Airbnb is changing its service fees: adjust your prices before 13 October

Airbnb is changing the way it charges its service fees. Until now, many hosts paid a small fee, while the guest saw a separate service fee added to the price at booking. That is going away. From now on, the host bears the full service fee, and the guest no longer pays a separate fee to Airbnb.

For owners in Belgium there is a clear date: by 13 October 2026 at the latest, Airbnb will switch all hosts in the European Economic Area. If you do nothing, your payout per night goes down. In this article you will read what exactly changes, what you should check before that date and what to watch out for.

What exactly changes

For a long time Airbnb ran two systems side by side. In the first, the split fee, host and guest shared the service fee. The host paid a small part, the guest a larger part on top of the nightly price. In the second, the host paid everything and the guest saw one price.

On 7 July 2026, Airbnb announced that the second system is becoming the standard for all hosts. The company calls it a simplification. The price you set is now also the price the guest sees. Airbnb then deducts its service fee from your payout.

For you as an owner, this means one thing: the service fee that used to sit with the guest now lands with you. If you do not adjust your prices, you keep less per booking.

Who is affected and when

The change applies to all hosts of homes on Airbnb. The difference lies in the timing. Hosts outside the European Economic Area already had to switch on 15 September. For hosts in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and therefore for Belgian owners, the deadline is 13 October 2026.

If you use management software that is connected directly to Airbnb, you are probably already on the host-only fee. Airbnb had already imposed that structure on hosts who work through such software. Check it in your settings, because in that case little changes for you.

Existing reservations stay as they are. The new arrangement only applies to bookings that come in after you have switched. Once you have switched, you cannot go back to the old system.

What happens if you do nothing

Airbnb does not adjust your prices automatically. The company says so itself: hosts who do not act before the deadline get lower prices and a lower payout per night.

The mechanism is simple. Say that today you charge a nightly price and the guest still pays an Airbnb service fee on top. After the switch, the guest only sees your nightly price. Airbnb takes the full service fee out of it. Your nightly price therefore looks the same on screen, but less reaches your account.

For the guest, your home becomes a little cheaper as a result. That sounds like an advantage, but it is a discount you did not choose yourself. It is better to decide deliberately how you reposition your price.

How to use Airbnb's adjustment tool

Airbnb offers a tool to adjust all your prices in one go. You will find it in the hosting area of your Airbnb account. The tool first shows a preview of the adjustment for all your active and inactive listings. Prices are only changed after you confirm.

A few things to know before you confirm:

• The tool adjusts your base price, weekend prices, custom prices per day and promotional prices.
• Additional fees, such as the cleaning fee or a pet fee, are included too.
• Discounts are not adjusted. So check your weekly, monthly and last-minute discounts yourself.
• The adjustment applies to the prices in your calendar for the next two years.
• If you use Airbnb's automatic pricing, the tool also adjusts your minimum and maximum.

If you work with an external pricing tool or a channel manager, check which side sets the price. If your software pushes prices every day, it may overwrite Airbnb's adjustment at the next sync. In that case you need to make the correction in the software itself.

Look beyond Airbnb

A price increase on Airbnb does not stand on its own. Many owners also let through Booking.com, Vrbo or directly to returning guests. After the adjustment, compare what a guest pays in total on each channel, for the same nights and the same number of people.

That way you avoid two problems. Either your home suddenly looks much more expensive on Airbnb than elsewhere, and you get fewer bookings there. Or you sell too cheaply on another channel without noticing. A few spot checks in busy and quiet weeks quickly give you a good picture.

It is also a good moment to look at your direct bookings. Until now, the service fee was a reason for a guest to book directly. On Airbnb, they will soon see one price, with no separate fee. So look again at how your direct price compares. With direct bookings, always keep the platforms' rules and your own agreements with guests in mind.

VAT on the service fee

Airbnb's service fee is a service subject to VAT in the European Union. How that works out for you depends on your own situation.

If you do not have a VAT number, Airbnb charges VAT on top of its service fee. You cannot recover that VAT. Because the service fee now sits entirely with you, that VAT amount grows as well. If you do have a VAT number and it is correctly entered in your Airbnb account, Airbnb generally does not charge VAT. You then have to declare the VAT yourself in your VAT return, under the reverse charge system.

Since 1 March 2026, the VAT rules for furnished accommodation in Belgium have changed. If you have been charging VAT on your rental since then, you have a VAT number. Check that your details with Airbnb are correct and discuss the consequences with your accountant. If you want to know the full framework first, download our free tax guide.

YourDomi does not give official tax or legal advice. This article is general information: always discuss your own situation with your accountant.

Your checklist for the next two weeks

Do not wait until the last day. With these steps you will be ready for 13 October:

1. Check in your Airbnb account which fee structure you have today.
2. Open the adjustment tool and review the preview for all your listings.
3. Check whether an external pricing tool or channel manager sets your prices on Airbnb.
4. Review your discounts, because the tool leaves them untouched.
5. Then compare the total price for the guest on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo.
6. Check that your VAT number is correctly entered in your account, if you have one.
7. Follow the first bookings after the switch and compare your payout with what you expected.

A change that needs attention, not a reason to panic

Airbnb's new service fee changes nothing about what guests are looking for. A well-kept home, a fair price and smooth communication still make the difference. What does change is the calculation behind every booking. Those who get it right now keep their revenue.

At YourDomi, we set the prices of every home daily based on market data, and the rental always runs in the owner's name. If you want to know what that could mean for your home, request a personal proposal.