Every host asks the same question sooner or later: what should my cleaning fee be? Most answer it by guessing, or by copying the listing down the street. We wanted a real answer, so we pulled the cleaning fee from 69,102 US vacation rental listings in all 50 states.
Key findings
- The national median is $185 (mean $205), but fees range widely. The middle 80% of listings charge anywhere from $95 to $335.
- Bedrooms drive the fee. The median is $120 for a 1-bedroom, $200 for a 3-bedroom, and $300 for a 5-bedroom, adding about $50 per bedroom from 3 bedrooms up.
- The fee is a big share of a short stay. The typical fee equals 60% of one night, and one listing in five charges more than a full night.
- Most hosts guess. 15% of listings, over 10,000 hosts, charge exactly $100, $150, or $200.
- Hawaii and Massachusetts cost the most ($250 median). Ohio costs the least ($130).
- Utah is two markets. Salt Lake City’s median is $97. Park City’s is $210 and Heber City’s is $250.
How to set your cleaning fee in 5 steps
- Start with the median for your size
Bedroom count is the strongest predictor of the fee, so benchmark against homes like yours, not the national average.
Studio $901 BR $1202 BR $152 3 BR $2004 BR $2505 BR $300 - Adjust for bathrooms
Bathrooms move the number too. A 3-bedroom with one bath has a median of $150; with three baths it is $225.
- Adjust for your market
State medians run from $130 (Ohio) to $250 (Hawaii and Massachusetts). Apartment-heavy cities tend to run lower, and resort towns full of large homes tend to run higher. Our cleaning fee calculator compares your fee to similar listings near you.
- Make sure it covers a real turnover
Get an actual quote for a full turnover (laundry, bathrooms, restocking, supplies, travel) and price from that, not from a round number that feels right. 15% of listings sit on exactly $100, $150, or $200.
- Check it against one night
The typical fee equals 60% of one night’s rate, and 1 in 5 listings charge more than a full night. Guests now see the total up front, so a fee above one night can cost you short-stay bookings.
Enter your market, bedrooms, and bathrooms and see how your fee compares with similar listings near you.
The average hides a wide range
A single number does not tell a host much. Two homes of the same size, in the same state, can be priced twice as far apart. Here is how the whole market spreads out:
Most fees bunch between $100 and $250, then a long tail stretches past $500. That tail is mostly large houses in mountain and beach towns, covered in section 06.
Size changes everything
Bedroom count is the strongest predictor of the fee. If you compare yourself to one number, compare yourself to the median for your size.
Scale runs from $0 to $600. The shaded band shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
From 3 bedrooms up, each added bedroom adds almost exactly $50 to the median. Bathrooms matter too: a 3-bedroom with one bath has a median of $150, while a 3-bedroom with three baths sits at $225.
“When a host tells me they pay their cleaner $100 for a 3-bedroom, I can tell you exactly what that cleaner is skipping. Usually it’s the laundry, sometimes the bathroom deep-clean. It’s not a discount. It’s a corner.”
David Stuart, Founder, Clean CasaResort states lead the way
State medians run from $130 in Ohio to $250 in Hawaii and Massachusetts. The top of the list is driven by islands, beaches, lakes, and ski towns, where homes are larger and cleaners are harder to find in season.
Most expensive
Least expensive
States with at least 200 listings.
The priciest cities are not the famous ones
The most expensive markets are wine country, lake towns, and beach and island communities full of large homes. The cheapest are urban markets dominated by apartments, where a lower fee is often the right price.
Most expensive
Least expensive
Cities with at least 30 listings. Medians across all property sizes, so markets with larger homes rank higher. Dashed line is the national median.
Utah is two very different markets
Utah is where we work, so this is the part we know best. Three of the ten cheapest cities in the country are on the Wasatch Front, while the resort towns an hour away charge well above the national median.
Utah overall: $150 median across 3,340 listings.
Property type explains most of the split. Salt Lake County leans toward apartments and small condos, while Park City, Heber, Bear Lake, and the Zion corridor lean toward large homes. But not all of it: Utah’s 1 to 3 bedroom listings charge $24 to $45 less than the national median for the same size, while Utah’s 4 bedroom and larger homes match the national numbers exactly. Plenty of smaller Utah listings are underpriced.
In Park City, homes with 4 or more bedrooms have a median fee of $415 (191 listings). Our price for a typical 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath Park City turnover is $385, just under the middle of that market. That is where we want to be.
