Abstract: Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage the migration of virtual machines between hosts. In one example, a management service for a cluster of hosts identifies a virtual machine to migrate and identifies current resource requirements of the virtual machine and current resource availability at the hosts of cluster. The management service further determines that two or more of the hosts possess current resource availability to support the current resource requirements of the virtual machine and identifies available headroom resources on each of the two or more hosts. Based on the available headroom resources, the management service further selects a host from the two or more hosts and initiates a migration of the virtual machine to the selected host.