FROM THE IRS WEBSITE: The gross payment amount (Box 1a) on Form 1099-K reports the total, or gross, dollar amount of reportable payment transactions. It doesn't include adjustments for fees, credits, refunds, shipping, cash equivalents or discounts. Those items are not income. Taxpayers can deduct those items from the gross amount when including the income on their tax return.
I track cancelled bookings where I received none of the money but the guest did conduct a transaction through AirBnB, refunded booking amounts, the taxes guests paid to AirBnB and AirBnB purportedly paid on my behalf, the 3% charge to me for the credit card processing and the AirBnB service fees. All of these fees are then listed as expenses on my IRS Schedule E (or Schedule C) to counter and correct the amount that AirBnB entered as income earned on the 1099K.
It is necessary to record all of this information over the course of the year if you want to correctly reflect the amount of actual realized income (your NET receipts) on your taxes. I keep an Excel spreadsheet that my accountant assisted me in setting up (20 years ago) for record keeping.
IMO, hosts should rely on their own records rather than the records provided by an OTA.
