New Host-only fees for Airbnb

[Nancy Bachety]

This is effective as of Dec 7 2020. How do you handle this when using a third party? My iGMS account is no longer connected. In order to connect it, I must allow Airbnb’s host only fee structure. 
What’s the solution?
This sounds like a new pricing structure is necessary in order to be able to use a third party. Is the strategy to increase nightly rates by 15% and incorporating the cleaning fee within the reservations? Reservations vary from 2-7 nights so that sounds like a crap shoot. 

Here’s the message from iGMS:

Is the Host-only Fee Compulsory For All Airbnb Hosts?

As mentioned above, from December 7, 2020, Airbnb will be rolling out the host-only fee for the majority of its hosts, including hosts who use third-party software to manage their listings. This means that most hosts will be required to pay the entire service fee from their own rental income. Hosts will pay a service fee of 15% to Airbnb from December 7 onwards.

[Luke Carl]

@Nancy Bachety

From the STS: 

There have been some rumblings about Airbnb's new 15% fee structure and we just wanted to clarify what this means to the best of our knowledge at this time.

- This does not apply to the United States (but we have reason to believe it will at some point)

- This does NOT mean cash out of your pocket

- This is Airbnb's attempt to make the fees easier to understand for guests (Likely part of the IPO)

- Instead of Airbnb charging guests a fee... We raise our rates and Airbnb takes their fee out of the total payment made by the guest. This does not pass through our bank account. They take it before we get paid.

Instead of it looking like this....

- Nightly Rate

- Cleaning Fee

- Taxes

- Service Fee

- Additional Fee (if you choose to add)

It will look like this....

- Nightly Rate 15% higher

- Cleaning Fee

- Taxes

- Additional Fee (if you choose to add)

Our sources say Airbnb simply wants to remove the Service Fee... but of course, they still need to get paid -so they are taking it out of the gross payment. We simply raise our rates to compensate and everything essentially stays the same -it's just a bit easier for guests to understand. At least that's what their IPO believes.

Long story short... we will raise our rates 15% and everything else will stay the same -including the amount the guests pay.

AGAIN! This is not currently taking effect in the US.

I hope that's clear as mud!

Luke