal terms for a free contract check.