How Much Should You Charge Guests for Cleaning?

The cleaning fee is the line on an Airbnb listing hosts worry about most and explain least. Set it too low and you are subsidising every guest's stay out of your own margin. Set it too high with nothing to show for it, and it reads as a hidden charge rather than a real service. Getting it right starts with knowing what the fee is actually meant to cover.

What the fee is actually paying for

A cleaning fee on Airbnb should map to one thing: the cost of a real turnover clean between this guest and the next. Not a general maintenance budget, not a way to pad your nightly rate without it looking like one. In Malta that base cost runs 50 to 90 euro depending on bedroom count, and the fee you charge should sit close to that, not noticeably above or below it.

Charging meaningfully more than the clean actually costs is a common mistake, and guests increasingly notice. A cleaning fee that looks disproportionate to a one or two night stay is one of the most commented-on line items in Airbnb reviews, and it costs hosts bookings even when the nightly rate looks competitive.

Why undercharging is the quieter mistake

Undercharging gets far less attention than overcharging, but it does more damage over a year. A host who sets the fee below what a proper turnover costs is not saving guests money, they are eating the difference on every single booking, which adds up to a real number by December even though it never shows up as one line anywhere.

The instinct to undercharge usually comes from comparing against a nearby listing's fee without knowing what that listing's fee actually covers. A competitor charging less may simply be paying their cleaner less, skipping photo proof, or quietly accepting a lower standard. Matching their number without matching what stands behind it is not a fair comparison.

Add-ons change the number, and should be visible

If you offer a welcome bag, a reset clean for longer stays, or bins taken to the street, those add somewhere between 5 and 20 euro depending on which ones apply, and a guest paying for them should be able to see what they are paying for rather than finding it folded into one unexplained total. See the full pricing breakdown for exact figures by bedroom count and add-on.

A fee that is honest is also a fee you can defend

The real test of a cleaning fee is whether you could explain it to a guest who asked, in one sentence, without embarrassment. "It covers a full turnover clean with photo proof, including fresh linen" is a sentence you can say out loud. "It is roughly what everyone else charges" is not, and it usually means the number was picked rather than calculated.

It is also worth revisiting the fee whenever your cleaner's pay changes, since a fee frozen for years while what you actually pay a cleaner has moved is a fee that has quietly gone stale, either overcharging guests or undercharging your own margin without anyone deciding it on purpose.

Conclusion

Price the cleaning fee against what a turnover actually costs, not against a guess at what guests will tolerate, and you end up with a number that is both fair and easy to defend. See the full price list and coverage areas for the real figures by bedroom count.