What is the guest service fee that Airbnb is charging now on top of taxes and the host service fee?
Airbnb has always charged a guest service fee, thatâs their major source of revenue. How long have you been hosting?
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This is not new. Guest always paid the bulk of the fees, 10% and up (itâs gone up over the years) and host pays the 3%.
This seems to be another example of hosts donât read.
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@TheDees And the occupancy fee is not an Airbnb charge, it is what they are required to submit to your local tax dept. on your behalf, based on the law in your jurisdiction.
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I have seen my guests pay as high as 20% on a booking at mine, and then I get pinged on the value ratingâŚ
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Definitely not new. Almost exactly 15% based on that screen cap, which is about average. Airbnb says the average is 14.2% but they are not very transparent about the range.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857/what-are-airbnb-service-fees
You can find info online indicating the guest service fee ranges anywhere from 8% up to 20% depending on region and the total price of the reservation. The guest service fee is where Airbnb actually makes their revenue. The 3% host service fee is barely enough to cover the transaction service charges for guest payments and host payouts.
@TheDees, the guests have always paid a service fee. However, Airbnb has only recently started showing it in the breakdown in the reservations details, where your screenshots are from, so that is why you may not have been aware. It was previously available in the âprice breakdownâ from the calendar but you would have had to click a little extra to get there. Personally, I think it is sometimes good to keep up with what the guests are paying so you can see how your pricing effects the total, e.g. $399 is a nice round number, unless you have a strict standard price.
You can see, prior to a reservation, what the guest will pay (and what your payout will be) by selecting dates and then putting your cursor in the price box and clicking on âshow detailsâ. You can also change the number of guests there too, if you have extra guest fees - I charge for each guest after the first one, so it helps me see the total for 1- 4 guests.
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This happened with one of my bookings for a supremely happy guest. When I asked her (in writing) why, she stated âThe fees are really high, I donât give a 5 for that.â When I explained that we donât see the fees, it all goes to Air and we have no say, she apologized profusely.
Then when they get an issue, they end up here.
What a sterling resource this forum is.
Maybe we should suggest the young Master Chesky outsources the help to here 
JF
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My guests donât pay a host service fee. All charges are to me now 
all 15%.
But itâs not quite accurate to say that all the fees go to Air.
The guest fee the Host charges goes to the Host.
Airbnb independently charges a guest fee, which all goes to Air.
??? What guest fee the host charges? You mean an extra guest fee? Thatâs not what @casailinglady meant. All service fees go to Airbnb.
Obviously anything the host charges extra for goes to the host.
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Yes, that is what I meant. It is confusing because both have the words âGuestâ and âFeeâ in them. The Hosts do keep the âExtra guest fee.â My point.
I see what you are saying. The key words are âservice fee.â Airbnb keeps all the âservice feesâ. Your point.
Still, I think the average guest is going to lump together the Extra Service Fee that the Host keeps with the Guest service fee together under the rubric of 'Fees.â They both have âfeeâ in their names.
So if we say to a guest that all the fees go to Airbnb, thatâs not quite accurate. I suppose we could say that all service fees go to Airbnb, That would be technically accurate but wouldnât it be misleading? Because the Extra guest fee, though not called a service fee, is a fee. Plausibly it could be interpreted by a guest to relate to the âserviceâ of providing hospitality. And, of course, the Host gets the cleaning fee.
The guest doesnât care about labels, whether itâs a âservice feeâ or an âextra guest feeâ or a cleaning fee.â Theyâre fees. All they know is that the daily rate is $X but when all is said and done â after the fees and taxes are paid â they owe much more than $X per night.
In my example, above, the Host IS getting most of those fees.
So I wouldnât myself feel comfortable saying that all the âfeesâ go to Airbnb. Or splitting hairs to say all service fees go to Airbnb.
