Airbnb's 15.5% host fee arrives September 15. The arithmetic, and what to change.

For most of Airbnb's history, a booking carried two fees: the host paid about 3% and the guest paid a service fee of roughly 14% to 16.5% on top of your price. That is ending. Airbnb is combining the two into a single fee paid by the host, 15.5% for most hosts, and the deadline for most of the world is September 15, 2026. In the EEA and Switzerland it is October 13. (Airbnb, simplifying service fees · Airbnb Help, service fees)

This page is the arithmetic, what to change, and what it means if a pricing tool runs your calendar. Everything from Airbnb is linked. We are a pricing tool, and we say so where it matters.

What changes, exactly

• Old: host pays about 3%. Guest pays 14.1% to 16.5% on top of your nightly price. The guest sees your price plus their fee.
• New: host pays a single fee, 15.5% for most hosts, 14% to 16% for the rest, 16% in Brazil and Mexico. The guest pays no separate service fee. The guest sees your price.
• When: September 15 outside the EEA. October 13 inside the EEA and Switzerland. Some countries moved earlier in the year.
• Who: hosts still on the split fee. Hosts who connect through property-management software have largely been on the single fee already. Hospitable says software-connected hosts moved to the host-only fee from October 2025 and cannot opt out. (Hospitable, on Airbnb service fees) Airbnb's own page says remaining software hosts switch on October 13. (Airbnb, for hosts using software) Check your fee settings in Airbnb today rather than assume.

The arithmetic

Airbnb's own example. Under the split fee, you set $100, the guest sees $115 after their fee, and you earn $97 after yours. Under the single fee, if you raise your price to $115, the guest still sees $115 and you still earn $97. If you leave your price at $100, the guest sees $100 and you earn $84.50. (Airbnb, simplifying service fees)

The break-even is not quite 15.5%. To keep $97 from a 15.5% fee you need $97 divided by 0.845, which is $114.79. That is a rise of 14.8%. Raising by the full 15.5% overshoots by a few cents. Either is fine. Doing nothing is not: that is 12.5% less per night, every night, from the day the fee switches.

What to raise

• Your nightly prices. Base price, custom prices, weekend prices. All of them, by about 15%.
• Your fees. Cleaning fee, pet fee, extra-guest fee. The single fee applies to the booking, not only to the nights, so a $100 cleaning fee now nets you $84.50. Airbnb's own adjustment tool raises these too.
• Your floor, if you use a pricing tool. A floor is a nightly rate before Airbnb's fee. If you set it as the least you would accept in your pocket, it is now 15% too low. Raise it.
• Your minimum and maximum in Smart Pricing, if you use that. Airbnb's tool adjusts these for you if you run it.

What not to touch: percentage discounts. A 10% weekly discount is still 10% of a price that has gone up.

Airbnb's tool, and its one-way door

For hosts who do not use software, Airbnb offers a tool that raises every price and fee across your listings at once, for the next two years. Two things to know before you press it. It adjusts everything, including Smart Pricing minimums and maximums. And once you use it, you cannot return to the split fee. (Airbnb Help, the price adjustment tool) If you connect through software, Airbnb says to make the change in your software instead.

What hosts are doing

Of an earlier cohort of hosts moved to the single fee, AirDNA found that about 30% raised prices enough to fully offset it and another 30% partially offset it, which leaves a large share who did nothing. (CNBC, August 2026) Hosts who do nothing look about 13% cheaper to guests than their neighbours who repriced, and earn about 13% less. That is a real short-term edge for the ones who reprice late, and a real loss for the ones who never do.

Airbnb ranks by total price against comparable listings. (Airbnb Help, search ranking) If everyone reprices correctly, the totals guests see do not move, and neither does your position. The risk is only in being the one who did not.

If a tool prices your calendar

This is the part we can speak to, because it is ours.

Hostomat prices your nights against what comparable listings near you are charging. As the market reprices over the coming weeks, those numbers rise, and your prices follow within six hours. You do not have to hand-adjust 365 nights.

Two numbers are yours, and the engine will not touch them. Your floor: raise it by 15% if you set it as a net figure. Your base price, if you chose to set it yourself rather than let the market set it: raise it by 15%. If the market sets your base, there is nothing to do there. Any night you locked at your own price is yours too, so raise those by hand.

If you run Smart Pricing or another tool, the same two numbers apply: the minimum, and anything you set by hand.

In one paragraph

On September 15, or October 13 in the EEA, most hosts move to a single 15.5% fee. Raise your nightly prices and your fees by about 15%, raise any floor or minimum you set as a net figure, leave percentage discounts alone, and check which fee structure Airbnb has you on today. Do it before the switch, not after the first cheap booking.

What a floor price is for · How Hostomat prices a night