Airbnb service charges over 25% !

Answered!
Meddy3
Level 2
Victoria, Canada

Airbnb service charges over 25% !

 

Hello everyone ,

 

We have three properties in Airbnb since last year, and we were happy to be a part of this community with almost 100% our guests satisfaction and being  a superhost, but in last few months we had lots of unoccupied days, and still there are lots of un-booked days in coming months, although our rates are quite low, compare to the market and also we tried to have effective pages for our properties, in the Airbnb website.


Recently we realised that the Airbnb service charges is something around 25 percent! and sometimes more! This huge portion of payment are deducted from both side, but as a host we could see only a small part of it, in our booking page!


We believe this is a major issues that our properties in Airbnb can't compete with others who use other websites like Homeaway, VRBO, Victoriastay, or booking.com and etc. Their service charges are significantly lower than Airbnb. (somewhere around 10 % to 13 % and even less). Clearly, we "all hosts" are the ones who actually put our investment, and honest efforts in this business and we are the ones who accept the risk of having strangers in our houses.

 

This is our honest though. Perhaps it can effect to people "regardless of being hosts or guests" , when they find out this unpleasant fact. Please share your opinions and let us know more about your experiences. 

Kind Regards,
Meddy 

1 Best Answer
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

  @Meddy3 Airbnb doesn't charge a whopping 25% collectively from a booking, fortunately. If they did, they wouldn't have zoomed past the competition as they have done in the last few years. The reasons why you are not getting bookings 'in the last few months' lies elsewhere. While on the subject...

  Airbnb exposes our listings to millions of people throughout the world, and charges us (hosts) a palatable 3%-5% for the priviledge, it is not a right. What guests are willing to pay (or not) it is their business, and if they find Airbnb's guest fees so objectionable they wouldn't book through Airbnb in such extraordinary numbers, yet they do.

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28 Replies 28

@Meddy3 could you show us how you calculate the AirBnB service charges to be around (or more than) 25%?

It’s easy pretend to book a Airbnb place and as guest you will see a booking fee of 17-20 percent

 

Then the host is charged 3 percent 

 

So Airbnb makes 20-23 percent on every booking 

https://hr.airbnb.com/rooms/32981666?adults=1&check_in=2020-01-06&check_out=2020-01-10&source_impres...

Check this, please. 4 nights 168 euro and fee 31? This is unacceptable and I will be forced to try another site for my trips.

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Ljiljana22 

The Airbnb  guests service fee is approx. 15,5 %

You forgot to mention the cleaning fee.(30,-), which makes total booking 198,-

 

 

Rene-and-Zac0
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Meddy3 I paid about $900 in fees to Airbnb on about $30k in revenue. How is that %25? 

@Rene-and-Zac0 @Meddy3 Hi Rene - I think Meddy is reffering to the total fees paid for a booking - not just the amount paid by the host. I'm not sure where the 25% comes in her example as I have only ever seen the guest paying approximately 12% on top of the calculated host amount, and the host paying 3% of their amount. So all up it's around 15%. Which is not inconsistent with other sites as a total. Airbnb are quite clever in making hosts think they are a bargain though as many hosts are not aware of the 12% charged to guests!

As a person who just made a booking today for 157 euro per night for three nights, I can confirm that I was charged an additional 60 euro for cleaning and an extra 97 euro for airbnb service charge.

 

This is simply extortionate and represents 20.6% for airbnb just from the client

 

This is 

 

 

Just booked. Cleaning fees about 31%, service fees about 17%, with taxes and  additional fees about 14%. I think they are way too much. Here is a breakdown.

Price breakdown
$273.00 x 2 nights$546.00
Cleaning fee$170.00
Service fee$92.36
Occupancy taxes and fees$78.76
 
Total (USD)$887.12
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

I never have seen such hight fees. It's easy to see the guest service fees by simulating a booking on your own listings. In my country service fees are increased by VAT, don't know if this happens also in Canada ?

Information about fees can be read here:

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

I’ll screen shot earnings statement. This is suspect to me. 

This thread is great to promote other sites - isnt this illegal to do over here ? 

 

feels like its propaganda happening 🙂

@Levente2 AirBnB has never stopped people from talking about their hosting experiences with other services here.

 

I think its because even with all its flaws, AirBnB compares very favorably with other services, and so does not feel a need to squelch a discussion that involves the competition.

 

For example, here is a terrific discussion thread called "AirBnB vs HomeAway vs Tripadvisor". It is very informative.

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-vs-HomeAway-vs-Tripadvisor/m-p/606817

 

wow that so cool of Airbnb , im gonna check this link out !

 

Cheers Mate

Meddy3
Level 2
Victoria, Canada

Hello everyone, 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I respect all, but I have shared my own experience, it might be different in other locations and other times. 

It's about some reservations that my guests informed me, their costs. The last one that I could access to  the guest screen shot payment, is 613.93 $ , while the payout amount is 501.49 , so the service charge is 112.44 ,  (in my booking page mentioned the service charge is 15.51 $) !

112.44 deduction for 501.49 is too much. Isn't it?  (It would be 22.42%) and as far as I know, there is no VAT in my region. 

I have the screen shots of my guest payment and my payout, and of course the reservation code. I would definitely disclose this data for an Airbnb officer, if they want for any further consideration. 

One more thing, perhaps I shouldn't mention about the other websites, to avoid any misunderstanding about promoting them. No, I am not promoting anyone, actually I am a member of Airbnb, and I liked it, all I am saying is, the service charge is very high  (in my reservations/location) which has a bad effect to my booking rates.

 

Cheers.