What Are Airbnb Host Fees?

Airbnb host fees are the service fee Airbnb deducts from a host's payout on each booking; under the single host-only fee, most hosts pay 15.5% and the remaining hosts typically pay 14% to 16% (Airbnb service fees (Airbnb Help Center)). The fee pays for processing guest payments, marketing listings to guests and 24/7 customer support (How much does Airbnb charge hosts? (Airbnb Resource Center, Oct 2026)).

Last updated: October 2026

How Airbnb host fees work

The host fee applies to the nightly price and any optional fees the host adds, and Airbnb deducts it from that price to calculate the payout (How much does Airbnb charge hosts? (Airbnb Resource Center, Oct 2026)).

Airbnb set the 15.5% rate from its global average service fees (Simplifying service fees (Airbnb Resource Center, Mar 2026)). Its own worked example shows what that means for pricing: with no price change, a $100 night pays out $84.50 under the single fee, and a host who wants to keep the $97 payout of the old split fee needs to raise the price to $115 (Simplifying service fees (Airbnb Resource Center, Mar 2026)).

The fee is earned at check-in. Airbnb, Inc. holds the total amount the guest has paid until check-in, then recognises its service fee as revenue (Airbnb, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025). When and how the remaining money reaches the host is covered on its own page, Airbnb payout.

Hosts who cancel a reservation face a separate charge, a cancellation fee withheld from future payouts (Host Cancellation Policy for homes (Airbnb Help Center)). The rules for that fee belong to Airbnb cancellation policy.

Why the move to a single fee matters

The single fee is mandatory for most hosts, including traditional hospitality listings (Airbnb service fees (Airbnb Help Center)). The host therefore pays the whole fee from its side of the booking, where under the split fee the guest carried most of it.

That is a change from the legacy split fee, where most hosts paid 3% and guests paid an Airbnb service fee of 14.1% to 16.5% of the booking subtotal (Airbnb service fees (Airbnb Help Center)). The split-fee structure is being phased out and will no longer be available after all hosts are migrated (Airbnb service fees (Airbnb Help Center)).

Properties connected through software moved first. Property managers went from a 3% host fee to 15.5% of the nightly rate on 27 October 2025, and guests at their homes stopped paying the guest fee of about 15% (Airbnb to Move Property Managers to a 'Single-Fee' Payment System (Skift, Aug 2025)). That first wave covered most hosts using property management software (PMS), while hosts without PMS stayed on the split fee at the time (Airbnb single service fee (Short Term Rentalz, Sep 2025)). Country waves followed in 2026: hosts living in Peru and South Korea switched on 25 May, and hosts in Germany and the UK on 22 June (Simplifying service fees (Airbnb Resource Center, Mar 2026)).

Announcing the property manager move, Airbnb said guests and hosts would "ultimately see no change to total cost and payments" (Airbnb to Move Property Managers to a 'Single-Fee' Payment System (Skift, Aug 2025)). That holds only if the host raises the listed price, as the $115 example shows. A rate that was loaded for the split fee and never changed now pays out less on every night sold.

For a distribution team, the host-only model makes the Airbnb commission easier to compare with other channels: one percentage, taken from the price before the payout, much like an OTA commission (How much does Airbnb charge hosts? (Airbnb Resource Center, Oct 2026)).

Where hotels fit

Hotels can list on Airbnb too. How that works, and what Airbnb takes from a hotel booking, is covered in Airbnb for hotels. Fees on other platforms have their own glossary pages: Vrbo fees and OTA commission.

Frequently asked questions

What are Airbnb host fees, and how much are they?
They are the service fee Airbnb takes from the host's side of each booking. Under the single host-only fee, most hosts pay 15.5% and the rest typically pay 14% to 16%. Listings in Brazil and Mexico pay 16%. Hosts who have not yet moved off the legacy split fee mostly pay 3%, while their guests pay a separate guest fee.
What are host fees on a booking platform?
A host fee is the share of a booking a platform keeps from the host's side. On Airbnb's single fee it comes out of the host's side before the payout, which makes it work much like an OTA commission. Other platforms set their own terms: Vrbo charges a commission on the rental amount, and Booking.com's commission varies by country and property type.
Does the host fee apply to cleaning fees?
Yes. On Airbnb, the host fee applies to the nightly price and to any optional fees the host adds, such as a cleaning fee or a pet fee. So the cleaning charge that reaches the payout is smaller than the one the guest sees.
Can a host switch back to the split fee?
No. Once a host has moved to the single fee structure on Airbnb, there is no way to switch back. Hosts still on the split fee should plan their pricing for the move now: in Airbnb's own example, keeping a $97 payout means raising a $100 nightly price to $115.
Does the host fee include VAT?
Yes, where VAT applies. The service fee shown to hosts and guests on Airbnb is VAT-inclusive, so a host in a VAT country sees one fee figure with the tax already inside it.

Related terms

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Where Jetstream fits

Every channel takes its cut in its own way, from Airbnb's host-only fee to per-booking commission, so the rate a property loads on each channel decides what it actually keeps. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's systems to the channels where guests book, and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.

See Jetstream's AI channel manager Book a demo