Insight about Airbnb service fees and what's ahead!

Jim-and-Marcia0
Level 10
Vancouver, WA

Insight about Airbnb service fees and what's ahead!

This conversation I had with Airbnb support provides some insight into what's happening with the Airbnb service fees. What do you think?
 
May 14, 20199:36 AM
Hello April,
On a separate note, we have a concern about the percent that Airbnb charges guests as a service fee. 

Over the past two years, Airbnb has been pressuring hosts to lower our prices at the same time Airbnb is raising the percent of their take.

It has risen now to the point where it diminishes the value of what we have to offer. 

Guests rate hosts on value, but the high percent Airbnb charges guests are not within our control. This notably affects our "value" rating. 

I'm sure we are losing out on some bookings and guests see diminished value because of the high Airbnb service fees.
Marcia
 
Airbnb Support
11:44 AM
Hello Jim & Marcia,

Greetings from Airbnb!

My name is Azza, one of the Supervisors. Please be advised that for documentation and written decision purposes, I can only communicate for now through the messaging platform, but rest assured that I will do my best to assist with your inquiry/request from here.

April shared to me all the feedback you told her regarding Airbnb guest fees. Right now, our guest fees are between 0%-20%, depending on the subtotal and listing they are booking (You may refer to our Help Center for any updates in the future). As a front-line support, we can confirm no changes to this rate until further notice. 

Also, please know that we have a soft-launched Host Fee Only in some of the Pro-hosts in Europe, who manages 20+ listings or more. The program is for guests to have zero guest fees, while hosts receive an increased 12% host fees. Since this is a pilot program, only Pro-hosts who were already invited can be part of this. If the soft launch becomes successful, this may be rolled out to other hosts in the online community. Not sure if this is good news for you, but this gets rolled out, we will no longer charge our guests in terms of Service Fees. I hope you understand that this fees help Airbnb to operate as a platform.

You have nothing to worry, as I am going to share this feedback to our development team. We are always working to improve, and we do encourage everyone to submit feedback. Even when unable to accommodate all requests right away, we truly value user feedback—your voice is both powerful and essential.

I hope you find above information helpful. Should you need any further details, please don't hesitate to reach back.

Best wishes,
Azza
23 Replies 23
Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 

 

You may be right, I really don't recall... .Not even blanking of profile photos. Did we get a warning or just woke up one morning...?

 

Probably someone has kept a record of implimentations - perhaps Susan from Dublin or Robin from Australia?

 

re. service fee, we've had an inkling for quite a while due to the 'pilot' 0% to Guests booking with 'some of the pro-Hosts in Europe'.

 

Hi @Alon1! Sorry, but I have to agree with @Sarah977 on this one. To the best of my recollection, Airbnb has never informed us in advance of any upcoming changes - at least, not directly. 

 

I posted in the CC last October about Airbnb's plans to do away with profile photos, but I'd only stumbled across that by accident when I was mooching about in their Press Room, looking for something else. When I did a bit more searching, I eventually found that they had actually posted about it in the Airbnb Answers section, where nobody ever looked (same as the Airbnb Updates section now, which is similarly overlooked). So that couldnt really be counted as informing us. 

@Alon1 @Sarah977 

You may be right, I really don't recall... .Not even blanking of profile photos. Did we get a warning or just woke up one morning...?

 

I don't believe those sorts of changes are covered by any TOS. The way service charges are made, would be.

@Jim-and-Marcia0 

To be completely honest, does it really matter what the fee is called??? Guest service fee? Host service fee? In the end, there will be a difference between what the guest pays and the host recieves. Whatever we call it, that difference will go to Airbnb. I'm all for ways to reduce that gap that is called a "fee" and would appreciate some transparency on how the breakdown of everything is determined and how much who is paying what and who is being paid what. 

@Jessica-and-Henry0  

(BTW... I had to copy your tag from another thread - CC tagging still doesn't work !)

 

@Jim-and-Marcia0 

 

To be completely honest, does it really matter what the fee is called???

 

It wouldn't bother me if it changed. Everything would just need to be re-priced accordingly and it would be far easier to list and discuss prices knowing what the guest will pay.

 

However, because currently hosts don't immediately see the marginal difference between their listed charges and what the guests pay (they can of course), as a single % charge item, that being a big chunk of the booking, it might make hosts wonder about the guest benefit of not using the Airbnb platform and the guests wondering about the benefit of not using the Airbnb platform at all too.

 

From both Host and Guest sides the perception of Airbnb charges is greater without the 'cloaked' other side..

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

"Also, please know that we have a soft-launched Host Fee Only in some of the Pro-hosts in Europe, who manages 20+ listings or more. The program is for guests to have zero guest fees, while hosts receive an increased 12% host fees"

 

Ok. Let's look at this logically. So at present, hosts pay 3 - 5% fees, and guests pay up to 20% fees, adding to a total of up to 25% swag for Airbnb on each booking. (And of course, resulting in hosts receiving up to a whopping 25% less than the actual price the guest was willing to pay to stay at their property)

 

Yet in the Host Fee only scenario, Airbnb would only be getting a much-reduced 12% take. It would be something of a stretch to imagine that Airbnb will ever roll this out for regular "non-Pro" hosts. 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Susan17   Ah, but they only rolled this out at 12%. There's no reason to think they wouldn't just keep upping that fee. Guest fees used to be only something like 10%-12% just a couple years ago or so, but they've kept raising them until sometimes they are 20%.

Very valid point, @Sarah977. Guest fees were actually billed as 6-12% at one time (not that I can recall anyone ever paying only 6%)

 

However, I somehow can't see Airbnb giving us the same beneficial rates as they're giving the specially invited Pro's! 🙂

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

If I was to pay 12%, it would be a win as it would be less for the guests to pay, they now pay 20% on top. Obviously I would raise my price with the missing percentage to reach the 12. But this means Airbnb will make 8% less, and I am not sure they will want to do that. But my turnover would increase, and the relevant GST and other tax that goes on top increase along with it.  Something to consider.