Warning - Service Fee error happening now!

[Claire910]

This is to warn other hosts that Airbnb have an issue with the split fee system. They are overcharging all my guests.  If I go onto my calendar and select a date range, it gives me the price breakdown, e.g. £350 per week with £49 service fee (14%).  But if I pretend to be a guest booking those exact same dates, same price £350 it's charging them £59 service fee (17%).  This is so naughty.  I have screenshotted this to support..  Please submit a ticket if you have this issue. We are all getting less bookings when the service fees to guests are so high.  The more you are charging, the higher the fee and price difference to your guests!

[Robin4]

@Claire910 

Yes Claire, I did a post on this just over a month ago when a guest complained they were overcharged using the split fee system.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-circle/It-appears-to-be-official-Airbnb-are-overcharging/td...

I went into it very thoroughly and yes, all my guests are being charged a service fee of 15.53%!  I as the host am being charged a service fee of 3% + VAT, but that has nothing to do with the guest service charge!

But if the booking is also using the split fee payment system they will be charged 17+% and when I queried this with support I was told that the extra charge was for foreign currency conversion fees, which would have been patently incorrect. However the guest showed me her bank documentation and although this booking was between an Australian guest and host, both using Australian banks and payment details, Airbnb chose to claim the second payment via PayPal and GBP!!!

With a number of contacts I was obviously getting nowhere with Airbnb support, in fact the ambassador (who I suspect was 100% AI) had the audacity to tell me the payment by this guest had actually been made in USD (which didn't enter into the deal  at any point!

It was utterly pointless continuing to deal with support, So to save myself and Airbnb looking like bloody crooks Claire, I just refunded the guest the overcharge out of my own pocket, and I now warn guests who enquire that, if they intend to use the split payment system allow to be overcharged by about 3%.....it's not something I can control, it is just the way Airbnb operates. 

At least that way I come out of it with my honour intact!

But you are 100% correct Claire, Airbnb are overcharging guests with their service fees!

Cheers........Rob.

[Claire910]

Thanks so much for replying Rob. It still doesn't explain why Airbnb are telling me they're charging my guests a certain amount of service fee (shown on my calendar) but are actually charging them a greater amount. Guests are being charged 17% and I am being charged 3.5%.  So airbnb is getting 20.5%.  This is crazy!

I was so sorry to hear of all your issues; good on you for spotting it and kind of you to refund the guest but it really shouldn't be happening.  I'm going to look at other platforms now because this is a huge chunk of money to take and I'm also sick of the review policy. A guest can leave a review which can be PROVEN factually wrong but airbnb lets it stand!  Enough of this!

[Robin4]

@Claire910 

Claire, what Airbnb say, and what they do are 2 entirely different things. 

Airbnb say that that, were no currency conversion fees are involved, guests will pay a service fee up to 14.2%

Every guest of mine not subject to currency conversion is charged a service fee of 15.53%.

Here you go, you do the maths........

As a percentage of $520.00.......... $80.75 is 15.53%, test it out on your calculator. 

I don't know when this additional charge crept in but I have checked random bookings back 8 months and the result is the same.....every guest of mine is charged 15.53% as a minimum service charge.......all 124 of them since Sept 1st last year.

Individually Claire, it's only a small amount and the guest just accepts it, but when Airbnb starts arguing currency conversion transfer costs for what are patently domestic transactions the amount starts to become noticeable.

For my guest who complained to me with her $585.00 booking, it came to $36.40 as an overcharge! Couple that with the $8.07 for the 1.53% above the 14.2% stated service fee that came to $44.50 that I had to refund to the guest out of my pocket.

She was charged $712.00 on a (by their stated charges) $667.00 all up cost booking.

Now glitches do happen, we all make mistakes but, this is not a mistake or a glitch, this is a consistent pattern and it wouldn't be so bad if Airbnb would at least acknowledge it. But when queried they simply pass it off as something that it isn't with no further investigation, and at that point close the case.

All we want is transparency and at least a reasonable right of appeal. I don't like having to refund guests out of my pocket for Airbnb's greed!

Cheers........Rob.

[Claire910]

Thank you Rob. Just want to add that this has happened again with a guest being overcharged on their service fee.  Also, despite the guest and property being in the UK, their payment was converted into US dollars and they were overcharged at least £15.  I have banged my head on the wall with the airbnb support thread with this and have now emailed the CEO Brian Chesky: 

brian.chesky at airbnb.com  also apukregulatorycomms at airbnb.com

UK hosts may be interested to know that Airbnb Payments UK is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and you can make a complaint via their website. I hope this helps somebody. Go on their website and search for airbnb details there as it won't let me post the link.

It does seem like an international issue with unnecessary currency conversion to make more money for Airbnb and guests are unlikely to spot it so they just pay. But some of them come back to hosts about it, which makes us look dishonest!

Airbnb Payments UK 40 Compton Street
London
Islington
EC1V 0BDE 
UNITED KINGDOM  

Registered company number

09392688

[Shelley159]

Hi @Claire910

Please post a screenshot of the guest paid and host payout details of the transaction where you feel there was an error - one is usually able to recalculate the amounts. 

