service fee

[Debbie-And-Barry1]

hello I am a UK host I have a small holiday rental in my garden ,I just want to ask do I need to pay 20%VAT? also I am paying the 14% service fee, how do I pass this onto the guest ? any help out there for some one who is not great on the computer .thanks Debbie.

[Emiel1 · Accepted solution]

@Debbie-And-Barry1 

I noticed you are on "host only" fee, so you need to increase your renting prices with same percentage to keep same earnings. Fees are subject to VAT. There is some difference if you are using a private or business account.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857/what-are-airbnb-service-fees

[Debbie-And-Barry1]

thanks  for that how do i change this ,i rang airbnb and they said because i advertise on booking .com as well that i can not pass the booking fee onto the guest ,i want the guest to pay the booking fee so i can drop my price but dont know how to or what to change it .

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Debbie-And-Barry1 It doesn't make sense to worry about this. Booking.com don't charge a service fee to guests so they are the same as Airbnb. Dropping your price by just moving the fee to the guest will not make your place more attractive to guests as they will pay the same. Actually they will pay more as they are typically charged 14% and you are charged 3% on the other system.

[Debbie-And-Barry1]

So would you recommend we keep it the same us the host paying all the booking fee, should we put our price up to cover this cost? Struggling to know what is best way to advertise to get more customers. Thanks 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Debbie-And-Barry1 As guests see the overall price (ie your rate plus fees) it doesn't make any difference how this is made up. Just go onto booking.com and Airbnb, pretend you are a guest looking to book certain dates in your area. You will see how the guest sees the pricing relative to the price you set.

[Debbie-And-Barry1]

OK great thanks for your help. Debbie stay safe x

[Patrick568]

This service fee that Airbnb instituted is ridiculous and unneeded. They are attempting to place this on hosts and make it our responsibility. I make it clear in my listing this is assessed by Airbnb and not the host.