Airbnb is a real showcase for millions of vacation rental owners. With millions of listings, Airbnb is a great way to grow your short-term rental business. But how do Airbnb service fees really work? How are they calculated? What should you keep in mind? Find out the answers to your questions in our practical guide!

How much is the Airbnb service fee?

On the traveler’s side, booking a vacation rental on the platform has become commonplace. In fact, a common phrase we often hear: “I’m going to book an Airbnb”. Thus Airbnb has become a synonym for any vacation rental. Service fees are also part of the picture with any booking portal, not just Airbnb. This guide will go into detail on Airbnb’s service fees.

2 Airbnb service fee options

The Airbnb rental platform is powerful and its services are numerous. This does not come free of charge. In fact, Airbnb offers two types of fees for stays: shared fees and host-only fees.

Option 1: Shared fees

This is the most common model. With this model, a fee is charged to travelers and on the other side a service fee is withheld from Airbnb’s payment to the host.

In terms of percentage, the host service fee is typically 3%. If you are an Airbnb Plus host or have strict cancellation policies, you may pay more.

How are these fees calculated?

They are calculated from the booking subtotal (the price per night + cleaning fee + additional traveler fee, if any, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes) and are automatically deducted from the host’s payment.

Option 2: Host-only fee

Here, the entire service fee is deducted from the Airbnb payment to the host. No Airbnb service fee is paid by the guest. The host-only fee ranges from 14-16%. This fee is mandatory for hotels or hosts that use a Channel Manager to manage their vacation rentals. As with option 1, if you are an Airbnb Plus host or have very strict cancellation policies, you may pay more.

Airbnb will take a commission, that’s for sure. To ensure profitability, it is important to calculate your nightly prices and define the minimum length of stay based in part of the commission charged.

How are these fees calculated ?

They are calculated from the booking subtotal (the price per night + cleaning fees + additional traveler fees, if any, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes) and are automatically deducted from the host’s payment.

Learn all about service fees for Airbnb experiences

Have you read our guide to Airbnb experiences yet? A 20% service fee is taken by the booking platform. This fee helps cover the costs of products, services, and user support offered by the site. This fee also covers liability insurance for most experiences.

Keep in mind that travelers do not pay any additional service fees. The price they see displayed is the total price.

These service fees are automatically deducted by Airbnb from hosts’ payments after the experience. Therefore, your payment is net and your fees are paid directly.

Note: If you offer an experience at a non-profit, Airbnb will not take any service fees. All revenues will be donated to a non-profit organization.

Airbnb cleaning fees

Cleaning fees are also something to think about. To add them to your listing, you can do the following (on desktop):

Click on “Listings” and select the one that matches your request
Then click on “Pricing and availability”. This will take you to the “Fees” section
In the ” Household fees ” section, click on ” Modify “.
Enter the amount of your cleaning fees
Register

Your fees will then be applied to your future reservations.

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