service fee charged to host and guest? correct??

[Bronwyn23]

Hi I am new to hosting on airbnb in New Zealand .  On my first booking airbnb  have charged the guest my price of  3 x night  total $750.00  plus the cleaning fee $125.00 plus the service fee $30.19  

I expected Airbnb to pay me  the $750 plus the $125.00 equals $875.00 but Airbnb are paying me $844.81.

 Which means they are  getting the  service fee  from the guest and also from me      Airbnb are actually getting $60.38.  Is this correct or have they made a mistake.??   

Any feed back would be appreciated.  

I also think its really frustrating that there is no way to directly contact Airbnb with these queries  

Any feedback appreciated

Thanks Bron

[Richard856]

This has been very helpful in understand what is going on, but can anyone tell me WHY the guest fee is such a secret and well hidden from hosts ?  It feels a bit sneaky and dirty to me - and thus out of character for Airbnb. What happened to transparency ?

[David126]

@Richard856

Seems there is an EU requirement to introduce transparency, not sure if it will impact non EU locations.

[Heather150]

Totally agree with you Richard!

[Teresa780]

I agree and as a new host, Air BNB is posting to charge a 20% service charge to my guests. 

[Natalie859]

I completely agree. Airbnb is being shady 

[Lynette57]

I am a host and was shocked at the service fee (68.00 on a $309 booking) amount that the guest has to pay on top of the host fee that im already charged. I am sure that this is impacting on bookings for everyone, as I myself refuse to pay these fees to any booking company. I research on the different web sites until I find a place of interest where I may stay then I research the owners and usually contact them myself and book direct therefore they get all the money and  I get a cheaper holiday,

This also explains why I am getting a larger number of people contact me direct for bookings.

The fee may have been at a justifiable percentage once but this is over the top:-  more than  20%.

Obvious greed.

[David126]

@Lynette57

Was the Tax in addition to the $309,just wondered what the gross you would have had to pay was.

[Lynette57]

@ David It wasnt TAX it was a service fee and it was in addition to the host fee and the cleaning fee. We pay our own Taxes on gross annual income. ABB do not collect any taxes in aus. Below is part of the booking receit sent to guest , He forwarded it on to me. Of this amount I am to receive $309.

Booking receipt

Booked by **

Tue, August 14, 2018

Confirmation Code:

**

Receipt #

**

Awoonga Gateway Entire home/apt hosted by Lynette

Thursday ‌A‌u‌g‌u‌s‌t‌ ‌1‌6‌,‌ ‌2‌0‌1‌8‌

Sunday ‌A‌u‌g‌u‌s‌t‌ ‌1‌9‌,‌ ‌2‌0‌1‌8‌

Guests	** , and 2 others

Travel Destination	Telina

Accommodation Address Australia

Nights	3

Price

$131.00 x 3 nights

$393.00

Cleaning fee

$30.00

Service fee

$63.80

Occupancy taxes and fees

$0.00

Coupon

$0.00

Total	$486.80

Payment

Paid with  Tue, August 14, 2018 @ 9:02 PM AEST

$486.80

Balance	$0.00 AUD

**

**

**

Sent with ♥ from Airbnb

‌A‌i‌r‌b‌n‌b‌,‌ ‌I‌n‌c‌.‌,‌ ‌8‌8‌8‌ ‌B‌r‌a‌n‌n‌a‌n‌ ‌S‌t‌,‌ ‌S‌a‌n‌ ‌F‌r‌a‌n‌c‌i‌s‌c‌o‌,‌ ‌C‌A‌ ‌9‌4‌1‌0‌3‌ 

Earn travel credit

**[Sensitive information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Hate to point out the math @Lynette57, but the service fee on this reservation is only 14.75 of the total and Airbnb does indicate it "can" charge up to 20% 

Guest service fees

The guest service fee for homes ranges between 0% and 20% of the booking subtotal (the nightly rate plus cleaning fee and additional guest fee, if applicable, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes) and is calculated using a variety of factors—these include the reservation subtotal, the length of the stay, and characteristics of the listing. In general, the service fee gets lower as the reservation cost gets higher. Guests see this fee on the checkout page before they book a reservation.

