Insight about Airbnb service fees and what's ahead!

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

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

[Emilia42]

@Jim-and-Marcia0, there have been some whispers about the service fee being transferred to the hosts come this fall. I hope that I can easily raise my price to account for the increased fee. 

[Chris232]

@Jim-and-Marcia0 @Emilia42 

mmm, this looks like a copy of Booking.com policy, whereby the host is lumbered with all the fees.

They charge the host 15% ..... guest 0% fee

At the moment AirBnB charge me the host 3.6%, so if "hosts receive an increased 12% host fees" then this will bring AirBnB in line with Booking.com.

Time to look at increasing base price to cover the extra host fee so that we do not lose out.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Jim-and-Marcia0 @Emilia42 @Chris232 

Time to look at increasing base price to cover the extra host fee so that we do not lose out.

This makes watching out for that Airbnb information message on changing host fees so important. If ignored, Airbnb could immediately reduce their product price by that 12% through unsuspecting hosts inaction.

[Sarah977]

@Jim-and-Marcia0 Another typical response from Airbnb- she didn't address even one of your points. Why do they even bother? 

 I suspect that anyone who thinks that Airbnb will warn us before they institute this "no fees to the guest, hosts absorb all" across the board, is dreaming. Like everything else, we'll get caught out after the fact, before we have a chance to adjust our pricing to include this.  

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

I disagree @Sarah977 . We're not dreaming.

The T&C's clearly state:

Airbnb reserves the right to change the Service Fees at any time, and will provide Members adequate notice of any fee changes before they become effective. Such fee changes will not affect any bookings made prior to the effective date of the fee change.

"Members adequate notice" is clearly required and unless provided will simply be in breach of contract.

[Alon1]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Sarah977 @Susan17 

Ian,

Thank you for dredging up T&Cs on this point.

[Susan17]

Ummmm.... since when do Airbnb abide by their own T&Cs?? What Airbnb says, and what Airbnb does, are two very different things. We all know that. 

We weren't directly informed when the guest fees changed from 6-12%, to 0-20% either. As always, these changes only ever come to light when hosts happen to  discover them buried somewhere that they rarely look. Like the "Help" section, or the T&Cs. Or when hosts start noticing sudden changes with their accounts/payouts. 

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0   "Adequate" is open to interpretation. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 @Alon1 @Susan17 

They need to provide adequate notice. 

All they need to do is send a low priority email. As long as they do that they will have fulfilled their obligations. If you miss it, no doubt you will be reminded on here but other hosts might not.

Exactly the scenario in my first post on this thread:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Insight-about-Airbnb-service-fees-and-what-s-ahead/m-p/1033...

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  The TOS also says that 3rd party bookings are against policy unless they are from a business account. Yet Airbnb reps are constantly telling hosts who contact them about a 3rd party booking that it's no problem, go ahead and accept it. 

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

i don't share your suspicion.

I rather believe if the change occurs the 'Fees' notations will simultaneously change in 'Help'.

And no one need be caught out. At least I speak for non-Instant Book, because we can view the breakdown of sums in Enquiry or Reservation Request before deciding to accept or decline.

[Sarah977]

@Alon1  And how would it be useful if the only place this change was visible was in fees notations in Help? What, we're supposed to read through everything written in the Help section daily in case they've changed something? And so we can see the fee breakdown on a reservation request and then what? We decline and are penalized for declining and the guest is pissed off because they booked at a certain rate that now has to be upped by the percentage of fees they suddenly are charging to hosts rather than guests?

Sorry, but neither of those options seems acceptable to me.

[Alon1]

@Sarah977 

You're dealing with speculation, guess work.

I spec to the contrary that Airbnb will inform us before they roll out the change.

And any outstanding bookings post-the change will remain with the old service fee.

There's no point in further huffing & puffing about it now. Time will tell and we can revisit this thread then.

[Sarah977]

@Alon1  It's not pure speculation- it's based on the fact that Airbnb has never, in my experience, warned us of an upcoming change in the platform.