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

[David126]

The service fee paid by the guest is a lot more than $30.19 so yes something is wrong.

[Alice-and-Jeff0 · Accepted solution]

@Bronwyn23 - not a mistake at all.  The amount of the host service fee is generally 3%. Airbnb charges guests a service fee between 5% and 15% of the reservation subtotal (you won't likely see this amount anywhere). Guests see this fee on the checkout page before they book a reservation. 

Here's more info in the Help Center. 

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

[Heidi174]

I had the same issue. interesting that when i was listing it did not show anywhere that Airbnb would charge the guest a service fee. Im still not clear, am I ultimately paying airbnb this fee? I thought I was paying the 3% only. Do you find this extra service fee is a deterrent to guests to book? Thank you,

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Heidi174 - it says right in the terms of service that they will charge a host fee. That fee is automatically deducted from your payout.

Additionally, Airbnb adds on a Guest fee to every guest reservation on top of your nightly charge, the cleaning charge (if you have one), and taxes to be paid.  

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

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/125/how-is-the-price-determined-for-my-reservation

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1345/is-the-airbnb-service-fee-refundable

[Heidi174]

This is helpful, thank you. And thank you for the links.

[Jason467]

We've hosted families with our guest house on AirBnB for almost 1 year now. I was looking at a personal trip for our family and using AirBnB for a place to stay. I was shocked at how much AirBnB charges guests. On top of my booking for 5 nights, it was an additional $100. Yes, I absolutely believe that's a deterrent to use AirBnB. I didn't book the space and looked at hotels!

[Kimberly339]

The guest fees are extremely high and there is no information on how AirBnB  comes up with the fee total. The Host are never told what AirBnB is charging their guest.   I was told by customer service that even they are not told what the reasoning is behind the fees.  Per the Help site the guest fee could be 5% to 15% (based on what???)  Host cannot compete with these extra guest fees.  Potential guest will go to hotels instead.   The guest fees should be included in the Host reservation so we can understand why guest are not booking.  Not very honest of AirBnB. Hiding these fees from the Host is suspect.

[Heather150]

Hi Kimberly

I have been hosting on Airbnb for 3 years and lost my first booking to exorbatant guest services fees today. The guest gave the impression that they thought the fee was coming to me. On reading the available info on service fees, I learned that Airbnb can charge anything from 0 - 20% guest service fee. They all say that they currently do not charge a service fee. Very frustrating for both hosts and guests!

[Lisa172]

YES, ITS DISGRACEFULL ON AIRBNB.Now my guests are rating me low on value in reviews.

[Sarah977]

Yes, Airbnb charges service fees to both the host and the guests.

[Lilly28]

The service fee charged on guests depends on your nightly price. If you are asking a price like a 4 or a 5-star hotel, the service fee will be 17%. I think that  policy is right. In this way Airbnb reminds hosts asking too high prices that Airbnb is not a Hotel business. Their service fee might be 5% for the guests when the host,s price is reasonable. 

[Graham-And-Michelle0]

Hello Bronwyn

yes Alice and Jeff have given the correct advice.

Hosts and guests both pay a fee to Airbnb. 

Michelle.

[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.