How Airbnb charges hosts
Airbnb earns money by taking a service fee on every booking. You never send an invoice for it: the fee is deducted from your payout, so what lands in your bank account is lower than the total the guest saw for the nights and cleaning fee. Airbnb applies the fee to the nightly price plus any fees you charge as host, not to taxes or the guest's own service fee.
Split fee vs host-only fee
There are two models in use:
- Split fee. The host pays roughly 3% and the guest pays a separate service fee on top (about 14% to 16.5%). Your payout is high, but the price guests see is also higher.
- Host-only fee. The host pays the whole fee, usually 15.5% (14% to 16% in some markets), and the guest sees no extra Airbnb fee. Airbnb has been moving hosts to this model and, once you switch, you cannot go back.
The model decides how you should price. Under host-only, a listing at 100 per night pays out 84.50 before any other costs.
Working out your real payout
Multiply nights by your nightly price, add the cleaning fee, and subtract the fee percentage. The calculator above does this in cents so rounding matches what you see on a payout. Look at the effective percentage, not just the headline rate, because it tells you how much of each booking you actually give away.
Pricing to net a target
If you need to receive 500 for a stay, charging 500 plus the fee percentage is wrong. The fee is taken from the total, so you divide instead: target divided by one minus the fee rate. At 15.5%, a 500 target needs a booking total of about 591.72. Use the "I want a payout" mode to get the exact nightly price, including your cleaning fee.
Why direct bookings can keep more
A direct booking has no marketplace commission. You still pay payment processing, commonly around 2.9% for cards, but that is a fraction of 15.5%. On a 1,000 stay, the difference is roughly 126. That is why many hosts use Airbnb to be found and then encourage repeat guests to book direct.
Tools like Bookinghook give you a booking page, payments and guest messaging so direct bookings are as easy as the marketplace ones.
Before you rely on the numbers
Airbnb changes its fees by market and over time, and some countries add VAT rules. Treat this as an estimate and compare it with a real payout statement.
