How Much Does Airbnb Take From Hosts? 15.5% Fee Explained

Airbnb takes a single 15.5% service fee from most hosts, charged on the booking subtotal: the nightly rate plus any cleaning, pet and extra-guest fees, excluding taxes. Listings in Brazil and Mexico pay 16%, according to Airbnb's Help Center.

At a glance

• The fee: 15.5% of the booking subtotal for most hosts, 16% in Brazil and Mexico.
• The fix: raise prices and fees 14.8% to keep your old payout.

Calculate your payout

Which fee are you on today?

Bookings made before your switch keep the fee they were booked under.

The single fee replaces the split fee, under which most hosts paid 3% and guests paid their own service fee at checkout, typically 14.1% to 16.5%. "To simplify pricing, we're combining both fees into a single 15.5% service fee paid by hosts," Airbnb says in its Resource Center announcement.

Airbnb has moved hosts to the single fee in waves since late 2025, starting with hosts who use property management software; the switch timeline has every date.

How much does Airbnb take from each booking?

Airbnb takes 15.5% of each booking's subtotal, so your payout is the subtotal times 0.845. Airbnb deducts the fee before it pays you, so there is no separate bill and no fee line on the guest's receipt. Listing itself is free; the fee comes only out of confirmed bookings.

The first two rows are single nights with no extra fees; the longer stays show how a cleaning fee adds to what Airbnb takes.

At 16% in Brazil and Mexico, the same four bookings pay out $84.00, $252.00, $588.00 and $1,596.00.

Under the split fee, the same $700 stay paid out $679. Moving to the single fee without touching prices costs $87.50 on that booking, a 12.9% cut, and Airbnb says as much: "if you keep your price at $100, you'll earn $84.50 after the 15.5% fee is deducted."

Over a year the gap adds up. As an illustration, a unit that grosses $60,000 a year in Airbnb bookings and leaves its prices unchanged keeps $50,700 under the single fee, against $58,200 under the 3% split fee: $7,500 a year less.

When you underwrite a purchase, deduct 15.5%, not 3%, from trailing-12-month gross: a comp that grossed $60,000 under the split fee in 2025 and $68,880 on the same nights after a 14.8% reprice in 2026 netted about the same, $58,200 and $58,204, but 3% off the $68,880 overstates its net by $8,610 a year. AirROI's revenue estimates are gross booking revenue: cleaning fees included, before Airbnb's fee and your costs.

Airbnb's share of what the guest pays barely moved. On a $100 night under the split fee, the guest typically paid $114.10 to $116.50 before taxes, and Airbnb kept $17.10 to $19.50 of it, or 15.0% to 16.7%; Airbnb says the guest fee "may be higher or lower depending on the booking." The single fee keeps 15.5% of what the guest pays, inside that typical range, which fits Airbnb's description of the rate as "based on Airbnb's global average service fees." The change is where the fee sits: inside your price rather than on the guest's receipt.

Airbnb says its service fees help cover payment processing, marketing and customer service.

What the 15.5% fee is charged on

"The single fee applies to your nightly price and any fees you add, like a cleaning, pet, or extra guest fee," Airbnb's announcement says. Taxes and the old guest service fee stay outside that base, according to the Help Center.

Every host can add three fees: cleaning, pet and extra-guest. Hosts who use Airbnb's professional hosting tools can add four more, resort, linen, management and community fees, according to Airbnb. All of them count toward the subtotal.

Cleaning fees feel the change most. A $100 cleaning fee cost a split-fee host $3 and now costs $15.50, so netting the full $100 takes a cleaning fee of about $118.34. The gap grows with the fee, which turns what to charge for cleaning into a payout decision.

When did Airbnb switch hosts to the 15.5% fee?

Airbnb retired the split fee in waves, starting with hosts who manage prices through property management or channel management software. Each date below comes from Airbnb's own pages, listed under the table.

Sources: Airbnb's Help Center fee article as of August 2025 and November 2025 for 2025; its Resource Center announcements for software-connected hosts as of October 2025, April 2026 and now; its country announcement for May and June 2026; and its deadline announcement for September and October 2026. Archived copies show pages Airbnb has since rewritten.

That leaves two groups for October 13: hosts who live in the EEA or Switzerland and haven't switched, and the software-connected hosts the April wave didn't move, whom Airbnb gave the same date in July 2026.

Two rules apply at every step. The single fee covers only reservations made after a host switches, so a booking made before the switch keeps the split fee even when the stay comes later. And once a host has switched, the Help Center says, there is no switching back.

What's the difference between Airbnb's split fee and host-only fee?

The split fee divided Airbnb's cut between the two sides of a booking; the single fee puts all of it on the host. Airbnb's Help Center has called the single fee "simplified pricing" and, as of August 2025, "also known as the host-only fee," so all three names mean the same structure.

