Service fee being added to my special offer

Jenny54
Level 1
White Gum Valley, Australia

Service fee being added to my special offer

I have submitted a special offer to 7 guests staying for 2 x nights @ $430/night.  On the screen, it clearly states that the service fee is deducted from the total ($860) and I receive the difference.  But when my guests receive the offer, the service fee is added and they are told they have to pay over $100 more than we have agreed.  Nothing I can do seems to change that and at this stage it is obvious that I will lose the booking and that Airbnb will lose my listing.  I can find no way of communicating directly with Airbnb although their website directs me to the contact page and I can call them 24/7 but there is no contact page.  Grrr

20 Replies 20
Clare0
Level 10
Templeton, CA

@Jenny54 Airbnb adds a guest service fee on all reservations, usually 6% - 12%.   Even on Special Offers.   The also have a host service fee of 3%.  So on your Special Offer of $860, Airbnb's service fee of 12% would come to $103 which would make the price of the reservation $963.  Airbnb itemizes their service fee so the guest sees it when they accept the reservation. 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

The above calculation does not explain this:

Special-Offer-Fee.png

Service fee is shown as $15.

Why is guest being charged $607 when the amount is $495?

@Michele39 Can you email ABB about this and post their response? It's an extra 10% on top of all the fees which clearly doesn't make any sense :-((

@Michele39 @Jenny54

if your nightly price is let's say 100 , ABB will deduct HOST fee from it and you will get 100- 3% = 97

But... on those 100 ABB will add GUEST fee of 6-15% so your guest will pay between 106 and 115 + 3% currency transaction fee. 

 

If you also have a cleaning fee than ABB will not add any fee on top of your cleaning fee. But... when we send special offer then cleaning fee and nightly price are joined together and (I think) our guest has to pay his guest service fee on the total sum.

@Michele39  What you haven't calculated is the Airbnb guest service fee and the Occupancy taxes that Airbnb adds to your Special Offer. 

Go do a "pretend" reservation on your listing and you will see all the additional charges Airbnb adds to your nightly rate.  

 

Airbnb's guest service charge is likely 12% on this reservation which would leave about 10% charge for Louisiana Occupancy taxes. 

 

 

I am having s similar problem. My host and I agreed to 1532 euros plus service fee. She enters 1532 euros. What came through was 1578 euros. PLUS  service fee. While this could be exchange rate   According to airbnb the exchange rate is supposed to be in the service fee. If they are including it in host base fee then I’m being charged service on top of exchange 

Hi Michele, Probably you have this figured out by now but the 15$ is the 3% of 495$, which  is like (14.85) rounded off. In other words what you see there is the Host Fee and what you were unable to see at that stage, was the airbnb service fee for the guest, plus the tourism Tax, etc.

 

Rgrds,

PA

Miriam180
Level 2
Milwaukee, WI

Hello. I have not gotten an adequate explanation. It appears that my host offer had 3% exchange added to it plus service fee added on top of base and on top of exchange. Why am I being charged service on the exchange rate fee and why is the exchange rate not shown so I can be reimbursed by my bank since that is my banks policy

Kevin-and-Emily0
Level 1
Halifax, Canada

Also curious why the change in fees in the situation of creating a special offer.....having same issues as the above.

Nick360
Level 1
Plymouth, United Kingdom

Im having the exact same problem but from the point of view of the customer.  I have messaged a host and requested a room for £400.  They have agreed however the special offer I recieved is for £476.  This is out of my budget.  Now I need to ask the Host to further reduce the already special offer so that all I pay is £400.  The problem is that the host cant understand why that isnt already the case. 

 

I called customer services and after explaining the issue I was told that the host needs to lower the offer.  (THANKS!!)  I asked what does the offer need to be lowered to to ensure I pay only £400.  The lady couldnt get her head around it.  After 40mins she hung up.  I called back got a second lady and after 22 mins she hung up.  I called back and it turned out the this lady knew the second lady anmd refused to discuss the issue as she was not the case manager and wasnt able to deal with the matter.  I asked to speak to her supivison and she outright refused.

 

This never used to be the case with AIRBNB they were so straight forward and the customer services were always excelent.  Needless to say im extremely dissapointed.  My holiday starts in 5 days and I still havnt heard anything back.

 

The issue is unnessesarily confusing.  I should be able to discuss a price direct with a host, agree that price and the host should be able to present that exact price to me as a special offer.  its not complicated.

 

Also customer services need to buck up and bring the call center back to the UK or I can see many people being turned off from airbnb in the future.

 

 

Jeff158
Level 10
Caernarfon, United Kingdom

@Nick360 

" I should be able to discuss a price direct with a host, agree that price and the host should be able to present that exact price to me as a special offer.  its not complicated."

In a perfect world yes, unfortunately that's not how it works on airbnb.

Host sends quote of £400, host pays 3.5% commission to airbnb and gets £386

On top of any quote a host sends, airbnb will add between 6% & 18%  guest booking fee, depends upon how much money the guest spends. If the area you are booking also has tourist tax collected by airbnb, this will be added to the quote.

We as hosts have no idea how much a guest is charged until after you book.

Very frustrating: I don't know what AirBnB is going to charge my guest.  I want to make a special offer of $5000 USD (for 40 nights) so I plan to make an offer of $4500, assuming AirBnB will add 12% to that for the guest - but - wait - what if ABB add only 6%: then I'm out of pocket.  Or, they add 18% and the guest gives up and I lose the booking because it's now over their budget.   GRRRR !!  We need more transparency of exactly what % rate ABB intends to charge the guest!!

 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

The host's special offer screen acts like a spreatsheet. He can see his own netto earnings and also what the guests has to pay. So theoritically a host can make a price which will end up around 400,- for the guest (including the fees). But that's not how Airnb normally works. It's a booking platform and the guests has to pay a service fee on top of the agreed renting price, which is not something the host has or want to deal with.

So the host handled correct to sent you a 400,- deal from his perspective, and Airbnb adds the fee to it.

So what you want is possible, but then you have to make it very clear to the host: i can not pay more then 400,- including fees. BTW It becomes even more complicated if also (tourist-) tax is involved, another add-on which is not controlled by the host.

Best regards, Emiel

Dale97
Level 1
New South Wales, Australia

You say "He can see his own netto earnings and also what the guests has to pay." but none of this is shown in the iphone (and I assume android) app. 

 

Its a hard situation to get right from a Host point of view, I agreed $650 with a guest and estimated that putting in $600 as the offer would get me close to $650 with everything added. The guests asked me why it came out to $688 in total. 

 

In all honesty its a terrible process in the app and on the website.