Reservations

Cheryl236
Level 2
Alvin, TX

Reservations

I really find this website hard to opperate, compared to homeaway.com.  It is hard to find a phone number or if you use email customer service, you dont get a direct honest answer.  Looking at the community, this seems to be a common complaint.  The occupany taxes that are deducted from the customer and paid to the federal government, you cant seem to find, and you do not receive anything in the mail about it.  So, how much do I pay each quater?  I have emailed them on several occasions reagarding different issues, but get a runaround reponse....no factual information.  I am totally dissapointed in this service.  How is your experiece with this system?

5 Replies 5

@Cheryl236 - If Airbnb is paying your occupancy tax, then you do not need to worry about it.  Airbnb is paying the taxes directly to the state on your behalf.  IF they are not, then YOU must pay the % of tax from your income to the state.  There is no form to fill out or receive from Airbnb. 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/481/how-do-taxes-work-for-hosts

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/654/what-is-occupancy-tax--do-i-need-to-collect-or-pay-it

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/653/in-what-areas-is-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-...

 

You can contact Airbnb by looking at the "Tips and Tutorials" section of the Community forums for the "Contact Airbnb" tutorial that provides you with ALL the ways in which you can contact Airbnb.  

What I do not understand, is when I go in to Airbnb and get a quote, they give me the tax amount due as part of the quote...but when I go into my account, and look at reservations, that tax amount is not listed.  I am located in Texas, so they are collecting taxes for me.  I send out a quarterly report, and it seems to me that I can't reconcile my business if Airbnb does not supply this information.   I am also with Homeaway.com and they let me pay my own taxes and they show me the full quote and how much they requested in taxes.  I can place in my state tax of 6% and the community tax of 9%.  I cant seem to find a way to collect the entire taxes due.  Airbnb collects the 6%, but unless I do a special request, that would be the only way for me to ask for the additonal 9%.  You would lose customers by asking for more money after they have done an instant book.  Suggestion?  Advice?

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Cheryl236 You went from this website to Airbnb itself, the two however are very loosely connected.

   Speaking for the long-time Airbnbers here - we are a tough, battle-hardened group that help each other. 🙂

Letti0
Level 10
Atascosa, TX

@Cheryl236 You can see what AirBnB paid:

 

You go to the Progess Tab, then click on Earning and scroll down to Transaction History click on this. In the righthand corner of this area is an option that says Gross Earnings. It shows you what AirBnB paid in taxes.

 

I'm in Bexar County and just have to report and pay those taxes on AirBnB earnings. I make copies of the AirBnB payments monthly to prove they were paid should I get aduited when the earnings are excluded from state reporting vs. county reporting. Also you need to build the tax % into your price or eat it. I just build it in, makes me a little more expensive, but nothing I can do about it. AirBnB recommends sending an altered invoice, I don't agree with this it's method.

@Cheryl236 - you cannot add tax to the bill in the way I think you are asking.  If the 9% tax is an additional sales tax or an occupancy tax for your community and you want the guest to pay that amount in addition to the listing amount, you have 2 options to add it - 

  1. Send a "Special Offer" that will add in the additional taxes as a total to the listing price .  This will show up as "income" to you and you will then need to pay it directly to the community as sales or occupancy tax.  
  2. Send the guest a "Resolution Center" request separately for just the tax amount after a booking is made.  While this will still show up as "income" to you, it will be another line item in your transaction history and you can sort out the tax payments received.  

In either scenario, you will need to announce in your listing profile that additional funds will be collected from the guest for taxes.  You will need to do this manually for each booking until Airbnb is paying that tax for you.