How We have Adapted to the Airbnb Changes
🏡 A Quick Update on Airbnb’s New Host Fee Changes — and How We’ve Adapted
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had quite a few calls and messages from our property owners asking about the changes Airbnb recently made to their host fee structure. So, I wanted to take a few minutes to explain what’s happening and how we’ve already adjusted things here at Minnesota Real Estate & Management to make sure our owners are fully protected.
In a nutshell, Airbnb used to split their fees — charging guests roughly 13–15% and then charging the host another small fee on top. That’s now changed. Airbnb has moved to what’s called a “host-only” fee model, which means the host now covers the entire Airbnb commission.
Now, before that sounds alarming — here’s the key point:
👉 Neither our owners’ payouts nor our guests’ total prices have changed.
On October 27th, we went into our system and reprogrammed our software to automatically increase the nightly rates to cover Airbnb’s new host fee. That means if Airbnb is now taking their full 15%+ from the host, we’ve simply raised the nightly rate by that same amount. The guest still pays roughly the same total they always did, and our owners still receive the same payout they’ve come to expect.
We’ve been watching this change since July and were fully prepared when it went live. Since updating our system, we’ve taken about ten bookings under the new pricing model, and everything looks perfectly normal. No negative impact on bookings, no payout changes, and no unexpected surprises.
To put it in real numbers — if a night used to be $300 and Airbnb took around $45 from both sides combined, now Airbnb takes that $45 from the host side. So, our software adjusts the nightly rate to $345, which keeps everything balanced.
This move actually aligns Airbnb more closely with other platforms like Booking.com, which has always charged hosts a similar 15% fee without adding anything to the guest’s total. It’s just a different way of structuring things, and it’s becoming the new normal across the industry.
The bottom line:
✅ We saw it coming.
✅ We made the necessary changes in advance.
✅ It’s business as usual for our owners and guests.
If you have any questions or just want to chat about how this might affect your specific property, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always here to help explain how these platform changes work and to make sure your investment keeps performing at its best.
Thanks again to all of our owners for your trust and partnership — we’ve got this covered.
— Mike Fish
Broker/Owner, Minnesota Real Estate & Management
📞 [218 232 7079] | 🌐 [MNREandM.com]
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