What is the direct answer?
The headline commission is only part of what a channel costs. To compare platforms fairly, follow one booking from what the guest pays to what reaches you: commission, any VAT on that commission you cannot recover, payment processing, and any discount the channel asks you to fund. On the same €600 booking, the difference between channels in our example is more than €100, and the "cheapest" channel on paper is not always the one that leaves you the most.
4 nights at €130 + €80 cleaning = €600. Airbnb, 15.5% single fee: €93 → €507 to you (€487.47 if you also bear 21% VAT on the fee and cannot recover it). Booking.com, 15% commission, no Genius: €90 → €510. Booking.com, 15% commission + 10% Genius discount on the €520 accommodation + 1.2% payment fee: €459.22. Vrbo, 12% commission including processing: €72 → €528. Direct booking, about 3% card processing: €18 → €582 (before your marketing costs). Illustrative rates. Your contract and account settings decide your real ones.
Use your own records and verify the assumptions before making a decision.
Follow the workbook method and instructions →October 2026 changed the arithmetic on two of the three big platforms in the same month. Airbnb finished moving hosts in Spain and the rest of the European Economic Area to its 15.5% single fee on 13 October. Vrbo moves most hosts to a single 12% commission on 29 October. Booking.com did not change its model, but its programmes keep adding discounts that you fund.
On the Airbnb Community forum the reaction has ranged from anger to exit plans. One host in the Philippines, after seeing views and bookings drop since the change, ended a long post with a short decision: "So I'm moving to booking.com." Before you do the same, compare the channels on what a booking actually leaves you.
Apply this method to your own records: apply the method with the free calculator.
A clear definition of the metric or operating question.
A calculation you can reproduce with your own data.
The limits that prevent the number being misread.
What does each platform charge hosts in 2026?
| Airbnb | Booking.com | Vrbo (from 29 Oct 2026) | Direct booking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host-side cost | 15.5% single fee for most hosts | Commission set in your contract, typically about 15% | 12% commission, including payment processing | Card processing, roughly 3% |
| Applies to | Nightly price plus cleaning, pet and other host fees | Total reservation value, including fees added at booking | Nightly rate plus additional host fees | What you charge |
| Guest pays a separate service fee? | No, under the single fee | Generally no | Yes, in most cases | No |
| Discounts you fund | Your own (weekly, monthly, last-minute) | Genius and other programmes | Your own | Your own |
| VAT on the fee | Charged on top in the EU where it applies | Depends on your setup | Charged on top where it applies | Not applicable |
Sources are listed at the end. Airbnb says most hosts pay 15.5%, others usually between 14% and 16%, and 16% in Brazil and Mexico. Booking.com commissions range widely by market and property type, with roughly 15% often cited as an average. Vrbo says partners already paying more than 12% in some regions are not affected by its change.
Why the headline percentage misleads
Three things sit outside the headline number.
1. VAT on the commission. In the EU, platforms charge VAT on their service fee where it applies. If you are not registered for VAT, or cannot deduct it, that VAT is a cost. At 21% in Spain, Airbnb's 15.5% becomes an effective 18.76% of the booking. On a €600 booking, that is €19.53 more than the headline suggests.
2. Discounts you fund. Booking.com's Genius programme asks you to offer a discount to frequent travellers in exchange for visibility. Booking.com does not charge extra commission for Genius, but you pay for the discount. If commission is then calculated on the discounted price, you lose twice: once on the discount, once on the commission on what remains. In our example, a 10% Genius discount on the accommodation costs €52, and the total channel cost rises from €90 to €134.20, or €140.78 once a 1.2% payment fee is added. Check your Booking.com invoice to see which price your commission is based on.
3. Payment processing. Vrbo's new 12% includes processing. Booking.com can add a separate payment fee when it handles the guest payment, reported at around 1.1% to 1.4% in some markets. Airbnb's fee includes processing.
The guest's price is part of the cost too
A channel that charges you less but shows the guest a higher total can cost you bookings.
Under Airbnb's single fee, the guest sees your price and nothing is added on top. On Vrbo, a guest service fee is still added in most cases, and Vrbo does not disclose its range. So the same €600 stay can appear at €600 on Airbnb and above €600 on Vrbo. If your Vrbo listing then loses the comparison, its lower commission does not help you.
