Any STR hosts compared traditional vs host-only fees?

Question

Any STR owners out there had a chance to compare the impact of the traditional shared host-renter AirBnB fee model to the alternative host-only fee model?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857/what-is-the-airbnb-service-fee

First time I've heard of the host-only fee model and curious if there's an advantage to leveraging a more hotel-like traditional price with higher nightly rates, but less fees on top.

Don Konipol · Answer

@Paul Sandhu

It's been pretty good the last few years. Only had one fatality, one overdose, and 4 break ins.

LOL,  LOVE your sense of humor!

Paul Sandhu · Answer

@Cliff H.  It's cash or credit card upon arrival, pay for 1 week in advance.  After 1 week, pay for another week in advance.  I get the payment in person.

Cliff H. · Answer

I love that image of Hades Paul, well articulated. Suffice it to say, I think we're in different rental markets, with a good portion of my renters being couples or small families coming to the White Mountains from NYC, perhaps due to it being one of the nicer rentals in the area.

I've been investing heavily into comparing each of the online channel managers so I can get the bulk of rentals out of AirBnB and into more direct bookings and/or other channels like Booking.com, HomeAway, etc. Ironically, I'm finding the channel managers even more work than managing each of the channels separately!

For your CL rentals, assume you're just taking cash on arrival or have you setup your own direct booking site/service?

Cliff

Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

Thanks for posting a reminder as to why I don't use Airbnb.  It seems like they ding you a few percent for anything under the sun.  I use Craigslist for my online rentals, but most of my rentals come from offline marketing.  23 STRs, 83 beds.  Refinery contractors are my tenants.  Redneck welders/fitters/boilermakers/electricians and people from Mexico.  It's been pretty good the last few years.  Only had one fatality, one overdose, and 4 break ins. I live in Hades.

Cliff H. · Answer

I've had a few guests complain about differences in price between initial inquiry and confirmed booking due to AirBnB only showing the night fee less tax and cleaning fees until later so I could see the advantage in providing a more upfront cost to the renter. That's improved a bit over time since AirBnB now shows nightly rate as the aggregate of rate + tax + cleaning fee.

At the same point, I agree with you that you're then filtered out by folks looking for a rental below a specific nightly rate. Including all the fees into your nightly rate means you've got to mark up rates and may be filtered out by folks trying to stay under a specific rate, while your neighbor's happily showing up even with the same final total price. My instinct on this is that's mostly of value to larger hotels renting many units and trying to have a consistent nightly rate versus the competition, I was just curious if any smaller, STR owners had leveraged it when using a channel manager. Originally posted by @Michael Baum:

Hi @Cliff H., to the guest, what would be the difference? I doubt it would be better for us in the long run. People on AirBNB specifically look for the best price. Not necessarily the lower fees.

So you would charge 20 percent more give or take to save the guest 13 percent? That is what I get out of the link. Minimum is 14%, max is 20%. What folks will see when they search is the higher nightly rate for a similar place.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

Thanks for posting a reminder as to why I don't use Airbnb.  It seems like they ding you a few percent for anything under the sun.  I use Craigslist for my online rentals, but most of my rentals come from offline marketing.  23 STRs, 83 beds.  Refinery contractors are my tenants.  Redneck welders/fitters/boilermakers/electricians and people from Mexico.  It's been pretty good the last few years.  Only had one fatality, one overdose, and 4 break ins. I live in Hades.

Michael Baum · Answer

Hi @Cliff H., to the guest, what would be the difference? I doubt it would be better for us in the long run. People on AirBNB specifically look for the best price. Not necessarily the lower fees.

So you would charge 20 percent more give or take to save the guest 13 percent? That is what I get out of the link. Minimum is 14%, max is 20%. What folks will see when they search is the higher nightly rate for a similar place.

Not sure I am right about that.