Cleaning fees for hosts: averages and how to set yours

There is no official figure for the average cleaning fee Airbnb hosts charge. The best public numbers are a $75 median from a 2022 analysis of 1,000 US listings, and Airbnb’s own statement that a cleaning fee averages less than 10% of the total reservation cost where one is charged.

Both numbers are old, so use them as a sanity check. Your own fee should start from what a turnover costs you. This guide covers the figures, what the platform takes from the fee and a method for setting yours.

Cleaning fee numbers at a glance

Figure	Where it comes from
45% of active listings worldwide charged no cleaning fee	Airbnb newsroom post, May 18, 2021
Where a fee was charged, it averaged less than 10% of the total reservation cost	Same post
$75 median cleaning fee for a one-night stay, across 1,000 US listings	NerdWallet analysis, published by the Associated Press on November 27, 2022
15% of those US listings had no cleaning fee	Same analysis

What the numbers do and do not tell you

The two sources disagree on how common the fee is, and both can be right. Airbnb counted listings worldwide, where many hosts charge nothing. NerdWallet looked only at US listings, where most hosts charge something.

Neither source breaks the fee down by bedrooms. You will find tables online that give a typical cleaning fee Airbnb hosts set for a studio, a two-bedroom and so on. I have left them out because I could not trace them to a source I could check.

A median also hides the spread. A studio that takes one hour to turn over and a five-bedroom lake house with a hot tub sit in the same data set. The $75 figure tells you little about either.

How the fee works on each platform

An Airbnb cleaning fee is a flat amount, fixed per booking. Airbnb’s help page describes two versions.

The standard cleaning fee applies to every stay. A short-stay cleaning fee is an optional lower amount for guests who book one or two nights.

The same page says cleaning fees are not returned to guests once a trip is completed. Guests see the fee as its own line in the price breakdown unless total price display is on.

A Vrbo cleaning fee works the same way from the guest’s side. It is a fee you charge the traveler on top of the rental amount, set in your rates.

The platform takes a share of your cleaning fee

Both platforms charge their host fee on the cleaning fee as well as the nightly price. Airbnb’s fee base is the nightly price plus the fees you set. Vrbo’s commission applies to the rental amount plus fees you charge the traveler, such as cleaning and pet fees.

Platform	Rate	Taken from a $120 cleaning fee	To keep $120, charge
Airbnb, single fee	15.5%	$18.60	$142
Vrbo, pay-per-booking	12%	$14.40	$136

If your cleaner invoices you $120 and you charge the guest $120, you are paying part of every turnover yourself. That is the most common mistake I see with cleaning fees.

The Host Fee Calculator shows this on your own numbers. Change the cleaning fee and the fee on each booking moves with it. The guide to Airbnb host fees explains the full fee base.

How to add or change the fee on your listing

If you are looking for how to add cleaning fee on Airbnb, the steps on its help page are short. This is the desktop version as of November 10, 2026.

1. Open Calendar and select the listing.
2. Open the pricing settings.
3. Under additional charges, choose Fees.
4. Choose Cleaning fee and enter the amount.
5. Save.

Menus move, so follow the help page if yours looks different. Three details are easy to miss.

• A change applies to new bookings. To add a fee to a confirmed reservation, you send the guest a trip change request with the new total, and the guest has to accept it.
• A special offer does not include the cleaning fee automatically. Build it into the offer price.
• The short-stay fee is optional. Turn it on if one-night guests are skipping your listing.

What changed for bookings made from November 20, 2026

The cleaning fee now has to cover the whole turnover.

For reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026, Airbnb’s policy says hosts cannot require cleaning tasks a cleaner would do. Its examples are stripping the bed, taking trash off-site and washing and putting away dishes. Hosts also cannot fine a guest for skipping a request.

Airbnb’s fee page says the same thing from the pricing side. Hosts should not charge fees or penalties for failing to do specific cleaning or checkout tasks.

If your cleaner’s price assumed guests would start the laundry and run the dishwasher, that price may go up. Ask now, and adjust your fee before the busy season. The guide to Airbnb checkout instructions lists what you can still ask.

How to set your cleaning fee

Skip the averages and work from your own costs. Here is the method I would use, with example numbers.

1. Add up one turnover. Example: cleaner $95, laundry $15, supplies and restocking $10. Total $120.
2. Decide how much of that the fee should carry. All of it, part of it or none.
3. Add the platform’s share. To keep $120 after a 15.5% fee, charge $142.
4. Look at your listing as a guest for a two-night stay and a seven-night stay. Check the total against three similar places nearby.

Step 4 matters most. Guests compare totals, not line items. A fee that looks fair on a week can look steep on a weekend.

A separate fee, a higher rate or both

A flat fee falls hardest on short stays. A $142 fee adds about $20 a night to a seven-night booking and $71 a night to a two-night booking.

Approach	Works well when	Watch for
Full cleaning fee	Most stays are four nights or more	Short stays look expensive
Lower fee and a higher nightly rate	Stay lengths are mixed	Long stays overpay for cleaning
No fee, all in the nightly rate	Most stays are one or two nights	You lose money on a rare long stay unless the rate allows for it
Standard fee plus a short-stay fee	You want one-night and weekend guests	The lower fee has to still cover the cleaner

There is no single right answer. Pick the approach that matches how long your guests stay, then check the total price a guest sees.

When a stay needs extra cleaning

The cleaning fee pays for a normal turnover. It is not meant for a stay that leaves stains, smoke or pet damage behind.

For those, Airbnb points hosts to host damage protection. Its help page lists extra cleaning for stains, pet accidents and smoke odor as covered.

Routine checkout cleaning such as laundry, dishes and trash is not. You have 14 days after checkout to file a request, with photos and receipts.

The guide to the Airbnb security deposit rules walks through that process.

Cleaning fees on a booking you take yourself

On your own site the cleaning fee is yours to set and yours to keep, apart from card processing. At Stripe’s standard US rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents, about $3.50 of a $120 fee goes to processing. On the platform it was $18.60.

You also decide what the fee covers and what you ask of guests, within your local law. That is one of the quieter gains from a direct booking website: the turnover is priced on your terms.

Final Thought

The average cleaning fee Airbnb hosts charge is a weak guide to what yours should be. The public figures are years old and say nothing about your property.

Start from your real turnover cost, add the share the platform takes and check the total a guest sees. Then run it through the Host Fee Calculator with your own rate and nights, so you know what the fee costs you across a full year of bookings.