If you advertise your accommodation (apartments, rooms, or villas) on the Airbnb platform, there is a possibility that you have received a notification from the site about the change in the structure of the reservation fee.
What does this mean?
Starting from 7.12.2020. Airbnb has announced a change in the fee it charges for the services it provides.
There are currently two commision systems:
- Shared fee system – the commission charged by Airbnb is divided between the host and the guest. The host is charged a fixed 3% while the guest is charged up to 20% commission.
- Fixed fee system – this system is mandatory for companies that advertise on Airbnb and amounts to a fixed 14% of the fee charged by the host
Instead of the existing two systems, Airbnb will introduce one fixed 15% commission system to be charged by the host. This will in fact coincide with the other two world leaders, Booking.com and Expedia.com, who also charge their fees directly from the accommodation and not from the guest.
How does this affect accommodations?
Airbnb believes that this is a simplified method of calculation. The price will be more clearly expressed to the guests, while the owners and managers of the accommodation will have more control over the final price.
Also, the average increase in the number of bookings for hosts using simplified prices in Europe between November 2019 and February 2020 was 17%.
Does this affects existing bookings?
No, this change does not affect existing bookings. It will already automatically apply to reservations arriving from 7.12. and the existing ones will remain the same as before.
We advise owners and managers of accommodation who automate their business and use the channel manager system to prepare new price lists. In accordance with the new calculation of commissions, prices should be prepared by periods to be adjusted in order to avoid pre-Maltese provisions. If your channel manager system does not have this capability, contact us to explain how you can connect to our channel manager solution.
