Most Airbnb hosts answer “what does a turnover cost?” with one number: their cleaner’s fee.
If your cleaner charges $120, you say it costs $120.
That’s wrong. And it’s costing you.
The Real Formula
Here’s what a turnover actually costs:
Real Turnover Cost = Cleaner fee + Supplies consumed + Laundry + Your time + Incidentals
Let’s break that down with real numbers.
Cleaner fee: $120
Easy. You pay it every time.
Supplies consumed per turnover: ~$18–$35
Think about what gets used in every turnover:
- Toilet paper (usually 2–4 rolls)
- Hand soap (partial bottle)
- Dish soap (partial bottle)
- Cleaning supplies (fraction of a bottle)
- Trash bags
- Laundry pods
If you spend $80/month on supplies and do 8 turnovers, that’s $10 per turnover. If you’re running 4 turnovers/month with premium supplies, it could be $22+.
Most hosts don’t track this separately. They just buy stuff when they “run low” — which usually means they over-buy.
Laundry: $12–$28
Sheets, towels, and bath mats per turnover. Either you pay someone, use a laundry service, or you do it yourself — in which case your time still has a value.
Your time: the biggest surprise
What do you do around a turnover? Check photos? Text your cleaner? Drive over to inspect? Handle a supply run? Coordinate a lockbox issue?
Even “hands-off” hosts spend 30–60 minutes of their own time per turnover when you add it up honestly.
At $25/hour (a conservative rate for your own time), that’s $12.50–$25 per turnover. At $50/hour, it’s $25–$50.
Most hosts don’t count this because it feels like “it doesn’t cost money.” But your time is money. Every hour you spend coordinating turnovers is an hour you can’t spend on something else — or something better.
Incidentals: $5–$15 average
Guest damages, a broken light bulb you replace, a cleaning product your cleaner ran out of mid-turnover. Not every turnover has these, but averaged out, they’re real costs.
What This Looks Like for a Typical Host
| Cost Category | Conservative | Realistic |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaner fee | $100 | $130 |
| Supplies | $12 | $22 |
| Laundry | $10 | $20 |
| Your time | $15 | $30 |
| Incidentals | $5 | $12 |
| Total | $142 | $214 |
If you’re charging a $150 cleaning fee on Airbnb and your real cost is $180–$214, you’re losing money on every single turnover.
That’s not a rare situation. It’s the norm for hosts who haven’t done this math.
Why This Matters Beyond Pricing
Knowing your real turnover cost changes how you think about your business in a few important ways.
Minimum stay decisions: A 2-night minimum looks attractive until you realize that 2 turnovers in 4 days might cost more than the revenue from 1 of those nights. Most hosts with too many short bookings are unprofitable without knowing it.
Property acquisition: If you’re evaluating a second property and you’re assuming the same turnover cost as your first one, you’re probably underestimating. Different square footage, different cleaner market, different guest type.
Cost creep detection: Cleaner rates go up. Supply prices go up. If you’re not tracking cost per turnover monthly, you won’t notice when your margins compress — until they’re gone.
How to Track It Without a Spreadsheet Addiction
You don’t need to obsess over every dollar. You need a system that catches drift.
The simplest version: once a month, add up what you paid for turnovers (cleaner fees + any supply purchases + laundry) and divide by the number of turnovers. That’s your blended cost. Compare it to last month. Is it trending up?
If it is, drill into which category is moving and why.
That’s the whole system. 20 minutes a month. Worth thousands per year.
The Benchmark You Should Know
Top-performing independent hosts in the US keep turnover costs at 8–12% of their average nightly rate.
If your average nightly rate is $180, a healthy turnover cost is $14–$22. That seems low — and it is. It requires efficient supply buying, a cleaner who’s dialed in, and minimal wasted time on your end.
If your cost-per-turnover is at 15–18% of your nightly rate, you’re leaving margin on the table. Not because you’re doing something wildly wrong, but because you haven’t optimized it yet.
That gap is usually worth $1,500–$3,000/year per property. Sometimes more.
Want to calculate yours? Use our free profitability calculator — it walks you through your actual numbers and shows you exactly where the margin goes.
And if you want the full breakdown of 7 strategies that add an average of $6,200/year in net profit, download the StayReady Profitability Playbook — free, no email required.