Cleaning fee on Airbnb and Booking: how to set it up, what commission each platform takes and how it affects the price the guest sees

Short answer: on Airbnb cleaning is a fee added to each booking, with the option of charging less for stays of one or two nights. On Booking it is a cleaning supplement which, if it is mandatory, is included in the total price the customer sees from the very first moment. Both platforms charge their commission on the cleaning too. And as both compare the total price with that of similar flats, an expensive cleaning fee pushes you down in searches even if the nightly price is good.

How do you set the cleaning fee on Airbnb?

From a computer (October 2026):

1. Click Calendar and select the listing.
2. Click Pricing and then Fees.
3. Click Cleaning fee, add or edit the amount.
4. Click Save.

Airbnb offers two amounts:

• Standard cleaning fee: charged on all stays or, if you turn on the other one, on stays of more than two nights.
• Short-stay cleaning fee: a lower amount for bookings of one or two nights, which you can turn on and off whenever you like.

Which amount applies is decided by Airbnb when the booking comes in, according to the number of nights. Three details: if you create a special offer, the cleaning fee is not included automatically and you have to add it; if a confirmed booking is changed, check that the cleaning fee matches the new length; and the guest does not get that amount back at the end of the stay.

And on Booking?

For a house or an apartment (hotels have to ask Booking for it):

1. Sign in to the extranet and go to the Property tab.
2. Click Policies and scroll down to Additional charges and supplements.
3. Click Edit and tick Yes under "In addition to the room or apartment price, will guests have to pay any supplement?".
4. Under Type of supplement choose Cleaning supplement, fill in the details and click Save.

You can check how all your charges look in Property → VAT/taxes/charges. Booking's technical documentation for management software (channel managers) allows a cleaning charge per stay, per night, per person per night or per person per stay, and setting different amounts by date or by room type.

Mandatory or optional?

It is the decision that most changes what the customer sees on Booking. Under European consumer rules, Booking distinguishes:

A check-out clean that everyone pays is mandatory and must have a specific amount: Booking no longer accepts mandatory charges "that cannot be calculated" or whose "amount may vary", and if it finds them it removes them from the listing and you must not charge them. On Airbnb there is no such choice: the cleaning fee applies to all bookings.

Do they charge commission on the cleaning?

Yes, both:

• Booking: the commission is a percentage of the total amount of the booking, which includes the room rate and any additional charge, such as cleaning. It does not charge commission on local taxes such as the tourist tax.
• Airbnb: the single fee paid by the host (15.5 % for most, October 2026) applies to the nightly price and to the fees you add, such as cleaning, pets or extra guests. For every €100 of cleaning, Airbnb keeps €15.50 plus 21 % VAT: about €18.76 in total.

That is why the supplement has to cover what cleaning costs plus the platform's commission on that amount. Each platform's figures, with an example, are in What Booking, Airbnb and Vrbo charge.

How does the guest see it?

• Booking: if the supplement is mandatory, the customer sees it added to the total price of their stay on the property page.
• Airbnb: cleaning fees are added to the total price and appear itemised as a separate line on the checkout page. Since December 2022 Airbnb has offered travellers the option of seeing the total price in search results, with all fees before taxes.

Does it affect the listing's position?

Yes. Airbnb says its algorithm compares the total price and quality with similar listings in the area for those dates, and that a high total price can put the traveller off booking. When it launched total price display, it announced that it would prioritise it over the nightly price when ranking results. Booking counts price among the factors of its default sort order, together with the clicks and bookings the property receives.

In practice, a high cleaning fee mainly penalises short stays, because it is spread over fewer nights. Airbnb recommends that the amount should cover the cost of cleaning and not be a way to earn more, and advises those starting out not to add it until they have some positive reviews. The alternative is to include the cleaning in the nightly price, or to use the reduced amount for one or two nights.

What does the Andalusian regulation say?

Decree 28/2016 (art. 8.1) requires the price to be offered per night and to include "in all cases" water, electricity, air conditioning and heating, cleaning on arrival of new guests and bed linen, bathroom linen and household items. How this fits with itemising cleaning as a supplement on the platform, always published before booking, we explain in Prices and seasons. What a changeover clean includes and how it is organised is in Cleaning and bed linen.

What does a manager do with this?

They set up cleaning as a separate supplement, mandatory and with a fixed amount, paid by the guest, and check that the total price stays competitive against similar flats, especially for short stays. In our case, the 15 % + VAT commission is calculated on what the owner is paid by the platforms not counting cleaning, so the supplement does not inflate the manager's commission (what commission a manager charges).