Instead, I would compare the value of what I provide to what a hotel [or other alternative] would provide. So I would take the all-in cost â in my example $ 357 a night [a little high because this reservation spreads the cleaning fee over just three nights]. Can a hotel provide a three bedroom suite with large living and dining areas, and a private yard, along with the feel and amenities of a home, for $357 a night? Not to mention a fully stocked and equipped kitchen. [FYI: A recent low-season five day rental translated to $235/night.]
Isnât the real comparison the all-in cost of your place vs the alternative, with a corresponding comparison of benefits that each offers. So, for example, the hotel will likely not have any cancellation fee. And it will likely have a gym, probably a restaurant or cafe. But on a whole-house rental you get the whole house â MUCH MORE SPACE â and a private yard (and weâve seen some beauties here),
I would rather live or die by that cost-value comparison than by pointing my fingers at Airbnb because in the end I donât see why the guest should care who keeps which fees. Theyâre paying that all-in cost and Iâd like to focus them on the value of what weâre providing.
In some situations the cost-value comparison might benefit the hotel or a different STR; in others, our place. The guest might be momentarily distracted by the claim that Airbnb keeps the fees or our plea of what we donât control but eventually the guest will or should focus on the all-in cost-value comparison.
I might ask a guest who questioned the value of our STR why they selected it. Their recitation will reveal what they valued when they made the reservation. Do they still value those things? Airbnb shows the all-in cost [before occupancy taxes] before they make the reservation. Why is the guest suddenly talking about fees? These were all known upfront.
So the guest should stop their whining, which is actually one of our House rules, a violation of which is â get ready for it â a $25 fee. But Iâd discount it to $20 if I could then use the Home Alone line: âKeep the change ya filthy animal.â
The extra guest âfeeâ would more accurately be called the nightly rate for extra guests.
Service fees are administrative fees.
And I think it is important for guests to understand what goes to the host and what goes to Airbnb. Sure, the bottom line is what the guest pays in total, but guests who understand that hosts do not see a penny of that service fee are more likely to give higher value ratings.
Because if they understand that the host didnât pocket that service fee they can better understand why the host charges what they do for the nightly rate.
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Well, if I were a guess I would estimate value by looking at the total costs regardless of who is getting what. Bu thatâs me.
What perhaps you and @casailinglady are saying is that in real life this distinction that all service fees goes to Airbnb does make a difference to the typical guest, resulting in a higher value score. So, though anecdotal, thatâs valuable information.
Iâll keep that in mind if I find myself engaged in a discussion of âvalueâ with a guest. But I think it will be my fallback if I donât make progress in a cost-value discussion.
Thank you.
Weâve changed the commission model to âhost pays allâ. So, weâre charged 15% and the guest pays nothing. We subsequently raised prices 20% to account for this, and nobody has flinched. Fully booked. All good.
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Sadly, my market wonât support that price hike. I tried when you could switch back and had crickets during a busy time.
I havenât studied this, but I wonder if the Host paid the Host service fee and didnât mark it up wouldnât the cost to the guest be the same?
Since Airbnb shows the all-in cost before occupancy costs woldât those costs be the same?
The difference would be that the daily rate would show as higher if the Host pays the Host service fee, But if the guest looked below to compare all-in costs, the all-in cost would be the same as when the Host did not pay the Guest service fee.
Is this correct?
If so, I guess thereâs no advantage in doing so. The potential disadvantage is your higher daily rate and then having to explain â if you get the chance to explain â that the all-in cost is the same as a lower daily rate where the guest pays Airbnbâs guest service fee.
Itâs actually only a 5% increase.
With the traditional plan, the host pays 3%, and the guest pays 15%. Thatâs 18%.
So, we went to the full commission model, where we pay 15% and the guest pays zero. Thatâs a 3% discount to us, yet we can add 15% to the price without adding a penny to what the guest would otherwise pay. Our 20% increase actually nets us 8% more while only adding 5% to the price.
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Are you VAT registered?
JF