What happens to your hosting fees

[Airbnb]

At a recent Host Q&A event in Sydney, Ben, a Superhost from Brisbane, Australia, asked a great question: What happens to the money Airbnb collects from hosts and guests as service fees? We thought it was such a fantastic question, we wanted to share a few behind-the-scenes details with you here.

You probably know that as a host you’re charged a service fee whenever a booking or Experience is confirmed. For home hosts, the fee amount is usually 3%*, and for Experience hosts, it’s 20%. In most cases, guests are also charged a service fee when they book on Airbnb. A full breakdown of the fee model, can be found in our Help Center. 

So what exactly happens to the money that’s collected? We redeploy it into three big categories that help support you as a host and an entrepreneur: community support, marketing, and product development. Here’s a closer look at how your fees are deployed to help power Airbnb:

Community Support

One of our top priorities is making sure we can support you if you have questions or need support.  As we mentioned at our last Host Q&A event, we're investing a substantial amount of resources into our Community Support team to ensure we’re there when you need us, and that we can help you with your question or concern smoothly and efficiently. In the past year, for instance:

• In the last few years, we’ve tripled the size of the Community Support team to help you get answers more quickly, in your preferred language. (And it’s helped: over our peak holiday season this past year, for instance, 80% of calls were answered in less than one minute; and this year, we’re committed to improve this even more.)
• We built a new process online to make it easier to connect with us—via phone or our online chat system—and help you get to the right person, right away. Now you can find the phone number you need and access the chat system almost immediately.
• And finally, we launched new tools so our agents can easily understand a hosts’ issue and can respond efficiently and consistently.

We will continue to make improvements and invest in our Community Support team. In fact, one improvement that’s happening right now is that we’re splitting the team into areas of expertise. This will help us connect you more quickly with the right person to address your particular concern. We’ll be using an intelligent routing system to direct your question to a Community Support agent who is specially trained to address your question. We’ll be introducing this program globally in the next few months.

What other ideas do you have for improving the Community Support experience? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments section, below.

Marketing

Another topic we know hosts care a lot about is getting enough bookings to meet their individual goals. We help to drive that through significant investments in marketing to guests. Through our marketing teams, we ensure that guests around the world think about Airbnb first when they’re making their vacation plans. We focus mainly on three types of marketing:

• Marketing to guests in the ‘real world’, through traditional advertising channels (think TV ads, billboards). These are typically tailored to specific local markets. Already this year, for instance, we’ve had major ad campaigns in Mexico and Brazil, and there are more that will roll out around the world later this year.
• Marketing to guests in the ‘digital world.’ We also have close partnerships with Facebook, Google, the iTunes app store, and other digital platforms to ensure that Airbnb has a strong presence in the places where our guests and other travelers are spending time online. It’s crucial that Airbnb—and your listings—show up high in search results when travelers are looking to book trips and that’s why we spend meaningful money here on your behalf.
• Marketing to guests through Airbnb-specific channels. The Airbnb website and app and email are the other channels we use to help drive guest demand and additional bookings to you. On the website and in the app, we create travel-inspiration articles and collections of listings travelers search for frequently, such as beachfront properties. We also send booking reminder emails when guests have been searching for a place to stay but haven’t booked yet.

Product development

Finally, our last significant bucket of spend is around product development. Airbnb employs thousands of engineers, designers, and product leaders who build the tools and infrastructure that power your business. They focus on keeping Airbnb up and running (ensuring our technology platform is strong, fixing issues that arise), and they develop products specifically designed to make it easier for you to host and succeed.

Recent examples include tools to make reviews more fair for hosts and the newly redesigned Guidebooks feature. The latter helps hosts give guests local recommendations and create a more welcoming, memorable experience overall. (It’s also a lot of fun to use!)

Let us know if you have any other questions about fees and how Airbnb spends them in the comments section, below. We love to get your feedback.

*The Airbnb host service fee may be different in certain cases, and is typically higher for hosts in Italy and for hosts who have a Super Strict Cancellation Policy.

[John37]

I think AIR IS FANTASTIC and as a supper host i can only say without AIR would not be where I am today.

 Thankyou Again and Again 

 JOHN READ

[Rob185]

I have spoken to support staff on so many occasions about a ‘glitch’ in saved responses! 

It is such a useful feature however a host can edit a saved response but can’t delete one which is very annoying. So come on Airbnb spend a bit of your service fee and correct this glitch which I am sure will benefit many hosts!!! 

[Erika-and-Chris0]

As someone who books an Airbn accomodation I cannot recall if the term "service fee" was ever explained. Initialy, before becomming a host I thought it was a "cleaning fee" .

Is the term explained to guests?

Ta Erika

[Karen953]

I am  both a Superhost and guest. I started out as a guest. I have recently booked a trip to Hobart and used booking.com as the service fees charged took the nightly rate above booking.com prices.

