How to record Airbnb host fees and cleaning fees in QuickBooks Online?
By the Propfina team · Published · Updated
Record the Airbnb host service fee as a negative expense line and the cleaning fee as its own line on the same QuickBooks Online Bank Deposit as the payout. Then Match the bank feed. Do not Categorize the AIRBNB lump as income.
This is the click path for a small property-management office on Guesty, AppFolio or Rentvine that keeps a few short-term listings, because the CPA lives in QuickBooks Online. Pull last month’s Paid CSV, the bank statement and the management agreement that says who keeps cleaning.
What the two fees are
The bank shows one number. Airbnb shows several. Neither fee is its own deposit.
Airbnb’s payout help, read 2026-10-14, writes the formula as nightly rate plus extra charges (cleaning, extra-guest) minus the host service fee and any co-host share. That net should equal the bank line.
| Fee | Who charged it | What it is in the books |
|---|---|---|
| Host service fee | Airbnb, taken before payout | Channel-fee expense. Negative line on this deposit. |
| Cleaning fee | The listing, collected from the guest | Income, owner funds, or a pass-through. Positive line on this deposit. |
| Occupancy tax Airbnb remitted | A tax authority, via Airbnb | Skip it. It never hit the bank. |
| Occupancy tax paid out to you | You, to remit | Occupancy-tax payable on this deposit. Not rent. |
Airbnb’s host-fee resource, dated 2026-10-13, writes a single 15.5 percent fee, paid by hosts, applied to nightly price and optional fees like cleaning. Hosts on property-management software are already on that structure. Read the Airbnb service fee line on the earning, not a remembered rate. Airbnb’s cleaning-fee help, read 2026-10-14, says the host sets the fee and it is not returned after checkout.
How to reconcile Airbnb payouts in QuickBooks Online is the full split and Match. This page is the two fee lines.
Add these accounts once: host service fee (Expense), cleaning fee income (Income, only if the firm keeps it), cleaning pass-through (Other Current Liability), owner funds, occupancy-tax payable. A management fee you charge the owner is not an Airbnb line.
Put both fees on the payout deposit
Do this in Airbnb first. Pick the bank-statement dates. Airbnb’s download help, read 2026-10-14, says the Paid CSV includes earnings, the host service fee, cleaning, gross earnings and any taxes withheld. Group rows by the bank amount and date, not by confirmation code.
Intuit’s record bank deposits help, updated 2026-08-03, is this path. Put the fee on the deposit.
- Select + Create, then Bank Deposit.
- Choose the account Airbnb pays, trust or operating. Date it to the bank date, not check-in.
- Skip Undeposited Funds unless you already recorded sales receipts. Guests paid Airbnb, not you.
- Scroll to Add funds to this deposit.
- Accommodation: owner funds on a managed door; rental income only if the firm owns the listing.
- Cleaning: income, owner funds, or pass-through, per the agreement. Positive amount.
- Host service fee as a negative amount to the channel-fee expense. Intuit’s example is a $0.50 fee entered as –.50. Same shape, Airbnb as the name.
- Occupancy tax paid out to you to remit goes to occupancy-tax payable. Tax Airbnb already remitted is skipped.
- The deposit total must equal the bank line to the cent. Memo the payout reference. Save.
Example, not a real office. Accommodation $1,200, cleaning $180, host service fee −$213.90. Deposit $1,166.10.
Then go to All apps, Accounting, Bank transactions. If QuickBooks offers Match to that deposit, take Match. Intuit’s categorize help, updated 2026-08-24, treats Post or Add as a new ledger entry. Categorize on an Airbnb payout records the cash twice and drops both fee lines. If nothing is in the register yet, Split the Pending line into the same accounts until Difference is $0.00, then Post.
Intuit’s third-party sales help, updated 2026-08-03, is a sales receipt plus a separate Expense. That wins for an owner-host who books one stay at a time. A property-management payout is several reservations in one lump. One Bank Deposit Matches.
Who the cleaning line belongs to
The CSV cleaning column is not automatically firm income. The management agreement decides.
| Who keeps the cleaning | QuickBooks line on this deposit |
|---|---|
| The firm, and the firm pays the cleaner | Cleaning fee income |
| The owner | Owner funds, same as rent |
| A co-host Airbnb pays directly | Skip it. That cash never hit this bank. |
| The office, then paid out to the cleaner | Cleaning pass-through liability |
On r/airbnb_hosts in December 2025, an office that keeps cleaning and sends owners only the accommodation fare asked how to split the service fee. Charge the owner the host fee on the money the owner keeps. The host fee on cleaning the office kept is the office’s channel-fee expense. Other agreements differ. Read yours.
