I think we have a bigger issue here.

[Stephanie3802]

🚨 HOSTS & CO-HOSTS — ARE WE LOOKING AT THE 15.5% FEE FROM THE WRONG ANGLE?

Everyone is talking about going from 3% → 15.5% per listing.

But here’s the question I think we need to ask:

What happens when the money Airbnb is applying that 15.5% to ISN’T actually our income?

🏠 HOST / PROPERTY OWNER

Revenue isn’t profit.

Cleaning fees go to cleaners.
HOA, maintenance, linens, supplies, pet-related costs, etc. are expenses.

So even when the property owner receives the booking revenue, a significant portion may never actually be their profit.

💼 CO-HOST / PROPERTY MANAGER

This gets even more complicated.

A property manager can have $100,000 flowing through Airbnb per listing while only earning a fraction of that as actual management income.

Owner proceeds, cleaning costs, vendors, and other property expenses are pass-through money — not the manager’s income.

Now apply Airbnb’s fee per listing:

$100,000 at 3% = $3,000 per listing
$100,000 at 15.5% = $15,500 per listing

That’s a $12,500 difference per listing.

And this is why “just raise your prices” doesn’t answer the question.

How does Airbnb distinguish money we actually earn per listing from money we’re collecting and passing through to owners, cleaners, vendors, and other expenses?

And for co-hosts/property managers:

How does Airbnb ensure its reporting and tax documentation accurately reflects our actual income per listing rather than the gross money flowing through our accounts?

Because:

MONEY PROCESSED PER LISTING ≠ MONEY EARNED PER LISTING.

At 3%, this was already important.

At 15.5% per listing, the consequences are much bigger.

Are other hosts and professional co-hosts/property managers looking at this per listing too?

[Elaine701]

@Stephanie3802 

You seem to be a US host.

In the US, businesses aren't taxed on gross income. Your accountant only needs to deduct commissions and other expenses from your gross income on your tax declaration. 

Don't take my word for it, ask your tax advisor. 

[Shelley159]

@Stephanie3802 this is a re-post of an earlier comment on another thread? I'll copy my response here, I'm not sure whether the two threads will be merged.

[Stephanie3802]

My thoughts exactly. 

🚨 HOSTS & CO-HOSTS — ARE WE LOOKING AT THE 15.5% FEE FROM THE WRONG ANGLE?

Everyone is talking about going from 3% → 15.5% per listing.

But here’s the question I think we need to ask:

What happens when the money Airbnb is applying that 15.5% to ISN’T actually our income?

🏠 HOST / PROPERTY OWNER

Revenue isn’t profit.

Cleaning fees go to cleaners.
HOA, maintenance, linens, supplies, pet-related costs, etc. are expenses.

So even when the property owner receives the booking revenue, a significant portion may never actually be their profit.

💼 CO-HOST / PROPERTY MANAGER

This gets even more complicated.

A property manager can have $100,000 flowing through Airbnb per listing while only earning a fraction of that as actual management income.

Owner proceeds, cleaning costs, vendors, and other property expenses are pass-through money — not the manager’s income.

Now apply Airbnb’s fee per listing:

$100,000 at 3% = $3,000 per listing
$100,000 at 15.5% = $15,500 per listing

That’s a $12,500 difference per listing.

And this is why “just raise your prices” doesn’t answer the question.

How does Airbnb distinguish money we actually earn per listing from money we’re collecting and passing through to owners, cleaners, vendors, and other expenses?

And for co-hosts/property managers:

How does Airbnb ensure its reporting and tax documentation accurately reflects our actual income per listing rather than the gross money flowing through our accounts?

Because:

MONEY PROCESSED PER LISTING ≠ MONEY EARNED PER LISTING.

At 3%, this was already important.

At 15.5% per listing, the consequences are much bigger.

Are other hosts and professional co-hosts/property managers looking at this per listing too?

[Shelley159]

@Stephanie3802 the same applied before, to the 3% host fee and the 14.1% to 16% guest fee under the split system. Now it applies to the single 15.5%. All price components have always been subject to the Airbnb service fee (it can't work any other way, otherwise we'll all just move our charges into the cleaning fee if that doesn't attract a service fee).

