Guest Fee waived but HOSTS now automatically charged 15% commission by Airbnb

[Melanie818]

Email received from Airbnb September 2nd 2020

Starting 11/1/2020, we’ll be switching your listings to simplified pricing—a new service fee structure that gives you more control of your final price.

What’s changing Today, there are 2 service fee structures: split-fee pricing with the service fee shared between hosts and guests, and simplified pricing with the entire service fee covered by the host.

After 11/1/2020, split-fee pricing will no longer be available.

That means a 15% service fee will be deducted from your payouts, and no fee will be charged to your guests—what you set is what guests will pay. Why we’re making this change We introduced simplified pricing last year, and hosts who tried it out and priced competitively across websites got an average of 17%* more bookings. We heard that removing the guest fee made it easier for hosts to price competitively, and we saw that guests preferred to book places that didn’t have a guest fee.

This is especially important for your listings, since guests usually don’t pay fees on other booking platforms in your region. What will happen next?

This change will happen automatically on 11/01/2020 and will be applied to any bookings that you get after that date.

We’ll send you a reminder 7 days before this change, along with a guide to walk you through changes you may want to make to your prices. Here’s a summary of what will change:

• Your service fee settings will automatically change on 11/1/2020 for all your listings
• We’ll deduct a flat 15% host service fee from each payout and won’t charge a guest service fee
• This won’t affect any existing bookings you have and will only apply to any bookings you get after 11/1/2020
• Using Airbnb after 11/01/2020 means that you’ve accepted this new service fee structure

[Anna9170]

@Debra300  Thank you so much for your detailed explanations! It is easier for guests to make payments via bookingcom , so such a large commission for payment processing kills the whole point of working through booking. ((

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

I'd prefer Airbnb's method of payment collection if they would actually collect a security deposit (or at least a pre-authorization hold against a credit card), use more common sense when reviewing claims from both guests and hosts (stop issuing refunds after the stay has ended and denying reimbursement requests even when the guest admits the infraction on Airbnb), confer with hosts (and obtain agreement) when trying to determine if the cancellation policy should be over-ridden. 

I know that my rental situation is different from those who home share and have to interact with guests, but as long as I have a way to make a guest financially responsible for their behavior and actions while staying at my place, I really don't need to know what prior hosts thought about them.  

I understand that there is a concern that hosts may abuse credit card details, and that is one reasoning for not letting us have that information.  However, the other platforms have implemented measures to vet hosts to guard against widespread mishandling of credit cards.  For example, they have the banking details and require a payment method (same as Airbnb), new hosts are not allowed to see credit card information until 14 days before arrival (effectively setting the cancellation period to 14 days before arrival), and the credit card info can only be viewed three times. 

Hosts do incur some risk even with having the ability to charge credit cards.  The other platforms do not verify the validity of the credit card or the availability of funds.  The hosts can find out this information only when trying to process the payment.  If the credit card isn't valid, the guest is given 24 hours to submit another form of payment before the reservation can be canceled.

As I said before, there is no perfect platform, not even your own website.  

[Ann72]

@Debra300  You make so many amazing points.  As usual I adore you.

Am I just very tired and don't understand why this was tagged at me or did you mean to tag Anna?  My dog just died so maybe I'm not thinking straight.  😞

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

I am so sorry to hear about your loss.  You have my sincerest condolences.  My fur-son passed away a few years ago, and it took quite some time for me to get over it.

[Ann72]

@Debra300  Thank you, my love.  I'm sorry for your loss, too.  I'm glad my daughter, who was his favorite person in the world, was with us and we were all together in Maine. 💙

(Apologies everyone for going off topic)

[Sarah977]

@Ann72  Oh Ann, I'm so sorry to read that. Virtual hugs to you. I'm dreading that day, as my dog is 13, and try not to think about it.

[Anonymous]

@Ann72  My heart is with you today, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. Beautiful that he was surrounded by his most awesome humans but still, that's just the worst. Big hugs your way from Berlin.

[Ann72]

Thank you @Anonymous, that means so much.  The hugs really help, too.  Sending some back your way from Maine 🙂

[Mike-And-Jane0]

If Airbnb do this then I think hosts should move to the strict cancellation policy. With moderate or flexible if the guest has paid no service fee then they have absolutely no skin in the game and could cancel at will.

[Sandra126]

Very valid point, @Mike-And-Jane0 . I thought this was a good thing as guests will save 5%, normally the fees are 20%. But I didn't think of this.

[Kelly149]

yep, I'm on two platforms and ABB is the more expensive one... there is a cost to the guest for me to take a chance on no security deposit and EC policy. That other platform charges me 5% per booking commission, if ABB is 10% more then that will just increase the ABB rate again

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kelly149 Which other platform are you on? Also what are the guest and host fees for each platform please.

I am interested as I may choose not to put all our eggs in the Airbnb basket.

[Kelly149]

@Mike-And-Jane0  V r B o if I’m allowed to say it. Ver bo 

with them you can pay a $500 subscription or a 5% commission each booking. Either way there is still a 3% processing fee on top. 

I like their cancellation policy options better, no EC. They don’t pre-charge a security deposit but they do run a hold and if I wanted to charge something against the deposit I just enter the amount within 14 days. No arguing with CS about it. 

guests tend to skew older there but perhaps because they are usually home owners themselves they’re more respectful about this being both a business and my home. 

there is a review system but it isn’t as draconian as ABB. I have also found their CS employees to be much more useful & understandable as well. 

my first year was 80% abb, next year closer to 50/50, and the last two years closer to 70% vrbo. It may just be that it’s a self-fulfilling cycle, the more you book on a platform the higher you rank in search. I also open my Vrbo calendar 3 months earlier than my abb calendar 

guests do also pay a booking fee, it’s not nothing but I don’t ever run the numbers to check a percentage 

[Ann72]

@Kelly149  You are allowed to say it and I'm glad you did - this is very helpful the way you've run down the good points.

I would love to expand elsewhere.  So far very little action on VRBO but the legitimate guests have been wonderful.  Maybe I'll spend a little more time brushing up those listings and see what happens for next year.  

And thanks for the below 😘

[Kelly149]

@Ann72 My listing took off once I bought the subscription and at a certain price point the $500 greatly outweighs the 5%. 

right now I’m on 5% and waiting for the subscription to be offered on sale (just a post pandemic hunch)

im sure there could be regional differences but the balance has really tipped in one direction for me lately

and I really feel better about having multiple baskets for my eggs.