Guest service fee v host service fee

[Kathleen1145]

Why do the fees keep changing?  Our last booking (last night) included a guest service fee (not sure what the percentage is) and a host service fee of 3%

A booking for the same nightly price charged no guest service fee and a host service fee of 15%.

Why isn't this consistent?  There is a payout price difference of $137. Crazy as the bookings are the same.  Clearly the lesser host service fee is more beneficial to me as a host.

What do i have to do to keep this consistent?

I have just had a look at about 10 bookings and even though they are the same amount of nights - the host fee on half of them is 15% whilst the other half is 3%.  I can't work out why.  Can anyone enlighten me please?

[Shelley159]

Hi @Kathleen1145 

Your first example sounds in line with split fee pricing, the second one in line with simplified pricing. 

You can check it in menu, settings, payouts & payments. Service fee is the last option at the bottom.

[Bob297]

@Kathleen1145 
Did you start using a property management system? Then, the Host-only fee model is automatically applied.

[Kathleen1145]

@Bob297 No haven’t used a property management system. Haven’t changed anything. I never know now what the host fee percentage is going to be. 
I

[Joan2709]

@Kathleen1145 

This is indeed odd....

It does sound like Airbnb has applied simplified pricing to your account as @Bob297 and @Shelley159 mention. Are you using any dynamic pricing software like PriceLabs? Some pricing software have partnership agreements with channel managers like IGMS and Hosts don't realize they are signing up for both dynamic pricing software and a channel manager. The channel manager is what automatically changes you to the Host only fee.

I would double check to see for sure there is no 3rd party software attached to your account. Suggest you take a screen shot showing that and contact Airbnb to determine why this is happening.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Joan2709 

You're the right person to advise @Kathleen1145 here! The first sentence of her post gives the impression that she is now on split fee and was on host only fee before? She says the last booking had a 3% host fee. So maybe it's that software has now been disconnected, or she somehow manually changed the choice of fee model?

[Joan2709]

@Shelley159 

Yes...I think you're right @Shelley159 . There have been a few "bugs" lately with the Airbnb Guest Service Fees with Hosts complaining they were switched to simplified pricing and shouldn't have been or they have disconnected from a channel manager and either can't access their Airbnb account for 48hrs, or remain on the simplified pricing even after disconnecting a channel manager.

[Kathleen1145]

@Joan2709 Thanks for your help. All replies have been helpful. Settings are on 3% host service fee atm so I’ll see what happens for future bookings. If it stays on this setting I will be happy. 
I will never know why past bookings have been different 

[Robin4]

@Kathleen1145 

Hi Kathleen, Airbnb love to complicate the booking procedure and in 2020 they introduced a host only service fee alternative to the time honoured split fee method. 

Obviously they never thought this out because the additional nightly rate displayed on the search page put a lot of guests off.....some choosing to bypass Airbnb altogether to book the same listing on another platform, if the listing used other platforms.

Under the split service fee system Airbnb's service fees  for stays booked and paid in the same currency are stated as 17% of the booking cost.....14% taken from the guest and 3% taken from the host. But in actual fact that is not correct. Airbnb take 3% as a host service fee and 16.3% as a guest service fee meaning that Airbnb actually collect 19.3% as a reservation service fee.

This can be verified by checking your current payout breakdown in the guest details section of the message stream.

The host-only fee is required for traditional hospitality listings like hotels and serviced apartments. You also pay the host-only fee if you use property management software to connect to Airbnb—unless most of your listings are in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Argentina, Uruguay or Taiwan. Airbnb state you can choose to pay the host-only fee as a pricing strategy if you’d like to 'simplify' the price breakdown guests see.

In Australia you have the option to nominate which service fee option you wish to use but unfortunately Airbnb in their help guides give no information on how to actually set which service fee structure you wish to use. 

So although I am reticent to promote it Kathleen, I suggest you contact support on 02 8520 3333 for help on how to set the service fee structure you wish to use!

Cheers.......Rob.