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

[Piotr48]

I got this email today too. Looks like I'm going rise up my prices.

[Super47]

Did the email give an official start date for Poland, @Piotr48? You're software-connected to Airbnb, right? 

[Piotr48]

It says December 7. Yes, I'm software-connected. No way I'm going to pay for the software AND cover guests' fee. Prices will have to go up for bookings.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Piotr48 According to @Lizzie you should be receiving help from Airbnb to explain how much you need to raise your rates to end up net neutral to your existing position. The guest will also pay the same amount as before so everyone should be happy....

[Super47]

@Lizzie 

"This fee structure applies to a very small group of Professional hosts"

Sorry Lizzie but the information you were given is not correct. 

It's not a very small group - it's most Professional hosts. From December 7th, all software-connected hosts in the vast majority of countries worldwide will be compelled to adopt the simplified (host-only) fee. Software-connected hosts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Argentina, Taiwan or Uruguay will not be  forced to adopt the host-only fee - however, they can opt into it if they wish.

Early adopters already using simplified pricing will have a 14% service fee until January 1, 2021. After that, their service fee will increase to 15%. The fee for hosts with SuperStrict cancellation policies will be 17%.

Existing bookings won’t be affected, but the change will apply to all bookings made after December 7, 2020.

According to Airbnb, this change is very positive for professional and commercial hosts who are connected via channel manager or PMS. Software-connected hosts reported a 17% - 21% increase in bookings on the host-only fee structure (as per official Airbnb analysis).

[Lizzie]

Hello @Super47,

I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure if you have a question for me here? My post several weeks ago now, was aimed at hopefully clarifying the situation, as there were many questions here asking if this applies to all hosts. I believe my response hopefully answers that. 

Lizzie

[Sweet-Escapes0]

Hi there!! Does anyone know if this has rolled out in the USA? If not, will it and when?

[Tami206]

I think these new charges are very unfair to small time hosts who happen to be using a management company to help manage their flats. I only have the one apartment- I’m not a big hotel or big landlord and I’m having to pay 20% to the management company and now 15% plus vat to Airbnb. It’s really unfair to make this mandatory for one set of users only. Why not do it across the board or give us a choice whether to opt in or out? My flat will look more expensive at the outset to account for the extra cost which means I’ll get less views and potentially less traffic. Very unfair Airbnb! 

[Arun1]

where can I change the split fee option or Host fee option.. I can't find it..

thanks in advance..

[Reserved0]

commission charged by airbnb.  we are currently being charged 17.25% not 15%

[Kim3057]

Hi 

I'm very new to all this and would dearly love to know how to adjust my fee settings from split fees to host only fees

Thanks @Kim3057 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kim3057 it is in your account settings (not the listing)

[Julia3703]

I've just published my listing and it looks as if there is a guest service fee still being applied - from everything i have read this shouldn't happen. Any thoughts how i can switch it off as i want to pay the fee

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Julia3703 as long as you are not using software to connect to Airbnb you have the choice of paying the fee yourself or charging it to the guest. You choose the charging method in your account settings

[Julia3703]

Hi, thank you for the swift reply. I have checked in my account settings but I can’t see any reference to service fees.

I set up my payout method today so I wonder if that needs t be verified before Airbnb give me the option over who pays the fees.