host only fee problems

[Wouter-and-Vivian0]

Are there other people that think the host only fee is creating unfair competition??? Let me explain what happened to us. We host multiple listings on Aruba and in October 2020 we received an email from Airbnb that they were going to change the fee set up for us from 3% to 15% commission. At that time we did not felt good about that only there was really no choice and we thought it would be the same for everybody. That 'everybody' assumption was not correct.... We now found out that there are multiple hosts here on Aruba that still pay the split-fee commission in which they only pay 3% on their end. These host are also connected with a software system and manage multiple different listings. We think Airbnb is creation unfair competition and is measuring with two different standards. 

We hope that we are not the only ones and other people can join us so that we can be heard by Airbnb. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

 I hope they will not activate this in Croatia, we pay 25% VAT on Airbnb fee + some other taxes are counted on our GROSS earnings.

But that's not all... we have a limit on GROSS earnings and if we make more we have to hire an accountant and keep books instead of paying fixed-rate tax per bed,, it is not profitable for private hosts

If we had to pay a 15% service fee instead of 3% we should raise our prices by at least 20%.

[Jenny349]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Wow, that’s quite a financial hurdle! Hope that never occurs to anyone of authority in France! 😬 We pay tourist tax, of course (or rather Airbnb remits it on our behalf), but that’s in no way comparable!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jenny349 Is there a VAT threshold in France? In England if you earn above a certain figure then you have to register for VAT and charge it on the full rental cost (not just the Airbnb fees which already have VAT charged on them. 20% of 20% isn't much - 20% of 100% is huge. Thankfully we are only small so nowhere near the VAT threshold but others may well be driven over it if the service fee is applied to their listings in full.

[Jenny349]

@Mike-And-Jane0  That's interesting to know! Not that I'm aware of, no, or it certainly doesn't apply to us. And our accountant hasn't mentioned anything thus far (fingers crossed!). In all other respects, contributors are heavily taxed in France.

[Wouter-and-Vivian0]

to all of the above, 

Thanks a lot joining the conversation and making things more clear. 
I learned a few things from reading all your messages. First of all we thought in the spilt level the host pays 3% and the guest pays 6% and we now learned the guest pays more and it sort of equals the one way service fee of 15%. 
however what we also learned is that people who use the split fee can attract more guests to click on their listing simply because they can offer a lower base rate which will be shown in the search results and on the map when you search for properties (if you decide not to add separate fees and promote with a no fee listing). 
So yes, some people are maybe looking for a cheap total price at the end of the line but you miss views on your property simply because the majority of people open the cheaper listings first. So our conclusion is that it is still very confusing and unfair if different hosts using different pricing plans.
maybe for Europe or USA this is not such a big issue with very big markets and lots of distance between listings only for us on Aruba it is difficult since competition is high and all listings are packed together on one small island. 

We really hope Airbnb can do something about this.... 

[Debra300]

@Wouter-and-Vivian0,

I also host on a small island, and most of the other listings in my area still have split service fees.  The real culprit is the search engine, and not the manner the service fee is applied.  There have been previous conversations regarding how Airbnb's pricing search filter does a disservice to guests, because it uses the nightly rate and service fee as the base price, and excludes cleaning fees and taxes.  While I was doing a search for a four night stay earlier this year, I noticed three spaces that had nightly rates of $75, $94 and $115, but there was less than $6 difference in the total costs among them.  A guest who entered a price cap of $75 would not have seen the other two listings even though all of their total costs are comparable.

Vrbo seems to recognize this limitation, and its search engine has the option to filter results by nightly price or total costs.  

[Nelson287]

I was moved from spilt fee to host only fee without my notice.  Now Airbnb is acting the same as all the other leech like third party companies and should be avoided at all cost.

Shame.