Vrbo cleaning fee: how to change it and when it's refunded

The Vrbo cleaning fee looks like the simplest number on your listing. You pick an amount, it gets added to the booking, and the money pays for the turnover. Then the questions start. Where exactly do you change it? Does Vrbo take a cut of it? Does the guest get it back when they cancel? And why do guests keep saying it's too high?

This guide answers those from Vrbo's own help pages, as they read in November 2026, and from the fee screen in my own Vrbo dashboard. It covers how the fee works, not how much to charge. For the amount, our cleaning fee calculator guide walks through benchmarks by property size for both Airbnb and Vrbo.

What is the Vrbo cleaning fee?

It's one of three standard fees Vrbo lets you set, alongside fees for extra guests and pets. It's a flat charge added to each booking to cover getting the property ready for the next guest. You decide whether to charge one and how much.

It's also a mandatory fee in Vrbo's terms, and that has two consequences. Vrbo shows it to guests upfront, as part of the price they see in search results, not as a surprise at checkout. And it has to be entered in the proper fee field. Vrbo's help centre is specific that fees and taxes belong in the Fees section of the Owner Dashboard, not in the property description or any other text box.

How do you change the cleaning fee on Vrbo?

You set the cleaning fee and change it in the same place: the Fees screen in your Vrbo pricing settings. Vrbo's help article on managing your fees gives the path, and it matches what I see in my own dashboard.

How to change the cleaning fee on Vrbo on desktop

1. Log in to your Vrbo Owner Dashboard.
2. If you manage more than one property, choose the listing you want to change from the property menu at the top.
3. In the left-hand menu, select Calendar.
4. Open Settings on the calendar. A panel opens on the right.
5. Make sure the Pricing tab is selected.
6. Under Additional charges, select Fees.
7. Under Standard fees, find Cleaning and enter the new amount.
8. Check the Fee Type beside it. For a cleaning fee, that's usually Per stay.
9. Select Save.

The same screen holds your pet fee and your additional guest fee, and Vrbo puts a note at the top of it: fees higher than 10% of the total stay price can decrease bookings. That's Vrbo's own guidance, and it's worth checking your cleaning fee against it for your shortest typical stay.

If you've set a tax percentage on your listing's Rules & Policies page, a checkbox appears next to each fee so you can choose whether tax applies to it. If Vrbo handles taxes in your region, those checkboxes don't appear at all.

Below the standard fees sit custom fees, for charges specific to your property. Vrbo allows up to six. They're useful when a cost is real and separate, but every fee you add lengthens the list a guest reads at checkout, so add them sparingly.

How to change the cleaning fee on the Vrbo app

Vrbo's help page on the Vrbo Owner app lists fees among the settings you can review and update from the calendar in the app. Open the app, choose the listing, go to the calendar and open its settings. If you can't find the fee there, use the desktop steps above.

Dashboard and app menus move around. If the path above doesn't match what you see, search Vrbo's help centre for "manage your fees" for the current version.

What happens when you change your cleaning fee?

A change to any fee applies only to future bookings. Every stay already on your calendar keeps the cleaning fee it was booked at.

That matters most when your cleaner raises their rate. Say you have eight Vrbo bookings on the calendar and your cleaner's per-turnover price goes up by $20. You cover the difference on all eight, which is $160, because none of those guests will pay the new fee. The sooner you update the fee after a price change, the fewer bookings carry the old number.

If you genuinely need to add a charge to an existing reservation, Vrbo's route is a payment request to the guest, sent before their stay is complete. That works for a one-off. It isn't a practical way to recover a fee increase across a full calendar.

Does Vrbo charge commission on the cleaning fee?

Yes. From October 29, 2026, Vrbo is moving hosts to a flat 12% commission that includes payment processing. It's charged on the rental amount and on the fees you add, cleaning fees included, but not on taxes or refundable damage deposits. Vrbo says the rate can range from 12% to 15% by region. Bookings made before October 29 keep the old rate: a 5% commission plus a separate 3% payment processing fee. Vrbo also notes that bookings coming through its expanded distribution partners may carry higher fees.

