Airbnb Cleaning Standards: What Guests Really Expect in 2025

Your guest walks through the door. They drop their bags, take a breath, and look around. Within ten seconds, they've already formed an opinion about your property. That opinion is shaped almost entirely by one thing: cleanliness.

In 2025, guests expect hotel-level standards from vacation rentals. Post-pandemic awareness has raised the bar permanently. A single dusty shelf or streaky mirror can turn a potential five-star review into a four-star disappointment.

Understanding what guests actually expect, not what you assume they expect, is the difference between maintaining high Airbnb cleanliness ratings and watching your bookings decline. These standards apply whether you host on Airbnb, VRBO, or Booking.com.

Key Takeaways

• ✅ Cleanliness is the single most influential factor in guest satisfaction and reviews
• ✅ Listings below 4.7 stars in cleanliness can lose up to 30% of potential revenue
• ✅ Guests expect hotel-level standards in bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens
• ✅ High-touch surfaces require EPA-approved disinfection between every stay
• ✅ Consistent standards require documented processes and quality control systems

Why Cleanliness Is the Most Important Rating

Airbnb breaks down reviews into specific categories: cleanliness, accuracy, communication, location, check-in, and value. Of these, cleanliness has the most direct impact on booking decisions.

Here's what the data shows:

• Listings with cleanliness ratings below 4.7 stars experience up to 30% less revenue
• Properties below 4.8 stars receive approximately 20% fewer bookings
• Even a 0.1-star improvement in cleanliness can noticeably boost nightly revenue

Superhost status requires a 4.8+ overall rating. Since cleanliness is heavily weighted in overall ratings, failing to meet Airbnb's hosting standards here makes achieving or maintaining Superhost nearly impossible.

What Guests Actually Expect Room by Room

Guest cleaning expectations in 2025 go far beyond "clean." They expect immaculate. Here's what that means in practice.

Bedrooms

Bedrooms are where guests spend the most time, and they notice everything:

• Fresh, crisp linens on a perfectly made bed
• Vacuumed mattresses free of hair and debris
• Dust-free nightstands, dressers, and headboards
• Clean window sills and baseboards
• Organized closets and drawers

Guests will run their finger along surfaces. They'll check under the bed. They'll look at corners where dust accumulates. Train your cleaners to see the room as a guest would.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms receive the most scrutiny. This is where cleanliness reviews are won or lost:

• No mold or mildew anywhere, especially in grout and caulk
• Shiny, water-spot-free fixtures
• Streak-free mirrors and glass surfaces
• Thoroughly sanitized toilets inside and out
• Fresh towels folded hotel-style
• Restocked toiletries (toilet paper, soap, shampoo)

Kitchens

Kitchens combine multiple challenges: grease, food residue, and appliance interiors:

• Disinfected countertops and backsplashes
• Clean appliance exteriors (fingerprints on stainless steel are obvious)
• Spotless appliance interiors (inside microwave, oven, and refrigerator)
• Empty and sanitized garbage bins
• Clean sink and faucet
• Organized cabinets with clean dishware

The three areas most commonly missed in kitchens are inside the microwave, the oven door handle, and the refrigerator door seal. These are exactly where guests look.

Living Areas

Living spaces need to feel fresh and welcoming:

• Vacuumed upholstery (including under cushions)
• Clean TV screens (smudges are visible in any lighting)
• Disinfected remote controls (high-touch item guests think about)
• Dust-free shelves, ceiling fans, and light fixtures
• Vacuumed or mopped floors
• Well-ventilated, odor-free air

Creating a comprehensive Airbnb cleaning checklist ensures your cleaners address every surface in every room consistently.

The Enhanced Cleaning Protocol

Airbnb established an Enhanced Cleaning Protocol that sets the baseline for what guests expect. The protocol emphasizes a five-step process:

1. Prepare: Gather supplies, ventilate the space, wear protective equipment
2. Clean: Remove visible dirt, dust, and grime from all surfaces
3. Sanitize: Use EPA-approved disinfectants on high-touch surfaces
4. Check: Conduct a thorough walkthrough inspection
5. Reset: Stage the property for the next guest

High-touch surfaces that require sanitization include:

• Door handles and locks
• Light switches
• Remote controls
• Appliance handles
• Cabinet knobs and pulls
• Faucets and toilet handles
• Chairs, tables, and counters

Common Cleanliness Mistakes Hosts Make

Even experienced hosts make these errors that hurt their ratings:

Overlooking the Details

Guests notice what hosts overlook:

• Dusty baseboards and crown molding
• Hair in drains or on bathroom floors
• Fingerprints on light switches
• Smudges on glass and mirrors
• Cobwebs in corners

One hair on the bathroom floor can undo an otherwise perfect clean.

Inconsistent Standards Between Stays

When different cleaners work differently, quality varies. One clean might be excellent, the next mediocre. This inconsistency leads to unpredictable reviews.

The solution is standardization. Every cleaner should follow the same documented checklist, in the same order, every time. This becomes especially critical when managing same-day turnovers where timing pressure can lead to shortcuts.

Not Inspecting Before Check-In

Trusting that cleaning happened is not the same as verifying it. Many hosts skip inspections, assuming their cleaners always deliver.

Build in a quality control step. This could be photos from your cleaner, a self-inspection app, or periodic in-person spot checks.

Ignoring Odors

A property can look clean but smell wrong. Common odor sources include:

• Garbage that wasn't fully removed
• Refrigerator contents left behind
• Musty fabrics that need airing
• Bathroom drains that need attention

Always ventilate thoroughly during cleaning and consider air fresheners or diffusers that create a welcoming scent.

How to Maintain Consistent Standards

Maintaining high Airbnb cleaning standards requires systems, not just effort.

Document Everything

Create a detailed cleaning checklist that covers every room and surface. Your cleaners should know exactly what's expected, in what order, for every turnover.

Automate Scheduling

When turnovers are manually coordinated through text messages and memory, things get missed. Automating your cleaning schedule ensures every checkout triggers a cleaning job, every cleaner gets notified, and every confirmation is tracked.

Track Visible Results

Want insight into how your properties perform across platforms? RentalReportDaily.com provides daily booking reports from Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com, helping you correlate cleaning performance with booking trends.

Request Photo Documentation

Have cleaners take photos after each turnover. This creates:

• Proof of completion
• Accountability for standards
• Evidence if guests make false damage claims

Many automation tools, including TurnoverPing, support photo uploads from cleaners as part of the turnover workflow.

Use Guest Feedback Constructively

When guests mention cleanliness issues in reviews, treat it as data. Look for patterns. If multiple guests mention the same issue (dusty vents, streaky mirrors, pet hair), that's a training opportunity for your cleaning team.

Conclusion

Guest cleaning expectations in 2025 are higher than ever. The bar is hotel-level cleanliness, with special attention to high-touch surfaces, bathrooms, and details like baseboards and light switches.

Meeting these Airbnb cleaning standards consistently requires:

1. Understanding exactly what guests inspect and care about
2. Documenting your expectations in a detailed checklist
3. Training your cleaning team on every standard
4. Building inspection and quality control into your process
5. Using automation to ensure no turnover is ever missed

The reward for getting this right is higher cleanliness ratings, more five-star reviews, Superhost status, and increased bookings. The cost of getting it wrong is declining revenue and a reputation that takes months to rebuild.

Your property's cleanliness tells guests whether they can trust you. Make sure it tells the right story.