How much you really pay in service fees on Airbnb

You find a lovely holiday home, the price looks fine, and then it hits you at checkout: the total is suddenly several hundred kroner higher than you expected. The difference is usually the service fee. On the big booking platforms it is a fixed part of the bill, and as a guest you pay the largest share of it. Here is a clear picture of what you really pay, and how to avoid it.

What is a service fee, really?

A service fee is the amount the platform adds on top of the rent for arranging the booking. It covers the platform’s operations, payment system and customer service. On Airbnb there are typically two fees in play: a fee the host pays, and a fee you as the guest pay. The host fee is often small, while the guest fee is the large one. That is why the total grows when you reach the payment page.

The guest service fee usually sits somewhere between 14 and 16 percent of the rental price, but it can vary with the length of the stay and the total price. A short stay at a high price often pushes the percentage up. The important thing to understand is that the fee is calculated on top of the rent, not deducted from it. The host gets their price, and you pay the rent plus the fee plus any cleaning cost.

A concrete example

Let us take a realistic example. You rent a holiday home for 6,000 kroner for a week in high season.

If the service fee is 15 percent, you pay an extra 900 kroner in fees alone. On top of that there is usually a cleaning fee, which is easily 500 to 800 kroner. Suddenly you are looking at a total of around 7,500 kroner for a house advertised at 6,000 kroner. The 900 kroner in service fees are money that goes neither to the host nor to the house. It goes to the platform for having arranged the contact.

Over a whole holiday, or several weekends a year, it adds up quickly. Two weeks in a summer house can easily cost you 1,500 to 2,000 kroner in service fees alone. That is a couple of good restaurant visits or an extra family outing.

Why does the guest pay the largest share?

It is a deliberate choice by the platforms. By putting most of the fee on the guest, the platform can show the host a price that looks attractive, while the real cost only shows up for you at payment. For you that means the price you see in the search results is rarely the price you end up paying. You have to reach the very last step of the booking before the full amount is clear.

It is not illegal, and it is not hidden in the sense that the fee is shown before you pay. But it makes it hard to compare prices, because the advertised price and the final price are not the same.

How to rent a holiday home with no service fee

The simplest way to avoid the fee is to rent directly from the host, without a platform that takes a percentage of every booking. When there is no middleman that needs to earn on the arrangement, there is no service fee to pay either.

That is exactly the idea behind FlyMHD. Here you pay 0 kroner in service fees as a guest. The price you see is the price you pay, plus any of the home’s own costs such as final cleaning, if the host has chosen that. The payment goes directly to the host through a secure payment solution, and you are in contact with the person who actually owns the home. Hosts on FlyMHD pay a fixed, low subscription instead of commission, so they do not need to pass a fee on to you to make it work.

If you want to know more about how it works in practice, you can read how it works or look through our frequently asked questions.

Three things you can do right now

Wherever you book, a few habits help you avoid overpaying:

Always check the full total, not just the price in the search result. Go all the way to the payment page before you compare two homes, so you see the fee and cleaning included.

Ask whether renting directly is possible. Many hosts list their home in several places, and a direct arrangement is often cheaper for both of you.

Look at the total price per night, not just the weekly price. A low weekly rate can hide a high service fee, and the other way round.

In short

The service fee is the quiet line item that makes the holiday cost more than you expected. On the big platforms you as the guest typically pay 14 to 16 percent on top of the rent, and it is money that goes to neither the house nor the host. By renting directly from the host you avoid the fee entirely.

FlyMHD opens soon, and with us you pay 0 kroner in service fees. Sign up at flymhd.com, and book without fees when we open.