Here's what that means for the fee itself. On a $150 cleaning fee, 12% is $18. If you pay your cleaner exactly $150 per turnover, you're $18 short on every Vrbo booking before you've counted supplies. Under the old 5% commission plus 3% processing, the same fee cost you about $12.

One consequence surprises people. Because Vrbo charges commission on the rent and the fees alike, moving money out of the cleaning fee and into the nightly rate doesn't change your Vrbo commission. It changes how the price reads to guests, which is covered below, but not what Vrbo takes. For how this compares with Airbnb and Booking.com, see our comparison of host fees on all three platforms.

Is the Vrbo cleaning fee refundable?

Sometimes. Whether a guest gets the cleaning fee back depends on how the money comes back: through your cancellation policy, or through a refund you send yourself.

When a guest cancels

Vrbo refunds a cancelled booking according to the cancellation policy on your listing. Vrbo's help article on cancellation policy options lists seven:

• Day-before: full refund until 24 hours before check-in
• Lenient: full refund until 5 days before check-in
• Relaxed: full refund more than 14 days before check-in, 50% between 7 and 14 days
• Moderate: full refund more than 30 days before check-in, 50% between 14 and 30 days
• Firm: full refund more than 60 days before check-in, 50% between 30 and 60 days
• Strict: full refund more than 60 days before check-in, no refund after that
• No refund: no refund at any time

To qualify, a guest has to cancel by 11:59 p.m. in the property's time zone.

Vrbo is clear about its own fees. When a guest gets a 100% refund, Vrbo refunds the guest's service fee automatically and returns your commission and payment processing fee. On a partial refund, Vrbo doesn't refund booking and service fees, and the processing fee is only charged on the money you keep.

It is less clear about the cleaning fee itself. The cancellation policy page sets the refund percentages but doesn't say how fees such as cleaning are treated inside a partial refund. Before you tell a guest what they'll get back, check the payment details on the reservation.

Refunding the cleaning fee yourself

If a stay is cancelled inside a 50% or no-refund window, you may be keeping money for a clean that will never happen. Some hosts are comfortable with that. If you'd rather hand the cleaning fee back, Vrbo lets you send more than your policy requires, as long as the total is at least what the policy says. You can't send less.

Vrbo's help article on issuing a refund gives the steps:

1. Sign in to your Owner Dashboard and, if you manage more than one property, choose the listing.
2. Select Inbox, find the reservation and open the conversation with the guest.
3. Under Payment schedule, select Send a refund.
4. Enter the amount under Custom amount and select Continue.
5. Select Send refund.

The refund is a single amount, so to return just the cleaning fee, enter that figure. It can't be more than the guest has paid, Vrbo charges you nothing to send it, and it can take 5 to 7 business days to reach the guest. The same route works if a guest raises a problem with the clean during the stay and you decide a partial refund is fair.

When you cancel

If you cancel instead of the guest, the numbers run the other way. Vrbo's host cancellation fee is calculated on the reservation amount including mandatory fees such as cleaning, with a minimum of $50 USD plus applicable taxes. Vrbo gives hosts 10 days to request a waiver when a cancellation happens for a reason its policy recognises.

Can you charge a guest extra if they leave a mess?

Not as a penalty for skipped chores. Vrbo's Cleaning Tasks Policy lets you list specific tasks you expect guests to do before they leave, as long as they're reasonable and take only a few minutes. It does not let you charge financial penalties when those tasks aren't done. If you want a missed task to have consequences, the only one allowed is a negative guest review, and only if your listing says so in advance.

The same policy requires any mandatory cleaning fee to be disclosed in your property charges. A fee that only appears in the description or a house rules document isn't compliant.

Real damage is a different matter from a messy departure, and Vrbo handles it through damage deposits and damage protection rather than the cleaning fee. The cleaning fee covers the turnover you expect. It isn't a fund for the one you don't.

Why are Vrbo cleaning fees so high?

Usually for three reasons: when guests see the fee, what Vrbo adds and takes, and how few nights the fee is spread over.

Start with when they see it. Vrbo shows travellers an upfront price that already includes all mandatory fees and service fees, in search results, on the map and on the listing page. Taxes are usually added at checkout. A guest scrolling results isn't comparing your nightly rate. They're comparing a total with your cleaning fee already folded in.

