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Vrbo Cleaning Fee: How to Set It and What to Charge

On Vrbo, the cleaning fee is a standard fee you set yourself in the Owner Dashboard, and travelers see it upfront before they book. What you charge should cover what you pay your cleaner per turnover plus supplies and laundry, adjusted for the size of the home and the length of stays you usually get.

I list on Airbnb and Vrbo, and the cleaning fee is one of the settings I see hosts copy from one platform to the other without thinking about it. That usually works, but Vrbo has its own setup screens and, if your home is in California, its own rules about what guests can be asked to clean at checkout. Here is how I approach it.

Where to set the cleaning fee on Vrbo

Vrbo keeps fees in a specific place, and it matters that you use it. According to Vrbo's help article on managing fees, you set it like this:

1. Log in to the Owner Dashboard and choose the listing if you have more than one.
2. Go to Calendar, then Settings, then the Pricing tab.
3. Under Additional charges, select Fees.
4. Enter your cleaning fee under Standard Fees, which covers extra guests, cleaning and pets.
5. Save.

A few details from that same help page are worth knowing:

• Vrbo asks you to enter fees in the Fees section, not in your description or other text fields. A fee written into the description is easy for a guest to miss and hard to enforce.
• Mandatory fees are shown to travelers upfront.
• Changes to fees only apply to future bookings. If you raise your fee today, existing reservations keep the old amount.
• If you set a tax percentage in Rules and Policies, you get a checkbox to apply tax to each fee. In regions where Vrbo handles taxes, that checkbox does not appear.

If you connect Vrbo through a property management system, your fees may be managed there instead. Vrbo has a separate article on managing fees for integrated accounts, so check which system is the source of truth before you edit anything.

How to decide what to charge

Your cleaning fee is not a profit line for most hosts. It is there to cover the real cost of resetting the home. I build mine from the bottom up.

Start with your actual turnover cost

Add up what one turnover really costs you:

• What you pay your cleaner or cleaning company for a standard turnover
• Laundry, whether that is done in house or sent out
• Consumables used per stay: toilet paper, soap, dish tabs, trash bags, coffee
• A small amount set aside for linen and towel replacement

If you are not sure what to pay your cleaner, I wrote a separate guide on how much to pay an Airbnb cleaner. The same thinking applies to Vrbo.

A worked example

This is an example only, not a benchmark. Say a three bedroom home costs you:

In this example, a cleaning fee around $175 covers the turnover without making money on it. Some hosts round up a little to cover the occasional extra time after a messy stay. Others fold part of the cost into the nightly rate so the total looks lower in search. There is no single right answer, but you should know your true number before you choose.

Think about stay length

Vrbo guests often book longer stays than a typical Airbnb weekend, especially for family trips and larger homes. A flat cleaning fee is easy for a seven night stay to absorb. On a two night stay it can feel heavy next to the nightly total. If most of your Vrbo bookings are long, a full fee makes sense. If you get a lot of short stays, consider whether a higher minimum stay or a slightly lower fee converts better. My article on setting a cleaning fee versus raising the nightly rate walks through that tradeoff.

Checkout tasks and the cleaning fee

Guests notice when a cleaning fee is high and the checkout list is long. On Vrbo there is also a policy angle if your home is in California.

Vrbo's California Cleaning Tasks Policy applies to California vacation rentals on Expedia Group brands. In short:

• Required cleaning tasks must be listed in the checkout instructions or a similar cleaning tasks field. Tasks mentioned elsewhere in the listing are not mandatory.
• Allowed tasks should take only a few minutes, need minimal tools already in the home, and relate to the guest's own use of the property, such as taking out trash or stripping beds.
• Hosts cannot require general upkeep such as mowing, washing windows or deep cleaning bathrooms.
• Hosts cannot charge a financial penalty or file a damage protection claim for incomplete cleaning tasks.
• Guests may be entitled to reimbursement of cleaning fees collected out of compliance with the policy.
• If you plan to leave a negative review for incomplete tasks, you must disclose that in the listing so guests see it before they book.

California also passed AB 2202, operative July 1, 2025, which requires short term rental listings to disclose any extra fees or other penalties for guests who do not complete required end of stay cleaning tasks.

Even outside California, I keep my Vrbo checkout list short: start the dishwasher, put trash in the bins, leave used towels in the tub. My cleaner handles the rest, which is what the fee pays for.

When the guest leaves a mess

Your standard cleaning fee covers a normal turnover. It does not cover a party, pet hair all over a no pets listing, or stained mattresses. Those are damage questions, not cleaning fee questions.

Vrbo's fee page notes that if you need to charge a guest for something on an existing reservation, you send a payment request before the stay is complete. After the stay, damage goes through your damage protection or deposit process. I cover that in my guide to filing a Vrbo damage claim.

Either way, what decides the outcome is evidence. You need dated photos of the home before the guest arrived and after they left. This is where a consistent photo routine pays off. In Clyn, your cleaner takes the turnover photos in the app, Clyn's AI checks every photo against your standard before the next guest, and blurry photos get retaken. You end up with a dated photo record for every stay, which is the thing you will want if you ever have to show a platform what the home looked like.

Keep the fee consistent across platforms

If you list on Airbnb and Vrbo, keep your cleaning fees in a sensible relationship to each other. Guests compare, and a large gap looks odd. The platforms charge hosts and guests differently, so the totals will not match exactly, but your cleaning fee should reflect the same real cost on both. My guide to how much to charge for an Airbnb cleaning fee uses the same cost based method.

A quick checklist before you save

• Fee entered under Standard Fees, not in the description
• Amount based on your real turnover cost
• Tax checkbox set correctly for your area
• Checkout instructions short and listed in the checkout field
• California listings reviewed against the cleaning tasks policy
• Your cleaner has a clear photo checklist for every turnover

FAQ

Can I charge a different cleaning fee on Vrbo than on Airbnb?

Yes. Each platform has its own fee settings. Many hosts keep the cleaning fee similar on both so the totals look consistent, but you set each one separately.

Does changing my Vrbo cleaning fee affect existing bookings?

No. Vrbo says fee changes only apply to future bookings. To charge something on an existing reservation, you send the guest a payment request before the stay is complete.

Can I charge a Vrbo guest extra for not doing checkout chores in California?

Under Vrbo's California Cleaning Tasks Policy, hosts cannot charge a financial penalty or file a damage protection claim for incomplete cleaning tasks. Keep required tasks short and listed in the checkout instructions.

If you want every turnover checked before check in, you can try Clyn free on one property at clyn.com.