OTAs
Vrbo Cleaning Fee: What Is It and How to Set It?
Not sure whether you need to set a Vrbo cleaning fee for your listing? Setting a cleaning fee protects Vrbo hosts from absorbing the cost of cleaning up after their guests depart. Read this article to learn everything you need to know about the cleaning fee and how it will impact your listing.
Not sure whether you need to set a Vrbo cleaning fee for your listing? Cleaning fees help hosts get their vacation rental properties cleaned and ready before new guests arrive for their stay. Setting a cleaning fee also protects Vrbo hosts from having to absorb the cost of cleaning up after their guests depart.
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the cleaning fee and how it will impact your listing. If you list your vacation rental on other OTA websites, you may also want to check out our post about Airbnb cleaning fees.
What Is a Vrbo Cleaning Fee?
Almost all Vrbo properties charge a cleaning fee, which covers the cost of cleaning their rentals after guests check out. It’s an extra charge added to the total booking fee, and it stays the same no matter how many guests book a vacation rental or how long they stay.
Hosts set a cleaning fee, which may vary depending on the location, property size, and the cleaner’s rates. It could include basic cleaning, laundering linens, restocking supplies, and anything else that helps the owner clean and prepare their rental for their next guests.
Not all hosts choose to charge a cleaning fee because they feel it drives their booking price up too much. Then they generally either do their own cleaning (which is a lot of work) or pay a cleaning company.
Before you decide whether to charge a Vrbo cleaning fee, consider the key features of your rental—its type, size, and target audience. For example, if you’re marketing your Vrbo listing as a luxury stay, it’s more likely that your guests won’t mind the extra fee for cleaning.
You should also assess your competition to determine whether you should increase your nightly rate by adding a cleaning fee. If your competitors charge a cleaning fee, you can do the same. It can also help you determine an acceptable rate to charge for your Vrbo listing.
Charging a cleaning fee can also help you discourage your guests from booking shorter stays. For example, a $70 fee spread over several nights might be reasonable and affordable. But this price may seem too high for a single night and may put travelers off from booking a short stay.
Depending on the size of your property, you may decide to handle the cleaning yourself or hire professional cleaners. Their services can be fairly costly, so adding a Vrbo cleaning fee can help you cover the cleaning costs.
And with Hospitable, you’ll be able to automate turnover cleanings and save a lot of time. You just need to create task rules and add cleaning checklists, and Hospitable will assign tasks to your cleaners automatically based on booking events, such as check-ins and checkouts. We’ll notify your cleaners about new jobs via email or SMS.
With Hospitable Tasks, you can invite your cleaners and maintenance staff to their teammate portals. Here, you can assign work across your properties, track job progress in real time, and pay your teammates when the job is done. Your teammates can use their portals to accept or decline upcoming jobs, share updates, complete checklists, upload photos, report issues, and receive payments for completed work.
You can also opt for Autopilot Marketplace Cleanings, which operate similarly to our Task rules but are handled end-to-end by Hospitable. If you book a Marketplace Cleaning, we’ll find a vetted local cleaner through Cleanster, our partner's network of cleaners. We’ll schedule the job, show you the updates inside Hospitable, and pay your cleaner from your Marketplace balance once the cleaning is done.
How to Set Your Vrbo Cleaning Fee
Vrbo cleaning fee is a standard fee that hosts can apply to all dates on their Rates calendar. You can add a cleaning fee to your listings by logging in to your Vrbo Owner Dashboard. If you have more than one listing, you need to select the listing you want to edit and follow these steps:
First, you need to select the Calendar in the menu, and in Settings, go to the Pricing tab.
Under Additional charges, select Fees.
Under Standard fees, select Cleaning fee and enter your amount.
Once you enter all the required information, click Save.
Note that this way, you can apply any changes to your fees only to future bookings. If you have already confirmed a reservation and want to add a cleaning fee, you will need to send your guest an additional payment request.
