What fees do your guests get hit with? Seattle 30 percent!!!

[Henry T.]

I'm quite shocked (and stunned) when I see how much is taxed on to my guest. Airbnb, for their fee,  seems to tack on about 14%, then City of Seattle(lodging tax) tacks on 16%, plus another $4 per night. Then Airbnb sucks another 3% in fees out of my payout. Ouch!    Quite the sucker punch to the guest if you ask me. If you're a $100 a night,  that's 34% more to the guest, then another 3% sucker charge on your payout.   Anyone else have any numbers to share from different cities or states?

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Henry T.:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Michael Baum:

And there is no cap to those sorts of taxes in Seattle. There has been ongoing discussions about adding even more to STRs vs Hotels.

Don't they realize that by making business excessively hard, it will just drive people away to friendlier states? They should make all politicians run a business for a year....

Normal people might figure that out, but we're talking Seattle, we're a real bunch of ignoramus here. I haven't left yet, but I have closed down a few properties. I refuse to play under these conditions. I know this post is about STR, I'm playing with STR, but done with LTR in Seattle. Eventually, All my Seattle LTR's will cease as tenants leave. STR is a temp bridge as I figure out the long term strategy, which may involve Idaho or Arizona, or other cities in WA that aren't as burdensome as Seattle. But we still have that problem Gov that's a real piece of work. Sigh....

 C'mon over to AZ, man....I left Cali for similar reasons in 2020. Never looked back. Your Real Estate will produce so much better for you and you will feel like you actually own your own property....