Should I drop my Airbnb cleaning fee and raise the nightly rate?

The basics

A cleaning fee charges every stay the same amount. Folding it into the nightly rate charges by the night instead. Over many stays of your average length, the two can bring in the same money. Stay by stay, they don't: short stays pay less toward the turnover and long stays pay more.

Guests compare the full price either way. Airbnb's How pricing works for homes (opens in a new tab) page says "When searching and viewing listings, the price shown includes any fees," though taxes may not show until checkout in some places. Its additional fees page (opens in a new tab) says the cleaning fee is shown separately to guests unless the total price feature is turned on. So dropping the fee changes how the price is split, not the total a guest sees for a typical stay.

The formula

Nightly increase = cleaning fee ÷ average stay length

Round up to the cent. This replaces the fee before platform fees. If your platform fee applies to both the nightly price and the cleaning fee, it takes the same share of the money either way, so you don't need to adjust for it.

If instead you start from your turnover cost and want to keep that amount after a 15.5% fee:

Nightly increase = turnover cost ÷ (1 − fee rate) ÷ average stay length

The table for a $100 cleaning fee

All figures are rounded up to the cent.

A worked example

Hypothetical listing: $140 a night, $100 cleaning fee, 3-night average stay and a 15.5% single fee on nights and cleaning.

With the fee, a 3-night stay:

1. Stay total: 3 × $140 + $100 = $520.
2. Platform fee: $520 × 0.155 = $80.60.
3. Payout: $439.40.

Without the fee, at $140 + $33.34 = $173.34 a night:

1. Stay total: 3 × $173.34 = $520.02.
2. Platform fee: $520.02 × 0.155 = $80.60.
3. Payout: $439.42.

The 3-night stay comes out the same, give or take the 2 cents from rounding up. The platform fee didn't change, because it applies to both.

Who gains and who loses

Now the same $33.34 increase on stays of other lengths, compared with collecting a $100 fee:

Short stays end up undercharged for the turnover, and long stays overcharged. A one-night guest gets the cleaning for a third of the price. A week-long guest pays more than twice the old fee.

Which option fits

• Keep the cleaning fee if your stays vary a lot in length, or if you take many one- and two-night stays. Every stay pays for its own turnover.
• Fold it in if most stays are close to the same length, or if you want long stays to carry more of the cost. Check that short stays still clear your turnover cost.
• Split it if you want a middle path. Keep a smaller fee and add the rest to the nightly rate, using the same formula for the part you move.

You can also set a minimum stay so the shortest bookings don't run at a loss. Are one-night stays worth it shows that math.

Before you change anything

Work out your real turnover cost first. How to set an Airbnb cleaning fee walks through each line, and the cleaning fee calculator grosses it up for the platform fee. For the current fee rates, see how much Airbnb takes from hosts.