Vrbo Cleaning Fee Refund
In some instances, it’s possible. If guests cancel their stay before check-in time, the cleaning fee will be refunded in full. But if a guest cancels after their booking has already begun, they won’t receive a refund of the Vrbo cleaning fee, regardless of your cancellation policy.
Vrbo Cleaning Policy
Guests want to be sure that the property they book has been properly cleaned—it helps them feel comfortable during their stay. That’s why Vrbo encourages hosts to take measures to ensure safety and well-being for guests. Vrbo rules for owners don’t include any mandatory cleaning procedures for hosts, but Vrbo offers guidance on best practices for cleaning and disinfecting vacation rental properties.
As a host, you can set your Vrbo cleaning policy and add specific cleaning measures for your property based on regional and industry cleaning standards, including:
Enhanced cleaning practices;
Clean your property with disinfectant;
Set several days between guests;
Ensure check-in and checkout with no person-to-person contact;
Disinfect high-touch surfaces, for example, handles, light switches, and faucets;
Wash towels and bedding at 60ºC/140ºF between stays.
You should communicate this information in the Policies section of your property page so that your potential guests understand what they can expect before they book. Guests can also message a host on the platform to ask about cleaning practices and ensure the property will be clean and safe for their arrival.
Remember that travelers can search for rentals that other Vrbo users have rated highly for cleanliness by using the “Highly rated for cleanliness” filter under the “More filters” section. Besides, travelers can see a cleanliness rating above the average nightly rate for listings with 4+ star cleanliness reviews.
As you can see, vacation rental cleaning is essential to your success, so we recommend following a comprehensive cleaning checklist and using the necessary cleaning products.
If you want to become a successful host, you should do your best to provide excellent service to guests and ensure effective communication at every stage of the guest journey. Running a vacation rental requires significant time and effort. It can feel like a full-time job, so consider using all-in-one short-term rental software like Hospitable to streamline operations and save time.
Our STR super app offers advanced features and AI-powered tools, helping automate 90% of repetitive tasks. With Hospitable, you can manage your listings on multiple platforms stress-free and grow a sustainable business faster.
The Bottom Line
Including a Vrbo cleaning fee to cover the cost of professional cleaning or supplies is a simple way to maintain your vacation rental property and keep it spotless while delighting your guests during their stay. But remember to keep your cleaning fee competitive and ensure the guest experience justifies the charge every time. Making your guests happy will help you get more 5-star guest reviews, more bookings, and maximize your revenue.
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Common questions
What is a Vrbo cleaning fee?
A Vrbo cleaning fee is a fixed extra charge added to the booking total to cover the cost of preparing the property for the next guest. It can cover basic cleaning, laundry, restocking supplies, and other turnover work, and the amount is set by the host.
Can a high cleaning fee hurt Vrbo bookings?
Yes. A cleaning fee increases the total booking price, so an excessive fee can make a listing less competitive, especially for short stays where the fee represents a larger share of the total cost. Hosts should compare local competitors and keep the fee in line with the property type, size, target audience, and actual cleaning costs.
Is the Vrbo cleaning fee refundable?
Yes, but it depends on when the guest cancels. If the reservation is canceled before check-in, the cleaning fee is refunded in full. If the guest cancels after the stay has already started, the cleaning fee is not refunded, regardless of the cancellation policy.
Should you charge a cleaning fee or include cleaning in the nightly rate?
Either approach can work. Charging a separate cleaning fee lets you recover turnover costs directly, while including cleaning in the nightly rate can make the total price feel simpler to guests. The better choice depends on your property, local competition, cleaning costs, target audience, and typical length of stay.
How can you automate Vrbo turnover cleaning?
Hospitable can automate turnover cleaning by assigning tasks to cleaners based on booking events such as check-ins and checkouts, sending job notifications, tracking progress, and managing checklists through teammate portals. Hosts can also use Autopilot Marketplace Cleanings, where Hospitable sources a vetted local cleaner, schedules the job, shows updates, and handles payment from the Marketplace balance.