This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
I “feel” like that’s the case but I’m always struck by my incognito search’s telling me hundreds, even over 1,000 during festival weeks, especially as they draw near, have been searching the same timeframe as me over the last week. Do you feel these are accurate or just designed to pressure people into booking?
I’ve often wondered how this varies by category & location (shared space, apt vs house, etc).
This depends on where you are. Mine was $640 yesterday. I have no insider knowledge of how Airbnb is doing financially. What I do know is that people have been predicting their fall for a long time. Some newfangled businesses will fail or be bought out (AOL) and some will keep growing (AMZN).
My experience shows that they include a HUGE area maybe 100 miles wide or more when they provide that figure. I think it includes EVERY search, nit just similar to yours. The area may be smaller in less rural areas than mine.
Without Hosts they have NO product to sell…
AirBnB’s $MXXX losses are public record (3) Yrs running… easy find on Google!
So were Amazon’s losses.
Not for us, we pay them 15% plus VAT of every booking, and the guest pays nada.
JF
I’ve never had the interest to delve deeply into the numbers, but if there were as many guests as there were listings, every host would be fully booked all the time. Which isn’t the case.
I take those little messages into account when pricing. They seem to prove true to me. If I’m getting a note that says, “180 other people are looking for a place”, the number of listings is dramatically lower after a few days.
And it does change for the search parameters. Sometimes I get that message in my general search, which for me is “entire places” (because I have entire places) but sometimes I don’t and then I do if I look at entire places that are pet friendly. So it does at least reflect different searches that guests are entering.
It’s not the case for all hosts all the time but I think there are locations where hosts are booked as much as they would like to be. In my little city, there is seldom more than a few places available for each weekend.
This weekend has a couple of smaller special events, including a comic-con and a local outdoor art thing, and there are exactly 2 entire places, 4 private rooms and 2 shared spaces available to book in the greater metropolitan area. But there were 300+ available to begin with.
I certainly want to agree. However the product they are selling is the online marketplace, not hosted homes directly.
That is your choice and not the norm.
No, it’s not our choice. If you are a “connected host”, i.e. use a channel manager, then it’s mandatory with Airbnb now in certain countries.
Your service fee structure will change on 07/12/2020
Starting 07/12/2020, we’ll be switching your listings to simplified pricing – a new service fee structure that gives you more control of the final price that guests pay.
What’s changing
Today, there are 2 service fee structures: split-fee pricing with the service fee shared between hosts and guests, and simplified pricing with the entire service fee covered by the host. After 07/12/2020, split-fee pricing will no longer be available. That means a 15% service fee will be deducted from your payouts, and no fee will be charged to your guests – what you set is what guests will pay.
Why your listings are affected
This change applies to you because you have a listing in a selected country and connect to Airbnb using third-party software.
As we are not registered for VAT, and doing what we can to make sure we don’t have to, it effectively means we are paying 18% commission (15% + VAT).
I suspect this is something that’ll be rolled out across all listings, having a two tier fee structure is not ideal.
JF
Wow! Ok. Sorry I assumed wrong! I imagine that with the greater number of 1099s and especially if the host has to adjust their prices to pay all the service fees for Airbnb, that more and more people that do it part tine or in their home’s will be dropping off…many will not raise their prices and feel the real pinch in their own pocket books.
No, they shouldn’t see any major impact. If it’s a global change then all they need to do is increase their prices to cover the fees and, as the guest won’t be paying any, the final nightly price (for the guest) shouldn’t be too dissimilar to before.
JF
It would be dumb not to raise the price to compensate for the host paying the whole fee.
The end price to the guest, as John points out, is the basically the same.
@JohnF Have you had any guests cancel since you’ve been on this fee structure? When the guest pays the service fee, cancels, Airbnb retains the fee.
What happens when the host pays the whole shot and the guest cancels? Does the host get the fee back?
Receiving a 1099 does not affect your taxes. It does not change the amount of money you’ve made for the year. And it does not change your tax rate. No one should be paying a different amount of tax merely because they receive a 1099.
The only way that receiving a 1099 would affect the amount of taxes paid is if someone was not reporting their earnings because they didn’t receive a 1099 but now feel that they have to report them because they are receiving a 1099.
Anyone who has not been reporting their Airbnb earnings is foolish and should go ahead and file amendments to previous tax years and report that income. All of your earnings are already documented on Airbnb (and Paypal and anything else that is sent as an electronic payment). The IRS already has access to your earnings should they want to verify them. A 1099 is not going to change anything.
The only reason I can think of to think that a 1099 will change tax liability is if you haven’t been reporting your earnings (i.e. cheating on your taxes). Of course, I don’t mean you specifically @Militaryhorsegal. I just mean anyone who is worried about getting a 1099. I imagine there may be other reasons to be confused about it but I can’t figure out what they are.
It’s not as if Airbnb was paying anyone in cash.
No idea. Other than all the Covid cancellations last March, off the top of my head, we haven’t had an Airbnb cancellation since early 2018!
JF
I agree that that is what the need to do. That is what it will take many amateurs a while to do…first they will feel that they are getting more taken out of their rates and then they will either raise it to make the same (and many will feel weird about doing so) or just drop out altogether because it is not worth it.
100% agree. However, from my experience, many amateur hosts will feel weird about raising it…