How Much Should I Charge to Clean an Airbnb

If you clean Airbnbs, this question decides whether the work pays. Charge too little, and the rate doesn't cover your time, your travel, and your supplies. Charge too much, with no scope to back it up, and a host will quietly find someone cheaper. There's no single number for every cleaner, every home, and every town.

I've hosted on Airbnb since 2018, and I've watched good cleaners lose money the same way: they price the beds and the bathrooms, and they forget the laundry, the restocking, the drive, and the extras. This page is written for you, the cleaner setting your own price. The host side lives in How Much to Pay Your Airbnb Cleaner, and in the Airbnb cleaning rate guide.

Two jobs, one price

A turnover is really two pieces of work, and your price has to pay for both. One piece is the cleaning: bathrooms, kitchen, floors, beds made, trash taken out. The other is getting the home guest-ready: fresh sheets and towels, supplies topped up, and a quick look for anything broken or missing. A host isn't buying your hours. They're buying a home that's ready for the next guest, at a price you set for that scope.

Per turnover, or per hour?

Most cleaners start by charging per hour, because it feels safe. In practice, per hour rewards a slow clean and punishes a fast, efficient one. You don't know what you'll earn until you're finished, and your host doesn't know what it will cost until it's done. A flat amount per turnover works better for me, and it's the rate I'd want my cleaner to set.

Hourly still fits deep cleans, first visits, and messy stays. Once you know the scope, switch to a per-turnover price and write it down.

What moves your price

These are the factors that move a turnover price the most. Walk through them for each home. You'll land on a number you can defend, and explain.

Time it, don't guess it. Time three normal turnovers, from walk-in to lock-up, and take the honest average. Don't time your fastest clean, or a disaster clean.

Beds and baths. Every extra bed adds sheets to strip, wash, and remake. Every extra bath adds scrubbing in the rooms guests look at first. Count both before you set a number.

Laundry and linen turnover. Laundry can quietly double a turnover. Washing every set on site is a different job from a clean where fresh linen is already on hand. Ask how linen works at each home, and price it.

Restocking. Small work, item by item, and it adds up: toilet paper, trash bags, dish soap, coffee, shampoo, and soap. Agree a par level, so "enough toilet paper" means a number, not a feeling. If you're buying supplies, agree how that's paid.

Location, travel, and your local market. Rates move by market. A cleaner in a city with high rents and long drives can't charge the same as one in a small town with short drives. Travel time is work time. Price the drive in, or charge for it separately.

Turnover versus deep clean. A turnover resets the home between guests. A deep clean goes after what a turnover skips: grout, shower glass, the backs and undersides of appliances, fans, and vents. They're separate jobs with separate prices, so settle which one you're doing before you arrive.

Pets and other extras. Pets, extra guests, and messy stays start most disagreements, because the price gets argued after the clean. Settle it before. A pet fee, a rush fee, a late cancellation fee, and a holiday rate are all ordinary, as long as the host has agreed to them in writing.

How to work out your number

You don't need a single number from this page. You need a method, run it for each home.

Start with your timed average, from three normal turnovers. Add travel, laundry time if you're doing it on site, restocking time, supply costs if you're buying them, and the extras for that home: pets, stairs, extra beds, a hot tub, or a big kitchen. Then check that total against what you need to earn, and against what other cleaners charge in your area.

If the number is far below what you need to earn, the scope is too big for the rate. Shrink the scope, raise the rate, or walk away. If it's far above what hosts in your area pay, check your timing again.

Check your number with the free Turnover Cleaning Price Calculator. STR mode is built for Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com turnovers. Regular-clean mode is for non-STR homes. Use the mode that matches your home.

Put your rate in writing

Put your rate, your scope, and your extras on paper and hand the host a copy. A written per-clean rate avoids the surprise a per-hour bill can bring. The printable Cleaner Rate-Sheet Template can help.

Then use the same scope every time. Work from the same turnover checklist, and send the host a photo of each finished room. If the host wants something extra on the day, agree the amount in a message, before you do it.

Invoice at that rate, every time

This is where most cleaners leak money, and it's the quietest leak of all. You do the work, you agree the rate, and then you don't invoice it, or you invoice it late, or you invoice it from memory, and a laundry charge or a pet fee just disappears.

Invoice every turnover, at the agreed rate, with the extras as separate lines. Match the invoice to the booking calendar dates, so no turnover gets missed. Keep a dated invoice for every job, not just a text thread or a Venmo note.

And if you've done work you haven't invoiced yet, don't write it off. CleanSlate can backfill dates in the app, so you can invoice it. That's different from accounting export: invoices from before you connect to QuickBooks, Xero, or FreshBooks don't export to those apps.

Where CleanSlate fits

CleanSlate is built by STR hosts, for cleaners first, and hosts second. It turns a booking calendar into an invoice, so you don't have to re-type each turnover by hand, or chase a host to get paid.

It works in three steps. First, connect one iCal link per Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com listing. CleanSlate merges them into one calendar per property. Second, the app builds the invoice from the calendar, at the rate you agreed, with your extras as separate lines. Third, the host approves it and pays by card through your own Stripe, in US dollars, with Apple Pay and Google Pay where supported. If the host prefers Venmo or Zelle, those are payee options on the invoice, and the app directs the host to them.

Invoices flow into QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and Wave. CleanSlate never texts your clients automatically, and it doesn't do dispatch, payroll, or property management.

A rate you can stand behind

You don't need to be the cheapest cleaner in your town. You need to be the cleaner whose rate is clear, whose scope is written down, and whose invoice matches the work, every time. That's what keeps good hosts, and it's what lets you raise your rate when your costs rise.

Time three turnovers. Price the laundry, the restocking, and the travel, not just the clean you can see. Put it in writing. Invoice it every time. If a host won't agree to a written rate, or won't pay on time, that's information too.

Start your 75-day free trial, no credit card. After that, it's $89.99 per year founding, or $12.99 per month, with unlimited properties. If it doesn't save you time on invoicing, don't keep it.

Related articles

• How Much to Pay Your Airbnb Cleaner: the host side of this same question, how a host sets a fair per-turnover rate, and how to agree it in writing.
• Airbnb Cleaning Rate Guide: how hosts set the cleaning fee they charge guests, and how that fee relates to what they pay you.