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I am in a state of shock. Having taken a maternity break from air I have started up again and I am sure the service fees guests are charged have significantly increased. I let two rooms and used to be able to charge £21+ a night but service fees now seem to be about 16/17% which significantly bumps up the price of the room which if I want a guest to stay means I then have to reduce my price a lot to get bookings. Their smart price tip is £9 per night which by the time I have put the washing machine on and dried the sheets does not leave me a lot of income. It also says under price tip that bookings are down year on year well frankly I am not surprised if they pull this stunt as hosts are having to slash their costs to attract guests.
Have other UK hosts found this? What did you do? Are you with another booking site and which one? I do not like booking.com. I advertised on there and had a hideous guest who left a review which frankly was untrue yet they would not do any thing about it so I came off the site. Is anyone aware of Air amending this or doing anything to attract guests in a down turn?
I have a lot of family living in the U.K. that I try to visit every year. I can’t believe how much taxes you all have to pay. You have special taxes for everything. I remember the first shocking tax I learned about years ago was to watch or listen to your BBC. In my country anything that lands on your property is yours. If a terrestrial signal crosses your property, it’s yours. If a bird shits on your property, it’s yours. The european mindset is so opposite to ours.
Recently I watched a documentary how the queen has the legal right to muder or have any U.K. citizen. But I still love visiting the U.K.
Ignore the price tips. Do your own market research and see what comparable listings are getting in you area.
The main challenge you probably face is the increased competition. While you took a break others stepped in and built up reviews and are getting the bookings you used to get.
In my market the increased fees (US) haven’t hurt my business and I’ve raise my price.
Maybe you need to raise your prices. When I’m looking for a room I’m always wary about booking places that appear too inexpensive. Prices that are very much below the market price make me wonder “What’s wrong with this place?”. Of course if your listing has been off for a while you will have no reviews, which drive both your display position and your ratings.
I don’t know your location, but £21 sounds pretty inexpensive to me. Where are you located?
How long did you take a break from hosting? I’ve only been hosting 15 months, but what I’ve read says that the guest fees haven’t changed much in more than 3 years. They are 3% to the host and 12%-18% to the guest (not including any government taxes). Supposedly, Airbnb fees are closer to the high end (18%) for lower-priced bookings, which would likely target your listing, but I don’t think that’s anything new.
I am positive that If I followed Airbnb’s price tips, my revenue would be at least 30% lower in my peak season (October-April). I am unsure about the off-season, though because I’ve shut down for vacations/rennovations/etc. for significant portions of my off-season and plan to continue doing so.
Hi I am in Bedfordshire. I am a super host for about three years and my double room is five stars and may single about 4.75. I have researched and other super host rooms that are fully booked are now having to charge £15 per night. In an earlier post on this subject that I read someone said they charge more depending on your type of cancellation policy is this correct?
What on earth has your rant about our taxes got to do with @Fraggles question ??? @Jim_Haines
And you don’t pay tax to watch the BBC. There is a license because it is a public service which is ad free (hurrary). And of course it is renowned as the best broadcaster globally.
The price tips are best avoided as all they do is encourage folks to join the “race to the bottom”, a subject that has been covered on here a few times.
There is the option for you to pay the guest fees, you would then incorporate that into your pricing. It caps them at 14%. It may help to give you a slight edge if your market, like many others, is saturated with listings.
All anecdotal, but I read a lot about UK hosts in some areas having very poor starts to the year and that their advance bookings are well down.
We’re in Spain and having chatted to a lot of our guests from France, Italy, Germany etc, the general consensus is that they feel the UK (because of Brexit) has become very anti European. Many of them have been regular visitors to the UK over the years but very few have plans to visit in the immediate future.
I think you’ll find that a lot of hosts don’t rely solely on Airbnb. Imagine you had any other business - you wouldn’t rely on just one supplier or one client and your hospitality business is no different.
And it’s never a good idea to pay any attention to those price tips or what others in your area are charging. (Or to Jim Haines for that matter…) The factor that counts is the value for money that you provide, not the cheapest price.
Where abouts are you based in Beds @Fraggles. Ignore smart pricing and charge a rate that works for you.
I charge in the top 10% for my area and still get all the bookings I need.
The mistake hosts make is to assume this market is more price sensitive than it is. Guests book for all sorts of reasons but from my experience reviews, ratings, location and the quality of your accommodation is far more important than the just the price.
I can’t imagine why anyone would do Airbnb if you could only charge £15 a night , I wouldn’t even do it for £21in the UK (where I live).
And Airbnb’s guest fee hasn’t increased that much it has always stayed as is now.
Why don’t you try putting your listing on at the rate you used to charge and see what happens. You can also set up your own website and FB group and market your listing yourself and/or using other listing companies.
So in summary don’t just rely on Airbnb and don’t assume that Airbnb is so price sensitive that you need to indulge in a race to the bottom to get bookings
My most recent guest, who travels using Airbnb a lot, told me that the percentage of service fees charged seems to be related to the length of the booking. A higher percentage on a 2 week booking than on a 3 day booking for the same place.
I’m thinking this is because some hosts have weekly or monthly discounts. This is one reason why Airbnb is always prodding us to lower our prices- we might lower our price, but then Airbnb ups the service fee. The guest ends up paying the same, the host gets less, Airbnb gets more.