The top of the guest range, 16.5%, applied to cross-currency bookings, where the guest pays in a different currency from the one the listing is priced in. The old guest fee was also "reduced for some stays of 28 nights or more," according to Airbnb, so on monthly stays a full payout-neutral reprice can leave the guest paying more than before.

To see which fee a reservation carried, Airbnb's Help Center points hosts to Today, then Menu, then Earnings. Open a transaction under Upcoming or Paid, and the Airbnb service fee is listed under Earnings. A fee near 15.5% of the subtotal means the single fee; near 3% means the split fee.

Why isn't my Airbnb fee exactly 15.5%?

"Most hosts pay 15.5%, remaining hosts typically pay 14%-16%, and hosts pay a 16% fee for listings in Brazil and Mexico," Airbnb's Help Center says. A fee that doesn't come to 15.5% of the subtotal usually has one of these causes:

• The booking predates your switch. Reservations made before you moved to the single fee keep the split fee of about 3%, even when the stay comes later.
• The listing is in Brazil or Mexico, where the single fee is 16%.
• VAT or GST applies to the fee. The service fee Airbnb shows hosts is VAT-inclusive where it applies. In Airbnb's own example with 20% VAT, the price adjustment tool moves a $100 night to $119 instead of $115: the 15.5% fee on $115 is $17.83, the VAT on it is $3.57, and the host keeps $97.60, with the fee worked on the $115 rather than the $119.
• A Super Strict cancellation policy. Airbnb's fee article said in November 2025 that hosts with Super Strict cancellation policies "may pay an additional 2%."
• A stay of 28 nights or more. The same article said fees for those stays "may be less."
• A hotel under contract. The 15.5% change "does not apply to hotel listings that are under contract with Airbnb Travel LLC," the article added.

How much should you raise prices for the 15.5% fee?

Raise every price and fee by 14.8%. That keeps the payout you had under the 3% split fee.

Under the split fee you kept 97% of the subtotal; under the single fee you keep 84.5%. Multiplying your nightly price and your fees by 0.97 ÷ 0.845, or 1.148, puts the payout back where it was.

The other figure in circulation is 18.3%, from dividing by 0.845. That makes your payout equal your old price rather than your old payout, so it lands about 3% above what you were keeping, if the higher price doesn't cost you bookings. AirROI's model below tests that.

Against the old $97 payout, doing nothing is −12.9%, the payout-neutral price keeps it the same, Airbnb's example is +0.2% and the gross-up is +3.1%. With 20% VAT on the fee, Airbnb keeps 15.5% × 1.2 = 18.6% and you keep 81.4%, so the payout-neutral factor is 0.97 ÷ 0.814, or 1.192.

Listings in Brazil and Mexico went from 4% to 16%, so their payout-neutral factor is 0.96 ÷ 0.84, or about 1.143. Where VAT applies to Airbnb's fee and the host isn't VAT-registered, Airbnb's price adjustment tool builds the tax in: at 20% VAT, its example moves a $100 price to $119 rather than $115. Co-hosts can't run that one-time price adjustment for a host, so the host has to make the change.

The guest barely sees the reprice. A $100 split-fee listing typically cost the guest $114.10 to $116.50 before taxes; at $114.79 on the single fee, the guest pays $114.79. Airbnb said in November 2022 that it prioritizes total price, not nightly price, in search ranking, so the number guests compare is the one that stays level.

Apply the 14.8% to your Airbnb prices only. Vrbo, Booking.com and direct bookings don't carry Airbnb's 15.5%, so raising a base rate shared across channels overprices them. If a channel manager or pricing tool sets your rates, keep the base at your net target and add an Airbnb-only markup of 14.8%.

AirROI analysis, June 30, 2026 data: 33,341 entire homes in 12 US markets

14.8% is the rule: it keeps your payout the same. AirROI's model tested the full 18.3% gross-up instead. Once competitors had repriced too, it left payout per available night 0.8% to 4.1% above the old split-fee payout in all 12 markets. For a host who repriced ahead of them, it came out ahead or within a point of breakeven in 9 markets, but 6.4% to 8.3% behind in Columbus, Panama City Beach and Park City, though still better than the −12.9% of doing nothing; there the analysis says to stop at 14.8%. Destin and Myrtle Beach land above the +3.1% an 18.3% reprice adds by arithmetic because higher-priced listings there also book more nights, a pattern the analysis puts down partly to better listings rather than to price.

