If your nightly price lives in a pricing tool or a property management system, your Airbnb payouts may have changed on October 13 without anything on your screen telling you so. The Airbnb host-only fee moves the whole service fee onto the host, and the number you used to get per night is not the number you get now unless your price moved with it.
This post is the arithmetic, plus a short list of things to check. I'm explaining what Airbnb has published, not predicting anything.
What changed
Until now, hosts and guests typically both paid a service fee. Airbnb has replaced that with one 15.5% service fee paid by the host. Per Airbnb's own explanation, the 15.5% is based on its global average service fees.
Hosts who use property management software and weren't yet on the single fee were switched on October 13, 2026. Listings in Brazil and Mexico stay at 16%.
Why it matters: the math
Here are the examples from Airbnb's Resource Center. They leave out any fees you add yourself and any taxes.
- •Before: you set the price at $100. The guest sees $115 after the guest fee. You earn $97 after the host fee.
- •After, price adjusted: you set the price at $115. The guest sees $115. You earn $97.
- •After, price not adjusted: you leave the price at $100. The guest sees $100. You earn $84.50.
The guest's total is the same in the first two cases. What changes is where the fee comes out. If you adjusted from $100 to $115, you're where you were. If you didn't act by October 13, your price and your payout per night are both lower now.
On a $100 night, the gap between $97 and $84.50 is $12.50. Multiply that by the nights you book in a month and it stops being a rounding error.
I can't tell you whether to raise your prices, or by how much. That depends on your market and your guests. What I can tell you is that Airbnb's guidance for keeping your payout per night the same is to adjust the price, and that the first step is knowing which of the two situations you're in.
How to check your own numbers
Four steps. None of them take long, and the first one answers the main question.
- •Compare a recent payout to the nightly price. Pick a stay that was booked and paid after October 13. Take the nightly price you intended, subtract 15.5%, and see whether the payout per night matches. If you're in Brazil or Mexico, use 16%.
- •Recheck your discounts and promotions. Airbnb's advice is to double-check prices, including discounts and promotions, after you adjust. A weekly discount or a promotion applied on top of a price you've already changed can move the number again. Look at each one rather than assuming it carried over.
- •Check every platform and tool. If your price is set in more than one place, such as a pricing tool, a channel manager, or the Airbnb app itself, confirm each one still shows the price you intend. Airbnb says to do this on every software and platform you use. One stale setting is enough to undo the rest.
- •Watch the net per night over the next few stays. One stay can mislead you if it was booked before the switch. Look at a few after it, and see whether the net per night settles where you expect.
If you add your own fees, such as a cleaning fee, remember that Airbnb's examples don't include them. Work those out separately.
Taxes are a separate matter. For tax questions, check with your accountant.
Common mistakes
- •Checking only the headline price. The price you typed and the payout you receive are two different numbers now. Compare the payout.
- •Looking at a stay booked before October 13. It may not reflect the single fee. Use a recent one.
- •Fixing one platform and forgetting the others. If a second tool pushes prices to Airbnb, it can overwrite what you just changed.
- •Forgetting discounts. A discount that made sense at the old price may not make sense at the new one. That is your call, but make it on purpose.
Where HostHive fits
HostHive doesn't change your Airbnb prices or listings. It can't, and I'd rather say so plainly. You make those changes in Airbnb or in the pricing tool you already use.
What I built it to do is show you what actually landed. Financial Tracking connects your bank through Plaid. You categorize transactions, assign them to properties, and see revenue and expenses down to the net per night of every stay. That net per night is the number from step 4 above.
If you want to compare a payout against what Airbnb reported, you can upload your Airbnb earnings export in Receipts & Documents. HostHive stores the file, reads the text, and your assistant matches it to the right transaction. If you'd like to see how the assistant prepares those for you to approve, I wrote about that in My Assistant Does the Bookkeeping Now.
If something doesn't add up, or you want HostHive to show something it doesn't, tell me. I read every message.
— Mitch mb@hosthive.io