Airbnb says that hosts in the host-only fee model get 17% more bookings than hosts in the regular split-fee model (3 to 5% on the host, 14.2% on the guest). Airbnb takes a 15% host-only fee commission from hosts. In most countries outside the US, the guest fee is already zero.

Now, as Airbnb customers complain about the guest fee, this is an issue for Airbnb. So, guests may have the impression that local taxes fees have gone up, when they are actually just taken at the source. As some hosts were “forgetting” a bit too often to do so, municipalities pressured Airbnb in to doing something. Before, hosts had to collect the tax money and transfer it to their local authorities. Let’s also mention that, especially in the US, Airbnb is now collecting local taxes, straight from the guest. The 14.2% service fee over a $45 a night private room is $6.39 per night, while, for a $300 a night vacation rental, it is $42.6 per night.Īs travelers have turned to Airbnb to book more expensive houses and stay longer, service fees have ballooned in absolute terms. On Airbnb, bookings for places that can host 5 guests and more were less than 35% of summer nights stayed in 2019 and now account for 54% of summer nights booked in 2021. Let’s get the Airbnb service fee out of the wayĪs people have traded up and gone from booking a spare room to an entire 4-bedroom vacation on Airbnb, the value of booking has gone up.

Yes, the service fee (14.2% on average in the US) goes into Airbnb’s pocket. Yet, it shows how little guests understand how fees work on Airbnb: No, cleaning fees are not set up by Airbnb, but by hosts. The person tweeting the first message and screenshot was actually an adult performer trying to get more followers and exposure for her OnlyFans account. The whole episode was ridiculous, but also very interesting.

Airbnb itself felt that it had to respond the day after and announced a review of cleaning fees practices by hosts. The press took it from there and wrote about Airbnb horror stories. The message was retweeted more than 23,800 times. “We gotta stop Airbnb” said a tweet, along with a screenshot of a two-night stay, at $99 per night. Discrepancy: On Airbnb, while rates are set per night, fees are per stay.

Cleaning fees are not set up by Airbnb, but by hosts.

Twitter users and the press complain high Airbnb fees, without noticing that initial tweet was from adult performer.

Twitterstorm erupted after “We gotta stop Airbnb” message shows screenshot of a $114 cleaning fee.

Airbnb extended stays