Show the data

Modelled change in payout per available night against the old split-fee payout after the full 18.3% reprice, and the analysis's verdict on going past 14.8%:

Market	Competitors also repriced	You reprice first	Verdict on the full 18.3%
Destin, FL	+4.1%	+8.3%	Defensible
Myrtle Beach, SC	+3.5%	+5.1%	Defensible
Nashville, TN	+2.9%	+2.5%	Defensible
San Antonio, TX	+2.8%	+2.0%	Defensible
Charleston, SC	+2.6%	+0.1%	Defensible
Tulsa, OK	+2.5%	−0.1%	Defensible
Sedona, AZ	+2.4%	−0.4%	Defensible
Honolulu, HI	+2.4%	−0.7%	Defensible
Palm Springs, CA	+2.3%	−0.9%	Defensible
Columbus, OH	+1.4%	−6.4%	Stop at 14.8%
Panama City Beach, FL	+1.0%	−7.6%	Stop at 14.8%
Park City, UT	+0.8%	−8.3%	Stop at 14.8%

Twice-as-steep check: if a higher price cost twice the occupancy the model measures, the full 18.3% would leave Columbus, Panama City Beach and Park City below the old payout even after competitors reprice, at −0.3% to −1.5%, and 15.9% to 19.7% below it for a host who moves first, worse than doing nothing. The figures are approximate, worked back from the rounded results, with Destin and Myrtle Beach held at +3.1% because their measured occupancy rises with price.

Method: payout per available night (nightly rate × occupancy, net of Airbnb's fee) for entire homes of one to four bedrooms over the 12 months to June 2026. Instead of one elasticity, each market uses its own measured link between price position and occupancy: 1.89 fewer occupancy points per 10 percentile points of price in Columbus, up to 0.52 more in Destin. Comparing different listings at one moment understates the occupancy penalty, so these are model outputs, not observed results.

Source: AirROI's analysis of how markets are repricing for the 15.5% fee.

Taxes sit outside the fee

Occupancy and lodging taxes are charged on top of the booking and never enter the subtotal, so they don't change the 15.5%. In places where Airbnb has agreements with governments or is required by law, it calculates those taxes, collects them from guests at booking and pays them to the tax authority on the host's behalf, its Help Center says. Elsewhere, collecting and filing is the host's job; the rules vary by city and county, and Airbnb regulations by location cover the basics.

VAT or GST can apply to the service fee itself, and the fee Airbnb shows is VAT-inclusive where it applies. Airbnb also warns that raising prices raises gross income, which can bring a host to a VAT threshold sooner, while taxable income may not rise if the service fee is deductible as an expense. It tells hosts to ask a tax professional.

Vrbo and Booking.com host fees

Vrbo takes less from a typical host than Airbnb's 15.5%, about 8% on a pay-per-booking stay, but charges the traveler its own service fee on top, while Booking.com's commission depends on the property and country.

Vrbo's pay-per-booking model charges a 5% commission on the rental amount and any fees you charge the traveler, such as cleaning and pet fees, but not on taxes or refundable damage deposits. It adds a 3% payment processing fee on the total the guest pays, taxes and deposits included, according to Vrbo, which adds that "bookings that originate from our expanded distribution partners may have higher fees." Properties in Australia, Japan and New Zealand pay no processing fee; they pay the 5% commission plus GST on it, which adds 0.5% in Australia and 0.75% in New Zealand, and nothing in Japan. Hosts who connect through property management software pay a 5% booking fee instead, with no processing fee, and may pay 12% to 15% in some regions such as Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Vrbo's annual subscription is closed to new opt-ins.

On the $700 stay above with no taxes, a pay-per-booking Vrbo host without property management software keeps $644, against $591.50 on Airbnb. That overstates Vrbo's edge. Vrbo also charges travelers its own service fee at checkout, a percentage of the reservation total that varies with the booking, so the Vrbo guest pays more than $700 while the Airbnb guest pays $700. A fair comparison starts from the same guest total, which on Vrbo means a lower listed price.

Booking.com publishes no single rate. Its commission is a percentage of the total booking amount, including fees such as cleaning, and "the exact percentage depends on your country, property type, and the accommodation agreement," Booking.com says. It doesn't charge commission on local taxes such as city tax, but in most countries it does on VAT or GST. Properties using Payments by Booking.com with bank-transfer payouts also pay a payment service fee set by their location.

Taking bookings on your own site avoids a platform fee but not payment processing; direct booking math shows how much of the 15.5% that recovers by market.

Who still pays the split fee

Two groups: hosts who haven't reached their switch date, and reservations booked before one. Hosts who live in the European Economic Area or Switzerland and haven't switched keep the split fee on new reservations until their October 13, 2026 deadline, unless they switch sooner. That no longer includes Germany, where hosts switched on June 22, 2026. Hosts using property management software who still aren't on the single fee switch the same day. And every reservation booked before a host's switch keeps the fee it was booked under.

Airbnb's Help Center says the split fee "will no longer be available after all hosts are migrated." After October 13, 2026, it survives only on stays booked before each host's switch, such as a December stay that a Lisbon host accepted in September.

About this guide: written by Jun Zhou, founder of AirROI, whose data covers 20M+ Airbnb listings with 15+ years of history. Fee rates, dates and rules come from Airbnb's, Vrbo's and Booking.com's own pages, linked where they're used.