Airbnb’s co-host payout help, read 2026-10-14, lets the listing owner share the listing cleaning fee. If the co-host received the cleaning, do not book it on the host deposit. On r/airbnb_hosts in August 2026, hosts reported the 15.5 percent fee coming out of the host while the co-host still received the full listing cleaning fee. Check both payouts against the CSV.
Paying a cleaner is a Bill or Expense on the day you pay them. Do not net that bill against the Airbnb cleaning line. The bank lump still includes the guest’s cleaning fee, so netting it makes the deposit too small to Match. On r/Bookkeeping in August 2023, a vacation-rental bookkeeper’s reply was to record cleaning income separately so it can be compared to cleaning expense.
If the listings run through Guesty, how to match Guesty payouts to bank deposits in QuickBooks is the lump. Use Airbnb’s CSV when Guesty and the bank disagree on the fee.
Host fees and the 1099-K
Airbnb’s US tax-document help, read 2026-10-14, says Form 1099-K reports gross reservation totals before Airbnb fees, including cleaning paid out to you, pass-through taxes and co-host payouts. Occupancy taxes Airbnb remitted are not in Gross Amount. Their example is $500 lodging plus $90 cleaning plus $10 pass-through tax = $600 reported, then −$18 fees and −$114.40 co-host = $467.60 net.
On the Paid CSV, Gross for Box 1a is the Amount column plus the Host Fee column. Cleaning is already inside Amount when it is reportable. Adding the cleaning column on top of Amount double-counts it. If you Categorize the $1,166.10 bank line as income, QuickBooks is short of the 1099-K by $213.90.
On r/QuickBooks in March 2025, a host with nightly $200, cleaning $100, host fee $45 and a $255 bank line had been marking $255 as income until they learned the 1099-K would show $300. The replies were to split the deposit. This is not tax advice. How to file is your CPA’s job.
When the lists still disagree
Work CSV-to-bank first, then bank-to-QuickBooks.
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Bank is smaller than Amount by about the host fee | Gross in the CSV, net at the bank | Negative host-fee line on the deposit |
| QuickBooks income is the bank lump | Categorize on the feed | Reverse it. Match the split deposit |
| Cleaning booked twice | Added the CSV cleaning column on top of Amount | Reverse the extra. Cleaning is already in Amount |
| Host fee all charged to the owner, office kept cleaning | Service fee also applies to cleaning | Split the fee. Owner bears the share on owner money |
| Deposit still will not Match | Co-host took cleaning, or an adjustment | Pull the co-host payout. Put adjustments on this deposit |
On r/Bookkeeping in April 2021 the same shape showed up for fees that never hit the bank: gross to income, fee to expense as a negative, bank equal to the deposit.
Airbnb wins the Paid CSV. QuickBooks Online wins the two-way rec your CPA already knows. AppFolio, Rentvine and Buildium still win owner ledgers and the three-way trust rec on long-term doors.
Someone still has to refuse Categorize, put the host fee on as a negative, and credit cleaning to the party who actually keeps it.
How to tell this week is closed
Every AIRBNB bank line is Matched to a deposit that equals the statement to the cent. Each deposit has a host-fee expense and, if Airbnb paid cleaning out, a cleaning line to income, owner funds or the pass-through. Cleaner bills sit in Bills, not inside the deposit.
Pull last month’s Airbnb Paid CSV and the bank statement for the account Airbnb pays. Open the management agreement to the cleaning and host-fee clauses. Split the first unmatched AIRBNB lump from those three files. They already exist.
Frequently asked questions
Should I Categorize the Airbnb bank-feed line as rental income?
No. Categorize or Post records a new ledger entry and skips the host-fee and cleaning lines. Build one Bank Deposit that splits accommodation, cleaning and the host service fee, then take Match. Intuit's categorize help, updated 2026-08-24, treats Post as a new entry. Categorize on the lump records the cash twice.
Is the cleaning fee already inside Airbnb's Amount column on the Paid CSV?
Yes, when the CSV has a Cleaning Fee column. Airbnb's 1099-K help, read 2026-10-14, says cleaning, management fee and occupancy taxes are itemized amounts already inside Amount when they are reportable. Tax Airbnb remitted is not in Gross. Do not add the cleaning column on top of Amount.
Do I put the cleaner bill on the same deposit as the Airbnb cleaning fee?
No. The cleaning fee on the payout is money Airbnb collected from the guest. The cleaner bill is a later expense or owner-ledger charge. Record payout cleaning on the Bank Deposit, then enter the cleaner as a Bill or Expense when you pay them. Both on one deposit will not Match the bank.
Why is QuickBooks income lower than Airbnb's 1099-K?
Airbnb reports gross reservation totals before host fees. The 1099-K includes nightly rate, cleaning paid out to you, pass-through tax and co-host payouts. If you booked only the bank lump, income is short by the host fee. Put a negative host-fee expense on each deposit so gross lines up with Amount plus Host Fee on the Paid CSV. Ask your CPA how to file it.