What the data shows
AirROI, a short-term rental data firm, compared 538,717 US entire-home listings that charged a cleaning fee in both October 2025 and September 2026. The median fee rose from $150 to $169. More than one in four of those listings raised the fee by almost exactly 15%, which is the increase that leaves a host with the same payout after Airbnb’s 15.5% single host fee. About one in four left the fee unchanged.
The timing follows the fee. In the month Airbnb announced the switch for most remaining hosts, July 2026, about one listing in eight raised its cleaning fee by 15%. By September the share had doubled. Hosts are not raising fees because cleaning got dearer; they are passing a platform fee through.
The average Airbnb cleaning fee in 2026, by bedroom count
The median is the better average here, because a few very large homes pull a plain average up. US entire-home listings, September 2026, per AirROI, with what reaches the host after Airbnb’s 15.5%.
A median is not a target. It says what hosts charge, not what a clean costs. In Charleston, independent cost guides put a turnover at roughly $95 to $220 depending on bedrooms, a hot tub or pool and the laundry load, and a four-bedroom beach house with pool towels sits at the top of that range before the platform takes its cut.
What a high Airbnb cleaning fee does to bookings
Two findings in the same data set cut against raising the fee past what the clean costs. Listings charging more than one and a half times the local median for their size booked about five percentage points fewer nights than typical homes. And listings with no cleaning fee at all booked about seven points fewer, because the nightly rate carries the cost instead and the listing looks dear in search. The fee that books is the one that matches the clean.
From November 20, the fee also has to cover more of the work. Airbnb’s new house rules policy stops hosts requiring guests to strip beds, wash dishes or take trash off-site, so whatever guests were doing at checkout moves to the cleaner. What the November 20 rules allow.
How much to charge for an Airbnb cleaning fee now
In this order:
A Fluffy turnover is a flat per-turn rate set after a walkthrough, from $150, and it already includes stripping every bed, washing and putting away dishes left behind and handling the bins. The fee you build on it does not change with how the last guest left or with what the platform decides next.
Sources
This summary reflects the platform’s published policy on October 30, 2026. Platforms revise these pages, so check the source before changing a listing.