The guest also pays Vrbo a service fee, worked out as a percentage of the reservation total before taxes and refundable fees, and that's in the upfront price too. Hosts can't waive or reduce it.

And you don't keep the whole cleaning fee. Vrbo's 12% commission applies to it, so a fee that covers a $150 clean after commission has to be about $170 ($150 divided by 0.88 is $170.45). A host who passes that on charges more than their cleaner does.

A flat fee lands hardest on short stays. A $150 cleaning fee on a two-night booking adds $75 a night to what the guest sees. On a seven-night booking the same fee adds about $21 a night. Same fee, same turnover, very different impression in search.

At my place, I charge exactly the same cleaning fee on Vrbo as on Airbnb, and I set it by hand on both.

There are a few honest ways to handle a fee that reads as high:

• Keep the fee close to what a turnover actually costs you. A fee that tracks a real cost is easier to defend. Our guide to what to pay your vacation rental cleaner covers how to work that cost out.
• Use a minimum stay so the fee is always spread across enough nights to read sensibly.
• Move part of the fee into the nightly rate if most of your bookings are short. On Vrbo this doesn't change your commission, since both are commissionable. It only changes how the total reads to guests.

The fee the guest pays isn't what your cleaner is paid

It's easy to treat the Vrbo cleaning fee and your cleaner's pay as the same number. They aren't. The fee is what the guest pays you, less Vrbo's commission. Your cleaner's pay is what you owe them for the turnover, whether or not the fee covers it. When the two drift apart, it's usually because the cleaner's rate went up and the fee on the listing didn't.

There's a timing side too. Every Vrbo cancellation or date change also cancels or moves a turnover, and your cleaner doesn't see your Vrbo inbox. GleamSync, a vacation rental cleaning coordination tool, checks the calendar feeds from your Vrbo and Airbnb listings automatically twice a day, at 7am and 7pm property time, and again whenever you press Sync. It never assigns a cleaner for you. Once you've assigned one to a clean, it messages them by email, SMS or WhatsApp when that booking's dates change or it's cancelled, for cleans in the next month. Your cleaner doesn't need an account or an app.

Frequently asked questions

Will changing my Vrbo cleaning fee affect bookings I already have?

No. Fee changes apply only to future bookings. Existing reservations keep the fee they were booked with. To add a charge to one of them, you send the guest a payment request before their stay is complete.

Does the guest get the cleaning fee back if they cancel?

It depends on your cancellation policy and when they cancel. On a full refund, the guest also gets Vrbo's service fee back; on a partial refund, they don't. You can always send more than your policy requires, including the whole cleaning fee, with Send a refund on the reservation.

Can I refund just the cleaning fee on Vrbo?

Yes. Open the reservation from your Inbox, select Send a refund under Payment schedule, and enter the cleaning fee as a custom amount. Vrbo refunds a single amount rather than individual fees, it can't be more than the guest paid, and it can take 5 to 7 business days to arrive.

Is the Vrbo cleaning fee taxable?

That depends on your local rules, not on Vrbo. If you've set a tax percentage in your listing's Rules & Policies, Vrbo shows a checkbox next to each fee so you can apply tax to it. If Vrbo handles taxes in your region, the checkbox won't appear. Check with your local tax authority if you're unsure.

Does Vrbo charge guests a service fee on top of the cleaning fee?

Yes. Vrbo's upfront price includes service fees as well as your mandatory fees. Vrbo doesn't refund booking and service fees when a guest receives only a partial refund, which is worth knowing if a guest asks why their refund came back smaller than they expected.

Related reading

• Airbnb cleaning fee calculator: what to charge in 2026
• Vrbo vs Airbnb vs Booking.com host fees: what you keep
• What should I pay my vacation rental cleaner? 2026 rates
• Is Vrbo cheaper than Airbnb now? What to tell your guests
• How to share your Airbnb and Vrbo calendar with your cleaner

Keep your cleaner in step with your Vrbo calendar

GleamSync reads your Vrbo and Airbnb calendars and messages the cleaner you've assigned by email, SMS or WhatsApp when a cancellation or date change affects a clean in the coming month. Your cleaner doesn't need an account or an app. It costs $8 a month per property.

See how it works