Almost everyone hates Airbnb’s cleaning fees: those pesky fees tacked on to your vacation rental bill that supposedly cover the costs of getting the place ready for the next visitors. Travelers don’t like spending, and hosts don’t like charging them either.
Dennis Shirshikov, an Airbnb host who owns a rental property in upstate New York, says cleaning fees are the most common complaint he gets from clients.
“We are strongly considering cutting them,” he says.
And Shirshikov could have his way. Airbnb is set to roll out big changes that won’t end cleaning fees, but could make them more transparent to customers and incentivize hosts to reduce or waive them entirely.
WHAT ARE AIRBNB CLEANING FEES AND HOW MUCH DO THEY COST
Airbnb cleaning fees are a one-time charge that hosts cover to cover costs like doing laundry or flushing toilets between guest stays. They are separate from the base price and are in addition to service fees or charges for optional add-ons.
A June 2022 NerdWallet analysis of 1,000 US Airbnb bookings with check-in dates in 2022 or 2023 found the average cleaning fee per listing for a one-night stay was $75.
But cleaning fees vary widely. An Airbnb spokesperson told NerdWallet that cleaning fees are on average less than 10% of the total cost of the reservation at properties that charge them. Meanwhile, NerdWallet’s analysis found that cleaning fees amounted to about 25% of the total price paid. In fact, nearly 40% of listings had cleaning fees ranging from 20% to 29.9% of the list price.
And in some listings, the cleaning fees were higher than the nightly rate.
WHY AIRBNB’S CLEANING FEES ARE SO ANNOYING, AND AIRBNB’S PLAN TO FIX IT
In addition to the cost, Airbnb’s cleaning fees can seem particularly brutal just considering their presentation. Airbnb’s search page displays the nightly rate on most interfaces in large, bold text, masking the total price. Therefore, the total price, presented in slightly colored letters, can be easy to overlook.
To add to the confusion, nightly rates often don’t correlate to the total price anyway. An ad with a nightly rate of $40 could go up to $90 due to a $40 cleaning fee and a $10 service fee. Another listing with a $60 nightly rate could be cheaper ($73 total) if it has a $13 service fee and no cleaning fee. A traveler on a $50 budget might be enticed by the $40 listing, only to owe more than if they had booked the $60 listing.
But that will change in December, when Airbnb plans to roll out a toggle so travelers can opt-in to search results to show the full price, including all fees. Users who do not change the total price view will still see only nightly rates.
The company in November 2022 also adjusted its search algorithm to rank listings by best total price instead of simply taking nightly rate into account, which may influence hosts to reduce or eliminate cleaning fees.
WHAT IF THERE WAS NOTHING TO CLEAN?
A minority of listings do not charge cleaning fees. Airbnb says 45% of listings worldwide do not charge these fees. However, only 15% of the listings available in NerdWallet’s analysis did not have a cleaning fee. The disparity is partly because NerdWallet only looked at listings in the United States, while Airbnb’s number is based on listings around the world, where rates are less common.
Shirshikov says he would prefer to publish a final price that includes the cleaning fee for two reasons. First, he suspects that guest satisfaction would increase, and second, he believes that guests would leave the place cleaner.
Airbnb has warned hosts that cleaning fees can backfire if they create unrealistic expectations of how much guests will offer to help with the purchase.
“With a higher (cleaning) fee, guests may expect to walk away from your space upon check-out as they would a hotel room,” according to a note posted on Airbnb’s website before it was announced. ‘start the cleaning changes.
This is exactly what Shirshikov has experienced.
“If they pay a cleaning fee, sometimes they leave the place looking like it’s been lived in and not cleaned for months,” he says, adding that he’s come back to find food all over the floor and drinks spilled on the beds.
IF EVERYONE HATES AIRBNB CLEANING FEES, WHY CHARGE THEM?
For hosts who clean their own rentals, the money could cover the cost of cleaning supplies. Often, this money is simply passed on to professional cleaning services that handle the cleaning.
Sébastien Long, the founder and CEO of Texas short-term rental company Lodgeur, says he thinks the average cleaning fee of $75 is pretty low.
Factoring in staff wages, supplies and replacement items, Long says he estimates it costs roughly $22 to deliver a hotel room. If Airbnb outsources the work, Long estimates it could cost $175 to clean a two-bedroom apartment, including $100 for the cleaning company, $50 for laundry services and $25 for supplies such as coffee or mini bath bottles
Cleaning costs for Airbnb hosts tend to be higher than for hotels because they likely can’t take advantage of economies of scale. For example, hotels have commercial-sized washing machines. Also, listings are often geographically distributed, so there is the inefficiency of traveling miles between properties. And short-term rentals tend to be much larger and have more space to clean (like kitchens) than hotel rooms.
But other hosts use the fees simply as a way to extract more money from travelers, clearly overcharging for cleaning fees, a practice Airbnb warns against.
“Try to use the cleaning fee to cover cleaning costs, not to make extra money,” according to a 2021 note from Airbnb to hosts.
And then there are hosts who charge cleaning fees and still ask guests to clean themselves. That, too, will probably end soon. Along with more transparent cleaning fees, Airbnb said it also plans to require hosts to post cleaning requirements in the listing before guests book. Guests will also be able to leave feedback about the checkout process.
Airbnb also clarified that payment requests should be reasonable. On your next Airbnb stay, if the host is receptive to changes, you may not need to vacuum or strip the beds. All you have to do is turn off the lights, throw out the trash, and lock the door.
For now, however, Shirshikov says he’s continuing to charge cleaning fees because he’s not sure whether users will flip the switch.
“I’d like to see how many people actively turn on the full price view,” he says. “Unless guests use it, it won’t mean much to how we price.”