New Service Fee Included Option charges 17.36%

[Rex27]

I just got the feature option on my account that offered to show prices to guests that already include the service fees. The wording and comparison of current service fees to new service fees said that in the old model, hosts pay 3%, and guests are charged a fee of up to 20%. In the new model, guests arent charged any service fees, and hosts agree to pay 14%. I gave it a try, and both bookins were charged 17.36%. I sent the matter to Airbnb help, and was not given any reasonable response. See below for service fee page.

BEWARE of the new service fee model, they will charge a hidden 3.36% just for fuqs-sake

[Pauline-Houston0]

It seems that most of the agents are using this feature and only those an such as those are being invited to try it out. 

I have three houses the exact same beside my two houses and these houses are with agents who are using it - and keeping their prices low.  These agents can afford to accept this fee  and we as ordinary people have either to really cut our prices or lose out.

[Susan17]

@Pauline-Houston0

Yep. That's pretty much the long and short of it, Pauline. 

[Pauline-Houston0]

What do we do Susan?  I am lowering my prices to keep them under what they are charging - two houses idential who are with Cottages.com are not having these charges added to their prices.

[Kris76]

I think Airbnb are now moving towards aligning their host fees with other portals, for example Booking.com charges 15% to their hosts and Airbnb have realised they are loosing out!

[Susan17]

That's as may be, @Kris76, but in the meantime, the way they've chosen to implement the rollout of this policy clearly benefits one sector of their user base, over another. Unfair - and in EU at least, illegal - commercial practice. 

[Susan17]

 @Pauline-Houston0

Hi Pauline. Love your cottages - and what a fabulous setting!

Yeah, Cottages .com have thousands of properties all over the Uk on Airbnb, under untold numbers of individual "host" profiles, all listed in searches right alongside (and usually above) the small independent hosts like yourself.

Unfortunately, despite recent EU legislation - which makes it clear that doing so is not only unfair commercial practice, but also misleading to consumers - and states that Airbnb must seperate and clearly identify the regular hosts from the professional operators/commercial entities on the platform, the company has so far failed to comply.  (The deadline for compliance was Dec 31, 2018)

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4453_en.htm

Despite repeated requests for updates on the situation, and for details of any plans to address this very serious (and for small hosts, potentially disastrous) issue, no information has been forthcoming from the company. 

Anyone who wishes to lodge a complaint to the EU, can do so here. (Supports all EU languages) 

https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr

Best thing to do is get youself listed on as many platforms as possible, have your own website and work on your own promotion. Just use Airbnb as a stepping stone to bigger and better things - the same as they've done (and are still doing) to their own traditional host community

[Pauline-Houston0]

Susan thank you for saying you like the cottages - appreciated.  I am on various websites and have my own.  I just think it is so unfair.  I like Airbnb or should I say liked because of they way that they send the money out right away and you do not have to wait weeks as you do in Booking.com, Sykes and Homeaway.  Maybe if enough people complain - we might get somewhere.  I will lodge a complaint

[Lorraine184]

How do we lodge a complaint on here ? I can find nothing obvious .....

[Lorraine184]

I have been on Air BNB since July 2018, so a relative newbie. The new service fee was £4 extra for the guest,  and is now £5 ! I live in a town in Oxfordshire - the new charges massively impact me, it is now cheaper to stay at Premier Inn or a local B&B how does that help us ?? I offer pretty much a self contained flat in my house. I have superhost status, and guests telling me I should be asking more for my space. I find this whole thing strange.

[Ian323]

We need help if Airbnb is going to be an important channel in future for us. We switched to the service fee inclusive pricing model as we now use channel manager eviivo here in the UK. Our rates plan through our channel manager is now comparable with the same pricing for all OTAs. We use limited syncing between Airbnb and our channel manager. Airbnb guests will have a slightly lower price than guests through other OTAs. The point is that we treat all OTAs the same now. But we have no reservations at all now through Airbnb, not a single one. We started our hosted B&B business last year and became instant Superhosts using only Airbnb. We joined a channel manager and all our bookings now come mostly through Booking.com, some through Expedia and some through our own website set up for us by the channel manager.  We are for some reason still Superhosts ( for the fifth quarter in succession) - our last Airbnb guest was two months ago – we have 9.8/10 review scores on B'com and 5/5 on TripAdvisor and Expedia. Why aren't we getting any Airbnb bookings any more? We could fill our capacity through these other OTAs and do at present. We would much rather have more Airbnb guests. Should we go back to a pricing policy that excludes the guest's service fee? Or is there something else going on at Airbnb? Should we give up on Airbnb?