This is also why simply raising your Airbnb price by 15.5% to "cover" the new fee is the wrong maths. To keep the same payout after a 15.5% deduction you divide by 0.845, which means raising the price by 18.34%, not 15.5%. The full method is in how much to raise your price for the new host fee, and remember the fee also applies to your cleaning fee.
Should you leave Airbnb for Booking.com?
Compare three things before you move a single night.
- What each channel leaves you per booking, after commission, VAT you cannot recover, payment fees and funded discounts. Use your own last 20 bookings, not the headline rates.
- How many bookings each channel actually brings you. A channel that leaves €30 more per booking but brings half the bookings is worse.
- What else changes. Payment timing (Booking.com typically invoices commission monthly, which changes when cash leaves your account), cancellation policies, damage protection and how guests behave on each platform.
The honest answer for most small operators is not to leave, but to know what each channel costs and to price each one accordingly. Many channel managers let you set a different markup per channel for exactly this reason.
How to compare your own channels in 20 minutes
- Export your last three months of bookings from each platform.
- For each booking, record what the guest paid, the commission, any VAT on the commission, any payment fee and any funded discount.
- Subtract the cleaning and per-stay costs, which are the same whatever the channel.
- Calculate what each booking contributed, then average it by channel.
- Multiply by the number of bookings each channel brought you. That total, not the commission rate, is the channel's real value.
Profit per stay explains the contribution calculation, and how to close a month shows how to keep platform fees from being counted twice.
Explore related questions
Clear answers, without the jargon
Is Airbnb more expensive than Booking.com for hosts now?
On headline rates they are similar: 15.5% for most Airbnb hosts and roughly 15% as a typical Booking.com commission. The real difference comes from what sits around the rate: VAT you cannot recover, Genius and other funded discounts, payment fees and how many bookings each channel brings.
What changes with Vrbo on 29 October 2026?
Vrbo moves most hosts to a single 12% commission that includes payment processing. For pay-per-booking hosts without management software, that replaces roughly 8% (5% commission plus 3% processing); for software-connected managers, about 5%. Guests will still see a service fee in most cases. Bookings made before the change keep the previous terms.
Does Booking.com charge commission on the Genius discount?
Booking.com does not charge extra commission for joining Genius. Most guides describe the commission as calculated on the price after the discount, which means the discount and the commission both reduce your payout. Check your own invoice, because contracts vary.
Can I charge different prices on each platform?
Generally yes, through your channel manager's markup settings, but check each platform's terms. Vrbo's new host terms include rate consistency as a factor in how listings are scored in search.
Is direct booking always the cheapest?
Per booking, usually yes, because you only pay card processing. But you pay for the website, marketing and your time, and you lose platform protections. Compare the full cost, not just the fee.
References you can check
Sources checked October 18, 2026. Worked examples and review methods are our own.
- Airbnb resource centre (Spain), single 15.5% fee and 13 October deadline — Source checked for the article.
- Hostfully, "Airbnb Host Fees: The 15.5% Host-Only Fee Explained (2026)" — rates by host type and channel comparison — Source checked for the article.
- ChargeAutomation, Airbnb host fees in 2026 (15.5% plus VAT in the EU) — Source checked for the article.
- Expedia Group newsroom, Vrbo compensation model changes — Source checked for the article.
- Rental Scale-Up, "Vrbo Moves All Hosts to a Single 12% Commission" — Source checked for the article.
- Guesty, "How much does Booking.com charge hosts?" — Source checked for the article.
- PriceLabs, Genius loyalty programme guide — Source checked for the article.
- Holidayfox, Booking.com commission breakdown 2026 (payment fee range) — Source checked for the article.
- Airbnb Community, "Airbnb 15.5% + VAT Fee Change — Are Other Hosts Seeing the Same Drop?" — Source checked for the article.
How this guide was prepared
The €600 example applies each rate to the same booking to isolate channel cost. Real rates depend on your contract, market, account type and settings. VAT treatment depends on your tax status; ask your adviser whether you can recover VAT charged on platform fees. Hostpartner is an operational analysis tool and does not provide tax or legal advice.
See what each booking contributes, by channel.
In the free Hostpartner calculator, every stay records its channel, gross income and platform fee, so you can see contribution per booking and monthly profit side by side for up to seven properties. Manual entries, visible formulas, no account connection.
- Built for 1–7 properties
- Excel (.xlsx)
- No platform connection required
What the Hostpartner calculator measures and which inputs you need
Airbnb pricing formula
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