How Much Should an Airbnb Cleaning Fee Be in Ireland?
Optus Glean works with Irish short-term let hosts and operators every week, and the cleaning fee is one of the first numbers a host has to get right. Set it too low and every stay quietly costs you money; set it too high and your booking conversion drops, especially on short stays. The fee should recover the real cost of the changeover — the clean, the linen, and the consumables — and nothing the guest will resent.
This guide gives you fee bands by property size for 2026, explains what the fee should cover, and shows how to balance cost recovery against conversion. The figures here are informational market guidance. For what a turnover actually costs to deliver, see our Airbnb cleaning cost guide for Ireland; to set the fee step by step, see the companion guide on how to set your Airbnb cleaning fee in Ireland.
Airbnb Cleaning Fee Bands by Property Size (2026)
Base your guest-facing fee on the real per-turnover cost. The table below shows the cost of a clean-only turnover (you supply your own linen) versus a full hospitality turnover (cleaner supplies and launders linen plus restocks consumables). Most hosts set the guest fee at or just below the full-turnover figure.
| Property Size | Clean Only | Full Turnover (linen + consumables) | Typical Guest Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bed apartment | €45–€55 | €60–€72 | €50–€70 |
| 2-bed apartment | €55–€65 | €75–€82 (hero €99 full) | €75–€99 |
| 3-bed house | €70–€85 | €95–€110 | €95–€120 |
| 4-bed house | €90–€110 | €120–€145 | €120–€150 |
The 2-bed full turnover at around €99 is the anchor figure for an Irish entire-home let. These prices are ex-VAT: cleaning services to hosts carry VAT at the standard rate of 23%, so a casual host pays roughly €121.77 gross on a €99 turnover, while a VAT-registered host over the threshold can reclaim it. The VAT registration threshold for services is €42,500 (goods €85,000), per Revenue.
What the Cleaning Fee Should Cover
A cleaning fee that only covers the labour of the clean is incomplete. A realistic Irish short-let changeover fee should recover three things:
- The clean itself — strip and reset every room to listing-photo standard. Benchmark your cleaner's real cost against the Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order floor of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set by the Workplace Relations Commission; casual gig cleaners often quote €40–€50 unverified, with no insurance or cover behind them.
- Linen and laundry — stripping, laundering and remaking beds to par-levels plus fresh towels. This is the single biggest cost after labour and the easiest one hosts forget to recover.
- Consumables — loo roll, soap, coffee, dishwasher tablets, bin liners and welcome items, replaced every turnover.
If your fee covers only the first of these, you are absorbing linen and consumables on every booking. Over a busy season that quietly removes a large slice of your margin.
Flat Fee vs Absorbed in the Nightly Rate
You have two levers: a separate flat cleaning fee, or a higher nightly rate with the cleaning cost baked in. The right choice depends on your average length of stay.
- Longer average stays (a week or more) suit a clear flat fee — spread across many nights it barely affects the headline price and it transparently covers the turnover.
- Short city stays (one to three nights) punish a high flat fee, because the guest sees it spread across very few nights. Here, keep the fee modest and absorb more of the cost into the nightly rate.
Model both against your real booking pattern. A €90 fee that wins on week-long bookings can lose you the two-night city-break market entirely.
How a High Fee Affects Conversion
Guests increasingly judge the all-in price, and booking platforms surface the total including fees. A cleaning fee that looks disproportionate to the nightly rate is a known conversion killer for short stays. After any fee change, watch your booking rate for two weeks and re-tune. The goal is full cost recovery at the highest fee the market will still book.
Why a Managed Programme Makes the Fee Easy to Set
The hardest part of setting a fee is not knowing your real per-turnover cost — it moves with no-shows, last-minute gig rates, and linen you re-buy because it went missing. A managed monthly changeover programme fixes that: you get a known per-unit changeover figure for each property, delivered to the same checklist every time by a named, PAYE-employed, Garda-vetted cleaner, with photo-proof of guest-ready state. With a fixed cost you can set a guest fee that recovers it cleanly and never have to guess again. The same programme keeps a dated turnover record for each unit — useful evidence as hosts prepare for the Fáilte Ireland Short-Term Letting (STL) Register, which becomes mandatory by 31 December 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions About Airbnb Cleaning Fees in Ireland
How much should I charge for an Airbnb cleaning fee in Ireland?
Optus Glean advises Irish hosts to set the guest-facing cleaning fee to recover the real per-turnover cost. As a guide, a 1-bed runs about €60–€72 a full turnover with linen, a 2-bed about €99, and a 4-bed about €120–€145. Set the fee at or just below that so it covers the clean without deterring bookings.
What is the average Airbnb cleaning fee in Ireland?
Most Irish entire-home listings charge a flat cleaning fee broadly in line with one full changeover: roughly €50–€90 for apartments and €100–€150 for houses, scaling with size, linen and consumables. There is no fixed market rate; hosts benchmark against comparable local listings and their own real changeover cost.
Should the cleaning fee cover linen and laundry?
Yes, if you supply linen. A full turnover includes stripping, laundering and remaking beds to par-levels plus fresh towels, which is the largest single cost after labour. A fee that covers only the clean and not the linen leaves you absorbing the laundry cost on every stay, quietly eroding your margin.
Does a high cleaning fee reduce bookings?
It can, especially for short stays, because guests see the fee spread across fewer nights. A €90 fee on a two-night stay reads as €45 a night; on a week it barely registers. If your listing skews to short stays, keep the fee modest and absorb more cost into the nightly rate, then watch your conversion.
Can I pass my cleaner's cost straight through as the fee?
You can, and a predictable per-unit changeover cost makes it simple. With a managed monthly programme you know the fixed per-turnover figure for each unit, so you can set a guest fee that recovers it cleanly. Remember cleaning services to hosts carry 23% VAT; a VAT-registered host can reclaim it.