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Airbnb restructured its host fees today, which may affect the amount you pay for each stay.
In a nutshell, the service fees customers pay at checkout are shifting to hosts, who can increase prices to cover the cost or pay them to stay competitive.
This change only affects properties listed by a property management company or anyone using property management software (PMS). In the past, hosts paid Airbnb 3% of the rate they set. If they asked for $100 per night, they would pocket $97, and Airbnb would get $3. At checkout, the customer would see an additional service fee, ranging from 14% to 16%, depending on the location, which also goes to Airbnb.
“Service fees help cover the cost of Airbnb products and services, including payment processing, marketing, and customer service,” Airbnb says.
But no one likes surprise fees at checkout, right? The dreaded cleaning fees are the worst. They may increase the price so much that you decide to opt for a hotel instead. That’s why Airbnb in April switched to being more up-front about total costs. That didn’t include the service fee, however, but now it should.
Starting today, rather than the customer paying that 14-16% at checkout, it’ll be deducted from the host’s revenue. Continuing the example above, if a host lists their property for $100 a night in an area with a 15% service fee, they will fork over $18 to Airbnb and pocket $82.
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“Updating our fee structure to a single fee is part of Airbnb’s commitment to improving pricing transparency,” Airbnb says.
If hosts raise prices to pad their margins, there would be no change to your total cost, but you’d at least see a closer approximation of the final price when browsing listings. Hosts could also absorb the fees and keep their prices the same, or only do a partial increase. Maybe the trick is to book your stay today in case hosts haven’t yet had a chance to make any adjustments.
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