Cleaning fees are one of the first things guests notice when looking at a vacation rental. They carry more weight in decisions than hosts may realize. Even when the total price is competitive, the fee alone can influence whether someone keeps browsing or moves on.
That puts you in a difficult position. Set a cleaning fee too low and the cost comes straight out of your profits. Set it too high and you could keep losing potential guests to competitors.
Our article looks at how to set the right vacation rental cleaning fee for your properties. We unpack what fees typically cover, what factors might affect them, and how they work across popular booking platforms.
What are vacation rental cleaning fees?
A vacation rental cleaning fee is the money you charge guests for the work required to prepare your property for the next guest. Unlike nightly rates, it’s usually a one-off charge.
The purpose of cleaning fees is simple: to cover the cost of cleaning, maintaining, and replenishing your vacation rental so the expense doesn’t cut into your profits. In most cases, they exist to offset operational expenses, not to generate extra profit.
What does a vacation rental cleaning fee cover?
Cleaning fees cover the entire turnover process between guests. While this process may vary across businesses, it typically includes:
- General property cleaning across kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, and living areas
- Disinfecting high-touch surfaces like countertops, doorknobs, and light switches
- Removing, laundering, and replacing linens
- Taking out trash and recycling
- Resetting the property to its standard layout, for example, making beds
- Restocking essentials such as toilet paper and soap
- Sweeping outdoor areas and cleaning away debris
What is the average vacation rental cleaning fee?
Looking at average cleaning fees can help put your own pricing into context. While there’s no “right” amount to charge, understanding what other businesses charge gives you a useful benchmark.
Here’s the average for different countries according to recent AirROI data:
| Country | Average cleaning fee |
| UAE | $53 |
| US | $188 |
| Australia | $107 |
| Mexico | $53 |
| Brazil | $21 |
| Colombia | $13 |
| Canada | $114 |
| Italy | $76 |
| Japan | $48 |
| UK | $74 |
Are vacation rental cleaning fees necessary?
In practice, yes. Cleaning fees are necessary to run a successful vacation rental business. Turnover is a significant expense and you need to account for these ongoing costs in your pricing structure.
Most hosts charge cleaning fees separately because the work required doesn’t change. You always have to prepare the property for the next guest, whether someone stays for a single night or a month. This makes it challenging to recover costs simply by adjusting the nightly rate or charging a percentage of the total booking price.
Although cleaning fees are standard practice, they’re not required by any laws or booking sites. You’re usually free to decide whether to apply them or not. Just make sure you’re following any relevant policies around transparency, fee presentation, cancellations and refunds.
How to calculate your vacation rental cleaning fee
Setting a cleaning fee works best when you approach it as a step-by-step calculation rather than going by averages or close competitors. Each factor builds toward a final number that covers your costs without undermining bookings.
Factor in your property’s size and type
Consider how property characteristics may affect turnover. Larger homes with multiple bedrooms, outdoor areas, or premium finishes take longer to clean and often require more experienced cleaners.
You can start by breaking down your property into individual units such as the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms. Guess how long it’d take one person to clean each room to reach your desired standard. Then add these hours together to get a reasonable estimate of the total work required.
As you go, watch out for property features that might increase turnover times. For example, small appliances like coffee machines and toastie markers can cause a lot of mess.
Decide who is performing the cleaning
Cleaning expenses look very different depending on who is doing the work. Consider whether it’s more cost-effective to handle turnover yourself, hire employees, or outsource to a cleaning service.
The choice depends on your business context. Hosts managing a single property close to their home may prefer to save money by doing all the cleaning. On the other hand, property owners with a large portfolio might hire a dedicated cleaning crew to make sure they always have people available.
Account for turnover timing and scheduling constraints
Look closely at how much time cleaners actually have between stays. Same-day turnovers and tight check-in windows might lead them to increase how much they charge.
Similarly, think about when you need cleaning teams at your properties. They’re likely to charge premium rates for peak seasons, antisocial hours, and weekends.
Factor these situations into your calculations rather than treating them as exceptions. Even if your calendar usually leaves you with a lot of buffer, your estimates should allow for some flexibility. Otherwise, your cleaning fees won’t always cover the true costs.
Get and compare quotes from local cleaning companies
If you outsource cleaning, get quotes from nearby companies based on your properties. You should share details like square footage, number of rooms, and turnover timing so quotes reflect real conditions.
Then compare quotes on a like-for-like basis. Check what’s included, how pricing changes for peak periods or same-day turnovers, and whether extras like deep cleaning or restocking incur additional charges. This extra step helps you get a more accurate idea of actual expenses before you commit to a cleaning contract and set cleaning fees.