[Claire910]

I can't post it here because it would reveal the guests personal details but I have sent numerous screenshots to airbnb support and explained how much the refund should be and they just ignore it. 

[Claire910]

@Shelley159  you can see here one of airbnb's f. ups though because on the same screen where you can see my nightly rate in pounds you can see Airbnb telling me the earnings in dollars!

[Shelley159]

Hi @Claire910 

In the example in the screenshot, the Airbnb service charges are 12.74% for the guest and just under 3% for the host.

While many individual hosts like yourself may not liable to pay VAT, Airbnb offers a travel booking service and needs to pay VAT on its service fees.

In my opinion Airbnb should ideally show their VAT liability separately, as it will be more transparent and result in fewer queries.

[Claire910]

Hi Shelley, I appreciate you are trying to help but you are not understanding. There are several issues here.

*One is that Airbnb shows a different amount of service charge to hosts via the calendar view when we are logged in and select a date range. I have asked them repeatedly to correct this. The amounts are irrelevant; it should show the same.

*Another is that there was an issue with them displaying both dollars and pounds in my calendar view despite me and the property being based in the UK (the screenshot you saw). The CURRENCY as well as the amount of fee, should be correct.

*Another is that they perform unnecessary currency exchanges which result in overcharging.

I cannot disclose guests details with screenshots but I can tell you there was a 1 week booking for £420 on which the guest paid £506.  This involved Airbnb doing the unnecessary currency exchange.  Airbnb got 25.25% commission on the guest and further commission from me, the host!  Around 29% total commission. NUTS.

*Future bookings for the same length of time at the same rate show the service fee should be around £70. Not £106. Airbnb's support persons response to this was that they charge different guests different rates, which is illegal in the UK, and they do have subsidiary companies here which are subject to UK law.

*The most important issue is that they acknowledged they have a technical glitch and have ALL the evidence yet still refuse to refund the guest the overcharging of their service fee.

As I am not the only person to comment on the currency exchanges, this may well constitute fraud and could be widespread. See Rob's comments above and other hosts comments.  I have therefore reported them to the Financial Conduct Authority and requested an investigation.

Airbnb cannot indefinitely turn a blind eye to its 'technical glitches' and overcharging, without being prosecuted.

[Joan2709]

@Claire910 @Shelley159 @Robin4 

Not to muddy the already murky waters on this...

I was wondering if Airbnb was charging a higher service fee for guests who choose partial payment plans (Book Now - Pay Later or Klarna)?

That would make sense as it is another way to increase their profitability for guests who are not paying the full amount when booking. Doesn't make sense that they would do that without charging something? For Klarna, interest is charged on some bookings - some not. 🤔

If true, this is a sneaky way to make more revenue but all the risk is on the Host. If the guest can't pay the final payments, Airbnb cancels the booking and the Host has a hole in their calendar they might not be able to fill last minute. Meanwhile, Airbnb still collects their Service Fee...🤔

[Shelley159]

Hi @Joan2709, one can check the service fee percentage for such bookings in the same way. I haven't seen one posted here that I know of.

[Joan2709]

@Shelley159 

The problem is we don't know what guests are using partial payments (Airbnb does not disclose that). The booking shows to the Host like the guest paid the full amount, when in actuality they used a partial payment plan.

I can verify that as we had a guest cancel who used the partial payment plan and it appeared like they paid the full amount at booking when they didn't. You would have to know which guest is using partial payments - and Airbnb doesn't disclose that.

Vrbo on the other hand allows partial payments, but the HOST has full control over that and sets the schedule for payments. This allows Hosts to protect themselves from an unexpected hole in their calendar if the guest doesn't make their last payment. The last payment is scheduled far enough out that the Host could have a chance of re-booking should the guest cancel. 

Another issue with partial payments not disclosed to the Host...we had a guest who put the wrong number of guests on the RTB. They had trouble finding the place to change the number of guests, so we said just to withdraw or cancel the request and resumbit (not knowing that partial payment plans were in effect). The guest chose Klarna for the original booking. Klarna puts a hold on funds in a bank account for 24hrs as soon as the RTB has been sent (even if not confirmed). When the guest withdrew the request, he was not able to rebook immediately as his bank account funds were in "pending status" from the original booking and he was not able to rebook until the next day when the funds were released back into his bank account by Klarna.

Had we know about the partial payment plan, we would have just accepted the booking and changed the number of guests after the fact.

This also brings up a concern about refunding guests. How do we know if a guest paid in full for a booking? What if you wanted to send a full refund or a partial refund and assumed the guest had paid in full for the booking? If they used a partial payment plan, you might be refunding them more than they actually paid.

[Shelley159]

Yes @Joan2709 I also can't see whether partial payment was made, as far as I know there's no way for a host to tell. I agree that there could be an increased risk of cancellation if the second payment fails.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Joan2709 @Shelley159 

When a guest pays through Klarna, is there any interest added to the total reservation or is it really just the total divided by 3 with no hidden costs?