A guest enters the property where they will stay, runs a finger across the worktop, notices a mark on the shower screen and, before unpacking, is already thinking about the rating they will give.
This is because tourist apartment cleanliness is the first thing guests see and one of the factors they value most.
It is not a minor expense.
If you have eight or ten stays per month, cleaning is one of the most frequently recurring costs and the quickest to reduce your margin when turnover is high.
To help you choose a cleaning company and understand the cost, we have prepared this guide.
It covers everything related to tourist apartment cleaning:
- What the service includes
- How much it costs in Spain
- Which extras increase the bill
- How to choose a provider
- How to organise the changeover between guests
- And how to prevent poor cleaning from damaging your reviews
Let us begin…
What does tourist apartment cleaning include?
Before discussing price, assess what you are buying. The label “tourist apartment cleaning” can conceal three different services:
Standard, deep and turnover cleaning
Tourist apartment cleaning is divided into:
- Standard or maintenance cleaning: the most basic service, covering floors, visible surfaces, bathrooms, the kitchen, dust and rubbish.
- Guest changeover: the foundation of holiday rental cleaning. It is completely clean between departure and arrival, including bathrooms, kitchen, floors, rubbish removal, bed-linen changes, laundry management and a final condition check.
- Deep cleaning: includes accumulated kitchen grease, windows, shutters, curtains, mattresses, sofas and corners.
Each serves a purpose: the first after long stays, the second at every guest changeover and the third occasionally, usually at the end of a season.
What is included in the basic service?
For a guest changeover, the reasonable minimum includes a complete bathroom and kitchen clean, bedrooms, changing or making the beds, waste removal, basic replenishment and a final visual inspection.
One detail is not optional: amenities.
Airbnb, for example, considers toilet paper, soap, one towel per guest, pillows and sheets to be essentials.
Trust us: failing to replenish them will not save money; it will lead to poor reviews.
Do not cut costs here.
What is not included unless agreed?
Tourist flat cleaning does not normally cover exterior windows, shutters, curtains, mattress disinfection, upholstery, intensive terrace cleaning, complex stains or persistent odours unless expressly agreed.
Airbnb also makes clear that a standard cleaning fee covers normal cleaning between bookings, not excessive cleaning caused by guest misuse.
If someone leaves the property in a disastrous state, that additional work is a separate matter—and normally a separate charge.
Tourist apartment cleaning prices in Spaina
Let us address the question that brought you here: how much does it cost?
Here are some figures for reference…
Published indicative ranges
There is no official tariff for tourist apartment cleaning. Available references come from quotation marketplaces such as Cronoshare and Habitissimo, so treat them only as a starting point:
Per hour:
- Cronoshare places tourist apartment cleaning at €10–€15 per hour
- Habitissimo gives a range of €12–€16 per hour.
- In cities such as Santa Cruz and Las Palmas, however, the average is €10 per hour.
Per complete service:
The usual range is €30 to more than €120 per clean and can exceed €200 for villas or large houses.
By city:
As a guide:
- Madrid: €40–€90
- Barcelona: €45–€100
- Valencia: €35–€80
- Seville and Málaga: €35–€70
- Smaller locations: €30–€60 per service
In every case, the tourist flat cleaning price depends on what the service covers. It is not the same as domestic cleaning: it includes guest changeovers, laundry and greater pressure to meet strict timings.
What changes the quote?
When a company gives you a price for apartment cleaning, these variables always sit behind it:
- Floor area, bedrooms and bathrooms: more space and bathrooms require more time and textiles, so the service costs more.
- Type of service: deep cleaning requires more hours, staff and products than a quick refresh.
- Frequency: a one-off visit naturally costs more than a recurring service.
- Location and access: long journeys, difficult parking or complicated access often add a surcharge.
- Property condition: heavy dirt or persistent stains take longer and will probably incur an additional charge.
- Laundry and beds: washing and transporting sheets and towels and making beds are normally separate cost lines in tourist apartment cleaning quotes.
We particularly recommend monitoring laundry charges. This is the most common difference between holiday rental and normal residential cleaning and can add significantly to the budget.
Per hour or per service
In practice, most tourist apartment cleaning companies charge for the complete service rather than by the hour. This lets them set a price by property type and gives you a predictable bill.
Hourly charging suits deep cleans or properties whose condition varies greatly, where a fixed price is difficult to set in advance.
For check-out day, however, pricing by service or property type is easier to manage: you know the cost of each changeover and can include it in your profit and loss account.
Common holiday rental cleaning services and extras
Laundry, amenities and textiles
- Bed-linen and towel laundry: the most common extra in holiday flat cleaning. It is almost always worthwhile unless you hold substantial linen stock and want to wash it yourself.
- Amenities replenishment: toilet paper, soap, shower gel and complimentary products. They cost little but have a major impact on the guest experience. Again, do not cut costs here.
- Textile, mattress or sofa cleaning: usually commissioned for odours or stains, at a change of season or following a fall in review scores.
Windows, terraces and disinfection
- Windows and shutters: almost always quoted separately and necessary in properties with views, terraces or high exterior exposure.
- Terraces and outdoor furniture: in coastal destinations, penthouses and villas, salt, sand and leaves require occasional additional attention.
- One-off disinfection: advisable for incidents involving odours, damp or mould, or where guests are particularly sensitive.
Inventory, waste and post-cleaning photographs
- Waste and fridge management: out-of-hours rubbish removal and clearing perishables must be done at every guest changeover.
- Inventory and damage report: essential in high-value, high-turnover properties.
