The average Airbnb cleaning fee in the United States is $161.10 per stay, though what you’ll actually pay depends heavily on the size of the property. A private room averages around $47, a one-bedroom runs about $96, and a two-bedroom typically costs $141.60. Larger properties climb steeply from there, with five-bedroom listings averaging $357 in cleaning fees alone.
Cleaning Fees by Property Size
Property size is the single biggest factor in what you’ll pay. Based on first-quarter 2025 data from AirDNA, which tracks short-term rental markets, here’s how fees break down:
- Private room: $47.10 average
- One-bedroom: $96.00 average
- Two-bedroom: $141.60 average
- Five-bedroom: $357.00 average
These are averages, so there’s real variation within each category. A studio or one-bedroom apartment might charge anywhere from $40 to $80, while a two-bedroom can range from $90 to $155. Location, local labor costs, and the quality of furnishings all push fees higher or lower. A beachfront condo with white linens and a hot tub costs more to turn over than a basic apartment with laminate floors.
Why Cleaning Fees Vary So Much
Hosts set their own cleaning fees, and most base them on what it actually costs to prepare the property for the next guest. Professional turnover cleaners charge between $25 and $60 per hour depending on the market, with some charging flat rates instead. A typical flat rate for a two-bedroom home might be around $100. That covers laundering all linens, sanitizing bathrooms and kitchens, restocking supplies, and a walkthrough to check for damage or missing items.
In higher-cost areas, cleaning labor is more expensive, and listings often reflect that. The U.S. has roughly 1.5 million listings that charge cleaning fees, and 89% of all U.S. listings include one. That’s among the highest rates in the world. In parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, far fewer listings charge separate cleaning fees at all, often rolling the cost into the nightly rate instead.
Some hosts deliberately set cleaning fees high and nightly rates low, which can make a listing look cheaper in search results at first glance. Others fold cleaning costs into the nightly price entirely and list a $0 cleaning fee. Neither approach changes the total cost to you, but the way it’s structured affects how the listing appears when you sort by price.
How Airbnb Displays Cleaning Fees
Airbnb now shows the total price of a stay, including the cleaning fee and all other fees before taxes, directly in search results. This change rolled out globally, so you no longer need to click into a listing to discover a surprise $200 cleaning fee at checkout. The total price including taxes is always displayed before you finalize a booking.
This makes it much easier to compare listings on an apples-to-apples basis. A property with a $120 nightly rate and a $200 cleaning fee may actually cost more for a short trip than one charging $160 per night with no cleaning fee. The math shifts depending on how many nights you stay.
How Stay Length Affects the Real Cost
Cleaning fees are charged once per reservation, not per night. That means a $140 cleaning fee on a one-night stay effectively doubles your cost, but spread across a week-long trip, it adds just $20 per night. This is why short stays on Airbnb can feel disproportionately expensive compared to hotels, while longer stays often deliver better value.
If you’re booking a weekend getaway, pay close attention to cleaning fees relative to the nightly rate. For a two-night stay at a two-bedroom with a $141 cleaning fee, that fee adds roughly $70 per night to your effective cost. For a seven-night stay, it drops to about $20 per night. When you’re comparing Airbnb to a hotel for short trips, factor in the cleaning fee on a per-night basis to get a realistic comparison.
Cleaning Fee Refunds if You Cancel
If you cancel during the free cancellation window for your reservation, the full cleaning fee is refunded along with everything else. Cancel outside that window, and the cleaning fee is treated the same as the nightly price. Whatever portion of the nightly cost is refundable under the host’s cancellation policy applies equally to the cleaning fee.
One exception: reservations booked before April 21, 2025 follow an older rule where the cleaning fee was refunded in full as long as you canceled before check-in, regardless of the cancellation policy. For anything booked after that date, the newer rules apply.
How to Minimize What You Pay
The most effective way to reduce the per-night impact of cleaning fees is to book longer stays. Beyond that, filtering search results by total price (which Airbnb now supports) lets you spot listings where hosts have rolled cleaning into the nightly rate or set lower fees. Some hosts offer discounts for weekly or monthly bookings that also reduce the cleaning fee’s relative weight.
You can also look for listings with cleaning fees noticeably below the averages for their size. A one-bedroom charging $50 instead of $96 may indicate the host cleans the property themselves rather than hiring professionals, or that they’re in a lower-cost market. That’s not necessarily a red flag, but checking recent reviews for cleanliness comments is worth the extra minute.