Pricing is set to get a shakeup in Australia’s short term rental (STR) industry from November 1 when Airbnb scraps guest service charges and moves to a 15 per cent host commission only model – up from 3 per cent – for its software-connected hosts and property managers.
It is a huge change for an industry where customer service fees can be 18 per cent of the room rate (plus cleaning) but is necessary says Airbnb, citing the need to simplify the guest booking process while bringing it into line with what consumers see on the major OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia.
Airbnb says testing shows that booking conversion rates improve by around 17 per cent when only the rate is shown.
Connecting is mandatory for software-connected clients, but will not apply to small property managers, meaning that the majority of listings on Airbnb (the minnows with 1-3 properties) will still display fees.
Read the full story here
