What is the percentage of the guest service fee? What is the percentage of the host service fee?

[Sandy33]

What is the percentage (or $ amount) of the guest service fee?  What is the percentage (or $ amount) of the host service fee? Are these service fees a percentage of the monthly rate set by the host?  

I charge $1650 per month plus a $120 cleaning fee for the entire stay.  I am renting a fully furnished 1200 s.f., 1-bedroom, 1-bath apartment with a dedicated laundry room for the apartment only, an office with a wireless inkjet printer/scanner/copier (paper and ink supplied) and office furniture and a furnished, covered brick terrace overlooking a ravine -- all of this in a close-in location in Atlanta, GA.  

A potential guest (referred by a previous guest which is why she has my contact information) just wrote me and told me that Airbnb is quoting her $1903 per month for a stay of May 14 -- July 30. That is way out of line!  Her friend (the one who referred her to me) was here last summer for the same amount of time and she paid $1737 per month. As I was looking up these transactions I noticed that a guest who was here last summer for a month and a day paid $1829.  Meanwhile, my current guest who arrived February 1 and will be here through March 31 is paying $1690 per month.  None of this makes any sense.

I do not allow my rates to float (as Airbnb wants me to do).  My rates are always the same.  I rent exclusively through Airbnb, to business travellers who will be here for 30 days or more.  Looking at this wide variance I may have to re-think my loyalty to Airbnb.  But what do a tell the potential guest who is being way overcharged, I think -- and as a result may not stay with me?

Sandy

[Wenwen0]

"I do not know what I can do about the situation."

Craigslist is free to use. So is the facebook marketplace.  List your places there.  Handle the bookings yourself.  Charge no service fees at all. 

[EcoBuilt0]

Hi Peter,

I did a little research and I think the following information may shed some light on the situation.

( I am not a reputation management consultant, or high level host paid by Airbnb to squash discontent or honest communications about the problems Host's encounter, or to make the host wrong because they are a less experienced level.)

One does not need to be on the Airbnb platform long before one becomes aware of various difficulties.

1. I think Airbnb is working towards their IPO (initial public offering) and the higher their profits the higher their valuation.

2. Airbnb is in the business of making money and their "product" is travel accommodations.

3. FastCompany.com wrote an article titled "To Fill Rooms, Hotels Are Turning to Airbnb".  Services fees are revenue whether generated from hosts of hotels.  

4. As recent as late November 2017 I lost return guests that complained about the cost.  When I looked further into their complaint I realized that the service fee increased their cost while my rates had not changed.   

It makes sense now why I've received multiple suggestions from Airbnb to lower my rates.   I'm being squeezed by Airbnb and by my guests.  I suspect Airbnb needs to drive down the prices of hosted properties in order to maintain a differentiation between hotel rates and hosted property property rates.  Hotels of course, receiving higher rates.

Any suggestions are welcome.

[EcoBuilt0]

For many months I have received messages from Airbnb urging to drop my listing rates which I have done only selectively and by small amounts.  I have been hosting for two plus years.  To my recollection, when I first became a host the service fee was slight shy of 10%.  When I just checked today, 12/5/2017 I found that Airbnb has moved their service fee up to slightly over 12.5%.  No wonder booking are down.  With a hefty price tag for service fees Airbnb is squeezing their hosts to lower their rates to compensate for their service fees.  Not going to happen, I'll find other ways outside of Airbnb to fill my space.

Also, last week, the week of Nov 27, 2018 Airbnb has techincal difficulties, they've had many recently, and they arbitrarily cancelled a confirmed reservation.  When I asked what happend they merely said something happened on the platform and they decided they had to cancel the reservation and other reservations as well.  Asked how they would compensate me for the $180+ loss they wouldn't commit other than to say they hoped the person would rebook.  They were suppose to reach out to the guest which they did not.  Eventually I contacted the guest and learned that he had booked the reservation with a code offered by Airbnb, the reservation with code was accepted and then Airbnb decided to cancel the reservation because they did not want to honor the code or make good on their mistake.  The responsibility for the mistake was placed on the host and the guest. 

What is going on with their platform?   Are they just plain greedy?

[David126]

This was the SINGAPORE $200 off code, not sure about how it happened but can not imagine it was intential. And I doubt many people who used it would have otherwise booked. Or rebooked.

I may pay attention th=o their price suggestions if I start getting suggestions to increase my price, yet to happen.

[EcoBuilt0]

No, Airbnb is attempting to drive hosting prices down in order to compensate for their increased service fees.  Squeezing hosts is not really the way to go.

[Shannon124]

Same story as most of these great services when they take on investors and go public with IPOs. Shortsighted greed. 

[Jonathan348]

I’m trying to book a room apartment in Washington DC and there is a 20 percent service fee two nights at $70 a night is 140 $ without the cleaning and they’re charging me $28 service fee as a renter I don’t understand where that huge number comes from thanks Jonathan

[Shannon124]

 It would seem Airbnb charge what they think they can get away with, likely depending on the popularity of areas. It is getting out of hand and opening up the market for new services that don't gouge customers. 

[Kristin116]

Actually seems to have gone North of 15% by my bad math.  I'm new to this whole thing so perhaps it is indeed my bad math, but...I booked my very first reservation for a total of approx 5k coming to me, but the client was actually charged $6250.  I'm like what?!? That's a whole lot more than 15%; in fact, it's over 25%. I get that Airbnb needs to get paid for their site and services, both of which seem to work well, but over $1200 to just the client (with myself as host getting charged anoterh fee altogether) seems really steep.  

[David126]

@Kristin116

Did you take into account Occupancy Taxes?

[Kristin116]

hmmm yes you're right there are those...thank you for the reminder. 🙂 Still - hard to keep track as there's no breakdown provided that syncs up what she's paying vs what I'm receiving. AGain, I'm totally fine with Airbnb getting paid for their services and efforts. Setting up the infrastructure and vetting and all the rest is much appreciated.  That said, it's not clear. 

I only know what the client is paying because she told me as I was still figuring out the nightly vs weekly/monthly rate while she was deciding/house hunting so I wanted her to know I would honor the lower rate to her while my rate was going up.  Plus she's getting a 20% 'new listing' discount so we were just trying to figure out how Airbnb came up with the amount she was charged vs the amount I was getting, less fees. 

[David126]

@Kristin116

I am getting on for a thousand bookings and nobody has ever asked me that, when someone books they get a detailed breakdown of charges, you can see yourself what they are, so sounds to me that there is something else going on.

[Kristin116]

Not sure what you're inferring exactly, but it doesn't seem like anything is "going on" other than perhaps what many others have noted here -- a lack of transparency. Not suggesting anything nefarious mind you  -- again, Airbnb has every right to charge for their services and platform -- it's just that their percentage practices could be more clear - for example, why the sliding scale? If you're going to charge a percentage, that's totally fine, but on what total are you basing your percentage and how do you decide which percentage to charge? Is that asking too much? 

[Kristin116]

That said, I totally appareciate and respect your level of experience in the matter...I'm a newbie here so know less than nothing. 😉 

[David126]

I went and looked at your listing, did a dummy booking and all the costs were there before I needed to press any book button.

So why was your Guest having issues?