What Hosts Should Know About Airbnb’s Upcoming Service Fee Update

[Tara Omotere]

Starting October 27, Airbnb will raise the service fee they charge hosts from 15% to 15.5%. Airbnb is now making things more uniform, in the past, some hosts paid different types of fees (for example, a separate guest fee or a single host fee). If you want to keep earning the same amount as before, you can slightly raise your nightly rate to cover the 0.5% increase.

Example:
If you charge $100 per night, Airbnb used to take $15 (15%).
Now they’ll take $15.50 (15.5%).
You’d earn 50 cents less per booking unless you raise your price a bit.

So you could adjust your rate to $100.50 or $101 to keep your income the same.

[John Underwood]

I don't think 50 cents or a dollar, as in this example, is going to make much of a difference either way.

The OTAs will keep looking for ways to increase their revenues at our expense.