diff --git a/src/expandoracommon/parseevent.cpp b/src/expandoracommon/parseevent.cpp
index 3dc09c42d..aa356f4bf 100644
--- a/src/expandoracommon/parseevent.cpp
+++ b/src/expandoracommon/parseevent.cpp
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 #include <cassert>
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <memory>
-#include <regex>
 
 #include "../global/TextUtils.h"
 #include "../mapdata/ExitDirection.h"
@@ -16,6 +15,7 @@
 #include "../parser/ConnectedRoomFlags.h"
 #include "../parser/ExitsFlags.h"
 #include "../parser/PromptFlags.h"
+#include "../parser/parserutils.h"
 #include "property.h"
 
 ParseEvent::ArrayOfProperties::ArrayOfProperties() = default;
@@ -109,12 +109,9 @@ SharedParseEvent ParseEvent::createEvent(const CommandEnum c,
     auto result = std::make_shared<ParseEvent>(c);
     ParseEvent *const event = result.get();
 
-    static const std::regex normalizeWhitespacePattern(R"(\s+)", std::regex::optimize);
-
     // the moved strings are used by const ref here before they're moved.
     event->setProperty(moved_roomName);
-    event->setProperty(RoomDesc{
-        std::regex_replace(moved_roomDesc.getStdString(), normalizeWhitespacePattern, " ")});
+    event->setProperty(RoomDesc{ParserUtils::normalizeWhitespace(moved_roomDesc.getStdString())});
     event->setProperty(terrain);
 
     // After this block, the moved values are gone.
diff --git a/src/mapstorage/jsonmapstorage.cpp b/src/mapstorage/jsonmapstorage.cpp
index 59babfe33..7d1f5d01c 100644
--- a/src/mapstorage/jsonmapstorage.cpp
+++ b/src/mapstorage/jsonmapstorage.cpp
@@ -49,21 +49,22 @@ class NODISCARD WebHasher final
         : m_hash(QCryptographicHash::Md5)
     {}
 
-    void add(QString str)
+    void add(const RoomName &roomName, const RoomDesc &roomDesc)
     {
+        auto name = roomName.toQString();
         // This is most likely unnecessary because the parser did it for us...
         // We need plain ASCII so that accentuation changes do not affect the
         // hashes and because MD5 is defined on bytes, not encoded chars.
-        ParserUtils::toAsciiInPlace(str);
+        ParserUtils::toAsciiInPlace(name);
         // Roomdescs may see whitespacing fixes over the years (ex: removing double
         // spaces after periods). MMapper ignores such changes when comparing rooms,
         // but the web mapper may only look up rooms by hash. Normalizing the
         // whitespaces makes the hash more resilient.
-        str.replace(QRegularExpression(" +"), " ");
-        str.replace(QRegularExpression(" *\r?\n"), "\n");
+        auto desc = ::toQStringLatin1(ParserUtils::normalizeWhitespace(roomDesc.getStdString()));
+        ParserUtils::toAsciiInPlace(desc);
 
         // REVISIT: should this be latin1 or utf8?
-        m_hash.addData(str.toLatin1());
+        m_hash.addData(name.toLatin1() + "\n" + desc.toLatin1());
     }
 
     QByteArray result() const { return m_hash.result(); }
@@ -85,8 +86,7 @@ class NODISCARD RoomHashIndex final
 public:
     void addRoom(const Room &room)
     {
-        m_hasher.add(room.getName().toQString() + "\n");
-        m_hasher.add(room.getDescription().toQString());
+        m_hasher.add(room.getName(), room.getDescription());
         m_index.insert(m_hasher.result().toHex(), room.getPosition());
         m_hasher.reset();
     }
diff --git a/src/parser/parserutils.cpp b/src/parser/parserutils.cpp
index c7be8d7d8..b983f4e3c 100644
--- a/src/parser/parserutils.cpp
+++ b/src/parser/parserutils.cpp
@@ -7,9 +7,8 @@
 #include "parserutils.h"
 
 #include <array>
-#include <cassert>
 #include <iostream>
-#include <stdexcept>
+#include <regex>
 #include <QRegularExpression>
 #include <QtCore>
 
@@ -106,4 +105,10 @@ void latin1ToAscii(std::ostream &os, const std::string_view sv)
     }
 }
 
+std::string normalizeWhitespace(const std::string &str)
+{
+    static const std::regex pattern(R"(\s+)", std::regex::optimize);
+    return std::regex_replace(str, pattern, " ");
+}
+
 } // namespace ParserUtils
diff --git a/src/parser/parserutils.h b/src/parser/parserutils.h
index 23ca6516c..e87ccf54a 100644
--- a/src/parser/parserutils.h
+++ b/src/parser/parserutils.h
@@ -18,4 +18,6 @@ QString &toAsciiInPlace(QString &str);
 std::string &latin1ToAsciiInPlace(std::string &str);
 NODISCARD std::string latin1ToAscii(const std::string_view sv);
 void latin1ToAscii(std::ostream &, const std::string_view sv);
+NODISCARD std::string normalizeWhitespace(const std::string &str);
+
 } // namespace ParserUtils
diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index d7783e40a..0113b5f2b 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ file(GLOB_RECURSE expandoracommon_SRCS
     ../src/mapdata/ExitFieldVariant.h
     ../src/parser/CommandId.cpp
     ../src/parser/CommandId.h
+    ../src/parser/parserutils.cpp
+    ../src/parser/parserutils.h
     )
 set(TestExpandoraCommon_SRCS testexpandoracommon.cpp)
 add_executable(TestExpandoraCommon ${TestExpandoraCommon_SRCS} ${expandoracommon_SRCS})
@@ -87,6 +89,7 @@ set(parser_SRCS
     ../src/parser/CommandId.cpp
     ../src/parser/CommandId.h
     ../src/parser/parserutils.cpp
+    ../src/parser/parserutils.h
     )
 set(TestParser_SRCS testparser.cpp)
 add_executable(TestParser ${TestParser_SRCS} ${parser_SRCS})
@@ -292,4 +295,4 @@ set_target_properties(
         COMPILE_FLAGS "${WARNING_FLAGS}"
         UNITY_BUILD ${USE_UNITY_BUILD}
 )
-add_test(NAME TestRoomManager COMMAND TestRoomManager)
\ No newline at end of file
+add_test(NAME TestRoomManager COMMAND TestRoomManager)