Guests no longer charged a service fee, is this the future.

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Jeff158
Level 10
Caernarfon, United Kingdom

Guests no longer charged a service fee, is this the future.

We have a new host in the UK, Ireland, France and Italy with 21,000 properties, cottages.com now advertise on airbnb, and airbnb do not charge a service fee to the guest on these bookings.

We have no way of knowing if its included in the nightly rate, cottages.com could be on a paid subscription or getting a big percentage discount.

[Link hidden] and just to wind me up a bit more, they are all on superstrict 60 policy.

 

My local host is Mandy with 100 properties to look after

[Link hidden]

 

*[Link removed for privacy reasons out of respect for the host – inline with the Community Center Guidelines]

 

1 Best Answer
Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Jeff158 @Cormac0 @Helen3 @Sarah977

 

Cottages. com is just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally thousands of similar outfits flooding the platform now.

 

One of the most important rulings made by the EU was that offerings from individual hosts, and those from professional/commercial operators, must be clearly identified and delineated from each other on the site, as not doing so gives an unfair advantage to the big players. (That's quite apart from the range of preferential policies and practices Airbnb favours the Pro's with - incl. SuperStrict 30 and 60 canx - that are denied to regular hosts) Also, consumer protection laws differ greatly for each. 

 

2. Identification of traders and commercial content

 "It is understood, from Airbnb’s Hosting Standards, that certain professional providers are allowed to use Airbnb’s platform to offer their accommodation services. However, when searching for accommodation on Airbnb’s website, the search result shows accommodation provided by both private individuals and professional providers with no distinction between the two.   

 In particular, with a view to avoid omitting material information, the collaborative economy platform should, as a minimum, enable relevant third party traders to indicate to users that they are traders, and the platform should inform consumers whether and, if so, what criteria it applies to select the suppliers operating through it and whether and, if so, what checks it performs in relation to their reliability

With a platform like Airbnb, which enables accommodation sharing, the distinction between professional providers and private host peers may influence the decisions of consumers using the platform to book accommodation. In fact,  on the one hand the distinction has implications for the question of whether the transaction is protected by consumer protection rules and, on the other, many consumers using Airbnb are looking for private homes with personal involvement and not necessarily for professional property owners. 

CPC authorities find that the lack of distinction between private host peers and professional providers on Airbnb’s website is likely to deceive consumers in relation to the nature of the trader, as set out in art 6 (1) (f) and 7(1) and (2), and is likely to cause a transactional decision that would not have been taken otherwise.   In order to comply with the Directive 2005/29/EC, Airbnb would need to change the manner in which listings are presented in accordance with the legal requirements described above.   CPC authorities would also like to draw Airbnb’s attention to the UCPD’s requirements to clearly distinguish editorial content from advertising content. Consumers expect search engines to display 'natural' or 'organic' results relevant for their search query based on sufficiently impartial criteria.   

It is not clear to the CPC authorities whether Airbnb has sponsored content in the search results as of now, but for future reference please note that, as explained in the UCPD Guidance, consumers should not be misled on the nature of the listings. For instance, it should be clear whether listings / search results are "natural" or "sponsored" or whether there are other serious limitations in the scope of the search" 

 

 I attended a meeting at Airbnb HQ here in Dublin last Tuesday evening and asked, repeatedly, why professional operators and commercial entities are still being listed alongside (and invariably, above) regular hosts on the platform, in clear breach of EU legislation, particularly when the company is fully aware that in failing to comply, it is blatantly - and illegally - choosing to put its original host base at a potentially disastrous disadvantage. I'm still trying to get an official answer - or any answer at all -  almost a week later, but I won't be giving up anytime soon. 

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I've just discovered cottages.com have 471 properties advertised on airbnb in the Yorkshire area alone and found this forum discussion while trying to seek answers over the lack of service fee being charged for these properties.

Cottages.com seem to be writing their name as Cottages, com (with a comma rather than a dot) presumably so the website address isn't obscured?

Feel potential guests are going to book the properties without service fees first espcially if price and facilities comparable with other listings by individual hosts.

Interesting to read the info from the EU. 

Very difficult to get straightforward answers from airbnb so community forum is so helpful!

Melanie818
Level 2
Strathdickie, Australia

Starting 11/1/2020, we’ll be switching your listings to simplified pricing—a new service fee structure that gives you more control of your final price.

What’s changingToday, there are 2 service fee structures: split-fee pricing with the service fee shared between hosts and guests, and simplified pricing with the entire service fee covered by the host. After 11/1/2020, split-fee pricing will no longer be available. That means a 15% service fee will be deducted from your payouts, and no fee will be charged to your guests—what you set is what guests will pay. Why we’re making this changeWe introduced simplified pricing last year, and hosts who tried it out and priced competitively across websites got an average of 17%* more bookings. We heard that removing the guest fee made it easier for hosts to price competitively, and we saw that guests preferred to book places that didn’t have a guest fee. This is especially important for your listings, since guests usually don’t pay fees on other booking platforms in your region. What will happen nextThis change will happen automatically on 11/01/2020 and will be applied to any bookings that you get after that date. We’ll send you a reminder 7 days before this change, along with a guide to walk you through changes you may want to make to your prices. Here’s a summary of what will change:
  • Your service fee settings will automatically change on 11/1/2020 for all your listings
  • We’ll deduct a flat 15% host service fee from each payout and won’t charge a guest service fee
  • This won’t affect any existing bookings you have and will only apply to any bookings you get after 11/1/2020
  • Using Airbnb after 11/01/2020 means that you’ve accepted this new service fee structure


@Melanie818  Can you please post this as a new topic here on the hosting forum? Not many hosts will see this tacked on to the end of another thread, even though this thread deals with the topic, and I can foresee tons of hosts getting completely caught out on this, shocked that a booking they accepted that they assumed they would be charged the usual 3% host fee suddenly has 15% taken out.

 

Hosts will all need to look at changing their base pricing to account for this and Nov. 1st will be here before we know it.

 

How typically rude and disrespectful for Airbnb to only give us a month and a half's notice of a MAJOR pricing structure change. And this is the first I've heard of it- I haven't gotten an email or anything about it.

 

Thank you so much for posting this.

@Sarah977 I assume this only applies in Australia for now........But who knows.

6 weeks is an awfully long time to plan for the change but does it mean we will all have to go on the system and update our pricing the day of the change? I fear it will crash an already glitchy system

@Melanie818 Very interesting - This will actually make it easier to list on other booking sites as the fee structure will be the same as booking.com so we won't need to operate complex dual pricing systems.

@Sarah977 @Mike-And-Jane0

 

This has already been rolled out in Thailand in August, and Greece and Croatia from Sept 1st. Early adopters were offered the 14% fee (16% for Super Strict), rising to 15% for those who opt in

later. Global rollout expected to follow. 

Screenshot_20200916_075944.jpg

 

However, it previously appeared that this  new fee structure applied only to software connected hosts/professional PMs.

 

@Melanie818

Do you use a channel manager to connect to Airbnb, by any chance? 

Penelope