Costs and pricing
What cleaning fee should you charge your guests?
The cleaning fee charged to the guest should cover the real cost of the turnover, with no margin on top. For a two-bedroom south of Lisbon that means €60 excluding VAT, or about €74 including it. Charging below cost moves the difference onto your margin; charging well above it cuts conversion on short stays.
This is the line in your pricing that most owners set at random — and the one where the mistake repeats on every booking of the year.
The principle
A cleaning fee is not a revenue stream. It is cost recovery. The right figure is the real cost of the turnover, no more and no less:
cleaning fee = cost of the turnover, including VAT since the guest is the end consumer
Treat it as margin and you make the booking more expensive and lose conversion. Set it too low and you pay the difference yourself, on every booking, every month.
What to charge by property type
The reference cost is the turnover price:
| Property type | Clean per turnover | Average duration |
|---|---|---|
| T0 / T1 | €48 | 60–90 min |
| T2 | €60 | 90–120 min |
| T3 | €78 | 120–150 min |
| T4 | €95 | 150–180 min |
| House | from €140 | 180–240 min |
To which VAT is added at the statutory 23 %, the guest being the end consumer:
| Property type | Cost excluding VAT | Fee to charge, including VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bed | €48.00 | €59.04 |
| 2-bed | €60.00 | €73.80 |
| 3-bed | €78.00 | €95.94 |
| 4-bed | €95.00 | €116.85 |
| House | from €140.00 | from €172.20 |
Rounding up to the nearest euro is common practice and causes no problem.
What happens if you charge too little
A two-bedroom with 7 turnovers in August and the fee set at €40 instead of €60:
- You recover €280 instead of €420
- You lose €140 in a single month
- Across a four-month season at similar occupancy, more than €500
And that amount appears nowhere in your accounts as a loss: it appears as missing margin, which is far harder to spot.
And if you charge too much?
The effect is more visible but just as expensive. On a two-night stay, a €90 fee on a two-bedroom is a disproportionate addition to the total, and platforms show the total to the guest. The booking goes elsewhere.
Rule of thumb: if the cleaning fee exceeds 25 % of the total value of an average stay, it is too high — and the problem is probably not the fee, it is the minimum stay.
Working out the net cost
The cleaning fee is what separates the total invoiced from the real cost of the service:
net cost = total invoiced including VAT − cleaning fee recovered
For a two-bedroom in August with 7 turnovers on the Ativo plan, the total invoiced is €811.06 including VAT. With €407.40 of cleaning fee recovered, the net cost drops to roughly €404, a little over 13 % of €3,050 in revenue.
That is the figure to use when judging whether management makes sense. You can run it for your own case in the calculator.
Three decisions that matter more than the number
- A minimum stay in high season. Two or three nights removes the disproportionate-fee problem at source.
- A separate fee, not built into the night. It keeps you competitive in price sorting.
- Revisit the figure when the cost changes. If the turnover table rises and your fee stays put, you fund the difference without noticing.
Frequently asked questions
Separate fee or built into the nightly rate?
Separate, in the overwhelming majority of cases. Built into the nightly rate it penalises you in platform price sorting and loads long stays disproportionately. Separate, it is transparent and the guest compares it with the market rather than with your margin.
Does the cleaning fee count in the platform's commission base?
On most platforms yes: commission applies to the total the guest pays, cleaning fee included. One more reason not to inflate it. With Rotação the opposite holds — the cleaning fee comes out of the base before the commercial commission is calculated.
What if I get a lot of one-night stays?
The fee becomes disproportionate and drives bookings away. The answer is not to lower it but to set a two or three-night minimum in high season. A turnover costs the same after one night as after seven, so the fee cannot flex.
Sources
Data verified on 15 September 2026. Municipal regulations change. Always check the city council portal before making a decision.