How to Land Your First Airbnb Cleaning Contract in 2026: A Playbook for Cleaning Companies

Turnover pricing calculator: find your number in 30 seconds

Pick the unit size, dial in the actual square footage if you know it, flag the same-day window and any add-ons that apply. The calculator returns a recommended per-turnover quote plus a yearly projection based on how often the unit turns. Math runs off the 2026 industry data sourced at the bottom of this post.

Why an Airbnb turnover is not a regular cleaning job

Treat a turnover like a residential recurring clean and you will lose the job, or worse, you will land it and lose it on the third visit when a guest checks in to an unmade bed. The turnover is a different product. The host bought a guest stay, not a clean house, and the cleaner is the last link in a chain that ends with a five-star review or a refunded booking.

What that means in practice:

• The window is fixed. Most hosts run an 11 AM checkout and a 3 PM check-in, which leaves a four-hour window with no slack. A residential cleaner who says "I can be there sometime between noon and three" is unbookable.
• The deliverable is the listing photo, not the surfaces. The bed has to look like the listing photo. The towels have to be folded the way the listing photo shows. Hosts will reject a clean unit because the throw pillows are wrong.
• Supplies are part of the job. Most hosts expect the cleaner to restock toilet paper, paper towels, coffee, soap, dish detergent, trash bags, and laundered linens against a written par list. Residential cleaners almost never do this. STR cleaners always do.
• Damage reporting has a deadline. Airbnb's AirCover host damage protection requires the host to report damage within 14 days of checkout, and most hosts file inside the first 72 hours so the prior guest is still on record.¹ The cleaner is the only person who sees the unit between guests, which makes timestamped damage photos part of the deliverable.
• Access is electronic. Lockboxes, keypad codes, smart locks. A cleaner who needs to coordinate a key handoff is a cleaner the host will replace.

Every one of those is something a residential cleaner has to learn on the job. A host who has been burned once would rather pay 20 percent more for someone who shows up already knowing it.

Where Airbnb hosts look for cleaners

Hosts do not type "cleaner near me" into Google. They post in three or four places, ask other hosts, and hire whoever shows up with a real-business answer first.

The places to be:

• Local short-term rental Facebook groups. Search "[your city] short term rental hosts" or "[your metro] STR" on Facebook. There is almost always one active group per metro. The posts that get the most cleaner replies are "looking for a backup cleaner" and "my current cleaner gave notice, recommendations?". Show up in the group for a few weeks before you post. Answer host questions about turnover times and restocking before you ask for work.
• BiggerPockets short-term rental forums. Hosts who run two or more units are heavy on BiggerPockets. They are also the hosts most likely to need a second cleaner for overflow, which is the cleanest way into the local market without displacing anyone.
• Property managers, not just individual hosts. A small STR property manager running 8 to 15 units in your city is a single phone call that can replace your residential book entirely. Find them by searching the city rental registry (most cities with STR ordinances now publish a list of registered short-term rentals and the operator behind each one) and by looking at AirDNA's market data for your zip code.²
• Direct outreach to listings. You can message hosts through the Airbnb platform after booking, but a cold outreach without a booking is against Airbnb's policy. The legal version is to find the same listings on the host's own website or on Vrbo, where contact info is sometimes public, and email the host directly with a short, specific note.

The thing not to do is hand out flyers at coffee shops near rental neighborhoods. Hosts are almost never on the property. The cleaning is hired remotely, like every other piece of an STR operation.

The pitch that gets a host to reply

Most cleaner pitches die on the first line because they read like residential. "We offer professional deep cleans for homes and businesses in the area." A host scrolling Facebook on a phone reads that and keeps scrolling. They do not need a deep clean. They need a turnover.

The cover message that gets a reply has three jobs. It proves you understand turnover work, it gives the host a way to evaluate you in under a minute, and it ends with one specific ask. Keep it under 120 words.

A working template:

Hi [host name], I run [business name], a cleaning company in [city], and I work specifically with short-term rental hosts. Standard turnover for me is a 3-hour flip on a 1 to 2 bedroom unit including linens, restock against a host-provided par list, and timestamped damage photos sent within the hour. I carry $1M general liability and a Cleaning Service Agreement I can send before we start. I have a Tuesday and Thursday slot open if you have a unit that needs a backup cleaner, or I can take on a full rotation. Happy to send references and the agreement first.

