09 Nov Airbnb cleaning fee: are you over or under charging?

What’s the correct amount to charge for your Airbnb cleaning fee?

I wrote about the right amount a few years back (check out it out here). Why am I going over it again? Because I saw some ridiculous cleaning fees- a host was charging $300 when their nightly rate was $150. And because one of my friends just become a host. He was charging $20 for a one-time Airbnb cleaning fee, but his nightly rate was $70.

Somewhere between these two extremes (overcharging vs. undercharging) lies the right amount.

How to charge Airbnb cleaning fees on Airbnb?

Here are the steps:

Go to Your Listings on airbnb.com.
Click Pricing at the top of the page.
Next to Cleaning fee, click Edit.
Enter your cleaning fee, then click Save.

It’s pretty easy, right?

How much to charge for your Airbnb cleaning fee?

This really depends. Let’s take my friend, let’s call him Mike.

Mike’s charging $70 per night and his Airbnb cleaning fee is only $20. I’d say, in his case, he’s undercharging a bit. The formula that I use is at the minimal 50% of your nightly rate.

So, in Mike’s case, it should be $35.

If you’re a guest, you’re probably thinking: “he’s doing his cleaning anyway, so why is he charging so much?” To answer the guest’s question: it’s because $35 allows him to recoup the cost of his time and supplies. If Mike spends an hour cleaning then that’s at least $20 an hour. Inflation makes things more expensive. And hosts should adapt to the CPI.

Now, on the other hand – there are “bad” hosts that are overcharging. In the example that I mentioned earlier- that host was charging 2x of his daily rate. If you were a guest, you’d probably be pissed off if you saw the “breakdown of fees.” On a side note: Airbnb is getting better at showing the cleaning fee during a guest’s search. I suspect, they are going to adjust their search algorithm a bit.

What’s the maximal you should charge for your Airbnb cleaning fee?

I’d say, 100% of your daily rate is the max you should use. So, if you’re charging $100 a night then $100 is the maximal for your Airbnb cleaning fee. How do you justify this to guests? Well, simple. The cleaning is done by a professional. I pay cleaners $35 an hour and it usually takes about 2 hours to clean a 1-bedroom apartment and 3 hours to clean two bedrooms.

In short: 50% to 100% of your daily rates should be okay. Of course, I don’t know your market and it’s ultimately up to you. But that should give you a quick ‘gauge.”

What are you charging? Leave a comment below?