service fees - host gets invoice with 14% surcharge, guest with 17% surcharge!

[Judith592]

Received a booking proposal from a host. According to him the total is 750 Euro (showed me screenshot), yet I receive an incoice for 770 Euro! Turns out that his invoice shows a surcharge of 14%, while mine shows 17.2%.

He's in Belgium, I'm in the Netherlands (both Euro).

What gives? Is Airbnb randomly keeping €20 in their own pocket???

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Judith592 At a guess it is something to do with VAT.

There are two different service charges available to hosts:

Simplified pricing - Host pays 15%+VAT, guest  pays zero 

Original pricing - Host pays 14.2%+VAT and guest pays 3%+VAT

Could this explain it?

[Judith592]

Thank you for your reply.

Both Belgium and Netherlands have the same VAT tariff. So that doesn't explain why the host sees this on the invoice he sends me:

Rent €658

Service Fees € 92,89

Total €750,89

While I receive the following invoice from AirBnb:

Rent €658

Service fees € 112,40

Total €770,40

???

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Judith592 We will get to the bottom of this!

Why is the host sending you an invoice?

[Judith592]

He's sending me a booking proposal. I selected the dates and submitted a request. Then I receive a booking proposal that I can either accept or decline.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Judith592 I give up - Lets hope someone else can explain it.

[Joan2709]

@Judith592 

Hmmm....that is odd. Agree with @Mike-And-Jane0, that would have to be a question for your Host and Airbnb. I will say with special offers, sometimes Hosts or Airbnb make mistakes. Hosts should only add price per night and any fees (cleaning, pets). Then Airbnb adds the taxes and service fees.

[Judith592]

Airbnb is playing dumb. Suggesting host should give me €20 reimbursement. Which would be so mean, because it’s 20 bucks out of their pocket, as Airbnb is already keeping €20 for themselves!

[Pat271]

@Judith592  Can you show us both screenshots, the screenshot he sent you, and the screenshot you received from the Special Offer? We might be able to help you more if we can see those.

[Judith592]

 

[Judith592]

 

[Judith592]

Update: after I had called Airbnb, they insisted they could do and say nothing unless the host called them. Host called them and they said they added costs to the total.

What costs? What for? CS couldn’t tell.