Notice what is in there that a residential pitch leaves out. Turnover language ("flip," "par list," "restock"). A specific time commitment ("3-hour flip"). The damage-photo workflow, which is the single most important thing to a host who has been burned. Insurance amount as a number. Reference to a written Service Agreement, which signals you are a real business and not a one-time gig.

Pair the message with a PDF cover sheet that has your business name, a clean header, one photo of completed work, and the same details from the template. Send the cover sheet as a real attachment, not a link. Hosts on phones do not click links from strangers.

How to price an Airbnb turnover

Most new STR cleaners undercharge by 30 to 50 percent because they bid the turnover like a residential clean. Residential pricing assumes one or two visits a month per house. Turnover pricing has to absorb tighter windows, restocking, laundry of linens, and the risk that any single missed turnover costs the host a refunded booking and a bad review.

Three pricing models are common, and most cleaners end up using a mix. The interactive calculator at the top of this post lands the recommended number for you under the hybrid model; the sections below explain the three approaches so you understand which numbers the calculator is moving.

Flat per-turnover rate

One number per turnover, set by unit size. This is what most hosts prefer because it makes the host's own pricing math clean (the cleaning fee on the listing has to cover this number and a small margin). 2026 reference ranges blended from AirDNA's published market data on Airbnb cleaning fees² and the Bureau of Labor Statistics maid and housekeeper wage of about $16 per hour at the median:³

Unit size	Standard turnover	Same-day premium
Studio / 1 BR	$60 – $110	+25% to +50%
2 BR / 1 BA	$90 – $160	+25% to +50%
2 BR / 2 BA	$110 – $190	+25% to +50%
3 BR / 2 BA	$140 – $240	+25% to +50%
4 BR / 3 BA	$180 – $320	+25% to +50%

Coastal metros and ski markets typically sit at the top of those ranges and can stretch 30 percent above. Rural and secondary markets sit toward the bottom. The "same-day premium" applies when the host has a checkout and check-in on the same day with a turnover window under five hours, which is the most common scenario in high-occupancy units.

Per-square-foot

A small number of larger STR cleaning companies bid per square foot, usually $0.12 to $0.20 in most markets and $0.20 to $0.30 in coastal metros, with a minimum service charge of $90 to $120.⁴ Per-square-foot tends to favor the cleaner on small efficient units and the host on large units, so use it when you are bidding a portfolio with a mix of unit sizes and you want the math to average out.

Hybrid base plus add-ons

A flat base for the standard turnover and a published menu of add-ons. This is what experienced STR cleaners eventually move to because it lets you charge for the work that drives time. A reasonable add-on menu:

• Linen laundering on site: $20 to $40 per set
• Restocking from cleaner-provided supplies: $15 to $35 (cost plus 30 to 50 percent markup)
• Hot tub or pool basic maintenance: $25 to $60
• Outdoor patio cleaning: $20 to $50
• Pet hair deep removal (after pet-friendly stay): $25 to $50
• Mid-stay refresh for a long-term guest: 60 percent of standard turnover rate

Worked example: a 2 BR / 2 BA unit on a regular weekly turnover

Example: a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit in a typical inland metro. Flat base of $130 per turnover. Linen service add-on at $30. Restock at $20. That is $180 per turnover. Two turnovers a week (the unit averages four-night stays) is $360 a week per unit. A cleaner running a five-unit rotation at that profile is at $1,800 a week in recurring revenue from a single property manager, before any deep cleans or quarterly seasonal work.

The same five units priced like residential cleans (one $140 visit a week each) is $700. That is the gap most new STR cleaners give back to the host by not separating the line items.

The paperwork that makes you look real

The single most reliable signal a host uses to decide between two cleaners with similar pitches is whether you can produce a written Service Agreement. A host who has been in the game for a year has been burned by a cleaner who stopped showing up, a cleaner who quietly raised the rate, and a cleaner who refused to take responsibility for a damaged TV. The Service Agreement is what tells them you are not the next one.

