How to set an Airbnb pet fee with your own numbers

Set the pet fee from the extra cleaning you expect after a pet stay: time, supplies, and wear you estimate yourself. Then read the guest total and your payout before you save it.

Airbnb’s pet-fee page, checked on 28 October 2026, says you can add a pet fee to cover the expected cleaning after hosting pets. Its additional-fees page lists the pet fee next to the cleaning fee and the extra guest fee. Service animals stay for free on both pages. The worked figures below are a made-up example. They are not a suggested pet fee. This is a planning estimate, not pricing, tax, or legal advice.

Price the extra cleaning

The cleaning fee calculator adds the amounts you type:

cost basis = cleaner + laundry + supplies + hours × hourly rate
cost-plus fee = cost basis × (1 + operating margin)
recommended fee = cost-plus fee, rounded up to the next five-unit increment

Use it for the extra work a pet adds. How to set an Airbnb cleaning fee is the ordinary turnover, the flat fee per booking for general cleanup. If that cleaning fee already includes the pet laundry, do not type the same laundry here.

The supplies field is the only place in that calculator for bottles, bags, and a wear amount. There is no separate wear input. An amount you type for wear is still your number. Airbnb’s pet-fee page says the fee should only cover the expected cleaning after a pet stay. Unexpected damage is the line it sends to AirCover, which that page says offers $3 million USD in damage protection. If a wear amount is damage you did not expect, leave it out of the fee. This guide does not decide which of your costs meet that sentence.

The currency control changes labels and number formatting. It does not convert one currency into another. Enter every amount in the same currency.

A made-up example

Every amount in this section is made up. Replace it. The figures are here so the arithmetic can be checked. They are not a market pet fee, an average, or a benchmark.

The cleaning fee calculator run uses:

• Cleaner invoice 0. The extra time is typed as your own hours.
• Laundry 14, for washing the pet bedding in this example.
• Supplies 11. That is 6 for cleaner and bags, plus 5 the host typed for wear on a washable cover. The 5 is part of this host’s expected clean in the example. It is not a damage charge, and it is not a number from Airbnb.
• Labor 0.75 hours at 28 an hour.
• Operating margin 0.

labor = 0.75 × 28 = 21
cost basis = 14 + 11 + 21 = 46
cost-plus fee = 46 × (1 + 0) = 46
recommended fee = 50

46 is the cost. 50 is that cost rounded up to the next five. The calculator does that round. Airbnb does not. You can save a different amount.

What Airbnb lets you charge

These points come from Airbnb’s help center, checked on 28 October 2026:

• You can add a pet fee. Guests say how many pets they plan to bring, from 0 to 5, and you can review that number (pet fees).
• The fee can be a flat fee per booking, a flat fee per night, a flat fee per pet, or a flat fee per pet per night (pet fees, additional fees).
• You can charge a flat fee that covers multiple pets. The pet fee cannot be more than your nightly base rate (pet fees). In the made-up stay below, the nightly rate is 130 and the flat pet charge is 50. 50 is below 130. That comparison is arithmetic in the example. It is not a reading of how Airbnb applies the cap to each of the four shapes. Read the field in your account before you save a larger number.
• If the listing was “No pets allowed” and you add a pet fee, Airbnb says the listing will be changed to “Pets allowed” (pet fees). How to write Airbnb house rules is where pets are saved as a house rule. A fee does not replace that rule.
• The pet fee is not part of the nightly price you type. Guests see a higher price when you add it (additional fees). The pet-fee page also says the charge is shown both as part of the nightly rate and in the total price at checkout. The nightly-price-breakdown page says cleaning fees and extra guest fees are left out of the nightly price and that breakdown, and it excepts pet fees (price breakdown). Read the breakdown in your account. This guide does not merge those two sentences into one rule.
• The guest’s total includes the nightly price, additional fees, Airbnb’s service fees, and taxes (additional fees, what guests pay).

On desktop, the pet-fee page gives these steps:

1. Click Calendar and select the listing you want to change.
2. Click Pricing.
3. Click Fees.
4. Click Pet fee and make your changes.
5. Click Save.

Service animals stay without a pet fee

Airbnb’s pages say service animals always stay for free (pet fees, additional fees). The help pages checked for this guide say “service animal.” They do not use the phrase “assistance animal.”

The page on service animals and emotional support animals says a service animal is generally a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. A service animal is not a pet. During a home stay, a host is not allowed to charge extra fees because of a service animal, and the page’s examples are a pet fee and a cleaning fee for animal hair or dander. The same page says a host is not allowed to refuse the reservation because of a service animal, unless an Airbnb-granted exemption applies, and is not allowed to impose different house rules. Guests do not have to disclose a service animal before booking. The questions a host may ask, and the exemption, are on that page and in How to write Airbnb house rules. This guide does not shorten them into a script.

If a service animal damages the place, the pet-fee page says you can still request payment under AirCover through the Resolution Center. The pet fee is not that request.

An emotional support animal is different on the same page. It does not have to be trained to do work or perform tasks. Unless the policy says otherwise, a host may charge a normal pet fee, charge a cleaning fee for hair or dander, or decline the reservation if the listing does not accept pets. Hosts in California and New York are required to accommodate emotional support animals for home reservations. Hosts in Quebec and Ontario are required to accommodate them for all reservations. Where that requirement applies, the page says hosts may not charge a pet fee or a cleaning fee for hair or dander, and may not treat the animal as a pet. The page also says hosts and guests are responsible for the laws that apply to them. This guide cannot tell you whether a requirement applies. It is not legal advice.

