Airbnb host fees explained: how much Airbnb takes from a booking

Airbnb takes 15.5% of the booking subtotal from most hosts, cleaning fee included, straight out of the payout. Hosts still on the older split fee pay 3%, and the guest pays 14.1% to 16.5% at checkout instead. Those are the only two structures that exist, and which one you are on changes your net by twelve points on the same booking.

Airbnb is retiring the split fee. On July 29, 2026, it announced one 15.5% service fee paid by hosts. Hosts using property management software who aren't on it yet switch on October 13, 2026. For everyone else, Airbnb's help center says the split fee is being phased out, with no date published.

How much does Airbnb take from hosts?

Airbnb publishes both structures on its service fees help page.

Airbnb also notes that some hosts on the single fee sit at 14% to 16% rather than exactly 15.5%. Check a payout statement rather than trusting a round number.

Run a real booking through the Airbnb host fee calculator and you get the host fee, the guest total and the payout side by side.

What the service fee actually applies to

The subtotal, not the nightly rate. That distinction costs hosts more than any other detail on this page.

The subtotal is nights plus the cleaning fee plus any extra guest fee or pet fee you charge. It excludes occupancy tax where Airbnb collects and remits it. So a $150 cleaning fee at 15.5% hands Airbnb $23.25 per stay. Sixty turnovers a year, and that is about $1,400 of service fee on cleaning alone.

Hosts who set their cleaning fee to exactly what the cleaner charges are therefore losing money on every stay. Price it at cost divided by 0.845, or accept the gap knowingly.

What the fee change does to one booking

Take three nights at $200 with a $150 cleaning fee. Subtotal, $750.

Under the split fee, Airbnb takes $22.50 from you and charges the guest roughly $112.50 on top. Your payout is $727.50, and the guest's card is charged about $862.50 before tax.

Under the host-only fee, Airbnb takes $116.25 from you and charges the guest nothing extra. Your payout is $633.75, and the guest's card is charged $750 before tax.

Same listing, same nights, and $93.75 less in your account. The guest, meanwhile, pays $112.50 less. That gap is the entire story of the migration, and it is why hosts who did not re-price lost real money.

To land back where you were, raise both prices by about 14.8%. List at $229.59 a night instead of $200, and charge $172.19 for cleaning instead of $150. Your payout returns to $727.50. The guest pays $860.95 before tax, close to the roughly $862.50 they paid on the split fee. Airbnb's own example works the same way: a $100 night becomes $115, and the host still earns $97.

To run it on your own listing, open the host fee calculator in Keep the same payout mode. Almost nobody does this on the day of the switch. Most notice at the end of the quarter.

Occupancy tax is not a fee, and it is not yours

Occupancy tax, lodging tax, transient occupancy tax: same idea under different names, set by a state, a county or a city, sometimes all three stacked.

Where Airbnb has an agreement with the jurisdiction, it adds the tax to what the guest pays, collects it, and remits it. It never enters your payout, and it should never enter your profitability math as revenue or as a cost.

Where Airbnb does not remit, the money arrives with your payout and it is not yours. Hosts in that position who treat it as income spend it and then owe it. Check your listing's tax section before you assume, and check it again if you add a second property in a different county.

What Vrbo and Booking.com charge instead

Comparing channels on headline percentages produces the wrong answer, because the three platforms charge differently.

Vrbo takes an all-in 12% commission on the rent and the fees you charge, payment processing included. Only the taxes and the deposit carry its 3% processing fee. Our guide to Vrbo host fees runs one booking through it. Booking.com charges a single commission on the total, with no guest-side service fee. Its listings look cheaper to the guest at the same net for you. Airbnb, on host-only, sits between the two.

The only comparison that means anything is what reaches your bank account per booked night, after fees and after the payment processing charge. Everything else is marketing.

Which fee are you on, and how to check in thirty seconds

Open your transaction history and pick any completed payout.

1. Find the service fee line on a past booking.
2. Divide it by the booking subtotal shown on the same statement.
3. About 3% means split fee. About 15.5% means host-only.

If you use property management software, expect host-only. Airbnb's help center makes the single fee mandatory for software-connected hosts, and those still on the split fee switch on October 13, 2026.

Once you know, re-run your rates. The co-host fee calculator is the other half of the picture if someone else manages the property, because their percentage stacks on top of Airbnb's.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All read on October 10, 2026.

• Airbnb Help Center, article 1857: split fee and single fee rates, the phase-out of the split fee, no switching back.
• Airbnb Resources, Simplifying Airbnb service fees, published July 29, 2026: the October 13 switch for hosts using property management software, the $100 to $115 example.
• Vrbo Help Center, About the pay-per-booking (PPB) model: the 12% commission and the 3% processing fee on taxes and deposits.