Airbnb cleaning fee calculator: what to charge in 2026

Many hosts set their Airbnb cleaning fee once, by looking at what similar listings charge, and then leave it alone. That worked well enough while Airbnb took about 3% of it. It works much less well now.

In 2026 Airbnb moved most hosts onto a single 15.5% host fee, charged on the cleaning fee as well as the nightly rate. Vrbo is moving to a flat 12% commission from October 29, 2026. If your cleaning fee was set to cover your cleaner exactly, it no longer does.

This Airbnb cleaning fee calculator is a method rather than a widget: four steps you can run with a pen or a spreadsheet, using your own numbers. It covers what other hosts charge, what each platform takes, and what to do about short stays, pets and same-day turnovers.

What is the average Airbnb cleaning fee in 2026?

It depends mostly on the size of the home. AirROI, a short-term rental data company, published median cleaning fees for US entire homes in its September 2026 analysis:

A few other findings from the same analysis are worth knowing:

• About 94% of active US entire homes charged a cleaning fee in September 2026.
• For the same homes, the median fee rose from $150 in October 2025 to $169 in September 2026, largely because hosts repriced after Airbnb's fee change.
• More than one in four of those homes raised their fee by almost exactly 15%, and about one in four didn't change it at all.

Location matters as much as size. Homeaglow, a cleaning service, analyzed 2024 AirDNA data for 119 US cities, as reported by ConsumerAffairs. Aspen, Colorado had the highest average fee at $335 and Hartford, Connecticut the lowest at $81. Those are 2024 figures, so treat them as a sense of the range, not a current price.

Medians tell you what's normal. They don't tell you what your turnover costs, which is where the calculation starts.

How do you calculate your Airbnb cleaning fee?

Four steps: work out your cost, add back the platform's cut, check it against similar homes nearby, and decide what goes into the nightly rate instead.

Step 1: Add up what a turnover really costs you

List every cost of one normal turnover:

• Your cleaner's pay for the clean
• Cleaning supplies used per turnover
• Guest restocking: toilet paper, soap, coffee, dish tabs
• Laundry: a linen service, or your own machine time and detergent
• Anything extra that happens often enough to count: extra beds made up, errands, a hot tub

Use real numbers from your last few turnovers, not a guess. If you don't know what your cleaner's time is worth, ask them how long a normal turnover takes, or clean the place yourself once and time it.

Expect the number to move around. At my place in Ucluelet, BC, I pay my cleaner anywhere between C$200 and C$300 a turnover. It depends on what I need her to do, how many people stayed, how many extra beds need setting up and taking down, and whether a guest brought a pet. Same-day turnovers cost me more too, because they're harder on her. Your cleaning fee has to cover the average of all of that, not just the easy turnovers.

Step 2: Add back what the platform takes

Both Airbnb and Vrbo take their fee from your cleaning fee as well as from your nightly rate. To keep a given amount, divide it by what's left after the platform's percentage:

Cleaning fee to charge = what you want to keep ÷ (1 − platform fee)

Worked through for a $150 turnover cost:

Adding 15.5% to $150 doesn't work, because the fee is taken from the larger number: $173.25 minus 15.5% leaves about $146.40. Dividing gets it right.

Step 3: Check it against similar homes nearby

Open Airbnb, search your own area for your dates, and look at 10 or more listings with the same number of bedrooms. Note their cleaning fees.

If your number from step 2 is well above theirs, it's worth knowing what that may cost you. AirROI found that listings charging more than 1.5 times the local median for their size booked about 5 percentage points fewer nights than typical homes. Listings with no cleaning fee booked about 7 points fewer. AirROI is careful to call this an association rather than proof: high-fee homes also tend to charge high nightly rates.

If your fee comes out well below the local norm, that's usually a sign you've left a cost out, or that you have room to charge more.

Step 4: Decide what belongs in the nightly rate instead

Not every cleaning cost has to be recovered through the cleaning fee. Deep cleans, carpet cleaning and the time you spend coordinating your cleaner are real costs, but they don't happen on every booking. One common approach is to cover those through the nightly rate and keep the cleaning fee tied to the turnover itself.

Airbnb's own hosting guidance takes the same line: use the cleaning fee to pay for cleaning, not as a way to earn extra money.

How much do Airbnb and Vrbo take from your cleaning fee?

Airbnb is moving every home host onto a single service fee. According to Airbnb's service fee help page, most hosts on that structure pay 15.5%, charged on the nightly price plus any fees you add, cleaning included, but not on taxes. The old split fee, where hosts paid about 3% and guests paid a separate service fee, is being phased out. Once you've switched, you can't go back.

On a $150 cleaning fee, that's the difference between Airbnb keeping $4.50 under the old 3% and $23.25 under 15.5%.

Vrbo announced on October 1, 2026 that it is moving to a flat 12% commission on bookings, starting October 29, 2026. According to that announcement:

• The 12% includes payment processing.
• It applies to the nightly rate plus host fees such as cleaning and pet fees, but not to taxes or refundable damage deposits.
• Rates can vary from 12% to 15% by region.
• Hosts on Vrbo's older annual subscription plan move over when their subscription term ends.
• Bookings made before the change keep the old rate.

Before the change, most pay-per-booking hosts paid a 5% commission plus a separate payment processing fee. Whichever plan you're on, your payout statements show what you're actually paying. Check them rather than assuming.

