How much should I charge per extra guest on Airbnb?

The basics

An extra guest fee should cover what each added person costs you. That's mostly towels and sheets to wash, a little more cleaner time and the toilet paper, soap, coffee, water and power one more person uses. It starts with your own costs, not with what nearby listings charge.

Because the platform takes its fee from the extra guest fee too, divide your cost by what's left of each dollar. The same gross-up works for a pet fee and a cleaning fee.

How Airbnb's extra guest fee works

From Airbnb's article Add an extra guest fee to home listings (opens in a new tab), checked Oct 31, 2026:

• You choose how many guests can book before the fee is charged. Airbnb's example: if your listing is set for 6 guests, you can charge for each guest after the second or third guest and so on.
• You set one amount that applies to each additional guest. You can't set different amounts for different guests or by age.
• Adults and children count toward the guest count. Infants don't count and are never charged the fee.
• A new fee only applies to future reservations.
• For a confirmed booking, send a trip change request to update the guest count. If the new count reaches the number you set, the fee is included in the updated price.

To set it on desktop: Calendar, select the listing, Pricing, Fees, Extra guest fee, enter the amount, Save. The Airbnb app and mobile browser have the same steps under Settings.

Airbnb's additional fees page (opens in a new tab) calls it "a flat fee for each additional guest beyond a default number you choose." Neither page says in so many words whether it's charged per night or once per stay. Airbnb's page on guests who want to bring extra people (opens in a new tab) describes a trip change "that includes the additional cost per night for the extra guests." Check a booking's price breakdown in your payout report to see how your fee is applied, and plan per night until you do.

Airbnb's service fees page (opens in a new tab) says service fees are a percentage of the nightly price and any fees charged by the host. The extra guest fee is one of those fees, so the platform fee applies to it.

Where to start the fee

Start it at the number of guests your normal turnover already covers. If the beds in your bedrooms sleep 4 and a sofa bed takes you to 6, set the fee to start after guest 4. The 5th and 6th guests mean a sofa bed to make up, two more towel sets and more of everything else. Those are the costs the fee is for.

Your maximum guest count stays the same. The fee only prices the guests between the number you choose and your maximum.

What one more guest costs you

The linen calculator shows how many towels and sheet sets each added guest needs in your home. For example, see towels for 6 guests.

The formula

1. Per-stay cost = extra laundry + extra cleaner time.
2. Per-night cost = consumables + utilities.
3. Cost per extra guest per night = per-stay cost ÷ your average nights per stay + per-night cost.
4. Extra guest fee = cost per night ÷ (1 − fee rate). Round up so the fee always covers the cost.

A worked example

Hypothetical costs for one extra guest:

Now the gross-up:

Check at 15.5%: the platform takes $1.09 of a $7 fee, which leaves $5.91. That covers the $5.50.

Check it against short and long stays

A per-night fee spreads the per-stay laundry over the nights. Short stays pay less of it. Here's the $7 fee for one extra guest, at 15.5%:

If many of your stays are 1 or 2 nights, base the fee on your shortest common stay instead of the average. At 2 nights: $9.00 ÷ 2 + $2.50 = $7.00 a night, and $7.00 ÷ 0.845 = $8.29, so $9. Our one-night stays answer shows the same effect on your whole turnover.

If your payout breakdown shows the fee is charged once per stay instead, price it for your average stay: $9.00 + $2.50 × 3 = $16.50, and $16.50 ÷ 0.845 = $19.53, so $20. That leaves $16.90 after 15.5%.

Putting it in your listing

Set the fee in your listing's pricing, so it's part of the price guests see when they book. When a guest asks to bring more people after booking, the extra guests reply helps you answer and points them to a trip change, so the fee and the guest count stay on the reservation. Your house rules are the place for visitor rules. To see what the whole stay leaves you, use the stay profit calculator.