We walk every property before we price it, and we price each home on its own. No flat portfolio rates. On time for every checkout.
What hosts get wrong
Picking a round number
of listings charge exactly $100, $150, or $200. Fees priced from real costs would spread out. These stack up on a few numbers that feel right.
Forgetting guests see the total
listings charge a cleaning fee larger than a full night. With total pricing shown in search, a heavy fee costs bookings, especially short stays.
Pricing below real cost
or less is what a quarter of Salt Lake City listings charge. No professional crew can deliver a full turnover at that price.
When the fee is set below what a turnover costs (fair wages, payroll costs, supplies, linen handling, travel, insurance), something gets skipped or the cleaner eventually walks away. Hosts see it as rushed turnovers, missed damage, and a new cleaner every few months.
“The hosts who call me worried about cleaning fee backlash are almost never the ones charging $400. They’re the ones charging $95 on a 3-bedroom and wondering why they’re losing money.”
David Stuart, Founder, Clean CasaWho charges $500 or more?
This is a big-house story, not a greed story. Apartments make up 19% of all listings but almost none of the top 1%, and studios never appear there. Large houses, villas, and townhomes in places like Hilton Head, the Catskills, Park City, and Big Sky fill the top of the list. A 6 bedroom home with a hot tub and a full laundry load is a full day for a two-person team.
“People ask us about volume discounts for 20 doors. We don’t do them. Every property gets priced on its own: size, pets, hot tub, laundry load.”
David Stuart, Founder, Clean CasaGuests see the full price now
The FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, in effect since May 12, 2025, requires short-term lodging to show the total price, cleaning fee included, up front. California also requires the full nightly price, including cleaning fees, to be shown before taxes (Avalara MyLodgeTax).
The question is less how much you charge and more whether the guest saw it before they clicked book.
How we built the dataset
What we collected. Publicly listed cleaning fees from US vacation rental listings published by professional management companies and booking sites, collected April to September 2026. We recorded the fee as shown to the guest, plus bedrooms, bathrooms, city, state, property type, and the quoted nightly rate.
What we kept. 94,096 listings collected, narrowed to 69,102 for analysis: US listings only (all 50 states plus DC and US territories), and fees between $20 and $1,000. Fees outside that range were almost always data entry errors or covered something other than cleaning. When the same property appeared on more than one site, we counted it once (12,676 listings collapsed into 6,335 properties).
Limits worth knowing. The data leans toward professionally managed homes, which may price differently than owner-managed listings. Fees are a snapshot with no seasonal adjustment, and nightly rates are the rates quoted for our sample dates. We do not have square footage. Where a question needed data we do not have, we left it out.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average cleaning fee for a short-term rental?
Across 69,102 US listings, the median cleaning fee is $185 and the mean is $205. The middle half of listings charge between $135 and $250.
How much should I charge for cleaning my Airbnb?
Start with the median for your bedroom count (about $120 for a 1-bedroom, $152 for a 2-bedroom, $200 for a 3-bedroom, and $250 for a 4-bedroom), then adjust for your market and what your cleaner actually charges. Your fee should at least cover the real cost of a full turnover. Our free STR cleaning fee calculator gives you a number for your market and size.
What cleaning fee should I expect on a 3-bedroom rental?
The national median for a 3-bedroom is $200, and the middle half of 3-bedroom listings charge between $160 and $250. A 3-bedroom with one bath has a median of $150, and with three baths, $225.
Why are short-term rental cleaning fees so high?
A turnover is a full reset of a home: laundry, bathrooms, kitchen, restocking, and a damage check, often on a tight same-day window. Unlike a hotel, the cleaner travels between properties and hauls linens. And because the fee is charged once per stay, it looks large on short bookings.
Which states have the highest cleaning fees?
Hawaii and Massachusetts lead with a $250 median, followed by Nevada ($230), then New Hampshire, Vermont, and California ($225). Ohio has the lowest median at $130.
What is the average cleaning fee in Utah?
Utah’s median is $150, but it depends heavily on where you are: about $97 in Salt Lake City and $83 in Ogden, compared with $210 in Park City, $250 in Heber City, and $295 in Garden City on Bear Lake.
See how your fee compares with similar listings in your market.
Ready to outsource your turnovers?
Clean Casa runs 200+ turnovers each month from Ogden to Salt Lake City, plus Utah County, Park City, Heber, and the St. George area. We walk every property before we price it, and we price each home on its own.