Should your Vrbo cleaning fee be the same as your Airbnb one?

It can be. I set mine manually, and my cleaning fee is exactly the same on Airbnb and Vrbo. My cleaner does the same work whichever platform the guest booked through.

The arithmetic supports keeping them close. On a $150 cleaning fee, Airbnb's 15.5% takes $23.25 and Vrbo's new 12% takes $18.00, a difference of $5.25. Matching fees keep things simple for you, and for guests who compare your listing across both sites. If you want an exact match on what you keep, run step 2 separately for each platform.

Our guide to Vrbo cleaning fees covers where Vrbo's fee setting lives and how refunds work when a guest cancels.

How should you handle short stays?

A cleaning fee hits short stays hardest. A $200 fee adds $200 a night to a one-night booking and $50 a night to a four-night one, even though the turnover costs you the same.

There are two common ways to handle this.

A lower cleaning fee for short stays. According to Airbnb's help page on cleaning fees, you can opt into a short-stay cleaning fee: a lower fee for guests who book one or two nights, with your standard fee for everything longer. You accept a smaller margin on short bookings in exchange for being bookable for them.

A minimum stay. I run a 3-night minimum at my place. In high season I make the odd exception and allow a 2-night Friday and Saturday stay, because people really appreciate being able to book a weekend then. I have to make that change manually each time, on both Airbnb and Vrbo.

Which suits you depends on your market. If short stays are a large share of demand near you, a lower short-stay fee keeps you in those searches. If they mostly leave you with gap nights and same-day turnovers, a minimum stay does more for you.

What about pets and same-day turnovers?

Pets. Charge a pet fee as its own line rather than raising the cleaning fee for everyone. Airbnb and Vrbo both have a separate pet fee setting. A pet usually means more work for your cleaner, so decide up front how that fee reaches them. I give my cleaner the full pet fee, because she's the one who deals with the extra work. Our guide to allowing pets in your Airbnb covers the rest of that decision.

Same-day turnovers. When one guest checks out and the next checks in the same day, your cleaner is working to a hard deadline. Some cleaners charge more for that, and it's fair that they do. Guests don't pay a different cleaning fee for a same-day turnover, so the extra cost has to come out of your average. If a large share of your bookings are back to back, build that into step 1.

It also helps if your cleaner knows which turnovers are same-day well before the day itself. GleamSync, a vacation rental cleaning coordination tool, reads the iCal calendar feeds from your Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com listings, works out the time between each checkout and the next check-in, and flags same-day turnovers. Once you assign your cleaner, she gets reminders, and a message if the booking moves or is cancelled, by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Your cleaner doesn't need an account. Our guide to turnover clean windows covers how much time a same-day clean really allows.

If your cleaner works from a calendar, here's how to share your Airbnb and Vrbo calendar with your cleaner, and what each method actually shows her.

When should you change your cleaning fee?

Revisit it whenever one of its inputs changes:

• Your cleaner's rate goes up. Rerun step 1.
• A platform changes its fee. Airbnb's single fee and Vrbo's 12% are both 2026 examples. Rerun step 2.
• Your guest mix changes. More short stays, more pets or more same-day turnovers all shift your average cost.
• Similar homes nearby move their fees. Rerun step 3.

A change to your cleaning fee only applies to new bookings. Existing reservations keep the fee they were booked with.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average Airbnb cleaning fee in 2026?

In AirROI's September 2026 data for US entire homes, the median cleaning fee was $93 for one bedroom, $149 for two, $200 for three and $265 for four. Fees vary widely by location, so check what similar homes near you charge.

Does Airbnb take a cut of the cleaning fee?

Yes. Under Airbnb's single host fee, which most hosts are now on, Airbnb takes 15.5% of the booking subtotal, and the subtotal includes your cleaning fee. Under the older split fee it took about 3%.

How much does Vrbo take from the cleaning fee?

From October 29, 2026, Vrbo is moving hosts to a single 12% commission that includes payment processing and applies to the cleaning fee as well as the nightly rate. Rates can vary from 12% to 15% by region, and hosts on the annual subscription plan move over when their term ends.

Should my cleaning fee cover exactly what I pay my cleaner?

It should cover your full turnover cost after the platform's cut, not just your cleaner's pay. Add supplies, restocking and laundry, then divide by what's left after the platform fee: 0.845 on Airbnb at 15.5%, or 0.88 on Vrbo at 12%.

Can I charge a lower cleaning fee for short stays on Airbnb?

Yes. Airbnb lets you opt into a short-stay cleaning fee for bookings of one or two nights, while your standard fee applies to longer stays. A minimum stay is the other common way to handle short bookings.

Related reading

• What should I pay my vacation rental cleaner?
• Vrbo vs Airbnb vs Booking.com host fees: what you keep
• Vrbo cleaning fees: where to set them and how refunds work
• Is Vrbo cheaper than Airbnb now?
• Why back-to-back Airbnb turnovers go wrong

You've set the fee. Make sure every turnover gets cleaned.

The right cleaning fee only pays off if your cleaner knows about every turnover, including same-day ones and late changes. GleamSync watches your Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com calendars, puts every clean on one schedule, and keeps the cleaner you assign informed with reminders and change messages by email, SMS or WhatsApp, with no account needed on their end. It costs $8 a month per property.

See how it works