I cannot work out how the service fee rate is determined either. One for 5 days had a $12 service fee and the other $176, same price bracket.

The service fee must be a consistent percentage and be factored in to the nightly rate for searches as the differences make some more expensive stays the same or less expensive than the lower prices stays.

I host in a regional area of NZ so we get no seminars or opportunity to have professional photos done as was on offer for superhosts a couple of years ago.

This added service cost is terrible and to the things described as above Airbnb needs to be transparent and it  should be added to the host fees, perhaps from 3 to 5 percent.

[Susan17]

@Karen593 

Hi Karen. Is it possible that the option with the $12 service fee was a listing from a commercial operator, and the one with the $178 was from a regular small host? 

https://skift.com/2019/05/27/airbnb-eliminates-most-guest-fees-to-take-on-booking-holdings/

Airbnb has recently introduced a "Host Only" fee, flat rate of 14%, for large professional and commercial operators only, which means that their guests pay zero service charges (obviously making those listings a much more attractive option for searching guests). So Airbnb's total take on those bookings will be 14%, as opposed to the 20%-25% total take from bookings of regular hosts' listings. 

That still doesn't quite explain the $12 though - could that maybe have been an admin charge?

Meanwhile, Airbnb continues to force small independent hosts to compete for bookings (and battle for survival) in the very same searches as wealthy corporate "hosts" with hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of listings on the platform. Despite an EU ruling that came into force on Jan 1 of this year, requiring Arbnb to seperate and clearly delineate small individual hosts from commercial operators on the site - on the grounds that not doing so gives the big players an unfair commercial advantage and is deceptive  to consumers - no changes have yet been made. 

[Tamara378]

I find the fees are way too high for the guests.  In my case, they pay 30%! I’m switching to booking in the fall where the guests will save nearly 20% and I’ll get more bookings.  

[Manasui0]

Does any one know any other OTA (platforms) that offers lower rate than airbnb roughly around 12.5% exclude tax depending on the area ..

from the paid amount for accomodation rental ??

with a better communication toward "host and guest"..??

[Bradley85]

I dont think airbnb particularly needs to justify charging a fee through a forum. As long as they are transparent and fair with their charges they absolutely should be charging. This is a very clear hand in hand relationship. Without the forum we would not get the bookings. It would be great though if they could possibly put a little to one side for grievance and cancellation maybe?

[Ann72]

@Bradley85 "As long as they are transparent and fair with their charges" - but there's the rub, isn't it?  They're not transparent, and since they're not transparent, we have no way of knowing if they're fair.

[Lucinda49]

Airbnb don’t take 20%-25% for places to stay.  I’m only charged 3% and the guests aren’t charged anymore.  Not sure about experiences, they say that’s 20% but I’ve done Airbnb for a couple of years and know I wouldn’t have done it without them and I love the fact I don’t have to deal with my guest’s payments and international transactions because that’s a nightmare and I usually get paid sooner than stated.  Sometimes I don’t even meet my guests because Airbnb’s system is so streamline. 

No I don’t work for them, this is a genuine comment. 

[Manasui0]

the host got charge 3% and the guest get charged 10% but in case of cancellation cause by the host mistake, the guest got a compansation voucer up to 100 USD..  from Airbnb.. is like a holliday paid by mistake.. and the host got the million dollar guarantee..

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[Susan17]

@Lucinda49 

"Airbnb don’t take 20%-25% for places to stay.  I’m only charged 3% and the guests aren’t charged anymore"

Not sure where you got the idea that the guests aren't charged anymore, but you couldn't be more wrong (Unless they book with professional/commercial hosts, many of whom have a completely different fee structure) And yes, Airbnb's take is up to 25% on bookings for regular hosts' listings. See screenshots earlier in the thread. Straight from the horse's mouth. 

[Karen953]

My guests have been charged up to 20 % on some of my bookings, I also have been charged $172 service fee as a guest for a 5 day booking. If your guests aren't being charged a service fee and others are I want an answer from @Airbnb  why this is so??

[Savvas10]

They are,  just some people don't have the intelligence to realise it.

[Boris129]

Thank you for your attention and friendly explanation. I really like it. I am convinced that interpretation is not necessary at all. You work great with hosts and guests. You have developed internet marketing and, in fact, an entire internet device. Carefully monitor and inform guests and hosts. Everyone can see that your work is more than perfect. In all areas, I would give you five stars a hint of your evaluation method between hosts and guests. You are very professional and who can not appreciate this is definitely something wrong with him.
Everything, every development, and every job cost a bit, and my opinion is that you are very cheap, even if your services will going up a bit, we would not have the right to blame you for it. The AIRBNB collective is excellent, I love working with you and by no means are too expensive. All you charge is fair. Anyone who thinks otherwise should try to do what you are doing for us.
I wish you many more years of good business than ever before. You are wonderful and thank you.