Airbnb now clawing money back from future guests?

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I started to look at our prices for July and August, thinking that we may see some domestic guests, or maybe from France if road traffic is allowed past the border.

My impression was that the Service Fee was around 13%, sometimes slightly higher on cheap bookings and sometimes slightly lower on more expensive bookings.

From what I can see now the Service Charge is circa 17%. I’ve just looked at several listings and all work out the same.

Ok, maybe I’m doing the maths correctly, but looking at it from the wrong perspective, as in I’ve been taking the cost of the nights booked (plus cleaning fee) as my base, and working out what percentage of that the service amounts to.

For example:

4 nights @ €100 = €400
Service Charge = €68 - this being 17% of €400.

Once the service fee is added, it then becomes circa 14.5% of the grand total, i.e. nights + cleaning + service fee.

So, has it always been this way, or have Airbnb increased the guest fees?

JF

EDIT:

Looks like the T&C’s have changed from:

Service fees for guests typically range between 6-12% but can be higher or lower depending on the specifics of the reservation. The higher the subtotal, the lower the percentage so you can save money when booking large reservations.

To:

This fee is typically under 14.2% of the booking subtotal (the nightly rate plus cleaning fee and additional guest fee, if applicable, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes). The fee varies based on a variety of booking factors and is displayed to guests during checkout before they book a reservation.

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Airbnb raised the fee range some time ago(2years?), up to 20%. There are multiple discussions about it on the forum. It’s one of those things where we think they changed something without telling us, but they did tell us. What may be different is actually using some of the additional range they gave themselves.

Of course they are also clawing back from us since most of us have to price in a certain range that accounts for their fees. Given less travel and what I expect to be lower prices, there will be less money going around regardless.

I know when I start traveling again (maybe as soon as this summer) I’ll be driving and maybe sleeping in my car more than normal. I’ll be going to visit friends, not going to visit “sites and sights.”

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They went right over my head!

Last Autumn we were around 13% as I now remember discussing this with a guest. He was a one nighter and reckoned he’d be back in Jerez regularly, so we agreed on a 15% discount against the Airbnb price if he books direct.

The other two OTA’s we use charge:

BDC charge 15% commission to the host, and if you use Payments by Booking, another 1.1%.

HA/VRBO charge 5% commission to the host, 3% payment processing fee and circa 12.5% to the guest.

Puts Airbnb right up there with HA/VRBO.

JF

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