WHY?!

[XioMara33]

Why did the hosting fee jump from 3% to 15% to 15.5%?!! That is quite the jump in percentage without notification(s) or clear reasons

[Graham490]

Hi @XioMara33 

My understanding is that the fee has not "jumped" but rather the fee is now included with the hosting charge and together are displayed as a single fee to the guest.

The change that has been made (in process) is to allow the host to see the total price the guest pays.. similar to other organizations. 

Airbnb has worked the calculations and applies this to all of your new your bookings. 

The advice that they are giving, is that if you want to retain your per night return, then you need to adopt their calculations before the dates given for your geography.

There will be a single fee imposed... what you need to decide is to adopt their calculations or try and manage your own rates in order to maintain your return.... I suspect the latter is rather time-consuming if you have multiple sites, fees (pets/ additional guests/ taxes)... so really only one sensible decision.

Best wishes,

Regards, Graham

[Shelley159]

If you apply the tool you won't be in a worse position @XioMara33 , as @Graham490 has said 👍

[Kathryn33]

For those in Britain:

To keep to the tax free £7500 allowance thereby avoiding the costly impact of the new otherwise obligatory digitised tax return for landlord:  The previous airbnb 3% = £225 = max net income of £7275. 

By  increasing to 18% = £1350  reducing net income by  £1350- £225 = £ 1125 to stay below tax free ceiling. 

That is a lot to give up or pay £100's to buy the software/employ an accountant to submit digitised tax returns every year.

[Elaine701]

@Kathryn33 

You don't have to pay income tax on other's income. Airbnb's commission is not your income. It's  theirs. You never even receive it. 

How can you pay tax on money you never get?

[Kathryn33]

Dear Elaine, I am talking about the ceiling on a tax free allowance of £7500. 

 UK Law requires that to be the gross figure incl expenses.

So  last year the max one kept was £7500 minus airbnb's fee of  -3% = £7275.

Now airbnb has increased that fee to hosts to include the 15% it had been charging the guest. This reduces the max a host can keep without paying tax  to £7500 - £1350= £6150 so  £1225 less than before. Its  about english allowances for letting rooms in ones home  rather than tax.  

[Elaine701]

@Kathryn33 

Ok I understand. You currently don't pay any tax at all, and so now you're concerned that you may have to pay tax. 

We in the rest of the world are required to pay taxes on our income. So it's not a matter of whether or not we pay taxes, but how to minimise that burden. 

For those that never paid income tax, it might be difficult to comprehend, but most jurisdictions around the world have different tax plans you can choose from.

The two most common categories are the "normal" tax system, where you file tax declarations every year, and pay tax on the income you received in that year. 

Another available tax plan is the "EZ" tax plan, which simply asks (the equivalent of)  "How much did guests pay to stay at your place this year?", "OK send in 20% of that". Simples. EZ.

This of course doesn't account for the fact that much of what the guest pays is actually someone else's incomes, for which they also pay tax on it. But on this plan, so do you!

The best example is that Airbnb charges 15.5% commission, which is deducted from your payout. It's their income, not yours, and they pay tax on that. In fact, you never receive that money. 

Yet you still pay tax on it? No, you actually don't need to pay tax on it. It's not your income.

Neither is what you pay for electricity, water, cleaning, supplies, heating, taxes.. I could go on. These are someone else's income, not yours, and you can be sure they pay tax on it. 

Check with your accountant. You can deduct all of that stuff. But on the "EZ" tax plan, you can't. 

Good luck. And I'm jealous that you don't have to pay anything. 

[Shelley159]

Yes @Kathryn33 other UK hosts have mentioned this. From what I understand about it, I assume the 3% host fee used to give Airbnb an advantage in the UK market (hosts on the split fee structure would've preferred Airbnb bookings?), as other platforms have charged host-only fees all along (at rates that are more or less in line with the Airbnb host-only fee).

The big marketing platforms are all similar now when it comes to fee structure.

[Gary-andAmp--Sandy0]

I posted a question that is the same as yours. This does not help us in the US, Just makes us have to charge more.

[Shelley159]

Yes @Gary-andAmp--Sandy0 you "charge more" when the tool updates your calendar prices, but then the guest pays exactly that price with no guest service fee. 

So in the end, the host payout is the same after using the tool, and the guest pays virtually the same as before (with very small variations).