What you say above also applies to every product and service. If you order takeout, the fastfood restaurant reports the entire invoiced amount as gross income. But not all of it repeesnts profit. It paid for delivery, packaging, employees who prepared the food, kitchen cleaners (other industies also pay cleaners, not just us), ingredients ....

It's the same for an Airbnb hosting and co-hosting business. It comes down to gross income being something different from net income. Airbnb's service fee is just a marketing expense for your business, nothing more. What the customer pays is your gross income, you deduct your expenses (including the category of advertising and  sales commissions) and that gives your net income.

The above was true when the host recorded a 3% service fee. It's the same now, just a higher service fee (higher gross income) and a higher marketing expense (higher deduction). Same net income.

[Stephanie3802]

Yes — but I’d say “reported under the host’s tax information” rather than “reported as profit,” because a 1099-K reports gross payments, not profit. That distinction actually makes your point stronger and more accurate.

🚨 HOSTS & CO-HOSTS — THIS IS BIGGER THAN A 15.5% FEE.

One simple example:

40 bookings × 3 nights = 120 nights
$105/night = $12,600
$4,800 cleaning fees
$1,800 pet fees

That’s $19,200 processed through Airbnb, but $6,600 goes directly to the cleaning crew. It is not the host’s income.

Yet $19,200 can be the gross payment amount reported under the host’s tax information — not the $8,340 remaining after these expenses.

Now Airbnb takes:

3% = $576
15.5% = $2,976

That’s $2,400 more on ONE listing.

$19,200 PROCESSED ≠ $19,200 EARNED.

And for co-hosts/property managers, owner proceeds can also pass through the account.

So my question is simple:

How is Airbnb distinguishing money we actually earn from money we collect and pass through — both when calculating the 15.5% fee and in its tax reporting?

Because “raise your prices” doesn’t answer that.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephanie3802 To answer your question - Airbnb does not distinguish between 'money we actually earn from money we collect and pass through'.

Neither should they.

Airbnb reports gross earnings to HMRC in the UK and to the IRS in the USA. It is then the hosts responsibility to fill in a tax return with ALL the allowable deductions which in the UK would be

1) Airbnb fees

2) Cleaning and laundry costs paid to external suppliers

3) Consumables such as toilet paper, bleech etc

4) Replacements such as towels and sheets

5) Utility bills 

6) Lots of other things I have forgotten

You then get taxed on net revenue

So what is the issue? 

Why should Airbnb fees be any different to any other costs of doing business?

Finally, if Airbnb didn't charge its fees on the cleaning fee then hosts could avoid their fees by having a high cleaning fee and low nightly rate. Your example seems to fall into this category!

[Shelley159]

@Mike-And-Jane0 couldn't have explained it better @Stephanie3802 

And where taxes are based on taxable income (not gross income), "raise your prices" does fully address the movement of the guest potion of the service fee from the guest to the host.

All I would add is "don't raise your prices manually". Look through the community center posts to see how many hosts have made errors with that.

Run the conversion tool

[Dinamarta-Jose0]

@Stephanie3802 I think there are two separate issues here that are easy to mix together.

For tax purposes, a business may be able to deduct legitimate business expenses from its gross income, so gross receipts are not necessarily the same thing as taxable profit.

But that is different from the question of what Airbnb applies its own service fee to.

That distinction is particularly important to me with the cleaning fee. If a host charges $100 because that is the actual cost of having the property cleaned, that $100 may be revenue flowing through the reservation, but economically it is also covering a specific operating expense. If Airbnb applies its service fee to that amount as well, the host no longer receives the full $100 needed to cover that cleaning cost unless the difference is absorbed somewhere else or reflected in the price charged to the guest.

So I agree that “money processed” and “money ultimately earned” are not necessarily the same thing. The tax treatment of those amounts and Airbnb’s decision about what amounts are subject to its service fee are also two different questions.