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Has anyone figured out a good way to explain Airbnb’s additional fees (guest service and occupancy tax) to guests? It seems like most guests I interact with don’t understand that hosts do not benefit from or receive any portion of that payment.
For example, I had someone inquire about a holiday weekend in 2023 (dates that are not available for booking yet) and they wanted to get an idea of the cost. I shared my nightly rate for those dates and my cleaning fee. To be as transparent as possible, I did explain the additional fees that Airbnb charges and said that, because I cannot control those fees, I could not be certain what the final cost of the booking would be. They were not happy with this answer and said things like “so you can just charge us whatever else you want because of ‘Airbnb Fees’” (the quotations indicated to me that they thought I was just making up fake fees to get extra money). I tried sending screen shots of price breakdowns from past bookings but they couldn’t get past the assumption that I was setting and benefitting from these fees.
Has anyone been able to successfully navigate these conversations and explain it in a way that helps guests realize these fees are 100% coming from and paid out to Airbnb?
Don’t you love “Bill Shock” and that it is all your fault!
This is one of the reasons that Airbnb is slowly pushing all the fees etc on to the host to deal with. The guest fees also appear to have some weird sliding scale as it depends on all sorts of factors. On my listings it has been as low as 12% and as high as 20%. I NEVER quote on what the fees may be.
LOL yes - it’s always our fault!!! I had a guest tell me they reached out to Airbnb about the fees and claimed “Airbnb said they are not familiar with these fees - they said all fees are set by the host”. (Eye roll)
Just tell them that you, the host, set your nightly rate and cleaning fee and Airbnb charges a commission that averages 14%. It can be higher or lower but hosts have no control over Airbnb’s commission. As far as what it might be in 2023, you have no control over future changes to their commission just as you have no control over future changes to your government’s lodging tax.
BTW on a different forum a poster said she flipped the switch for the host pay all Airbnb booking fees instead of the host 3%, guest approx. 14% split. She does not use a channel manager. Now she can’t change back to split fees.
Be aware it appears there is no “try this” before you make the change.
Thanks for the advice! I’ve said the same thing, practically verbatim, in the past. Some guests understand and others refuse to come to terms with it. I suppose that is simply out of my control
I’m curious about why they are asking? I realise that these guests were asking about a future date that’s not open yet but they would see the accurate price before booking. (Which is what I would have probably told them to avoid the back-and-forth).
Truly in many, many years of hosting potential guests have never asked me for a breakdown of the fees. Is this a guests-are-getting-more-entitled thing?
Many don’t ask! It has happened in more unique situations. Another example was a guest asking if I offer discounts for first responders. I said I would offer them an X% discount but they were looking at X% of their total price, I was looking at X% of my nightly rate + cleaning fee. A few of these situations have resulted in guests booking directly through me, off of Airbnb.
@VTOwner528 The response you got from these guests indicates to me that they are rather rude, nasty and aggressive, and that you wouldn’t want them as guests anyway.
It isn’t difficult for a reasonable guest to understand “I can tell you what my nightly fee plus cleaning fee would be, and approximate taxes and Airbnb service fees, but the latter two aren’t anything hosts have control over, nor do taxes and fees go to the host. Airbnb generally charges anywhere from 14.5% to 20%, but hosts aren’t privy to what and how much that service fee will be until the booking is actually made. And the taxes are what is required to be paid to the local govt- Airbnb submits that on hosts’ behalf- currently the occupancy tax is XX%, but it could change by 2023.”
I would not bother having that conversation. Once someone says something rude and aggressive (or passive aggressive), I stop responding to the conversation and will block them if necessary.
Most guests don’t act that way so there’s no reason to deal with the ones who do.
And also you could respond, “actually I can charge you whatever I want”. lol.
Yep. Definitely a waste of time for a guest that will be nothing but trouble.
In every business I have owned, I have had to fire clients who nickel and dimed me. I estimated honestly and warned when costs might be higher, and I was honest about billing time and materials and in some businesses didn’t charge if I couldn’t fix the problem.
If they got picky, that was the last job I did for them.
Why don’t you just direct them to the link on the Airbnb Help website, that explains the fees including the service fee range Airbnb charges @VTOwner528
I wish Airbnb would allow hosts to send links to Airbnb help articles to people who haven’t booked yet. I understand them filtering out links to VRBO & other platforms but more than once I’ve wanted to send a help link or link to a friend’s Airbnb listing because mine was not available or the guest wanted to book two condos in the same neighborhood.
While people are lazy and would more readily click on a link, all of the policies and explanations are readily found with a Google search. For instance typing in Airbnb+ Moderate Cancellation Policy.
So you could advise them to do that.
I send airbnb articles to guests prior to them booking. The most common one is the link that shows guests how to get their ID verified. I send it to them. And when it comes through, I go ahead and accept the booking at that time.
