Airbnb fees

[Francis184]

Hi Folks

I'm relatively new to AirBnB and booked an apartment in Lanzarote for 21 days for £1850. It looks great, the super host is lovely and my charges break down as follows: 

£74.21 * 21 days           £1558.40

Cleaning                         £27.15

AirBnB service fee    £264.46

I am quite happy to pay AirBnB a fee to host the platform, meet admin costs etc but understand from the host that she is only getting 72 euros per day (approx £65.43). AirBnB appear to be getting the rest. Its not very transparent and by my reckoning it means they are charging almost 32% on top of the cost of the apartment to the guest. There is also a charge on the host of course. 

Does this seem right to you?  I see references to 6-12% in various documents but the reality seems somewhat different. Can I take this up with anyone in AirBnB and perhaps they can explain why they need so much from me.  I'm a reasonable man and happy to pay a reasonable fee for services rendered.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Francis184264 is 17% of 1558 you are paying service fee arround 15% +currency conversion fee which is about 2-3%

Your host charges her unit 74 but airbnb deduct service fee (arround 3%) and currency conversion fee (about 2-3%)

[Patience0]

Ok. But then the amount charged by airbnb for their fee is still higher (15 or 17%) than what they state ( 6-12%) so the issue is the same.

I agree. The lack of transparency is quite bad. I rent my place monthly, always for the same amount, and yet the amount I am paid out varies wildly. Some months I get paid 7700 nok, others 6500 nok. Neither the changes in exchange rate nor the change in the number of days per month (30days vs 31) seem to be able to explain the difference.  

Why can't there be flat rates? X% for daily rates, x% for weekly rates, and x% for monthly rates and be done with it? There's no clarification on when 6% is charged or when 12% or higher is charged. It makes me feel like airbnb is purposely hiding something. 

[Francis184]

Look don't want to be pedantic but the host gets 72 euros per day, AirBnB charge £74. 21 per day.  Over 21 days thats a difference of  approx £184 which presumably Airbnb gets. This together with their service fee of £264 amounts to £448 which approximates to almost 32% of the cost of the accommodation. There is 3% to the host to be added to that. Now we might take something off for currency conversion but no way does it go down to 15-17%.  It would be nice if someone from Airbnb could come back and explain the reason for such a large overhead but give Patience's comments, transparency is not as good as it could be for either guests or hosts.