- Post-cleaning photographs: seemingly minor, but your best defence when a guest makes a claim. Without prior documentation, it is harder to win the dispute.
How to choose a tourist apartment cleaning company
There is naturally no universal answer:
- It depends on how many properties you have
- How close together they are
- And the standard you want to maintain
You must nevertheless decide what working relationship you want: a company, a self-employed cleaner or your own team if you manage many properties.
Company, self-employed cleaner or in-house team: the key question
These are the options:
Tourist apartment cleaning company: offers broader cover, replacements when someone is unavailable, clear invoicing and scalability as your portfolio grows. In return, the hourly cost is higher and service may feel impersonal because they work for many owners.
Self-employed cleaners: offer more direct contact and flexibility and often adapt closely to the property’s needs. The drawback is dependence on one person, which can create difficulties if they are unavailable.
In-house team: provides maximum control over standards, inventory and photographs. You must organise rotas, holidays, replacements and employment administration. It is generally worthwhile only with stable volume.
Whatever you choose, do not consider only euros per hour. A holiday rental cleaning company may cost more hourly but save money by preventing poor reviews.
Consider the full value offered (including intangible value) not only the fee.
What to ask before hiring
Before signing with any apartment cleaning company, ask for the following in writing:
- Scope: an exact checklist of what is and is not included
- Cover: what happens if the assigned cleaner is unavailable
- Laundry: who washes, transports and replaces items, and the minimum stock required
- Incidents: the deadline and channel for reporting stains, breakages or low stock
- Photographs: whether post-cleaning images and damage reports are provided
- Invoicing: whether charges are hourly, per service, by property type or hybrid
- Liability: whether they have insurance, key control and access traceability
How to organise cleaning between check-out and check-in
Cleaning a tourist flat requires considerable coordination.
Consider the following:
Time between stays
Booking.com recommends allowing at least two hours between check-out and check-in for cleaning.
Airbnb allows preparation time to be blocked between bookings.
In our view, good organisation requires:
- A defined check-out window
- A latest arrival time for the cleaning team
- A specific time for taking photographs
- A margin for inspection or remedial work
- And a check-in time communicated to the guest
What to do when incidents occur
From our experience actively managing 600 holiday rental properties, these are some common incidents and ways to resolve them:
Early arrival: do not promise access until you have final photographs. Offer luggage storage or say, “I will confirm as soon as the property is ready.”
Unusual stain or dirt: give it high priority, request an immediate photograph and act quickly. Send the cleaning team back if necessary.
Breakage: request a photograph, block bookings if the repair will take time and call maintenance as soon as possible.
Odour, damp or mould: never conceal or minimise it; always escalate it before check-in.
Airbnb allows guests to report a cleanliness problem within 72 hours of discovering it and recommends documenting it with photographs. Your final photographs are therefore the evidence supporting your account.
How to prevent cleaning from lowering review scores
Checklist and quality control
We recommend using a repeatable checklist rather than relying solely on the cleaning company’s goodwill.
It need not be extensive, but it should always follow the same structure:
- Fixed order by area: follow the same route every time so nothing is missed.
- Separate cleaning from maintenance: a stain is not a fault and they are handled through different channels.
- Mandatory final photographs: living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and exterior.
- Check linen and amenities per guest capacity: enough towels and sets for every guest.
- Odour check: it cannot be seen in a photograph but is noticeable on entry.
Above all, use double verification for new or problematic properties and random audits once the process is established.
The real impact on Airbnb and Booking
Cleaning is not the only occupancy factor, but sufficient evidence shows that it directly affects reviews, perceived quality and therefore your ability to sell nights.
For reference:
On Airbnb, cleanliness is one of six guest rating categories, and highly rated listings tend to rank better. Guest Favourites depend partly on high cleanliness scores.
On Booking.com, the quality rating for holiday rentals mentions a cleanliness threshold of 6.0 or higher once the property has a score.
Please bear this in mind.
Holiday rental cleaning expenses: should you charge the guest?
We now reach the decision with the greatest impact on your finances: how to handle holiday rental cleaning expenses.
There is no single correct answer; it depends on the property type.
Separate, included or hybrid charge
- Separate charge: works best for large properties or medium and long stays, where preparation costs are objectively high. It is transparent and protects the margin.
- Included in the rate: suits short stays and highly comparable urban flats because it reduces the visual impact of the final price. On Airbnb, the cleaning fee is a one-off charge forming part of the total.
- Hybrid: attractive for many properties and a lower cleaning charge with part of the cost absorbed into the nightly rate. Airbnb supports separate short-stay and standard cleaning fees.
Analyse your circumstances using these references.
Be careful with regional regulations
This is the article’s most important warning.
Spain has no single nationwide cleaning minimum. Regional rules vary according to the property’s location, affecting which charges and policies can be applied.
For example:
- In the Canary Islands, Decree 113/2015 requires properties to be provided in perfect hygienic and clean condition, with towels and bed linen per person and an extra set per week or part-week for long stays.
- In Andalusia, the decree requires cleaning at each guest’s arrival and departure and includes that cleaning, together with bed linen, bathroom linen and kitchenware, in the advertised nightly price.
Before finalising your cleaning policy, review the decree applicable in your autonomous community.
Are you looking for a company to help manage your holiday rental cleaning?
As you can see, tourist apartment cleaning is extremely important because it has a decisive influence on reviews.
Home2Book provides a complete tourist apartment management service: we operate cleaning under strict quality control and handle maintenance, listing publication, price optimisation and much more.
Would you like to get to know us? Contact us now and we will be delighted to assist you.
