Airbnb host fees in 2026: the 15.5% host-only fee explained

How much does Airbnb take from hosts in 2026?

For most hosts the answer is now 15.5%. Airbnb calls it the single fee or host-only fee. It is deducted from your payout on every booking, and the guest no longer sees a separate Airbnb service fee at checkout.

Airbnb’s own service fee page puts it this way: most hosts pay 15.5%, and the remaining hosts typically pay between 14% and 16%. Listings in Brazil and Mexico pay 16%.

What the 15.5% is calculated on

The fee is a percentage of the booking subtotal. That means your nightly price plus any fees you charge, such as a cleaning fee or an extra guest fee. Taxes are not included in the calculation.

Two details are easy to miss. First, the new fee only applies to bookings made after your account was moved. Older reservations keep the fee they were booked with. Second, VAT may be charged on top of the service fee depending on your country, so your effective rate can be higher than 15.5%. Your payout breakdown in the Airbnb dashboard shows the exact figure.

The rollout timeline

The move is being rolled out in stages:

• October 27, 2025. Hosts connected through a property management system (PMS) or channel manager were moved to the host-only fee.
• September 15, 2026. Final deadline for hosts outside the European Economic Area.
• October 13, 2026. Final deadline for hosts in the EEA and Switzerland.

If you have not looked at your prices since your account moved, do it now. A listing that was priced for a 3% fee earns noticeably less at 15.5%.

Airbnb host fee calculator

Enter your own numbers to see what each channel takes per booking and per year. The Airbnb row uses the standard 15.5% rate.

How to reprice so you earn the same

Adding 12.5% to your old price is not enough, because the fee is taken from the new, higher price. The correct formula is:

New price = the payout you want ÷ (1 − 0.155)

Take a night you used to list at $100. Under the split fee Airbnb kept 3%, so you received $97. To still receive $97 today you need to list the night at about $114.79, because $97 ÷ 0.845 = $114.79. That is an increase of roughly 15%.

The guest barely notices. Before, they paid your $100 plus a service fee of around 14%, so about $114 in total. Now they pay $114.79 with no service fee on top. The money just moved from one line to another.

How to pay less in Airbnb fees

You cannot negotiate the fee, but you can decide how many of your bookings it applies to.

1. Reprice first. Use the formula above so the fee does not come out of your margin. Do the same for your cleaning fee, since the 15.5% applies to that too.
2. Compare your channels. The platforms no longer charge the same. See Airbnb vs Vrbo vs Booking.com fees for a side-by-side view.
3. Give repeat guests and referrals a place to book you directly. A guest who already knows your place does not need a marketplace to find it. On your own direct booking website there is no commission, so that booking pays you in full.
4. Stay inside the rules. Airbnb does not allow hosts to push its guests off the platform. Read Airbnb’s direct booking policy so you know what is allowed and what is not.

The math is simple. On a $660 booking, 15.5% is about $102. A direct site on Direct Booking Page costs $99 a year with 0% commission, so the first direct booking covers it. Our guide on how to get direct bookings covers where those bookings come from.