Adjust for length of stay
Assume that most bookings will require a full clean no matter how long guests stay. You still need to make sure the linens are washed, surfaces are sanitized, and supplies are restocked after a single night.
The challenge is that short stays can make cleaning fees feel disproportionately high to guests. Decide how you want to handle that imbalance. You can consider enforcing a minimum stay of three nights, adjusting nightly rates, or offering a small discount.
Benchmark against competitor cleaning fees
Look at similar listings on platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo to get a sense of what others are charging. The goal isn’t to match competitors exactly, but to understand the range that feels normal in your market.
Keep your total booking amount in mind. A slightly higher cleaning fee can work if nightly rates remain competitive, while an inflated fee can stand out negatively even when the overall cost is similar. The goal is to appeal to potential guests, not match other businesses.
Decide how to structure fees
Choose a cleaning fee model from the following four options:
- Fixed fee per stay: One charge applied to every booking for that listing.
- Variable fee by type of stay: A fee that changes based on factors like length of stay or number of guests.
- Rolled into nightly rate: No visible cleaning fee; costs are absorbed into nightly pricing.
- Percentage-based fee: Fee scales with booking value rather than cleaning effort.
As we’ve discussed, many hosts choose a fixed fee model since the cleaning effort remains the same for every booking. Booking sites may also require you to set a single charge. However, you may still find that one of the other fee models works best for your specific business setup.
Set and validate your final cleaning fee
After you’ve calculated your cleaning fee, test the final number against real booking situations. You can run scenarios like short stays, back-to-back bookings, and peak seasons to confirm the fee still covers your costs.
Then, decide whether you only want to offset expenses or if you’re likely to need a large buffer for unexpected issues. For example, you might experience sudden spikes in demand. In that case, you may need more funds to pay your cleaning crew for last-minute jobs or overtime.
Revisit your cleaning fees regularly over time. Companies raise costs, properties get upgraded, and booking patterns constantly shift. You never know when you may need to adjust your strategy to stop expenses from cutting into your profits.
Pro host tip: Decided on a cleaning fee? Apply your strategy across all your booking sites and your direct booking site with a channel manager like Hostfully. You can manage everything in one place and keep fees consistent.
How cleaning fees work on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com
Popular booking sites like Airbnb and Vrbo tend to handle cleaning fees in a similar way. The differences tend to be small, but they’re still worth understanding before you decide how to charge and manage fees.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
| Platform | Shown in search results | Total booking price | Refund policy | Mediation |
| Airbnb | Yes | Added to total booking price but appear as a line item | Depends on host policy | Through the platform |
| Vrbo | Yes | Added to total booking price but appear as a line item | Depends on host policy | Based on host policy |
| Booking.com | Yes | Added to total booking price | Depends on cancellation terms | Disputes only handled at the full rate level |
Stay on top of cleaning and turnover with Hostfully
Setting the right cleaning fee comes down to understanding and managing costs. When your fees reflect how your properties actually operate, they feel fair to guests and sustainable for your business.
Hostfully supports you with the entire turnover process to keep costs low. Our platform enables you to streamline operations, improve oversight, and gain more control over financial management.
With our help, vacation rental hosts can:
- Coordinate cleaning schedules and turnovers alongside bookings
- Centralize pricing and availability across Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com
- Keep pricing and cleaning fees consistent with your direct booking site
- Automate guest communication to set clear expectations around fees
- Clarify pricing and cleaning policies in a digital guidebook
Taken together, these tools make it easier to keep your pricing right, your properties spotless, and your guests happy.
FAQs about vacation rental cleaning fees
Are vacation rental cleaning fees taxable?
Tax rules depend on local and national regulations. In some places, cleaning fees are treated the same as nightly rates and subject to occupancy taxes while in others they’re exempt. It’s best to check local tax laws or consult a tax professional to avoid surprises.
Should cleaning fees vary by length of stay?
Most hosts charge a flat fee per booking because cleaning work is usually the same regardless of length of stay. That said, very short stays can make the fee feel disproportionate. Sometimes, hosts apply a discount to avoid making guests feel like they’ve been unfairly charged.
Can you include cleaning in the nightly rate instead?
Yes, some hosts choose to roll cleaning costs into the nightly price to simplify pricing. This strategy can work well on platforms where fees are less visible, but it may make your nightly rate look less competitive at first glance.
Do high cleaning fees reduce bookings?
High cleaning fees don’t necessarily reduce bookings on their own. Problems usually arise when the fee feels out of proportion to the stay or the host expects the guest to take on too much responsibility for turnover. Clear and reasonable policies can help ensure a steady flow of bookings even when you need to charge more for cleaning.
