How to work out your Airbnb cleaning fee

Most hosts set an Airbnb cleaning fee by scrolling through nearby listings and picking a number in the middle. It is fast, and it is often wrong in one of two directions. Set it too low and you are paying for part of every clean out of your nightly rate. Set it too high and your total price looks expensive next to a similar property, especially on short stays.

The better approach is to cost one turnover properly, then decide how much of that cost goes in the fee and how much sits in the nightly rate. This guide walks through it. We have used placeholders instead of dollar figures, because rates vary by cleaner, suburb and property, and the only numbers that matter are your own.

What goes into an Airbnb cleaning fee?

Five things. Most hosts remember the first and forget at least two of the others.

1. Labour. Hours on site multiplied by your cleaner's hourly rate. If your cleaner charges a flat rate per turnover instead, use that.
2. Linen. Either a hire charge per set, or the real cost of owning and washing your own.
3. Consumables. Toilet paper, soap, body wash, shampoo and conditioner, dishwasher tablets, bin liners, tea, coffee, milk. Everything a guest uses up.
4. Travel and access. Paid parking, a trip to a key safe across town, a building that needs a fob collected.
5. Deep cleans. The periodic jobs a turnover does not reach, spread across the stays between them.

Step 1: labour, from real time on site

Start with how long the clean actually takes. These are typical times on site from our own turnover records across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, for one cleaner with linen arriving clean:

If you wash linen at the property, add two to three hours to the time, and pay for them. That single line often doubles the labour on a small unit. Our guide on how long an Airbnb clean takes covers the other things that add time: pools, decks, walk-ups and building access.

Once your cleaner has done a few turnovers at your property, swap the typical figure for your real one. It is the most important number in the whole calculation.

Step 2: linen per stay

If you hire linen, this is easy. Your supplier prices a set for your bed configuration, and that is your linen cost per turnover.

If you own your linen, the real cost per stay has three parts, and most hosts only count the first:

• Washing. Either a commercial laundry charge per load or set, or the time, power, water and detergent to do it at the property.
• Replacement. Sheets and towels wear out, and guests stain them with fake tan, makeup and sunscreen. Take what you spend on linen in a year and divide it by the number of turnovers.
• Stock. You need about three sets per bed to keep a rotation going. That money sits in a cupboard instead of your account.

Our linen hire vs buying guide compares the options side by side.

Step 3: consumables per stay

Total what you spend on guest consumables over a month and divide by the number of stays. Do not cost it from a single booking. A two-night couple and a five-night family use very different amounts, and the average is what your fee needs to cover.

Stock to the longest booking on your calendar, not the average one. Running out of toilet paper on night three costs more in a review than the roll ever cost. If your cleaner restocks for you, check whether stock is billed at cost or marked up, and use whichever number you actually pay.

Step 4: travel, access and anything unusual

Paid parking near a CBD tower, a key handover, a building that only allows trades through a loading dock at certain times. If it costs your cleaner time or money every turnover, it is a cost of the clean. Put it in.

Step 5: build in deep cleans

A turnover resets the property for the next guest. It does not reach inside cupboards, upholstery, curtains, blinds, window tracks or the build-up behind appliances. That work is done as a deep clean every few months, and it is a real cost of hosting that most hosts forget to price.

To build it in, take the cost of one deep clean and divide it by the number of turnovers you expect between deep cleans. If you do a deep clean each quarter and run around thirty turnovers in that time, each stay carries one thirtieth of it. Add that to the per-stay total.

A worked example

Here is the full calculation for a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment with hired linen. Swap each line for your own numbers.

Now run the same property with owned linen washed on site. Labour becomes 4.5 to 5.5 hours times the rate, linen becomes your washing and replacement cost, and the clean will struggle to finish inside a 10am to 3pm window. The fee goes up and the risk of a late check-in goes up with it.

How your cleaning fee affects bookings

A cleaning fee is charged once per stay, so its weight depends on how long the guest stays. Divide your fee by the nights booked and you see what the guest sees:

• On a one-night stay, the full fee lands on one night.
• On a two-night stay, it adds half the fee to each night.
• On a seven-night stay, it adds a seventh of the fee to each night.

Guests compare total prices, fees included, and platforms increasingly show the total up front. A high fee on a short stay makes you look expensive next to a similar listing with a lower fee and a higher nightly rate, even when the total cost is close.

There are a few ways to handle this:

• Split the cost. Put part of the turnover cost in the fee and the rest in the nightly rate. Short stays look cheaper. Long stays pay a little more per night.
• Set a minimum stay. A two-night minimum stops the fee landing on a single night and cuts out one-night turnovers altogether.
• Check your listing settings. Some platforms let you set different fees by stay length. Check the platform's current host terms and settings before relying on one.
• Price by season. In peak periods, when a property books regardless, a full-cost fee is easy to hold. In quiet months, carrying some of it in the rate can win the booking.

Whatever you choose, the total of fee plus nightly rate across a typical stay should cover your full turnover cost. If it does not, every booking is losing a little money in the cleaning line.

Review it twice a year

Cleaner rates, linen prices and consumable costs move. So does your booking pattern. Check your real time on site, your consumables spend and your average stay length every six months, and adjust. If you work with us, our monthly invoice itemises consumables per property, which makes that review a matter of reading one page. You can see what a turnover covers, how consumables restocking is billed, or ask for a quote on your property.