Crystal Clear Cleans
Airbnb cleaning cost in London: what moves the price
Airbnb cleaning cost in London depends on rooms, beds, linen and timing. What drives a changeover quote, and how Airbnb's fee rules shape the fee you set.
Changeover pricing advice written for US hosts quotes dollars against US wages and US platform settings, none of which carries across. A London quote starts from UK wage law, the size of the property and the shape of your calendar, and the cleaning fee you put on the listing then has to survive Airbnb's own fee rules.
This guide covers what changes the price a cleaner gives you, and how to set the fee your guests pay so it covers that price.
What a changeover quote is built from
What sets the Airbnb cleaning cost in London
We couldn't find an independent, checkable source for a going rate for an Airbnb changeover in London, so this page doesn't quote one. What a cleaner can price is the work, and the work changes with the property and the calendar. The table sets out what moves a quote and what to tell the cleaner about each.
| What changes the quote | Why it moves the price | Put this in your request |
|---|---|---|
| Bedrooms and bathrooms | More rooms to reset and more toilets, showers and basins to sanitise on every visit | The count of each, plus any en suites |
| Beds made up | Each bed is stripped and remade, and a sofa bed or bunk is one more bed on the list | How many beds are slept in per stay, and whether every bed is made regardless of guest numbers |
| Where the linen comes from | Clean sets stored on site can go straight on; laundry adds a separate job | How many sets per bed you keep, or the name and delivery time of your linen service |
| Frequency | A regular rota is easier to plan than a one-off | Changeovers expected per month, and your busy weeks |
| Same-day turnarounds | The whole clean has to fit between a checkout and a check-in on the same day | Your listing's checkout and check-in times |
| Access | A concierge sign-in or a parking restriction adds steps before the clean starts | How the cleaner gets in, and where they can park or unload |
| Consumables | Topping up toilet roll, soap and bin bags is part of the visit if you keep stock at the property | Where your supplies are kept and how many of each to put out |
The wage floor for an employed cleaner
If the person doing the clean is employed as a worker, there's a legal floor under what they're paid. Government guidance puts the National Living Wage at £12.71 an hour from April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over, and it changes every April. The Living Wage Foundation's voluntary London rate, announced on 15 October 2026, is £15.45 an hour. Neither number is a price: a business quoting per visit will usually also need to cover travel between jobs, products, equipment and insurance.
£12.71 an hour
National Living Wage
The legal minimum for an employed cleaner aged 21 or over, from April 2026. A self-employed cleaner running their own business isn't covered by it.
Setting the cleaning fee on your listing
How Airbnb treats the fee you set
Airbnb describes the cleaning fee as a one-off charge the host sets, and says it forms part of the total price. Guests see it folded into the price shown in search, and at checkout the Price breakdown lists the nightly price plus any fees. That makes the fee part of the headline number a guest compares against the flat next door.
Then Airbnb takes its service fee. Its own pages say the single host fee, which it is moving every home host onto, applies to the cleaning fee as well as the nightly price, and that most hosts pay 15.5%. A fee set equal to the cleaner's price therefore pays out less than the clean costs.
Short stays and the gap between guests
A clean after a one-night stay is still a full changeover. Airbnb lets you set a short-stay cleaning fee, a lower fee for 1 or 2 night bookings alongside your standard one, which you can switch on or off. It also lets you set a minimum trip length and a preparation time between reservations in your calendar, and blocks nights automatically to fit both.
A longer minimum stay spreads one clean over more nights. A preparation night takes the pressure off a same-day turnaround, which removes one of the rows in the table above. Both cost you bookable nights, so you trade some occupancy for a lower cleaning cost per night, and Airbnb says booking settings like these can keep a listing out of some search results.
What you can ask guests to do at checkout
Airbnb's checkout instructions are a set menu: return keys, lock up, turn things off, throw rubbish away, gather used towels, plus a short space for additional requests. Guests see them before they book. The ground rules say the cleaning fee covers standard cleaning between stays and that a host can't charge a guest for skipping a task. Airbnb also lets guests report excessive checkout tasks after they leave. Keep the list short and leave the cleaning to the cleaning fee.
Getting a changeover quote
Work through the right-hand column of the table and you have a quote request. Crystal Clear Cleans cleans short lets in Uxbridge, Hayes, Ealing and Hounslow, among other places in the three boroughs it covers. The Airbnb and short let cleaning page sets out what a changeover includes and what it leaves out. When you're ready, send the rooms, beds, linen arrangement, monthly changeovers, your checkout and check-in times and your postcode through the quote form.
The numbers, and where they come from
Every figure on this page traces to a source you can open.
