How to Improve Your Booking.com Cleanliness Score
To improve your Booking.com cleanliness score, fix the repeat misses guests mention in reviews, verify every turnover before check in, and keep your listing photos and description honest about the home's condition. Cleanliness is one of the category ratings guests can give on Booking.com, and because reviews stay visible for years, consistency matters more than any single great clean.
Below is how the score works according to Booking.com's partner help pages, and the system I would use to move it.
How Booking.com review scores work
From Booking.com's partner article Everything you need to know about Guest Review Scores, as of October 2026:
- Guests give an overall score from 1 to 10. It is the only question they must answer to submit a review.
- Category ratings are optional. Guests can also rate Cleanliness, Comfort, Value, Facilities, Location and Staff. Booking.com says these optional ratings do not influence the overall score.
- Your Guest Review Score is the mean of all your overall review scores.
- Reviews stay on your reviews page for 36 months, then they are archived and your score is recalculated from the rest.
- Guests have 90 days after checkout to review, following an email Booking.com sends after they check out.
Two practical points follow. First, the cleanliness category does not feed into the overall number, but it is the clearest signal you get about how guests experienced the clean, so treat it as your early warning. Second, a guest who found a dirty bathroom will rarely give a high overall score, so cleanliness pulls on both.
The cleanliness commitment for homes
Booking.com's partner help center also has an article on its Minimal Cleanliness Score Commitment for properties listed as homes. Read the current version there for the threshold and what happens if a property falls below it, since the details can change and I could not confirm the live page at the time of writing.
Find out what guests are actually saying
Before changing anything, read your reviews for patterns.
- Export or list every review mentioning cleanliness from the last year, positive and negative.
- Tag each complaint by room and issue: hair in shower, dusty surfaces, stained towels, smell, kitchen grease, dirty floors.
- Count the tags. One or two issues usually account for most complaints.
- Match complaints to turnovers. Which cleaner, how tight was the window, how long was the previous stay?
The fix for "hair in the bathroom" is different from the fix for "musty smell". Counting tells you where to start.
Seven ways to raise the cleanliness score
1. Write a standard with photos
A checklist tells the cleaner what to do. Reference photos show what done looks like. Photograph each room staged the way guests should see it and share those photos with every cleaner. Start from a full Airbnb cleaning checklist; the tasks are the same on every platform.
2. Target the spots guests notice
Complaints cluster in a handful of places:
- Shower floors, drains and grout
- Toilet bases and behind the toilet
- Hair on floors, pillows and bathroom counters
- Under beds and sofa cushions
- Stovetops, microwaves and fridge shelves
- Towels and sheets with stains or yellowing
Add a line for each to the checklist and a photo angle for each to the after photos.
3. Verify every turnover before check in
Most cleanliness complaints are small misses that nobody saw before the guest did. A verification step on every turnover, not a monthly spot check, is what stops them. You can do this in person, through photos you review, or with a remote inspection service. See how to inspect your Airbnb without being there.
Clyn does this with AI. Your cleaner takes photos in the Clyn app, blurry or dark shots are sent back for a retake, and each photo is checked against your property's standard. You get a pass or a fix list while the cleaner is still on site.
4. Protect the turnover window
Rushed cleans cause misses. If your window is tight, measure your real turnover time and adjust check in, checkout or cleaner arrival. My guide on how long an Airbnb turnover takes shows how to time it.
5. Replace worn linens and towels
Guests often read stains and grey towels as dirty, even when they were washed. Set a replacement cycle and keep enough sets to rotate. Track par levels per property so a worn set can be pulled without leaving a bed short.
6. Deal with smells at the source
Smell is one of the few problems photos cannot show. Ventilate, clean drains and bins, check for damp, and schedule deep cleans for fabrics and mattresses.
7. Respond to reviews and fix what they point to
Booking.com's article on improving your Guest Review Score recommends thanking guests for reviews, positive or negative, and avoiding templated replies. For a cleanliness complaint, acknowledge the specific issue and say what you changed. Future guests reading the reply care more about the fix than the apology.
Handling a complaint during the stay
When a guest messages about cleanliness mid stay, speed is everything.
- Apologize and ask for a photo so you know exactly what they saw.
- Send your cleaner back or offer a practical fix the same day.
- Check the turnover photos to understand what was missed and why.
- Log it so you can spot a pattern.
A fast, visible fix can turn a likely low rating into a fair one. For more, see what to do when a guest says your Airbnb was dirty.
Track your progress
Every month, note:
| Measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Average cleanliness rating on new reviews | Shows current performance, not the 36 month history |
| Share of reviews mentioning cleaning problems | Catches issues even when ratings look fine |
| Complaints received during stays | Early warning before reviews arrive |
| Turnovers that needed fixes before check in | Shows whether verification is catching misses |
Because older reviews stay visible for 36 months, your overall picture changes slowly. Watch new reviews to see whether the changes are working.
FAQ
Does the Booking.com cleanliness rating affect my overall score?
According to Booking.com's partner help, the category ratings, including Cleanliness, are optional and do not influence the overall Guest Review Score, which is the mean of guests' 1 to 10 overall scores. A poor clean usually drags the overall score down too.
How long do Booking.com reviews count?
Booking.com says reviews stay on your reviews page for 36 months before they are archived, and the score is then recalculated.
How quickly can I improve my Booking.com cleanliness score?
It depends on how many new reviews you receive. Fixing repeat issues now means every new review reflects the better standard, but older reviews remain visible until they are archived.
If you want every turnover checked before check in, you can try Clyn free on one property at clyn.com.