For a service-animal stay, the pet lines above are zero. Do not put the 50 on that reservation.

What you keep under each fee

Airbnb’s service-fee page, checked on 28 October 2026, says the service fee is a percentage of the nightly price and any fees you charge, excluding the guest service fee and taxes. The pet fee is one of those host-charged fees. Airbnb host service fees explained keeps the published percentages in one place. The Airbnb fee calculator calls the base the booking subtotal:

booking subtotal = nightly rate × nights + cleaning fee + other host fees

Put the pet charge for the stay in Other host fees. The calculator has no pet field. Under the split fee, the guest pays a separate service fee on that base and you pay a host percentage. Under the single fee, which this site’s calculator calls the host-only fee, the whole percentage comes out of your payout. Where a host has moved to the single fee, Airbnb says no guest service fee is charged (what guests pay).

The rows below use the made-up pet fee of 50 as a flat charge for one pet on this stay. The nightly rate is 130, the stay is 2 nights, the cleaning fee is 0, other host fees are 50, and taxes passed through are 0. The percentages are the calculator’s starting values: a 3% split host fee, a 14.1% split guest fee, and a 15.5% host-only fee. Those host figures are the ones Airbnb states for most hosts. 14.1% is the low end of the published guest range, because the help page does not give one typical guest rate. The amounts are in whatever currency you select. The calculator does not convert them.

The cleaning fee is 0 on purpose. The 14, the 11, and the 21 are already inside the 50. A second cleaning fee on the same stay would charge for that pet clean again. When you also charge your ordinary turnover, type that amount in the cleaning-fee field and keep the pet amount in Other host fees. How to set an Airbnb cleaning fee is that ordinary fee.

If you use the per-pet-per-night shape for this same made-up stay, 1 pet and 2 nights, 50 ÷ 2 = 25 per pet per night. 25 is also below the made-up nightly rate of 130. One pet for two nights is still 50 in Other host fees. A per-night fee of 25 for two nights is the same 50. The rows do not change. A different pet count or a different length changes the stay charge before you type it.

Pet fee 0. Booking subtotal 260.00. This is the same stay with no pet charge, including a service-animal stay under the rule above.

• Split fee: host service fee 7.80, guest service fee 36.66, guest pays 296.66, Airbnb keeps 44.46, host payout 252.20.
• Host-only fee: host service fee 40.30, guest service fee 0.00, guest pays 260.00, Airbnb keeps 40.30, host payout 219.70.

Pet fee 50, typed as other host fees. Booking subtotal 310.00.

• Split fee: host service fee 9.30, guest service fee 43.71, guest pays 353.71, Airbnb keeps 53.01, host payout 300.70.
• Host-only fee: host service fee 48.05, guest service fee 0.00, guest pays 310.00, Airbnb keeps 48.05, host payout 261.95.

Moving the pet fee from 0 to 50 in this example changes the stay by:

• Split fee, guest pays: 57.05 (the 50 fee plus 7.05, which is 14.1% of 50).
• Split fee, host payout: 48.50 (50 minus 1.50, which is 3% of 50).
• Host-only fee, guest pays: 50.00. The guest service fee stays 0.00.
• Host-only fee, host payout: 42.25 (50 minus 7.75, which is 15.5% of 50).

Replace 3%, 14.1%, and 15.5% with the percentages in your account before you treat these rows as your stay. The service-fee page says most hosts pay 3% under the split fee. Most hosts pay 15.5% under the single fee. Guests pay a service fee of 14.1% to 16.5% of the booking subtotal, and the page says that guest fee may be higher or lower depending on the booking. Listings in Brazil and Mexico pay 4% under the split fee, and they pay 16% under the single fee. Some split-fee hosts pay more than 3%. Under the single fee, remaining hosts typically pay 14% to 16%. For a cross-currency booking, Airbnb says the guest service fee includes an additional amount, up to 16.5% of the booking subtotal.

The calculator rounds each money result half up, away from zero, to the nearest hundredth. It does not add VAT on top of the percentage you enter. Airbnb says VAT may apply and that the service fee shown to hosts and guests is VAT-inclusive where applicable.

When the cost stays in the nightly price

The nightly price calculator builds a nightly rate from costs you type, including per-stay cleaning and supplies. It does not have a pet switch. A cost you put there is spread across booked nights, so a stay with no pet still carries it.

This example leaves 130 as the nightly rate and prices the pet as its own fee. Folding the same 46 into the nightly rate would charge it twice if you also save the 50. How to set an Airbnb nightly price from your costs is that rate. The figures there are a different made-up example. How to set an Airbnb extra guest fee with your own numbers is the separate charge for people, not pets. The figures there are made up too.

A guest may not book, and may not bring a pet, at the fee this page displays. The 14, the 11, the 0.75 hours, the 28, the 50, and the 130 are not a listing to copy.

Help center pages checked on 28 October 2026

• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3623 for the pet fee, the four shapes, the nightly-base-rate limit, pets allowed, expected cleaning, AirCover, and service animals staying for free.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2385 for the pet fee as a host-charged fee outside the nightly price you set, and for service animals staying for free.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869 for the service-animal fee prohibition and the emotional-support-animal rule.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857 for the split fee, the single fee, and the base the percentage applies to.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/125 for the guest total and for no guest service fee under the single fee.
• https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3638 for pet fees and the nightly price breakdown.