If your listing was a good value before, this doesn’t change that. £100 is still £100. That didn’t change. The only thing that changed is that Airbnb gets a bit less of it and you get a bit more.
I have been listed on several platforms (some I’ve dumped for various reasons).
For example, Novasol charges the host 20% commission. And they make it dreadfully difficult for hosts to manage the prices, the terms etc. The guests knows nothing about this. It’s never disclosed to them. Why should it be? It’s none of their business.
Here is the listing → here is the price. You like it? Book it or don’t book it. That’s normal in this business. It’s like buying a new jacket. You like it and are willing to pay the price? In the cart it goes.
VRBO charges the host 18% (well they used to, I dumped them long ago) but then, they also charge the host a 3% “credit card fee” when the guest books by credit card, and then there’s the mysterious €75 “trip insurance” that is taken from every booking. VRBO was never able to explain that one to me. And their calendar sync fails a lot, so there’s the double bookings that they penalise the host for cancelling. But I dumped them long ago, so I’m no longer subjected to it.
Still, their guests never know about any of this. Yet they’re still Airbnb’s #1 competitor.
Booking dot com is pretty much the same.
Anyone with a brain knows that businesses aren’t philanthropic. They get money out of it somehow. We know that.
So I’m reluctant to believe the guest cares about the commission or extra charges at all (unless it appears to be “bait and switch”; advertised price suddenly inflated at checkout time).
The most important thing is how much do I have to pay for that room/house/villa? I like it or I don’t like it. Split fee / Single fee has no bearing on that (unless the host chooses not to price equally).
You are totally correct. Split/single fee has nothing to do with whether a guest decides to book or not- the total price is what determines whether a consumer will purchase something or not.
What we disagree on is whether it is desireable to consumers to see a breakdown of what their total payment is going towards. You are of the opinion that none of them care- I don’t think that is true. And I think it is important for hosts for guests not to think all of what they pay is going directly into the host’s pocket.
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You can see it by looking at the booking details. It’s just not shown in the headline price.
Anyway, this discussion was started with the “value” argument, which of course has nothing to do with this. And the mistaken belief that Airbnb is somehow making (400%?) more. And of course that they’re deliberately “hiding” their commission (like all others).
I think that’s all been pretty well debunked now. Until the next one cries out about this imaginary ripoff.
Look, I have plenty of gripes about Airbnb, but this is one of the few things they’ve done right.
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I merely said Airbnb is now charging hosts a service fee that is increased by over 400%. 3% is now 15.5%. That is a fact. Without any change to the level of service provided to hosts, and carefully positioned to be just less than the average competitor platform host charge of 18% or more, so most hosts won’t leave even if they are disgruntled by the change.
Whether hosts choose to pass this charge on to guests partially or entirely does not detract from this. Currently Airbnb are pushing UK hosts to pass on the full cost to guests with their toolkit that automatically uplifts all the pricing for you.
As you point out, with this move Airbnb is now simply just the same as all the other platforms, no worse but also no better.
But with no guest service fee at all, it will appear a more attractive platform for guests than VRBO so it is a clever move. And leaves them plenty of scope in the future for introducing a new guest fee labelled as ‘buyer protection’ or indeed a ‘non refundable booking fee’.
We switched to host-only fees some time ago. I prefer it, keeps things simple, and easy to calculate and compare. I’ve seen zero push-back from guests. From their perspective, the price is the price.
From the point of view of refunds, if a full refund is given because they cancelled during the window they can do that, there is no difference. They get back what they paid, and neither AirBnB or us get anything.
Note that cleaning is still a separate fee.
There is a bit of extra work on changeover to make sure you are setting appropriate rates, but I think you should be periodically checking the market and how you sit in it anyway.
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I’m in the US, and do not know what 'simplified pricing" is, other than what I glean from comments, which is that Airbnb plans to collect its fee entirely from hosts, and none from travelers. That seems more like a franchise or license fee, where hosts buy the marketing, customer identity screening, branding, referral, etc resources of Airbnb by paying a percent of each sale.
Who collects and remits to taxing authorities the various taxes that might be due?
Where I am, there is a state sales tax, city sales tax, and a special local hospitality tax on short term/hotel rooms, and, I think, car rentals.
In the UK, will Airbnb continue to handle collecting and remiting sales tax?
Also, in my State and a handful of other states, we passed laws requiring vendors who tack on fees (in what always feels like a bait and switch scheme) to disclose up front the entire charge for each rental or sale, including all fees and taxes. Airbnb, in response, now has transparent pricing nation-wide because it’s easier than having non-uniform pricing among the states.
Regarding the OP’s question about cancellation, on two occasions the guest didn’t read the descriptions very closely and found that my place wasn’t what they wanted, and asked to cancel without paying the monetary penalty they would normally owe for late cancellation. Each time, when I contacted Airbnb CS, the company followed my lead andreturned the fees and taxes it previously collected from the traveler. I wouldnt think that policy of keeping travelers happy would change with simplified fees.
When this happens and I’m OK for it, I get an email with an ability to refund total amount. I don’t think you need to go through Airbnb CS to do this…
Rolf,
Right.
I only went through CS so I could immedately assure the guest of the outcome (they get all their money if they go away).
My only point is actually just speculative: Whatever the process, changing to simplified pricing shouldnt change the underlying Airbnb policy of keeping the travelers happy with a full refund.