What does Airbnb really cost you? Costs for hosts calculated

A booking of 120 euros costs you about 18.60 euros in Airbnb fee. Per night seems small, but over a season it adds up to one of your biggest fixed costs. And since 2026, with the higher lodging VAT, there is another reason why a more direct channel makes sense now.

The problem

You put so much love into it. The outbuilding renovated, the garden in order, beautiful photos taken. And then on Airbnb it is still just ad number however-many among thousands of others. That bothers you, but that is not even the most expensive part. The most expensive part shows up neatly in your payout every month: the fee Airbnb takes from every booking.

Used to be that fee for hosts was around 3 percent. That is over. Airbnb pushed most hosts over the past years to the host-only rate, and that sits at 15.5 percent per booking, rising to 17.5 percent if you run a strict cancellation policy. That percentage comes straight off your payout, every time again.

Most hosts know that percentage roughly, but rarely in euros per year. And that is exactly where the story gets interesting. Because the fee is no one-time cost. It comes every season back, on every night that comes through the platform, as long as you have no own channel. And as long as all your guests come via Airbnb, then every returning guest costs you commission again too, even though they come back specifically for your place.

What Airbnb exactly charges

Airbnb works with two cost models, and it is important to know which one you have.

• Host-only fee (the most common model): you pay 15.5 percent per booking, 17.5 percent with a strict cancellation policy. The guest pays no separate service charges anymore, so your price is the price the guest sees. Airbnb moved most hosts to this model.
• Shared model (older, less common): you pay about 3 percent and the guest pays about 14 to 16 percent service charges on top. The guest then pays more than your price.

Which model you have is in your Airbnb dashboard under cost settings. In this article I calculate with the host-only rate, because that is where most hosts sit. If you are still on the shared model, your own fee is lower, but your guest pays a hefty surcharge on top of your price. That difference you can pass on to the guest on your own site.

Calculation example

Get your own numbers. Say you rent your place 180 nights per year, at an average of 120 euros per night, on the host-only rate of 15.5 percent.

Just over 3,300 euros a year, only in platform fee. That is money you earned by keeping a place full and then hand to Airbnb. And it repeats every season.

If you run a strict cancellation policy, you calculate with 17.5 percent and it climbs even further. So the amounts spread out on the same 180 nights of 120 euros:

Rent more and the fee scales right along. At 220 nights on the host-only rate you are above 4,000 euros per year. It is the most predictable big expense you have, and simultaneously the only one where you can do something about it.

And then there is VAT since 2026

Besides the fee, there is a second reason why a more direct channel makes sense right now. The VAT on lodging went from 9 to 21 percent as of January 1, 2026. That makes the margin on rental thinner.

Important: this does not affect every host. Whether you pay VAT depends on whether you are VAT liable. Many small, individual hosts fall under the small business scheme (the SKR): if you stay under the limit with your revenue and are registered, you do not charge VAT. Whether and how the VAT increase affects you, have your accountant establish once. The situation differs per host.

The red thread: the fee is 15.5 percent for nearly everyone, and the VAT is 21 percent for a growing group. Both squeeze the margin. Every booking you bring in directly at least avoids the fee, and that is the dial where you can turn yourself.

What a few direct bookings bring back

You do not have to stop using Airbnb to earn this back. You only have to give part of your guests another route. Do the math.

A returning guest books a long weekend: 3 nights of 120 euros, together 360 euros. On the host-only rate of 15.5 percent you would have paid 56 euros fee over that. If that guest books directly on your own site, you keep that 56 euros yourself.

• One such direct booking per month is together about 700 euros per year you no longer pay out.
• And every guest who books direct you now know yourself: name, email, preference. That is the foundation for next year's booking, again without fee.

The nice thing is that your own site is a fixed, low cost and the fee is a variable that grows with your success. The fuller your place, the bigger the benefit of shifting each booking to direct.

Action plan: know your real numbers

Before you change anything, you want to know exactly where you stand. Four steps, together half an hour.

1. Find your real fee. Log into Airbnb and check under your cost settings whether you are on the host-only rate (15.5 or 17.5 percent) or the shared model. Then grab a recent payout and check what was actually deducted.
2. Calculate your year amount. Multiply your fee per booking by your number of bookings per year, or simply take your gross yearly revenue times your fee percentage. This is your starting point, the amount you pay to the platform every year.
3. Ask your accountant about VAT. Have established once whether you are VAT liable, the SKR applies to you, and what the 21 percent means for your margin. Then you know it for the years ahead.
4. Determine your direct benefit. A direct booking is not completely free: calculate a small monthly amount for your own site and a few percent in payment costs. What you save on the fee minus those costs, is your win per direct booking.

Common mistakes

• Underestimating the fee. Many hosts still think of the old 3 percent. Calculate with your real host-only rate of 15.5 or 17.5 percent, otherwise your whole picture is off.
• Calculating only with the bare nightly price. The fee applies to your total booking amount, including cleaning costs and extra guests. Calculate with that, otherwise you underestimate your costs.
• Ignoring the VAT increase or overestimating it. For some it changes nothing (SKR), for others it is 12 percentage points extra. Assumptions rarely check out; have it established once.
• Setting your direct price the same as your Airbnb price. If direct booking costs the same at you, the guest has no reason to switch. On your own site you pay no fee, so there is room to give the guest a small benefit.
• Seeing the fee as a loss. Airbnb brings new guests you would not reach yourself. The goal is not to stop using Airbnb, but to let guests you learned to know via Airbnb come back directly.

What you can do now

You know now your real fee and you know the VAT increase makes a direct channel more attractive. The next step is your own place online where returning guests book just as easily as on Airbnb, without Airbnb taking 15.5 percent of it.

Want the broader approach, read how you become less dependent on Airbnb: the complete plan to gradually build a second route. Want to know immediately what your own site next to your ad does, look at your own website next to your Airbnb ad. And if you are just starting with renting, getting started with Airbnb rental helps you set it up right from day one.

Calculate your own situation first in the Airbnb cost calculator. Want to get your place online yourself in an afternoon and only pay once you are happy, see how that works for a vacation rental next to Airbnb.