The agreement covers, at minimum:

• Scope (what is a standard turnover, what is an add-on)
• Schedule and arrival window
• Rate, billing schedule, and payment terms
• Supplies (who provides, who restocks, how restocking is billed)
• Access (lockbox or keypad, code rotation, what happens if a guest is still on-site)
• Damages (who reports, on what timeline, how disputes are handled)
• Cancellation policy (host-initiated and cleaner-initiated)
• Insurance carried by the cleaner and indemnification language
• Initial term and renewal

Do not write it from scratch. EosLog publishes a free Cleaning Service Agreement template that covers all of the above and downloads as a Word file you can adapt in five minutes. A few sections need STR-specific tightening before you send it to a host:

• Cancellation. Set the host-initiated cancellation fee to half of one turnover for under-48-hours notice, full turnover rate for under-24-hours.
• Access. Name the lockbox code rotation cadence (most hosts rotate weekly or every guest) and what happens if a prior guest is still on-site when you arrive.
• Damages. Add a 24-hour photo window from completion of the turnover. This is what lets the host file an AirCover claim before the 14-day platform deadline closes.

A few other pieces of paperwork that close deals:

• Certificate of insurance. A general liability policy with $1M per occurrence is standard for cleaning businesses and runs roughly $40 to $60 a month for a solo operator. Most insurers will issue a certificate of insurance naming the host as an additional insured on request, which is what a property manager will ask for before signing.
• W-9 if the host is a business. A property manager paying you over $600 a year as a contractor needs to issue a 1099. Have a W-9 ready before they ask.
• A written turnover checklist. Not the agreement, the operational doc. The host should be able to read your checklist and know exactly what is and is not part of a standard visit. Keeps scope creep from becoming free work.

How to deliver once you have the contract

The first contract is the easy part. The second contract is what makes you a business. Hosts talk to each other in those Facebook groups, and one missed turnover at one host's unit becomes a thread thirty hosts read.

The four things that determine whether a host keeps you past month three:

1. Photo proof on every turnover. Bed made to listing standard, bathroom, kitchen counter, restocked supplies. Send within the hour of completing the turnover, not at end of day. Hosts want to know the unit is ready before the next guest arrives, not after.
2. A par list you follow on every turnover. Most missed-supply complaints come from the cleaner improvising. Write down the par level for every restockable (8 rolls of toilet paper, 4 paper towels, 6 coffee pods, etc.), check it at the end of every turnover, and flag low items so the host can order replacements before the next stay.
3. Damage report inside 24 hours. Timestamped photo with a wide shot showing the damage in context, plus a close-up. Send to the host with a one-line description. This is what lets the host file an AirCover claim before the 14-day window closes.¹
4. One predictable schedule. If the host has to text you to confirm Friday's turnover, you have already lost the contract in their head. Set a recurring schedule on day one, send the host a weekly view of the upcoming turnovers, and never miss a window.

Once you are past three or four units on a recurring schedule, the coordination becomes the bottleneck. Tracking turnovers across multiple hosts, sending photo proofs to the right host, keeping par lists per unit, and filing damage reports in the right format is what makes most solo STR cleaners cap out at five units. The cleaners who get past that point are running the schedule, photo proofs, restock checklists, and damage reports out of one system instead of a notes app and a text thread per host.

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Sources and further reading

1. Airbnb, "AirCover for Hosts" — $3M host damage protection, 14-day reporting window after checkout.
2. AirDNA — short-term rental market data (active listings, average daily rate, occupancy, and average platform cleaning fees by zip code and market).
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners" — current median hourly wage and employment data.
4. HomeGuide — House cleaning prices; Angi — House cleaning cost guide; Thumbtack — House cleaning price list. Per-square-foot ranges adjusted for the higher labor intensity of short-stay turnover work.

This guide reflects general industry practices and U.S. short-term rental cleaning data as of 2026. Pricing, insurance requirements, local STR ordinances, and platform policies vary by metro and change over time. Verify any specific number or policy with your local short-term rental registry, your insurer, and the current published policy on the platform you are working with before you put it on a quote or in a contract.