Airbnb’s Nighty Rates Jump Up with Their New Fee Model

Airbnb’s Nighty Rates Jump Up with a New Fee Model 

Airbnb just rolled out a major fee change for property managers on October 27th and will do the same for ALL HOSTS on Dec. 1st., 2025

The old split-fee model—where guests and hosts each paid a portion of Airbnb’s fees—is ending.

All listings will move to a host-only fee of 15.5% by Dec. 1st. 2025.

Keep Points: 

1/ Hosts will pay the full 15.5% Airbnb fee. 

• Currently 3%

2/ Guests will pay no Airbnb fee 

• Currently 12-13.5%

3/ Owners and manager’s will be forced to raise their nightly rates to make up the difference

4/ Guests will see one flat rate (before tax and add-on fees) that should be more or less the same as they were paying before (if the Host raises their nightly rates accordingly).

Timeline

• Oct 27, 2025: Property managers are switched to Host Fee model automatically.
• Dec 1, 2025:  Independently managed rentals that did not manually switch to the Host-Only fee voluntarily will be automatically switched to the new 15.5%.

What This Means for Hosts

Previously, hosts paid only about 3% while guests covered the rest.

Now, hosts shoulder the entire 15.5%, so they will need to raise rental rates to maintain profits.

You would think that it would be as simple as raising the nightly rate by 12.5%, but because Airbnb takes this fee from the full subtotal—including cleaning and any add-on charges—pricing updates must cover those too.

Most property managers are going to raise their nightly rates roughly 25–30% (depending on how large their add-ons are) to keep payouts consistent.

Host Pricing Strategy

Call/text/email us and we will give you a free analysis of your unique situation and a custom Host Pricing Strategy.

What This Means for Guests

In many cases: guests will likely pay about the same as before if the host adjusts their rate to offset the higher host fee.

But there is good reason to believe that in many cases, guests might end up paying more, especially if hosts raise rates or add more ancillary fees (cleaning, extra guest, etc) to maintain payout.

From a competitive standpoint, guests should continue to compare total cost (nightly + cleaning + other fees) between platforms to ensure they’re getting the best value.

How Airbnb Compares to VRBO

• Airbnb: 15.5% host-only fee, no guest fee.
• Vrbo: ~5% host fee + 6–15% guest fee.

Guests: If you find a property listed on both Airbnb and VRBO, it might be cheaper to book via VRBO, but you should compare the “total cost” (nightly rate + all fees + taxes) on both platforms. Don’t assume automatically VRBO will always be cheaper, but now the structural change at Airbnb makes that possibility more likely.

Hosts with properties listed on both AirBnb and VRBO:  Coordinate your pricing on both platforms. Since the fee structures differ: you will need to set a slightly different gross nightly rates on each platform to net the same and stay competitive.