Bookings have dropped sharply since new fee structure

[Helen0]

Is this happening to everyone, or just me?

I adopted the new fee structure, where the host is charged the entire fee, when it was offered to me - I believe it's being made compulsory for everyone from June?
I did this because when I am the guest or customer of any service, I have always disliked having extra fees added at the point of booking. In fact I have never charged a cleaning fee for this reason. I host in my own home and I keep it clean whether I have guests or not, it seemed unreasonable to add a fee for the cleanliness that guests should be able to expect as standard. 

I charge very competitively for my area, much cheaper than local budget hotels and I keep an eye on what other local hosts are charging. In fact, the rates of inflation have been significantly higher than my rate increases throughout my nearly 14 years of hosting. 
I get consistently good reviews and am a long-term Superhost. 
The profile of my guests: the demograhics of them, where they come from and the reasons for their visits, has not changed. I often get repeat guests.

Yet bookings have been very sparse coming in this year and I can't help feeling that the only thing that has changed is that I have naturally had to increase the nightly rate to cover the fees that I will now be paying instead of the guest .

I have even added a line in to my listing to explain that there are no hidden extra charges.

Is this happening to other hosts? 
Was it a huge mistake to adopt the new fee structure before I had to?

[Shelley159]

I can't comment on your specific situation @Helen0 and in my area we haven't started the change process to host-only fees yet.

But in theory, if your prices were correctly adjusted, there should be little impact.

Airbnb started displaying total prices for all listings well before this change, so guests saw an all-inclusive price anyway. The change affects where the service fee is collected, but the total price was displayed all along.

The guest service fee used to be "up to" 14.2% (and host portion exactly 3%, both excluding VAT) where the total single host fee is now 15.5%  excluding VAT. So - because the guest fee wasn't the same everywhere- there can definitely be a change in total price. But it shouldn't be so significant that bookings dry up.

I don't know what's causing the slowdown for you, but I don't think you should blame yourself for changing early.

[Helen3]

The change will have no affect @Helen0 .

The customer sees the overall price when they go to book whether you pay the guest fee or whether the guest fee is paid by them .

Much more likely to be falling demand as fewer people are booking, or your operating in an increasing oversaturated market. 

Bookings are down in my market too.