Vrbo Cleaning Fee: What Is It and How to Set It? | Hospitable.com (2024)

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 absorbing 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 Vrbo Cleaning Fee?

Almost all Vrbo properties charge a cleaning fee, which covers the costs of cleaning their rentals after the guests have checked out. It’s an extra charge that is added to the total booking fee, and it stays the same no matter how many guests book a vacation rental and how long they stay there.

A cleaning fee is set by hosts and may differ depending on the location, size of the property, 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 do their cleaning (and that’s a lot of work) or pay the cost of hiring a cleaning company themselves.

Before you decide whether or not to charge a Vrbo cleaning fee, you should consider the key features of your rental—type of property and its size and your 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 look at your competition to determine if you should increase your nightly rate by including a cleaning fee. If your competitors are charging a cleaning fee, you can do it as well. It can also help you determine an acceptable rate to charge out for your Vrbo listing.

Depending on the size of your property, you may decide to handle the cleaning on your own or hire professional cleaners to do the job. Their services can be fairly costly, so adding a Vrbo cleaning fee can help you cover your cleaning costs. And with Hospitable.com, you’ll be able to assign tasks to your cleaning team automatically and save a lot of time.

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.

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 if you log in to your dashboard. If you have more than one listing, you need to select the listing you want to edit and follow these steps:

• First, you should click on the Calendar to expand the left navigation menu and choose Rates.

• In the top right corner, you’ll see the gear icon. Click on this icon and then click Fees.

• Select Fee type (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 the check-in time, the cleaning fee will be refunded to them in full. But if a guest cancels after their booking has already begun, they won’t receive a Vrbo cleaning fee refund 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 using the 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 a number of days between guests;

• Ensure check-in and check out 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 using the platform to ask about cleaning practices and make sure 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 using the filter “Highly rated for cleanliness” under the “More filters” section. Besides, travelers can see a cleanliness rating above the average nightly rate for listings that have 4+ star reviews for cleanliness.

As you see, vacation rental cleaning is essential for your success, so we recommend you follow a comprehensive cleaning checklist and use the necessary cleaning products.

The Bottom Line

Choosing to include a Vrbo cleaning fee is a simple way to maintain your vacation rental property and keep it spotless while delighting your guests during their stay. And making your guests happy will help you get more 5-star guest reviews and more bookings and maximize your revenue.

If you want to become a successful host, you should do your best to maintain excellent service for guests and ensure excellent communication. It requires much time and effort and may look like a full-time job, so the good idea is to use vacation rental software. Hospitable.com can help you automate your routine tasks, respond promptly to your guests’ inquiries, sync calendars, and pricing, and manage your listings on multiple platforms.