Unfair service fee charges creating an advantage for some

[Caroline1810]

We live in Melbourne , Australia , and have a small 2 br apartment on the village at Mt Buller, a ski resort which is really only available for skiing 8-10 weeks of the year. After a terrible 2020 , I wondered why no one is booking in 2021 and noticed that even though other apartments are more expensive per night, guests are charged less because Airbnb does not put a service fee on theirs......our fee is 16% , there’s is 0....not happy Jan !

[Lawrene0]

Their service fee is 0, @Caroline1810 because they pay it themselves. See "Host-only fee" here: https://www.airbnb.com.au/help/article/1857/what-are-airbnb-service-fees

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Caroline1810 It doesn't matter who pays the service fee. If the total price for other properties is less than yours then it suggests you are over priced.

[Sarah977]

@Caroline1810  You are a bit confused. Hosts who use channel managers can opt to use the "Host only service fee" option. In that case, instead of the guest seeing a separate service fee charge, it's all included in the nightly price.

So those hosts would have had to up their nightly price, because they will now be paying Airbnb both the host service fee of 3% plus the guest service fee.

The guest ends up paying the same in total, a guest service fee just doesn't appear as a separate line item. It's basically just a marketing gimmick.

It's like when you book a hotel, you don't get charged a separate cleaning fee, as a guest would on Airbnb. But that doesn't mean the hotel owner is paying for cleaning out of his own pocket- cleaning, hotel security, 24 hour reception, etc, is all factored in to the nightly price the guest pays.

[Fred13]

"and noticed that even though other apartments are more expensive per night, guests are charged less because Airbnb does not put a service fee on theirs......our fee is 16% , there’s is 0...."

Are the other 'more expensive' competitors getting bookings?