- Airbnb's single host fee
- Airbnb's Help Centre states that under the single fee structure the entire service fee is deducted from the host's payout, and that most hosts pay 15.5%, with remaining hosts typically paying 14%-16%.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- Existing bookings
- Airbnb's Help Centre states that after a host migrates from the split fee, bookings made before the switch are unaffected, even if they occur after the switch.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- The older split fee
- Airbnb's Help Centre states that under the split-fee structure, which is being phased out, most hosts pay a 3% service fee, calculated on the nightly price and any fees charged by the host.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- The fee applies to cleaning
- Airbnb's Resource Centre (13 Oct 2026) states that the single service fee applies to your nightly price and any optional fees you add, like a cleaning or pet fee.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- VAT on the service fee
- Airbnb's Help Centre states that VAT may be applicable to its service fees, and that the service fee shown to hosts and guests is VAT inclusive, where applicable.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- Where to find your fee
- Airbnb's Resource Centre states that opening any booking in your calendar, or any transaction in your earnings dashboard, shows a price breakdown with the service fee on its own line.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- Short-stay cleaning fee
- Airbnb's Help Centre states that hosts can offer guests who book 1 or 2 nights a lower cleaning fee than the standard one, and that the fee charged is set at booking by the length of stay.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- What the cleaning fee covers
- Airbnb's ground rules state that cleaning fees set by hosts are only meant to cover standard cleaning between reservations, and that hosts may not charge guests for failing to do specific checkout tasks.
- Source: airbnb.co.uk
- National Living Wage
- Government guidance states that from April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. The rates change on 1 April every year.
- Source: gov.uk
- London Living Wage
- The Living Wage Foundation states that the voluntary London Living Wage is £15.45 an hour for 2026-27, announced on 15 October 2026, covering all boroughs in Greater London. Employers have until 1 May 2027 to adopt it.
- Source: livingwage.org.uk
Common advice that is wrong
-
False
“The cleaning fee goes straight to the cleaner. Airbnb only takes its cut from the nightly rate.”
Airbnb's host service fee is charged on the cleaning fee too, so the amount you set is not the amount you receive.
Airbnb's Resource Centre, updated 13 October 2026, says the single service fee applies to the nightly price and any optional fees a host adds, naming the cleaning fee. Its Help Centre puts that fee at 15.5% for most hosts and says Airbnb is moving every home host onto it. The older split fee also took its 3% from fees charged by the host. Check the service fee on a recent payout to see what your account is actually charged.
Source: airbnb.co.uk
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False
“Guests can't see the cleaning fee any more, so it doesn't matter how high it is.”
The price guests see in search includes any fees, and the checkout price breakdown shows the nightly price plus any fees and taxes.
Airbnb's Help Centre says that when guests search and view listings, the price shown includes any fees, and that the Price breakdown on the checkout page shows the nightly price plus any fees and taxes. The fee is no longer a surprise added at the end, but it still counts: a high cleaning fee now raises the headline price a guest compares in search.
Source: airbnb.co.uk
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False
“Collect the cleaning money from guests outside Airbnb and the fee can't touch it.”
Airbnb doesn't permit hosts to collect fees related to a reservation outside its platform unless it has expressly authorised it.
Airbnb's Help Centre states that hosts aren't permitted to collect any fees related to Airbnb reservations outside the platform, unless expressly authorised. The limited exceptions it describes (some software-connected hosts, hotels, certain taxes and deposits) don't cover a host charging a guest for cleaning. Asking a guest to pay for cleaning by bank transfer breaks that rule.
Source: airbnb.co.uk
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False
“Give guests a list of chores and you can charge them when they skip it.”
Airbnb's ground rules say hosts may not charge guests for skipping specific cleaning or checkout tasks, though they may rate and review them.
The ground rules for home guests say cleaning fees are only meant to cover standard cleaning between reservations, and that hosts may not charge guest fees for failing to perform specific cleaning or checkout tasks. Airbnb's hosting guidance adds that guests can report excessive checkout tasks, and that listings with repeated low ratings from unreasonable tasks may be removed. Leaving a place needing a deep clean is a different matter under the same rules.
Source: airbnb.co.uk
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Partly true
“Any rate you agree with a changeover cleaner is fine, however long the clean takes.”
A self-employed cleaner running their own business sets their own rate, but anyone employed as a worker aged 21 or over is owed at least the National Living Wage.
Government guidance lists self-employed people running their own business among those not entitled to the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage. For workers aged 21 and over, gov.uk puts the National Living Wage at £12.71 an hour from April 2026. A cleaning company has to pay workers aged 21 or over at least that for the time they work, which is one reason a long clean at a low flat price doesn't add up.
Source: gov.uk
Common questions
If you would rather we did it
Crystal Clear Cleans is a cleaning company working across the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow. Tell us the property and we send a written price.
Local pages where this applies
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Tell us about the property
Send us the rooms, how often you want a clean and your postcode, and we'll reply with a written price.
Coverage
Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow
Hours
Mon to Sun, 6am to 10pm