[Lynette57]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 Did you not read the copy of the guest receipt where it clearly showed a service fee of $63.80. Yes it is 20% plus but whatever variables are used to calculate this, it is wrong that ABB can command so much from our guests and also a host fee from us as hosts. As I said this is starting to explain why so many people are now more prepared to track down accomodation without using booking sites.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Lynette57 - Here's my math, I actually made a mistake somewhere, not sure what I fat fingered, but the percentage charged to the guest was actually 15% (not 14.75% as I originally stated):

393 + 30 = 423  (nightly room fee plus cleaning fee)

68.30/423 = 15

That is exactly 15%  

20% would be $84.60

Hotels charge as much as 25% in fees.  Airbnb is capitalizing on the $2.7B in fees collected by hotels in 2017 - a record high!  My guess is that Airbnb is getting ready to start doing more refunding from their own pockets (fingers crossed) and every guest has to pay the price for that.  Additionally, customer service issues continue to rise at Airbnb as more guests and hosts alike become users.  People in call centers cost money, someone has to pay. Finally, as the website and mobile applications get more and more sophisticated, and the fact that they've chosen to stay put in the most expensive part of the US instead of moving to a place where there is a better cost of living, having more expensive employees hurts the bottom line. 

In my opinion, I'm thankful they've decided it was the guests who should foot this bill and not us.  

[Tania237]

WAS JUST INFORMED THAT AIRBNB CHARGES GUESTS BETWEEN 5% TO 20% which means that potentially airbnb collects 23% as a service fee.  I have not been able to get an answer from airbnb (I called 6 times) as to  THE CRITERIA THEY USE TO DETERMINE THE FEES FOR THE GUESTS.   I have been with airbnb for 4 years, have a unit for which I charge $120 and a couple of days ago a guest brought to my attention that airbnb was charging them  $210. In addition Guests have already to pay an hefty tax occupancy fee and cleaning fee. As I was appaled about it I gave my guest a special offer for $90 eliminating the cleaning fee and more. When I called airbnb they seem to be incapable of articulating why and how they compute their fee percentage...seems to be a %   derived from a very complex algorithm) . Airbnb said that a factor has to do with airbnb work associated with complexity of money transfer from guests...Hum but my guest was from Los Angeles and we both bank at wells fargo.. and he said that his account was immediately debited (but I got a message from airbnb that I will get my money by oct 3rd???)

I explained to them that 23% percentage fee is very high and has a direct impact on the pad's affordability and the satisfaction guests will likely derive from staying at my place. The pad is nice but it is NOT worth $210. On the other hand if I go below $120 after deducting all my expenses and tax liability for the pad i will barely clear so little that I will be better off leasing the space.

Can anybody outhere enlighten me about the guest fee process and help me figure out whats going on and would love to know if you guys are faced with the same issues?  You can reach me ** or on this board

thx

**[E-mail address hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Tammy160]

As a guest I too have tried to figure out how they come up with ABB rates for service fees and I was surprised to find that the hosts were not aware of the extra service fees paid to ABB , I rent 3 or 4 times a year in St Martin and my service fees have cost between $290 and $410 on rentals that average $250 to $375 a night which go to ABB then of course they are getting your 3%  ( coincidently I've since learned ways to contact the host directly and book thru them directly ) .  I've looked at rentals for the exact same price and ABB has given me a comppletely diffrent service fee for for each one although their pricing was identical , I'm beginning to think ABB is taking advantage of the host AND the guest which is probably why they don't want the hosts to know about the extra money they are charging the guest. Sneaky !!

[Amanda658]

Im in the UK , one of my guests just got charged twice. So she messaged me her statement for advice.
I saw she is paying £433 for her stay... Airbnb is paying me £361 .... £72 difference equals 20% paid to Airbnb between myself and my guest... That's too much.
I really like Airbnb as a platform but I think this is way to much.

I have had a couple of 4 out of 5 for value recently and this explains why! 
I have three listings and want to try one on another platform... But where? Any suggestions?

[Rosanna51]

“is calculated using a variety of factors—these include the reservation subtotal, the length of the stay, and characteristics of the listing. In general, the service fee gets lower as the reservation cost gets higher.”

I would like to know more about what characteristics of the listing raise the service fee.