Where Did My Airbnb Money Go? Deciphering Airbnb Fees, Taxes, and Payouts
One of the first things that confused me after publishing The Cabin on the Canal wasn’t getting bookings.
It was understanding the money.
As a Realtor, I’m used to settlement statements. Every dollar has a destination. You know exactly what came in, what went out, who got paid, and why.
Apparently, Airbnb works the same way.
They just don’t make it nearly as easy to find.
When our first bookings came in, I looked at what the guest paid and compared it to what Airbnb said we earned.
Wait a minute.
The guest paid more than $1,700.
Why weren’t we getting $1,700?
I honestly thought Airbnb was taking a huge cut.
Turns out, that wasn’t the case at all.
The money wasn’t disappearing.
I just had to figure out where it was going.
Finding the Breakdown Isn’t Easy
If you’re trying to understand your reservation payouts, you have to go looking for the information.
From your host account, the path is:
Menu → Earnings → Click on the reservation → Toggle between “Guest Paid” and “Host Paid.”
Until I stumbled across that, I had no idea there were two completely different views of the same reservation.
And even after finding them, I still wanted something that simply said:
“Here’s what the guest paid. Here’s where it went. And here’s what you actually made.”
Instead, I had to piece it together myself.
So let’s break down one of our reservations.
What the Guest Paid
For one of our recent reservations, the guest paid:
Room charges: $1,216.20
Cleaning fee: $175.00
Airbnb guest service fee: $196.41
Occupancy taxes: $132.16
Total charged to the guest: $1,719.77
Naturally, I initially thought:
“Great! We made $1,719.77.”
Nope.
That $1,719.77 wasn’t our income.
It was the total amount collected from the guest.
And that distinction is important.
The Money Gets Split Four Ways
Once I understood the breakdown, everything made much more sense.
The money collected from the guest was essentially being distributed among four different destinations:
- The government
- Airbnb
- The cleaner
- Us
Let’s take them one at a time.
The Government Gets Paid
Since our property is in Central Oregon, Airbnb collects and remits the applicable Oregon state and Deschutes County lodging taxes on our behalf.
For this reservation, those taxes totaled:
$132.16
That money never belonged to us.
Airbnb collected it from the guest and remitted it to the appropriate taxing authorities.
Once I understood that, the first big mystery was solved.
That $132.16 wasn’t missing from our payout.
It was never our money to begin with.
Airbnb Gets Paid
Airbnb can charge both the guest and the host, depending on the fee structure that applies to the reservation.
For this reservation, there were two Airbnb fees.
Guest Service Fee
The guest paid Airbnb:
$196.41
This is part of the fee the guest pays to use the Airbnb platform and its services.
Again, this money was never part of our revenue.
Host Service Fee
Airbnb also charged us:
$41.74
This fee came directly out of our payout.
So, for this reservation, Airbnb received:
$196.41 + $41.74 = $238.15
That was an important distinction for me.
I initially looked at the difference between what the guest paid and what we received and thought Airbnb was taking a massive percentage.
Once I actually broke down the numbers, I realized that wasn’t what was happening.
The Cleaner Gets Paid
This was another lesson I learned somewhat by accident.
When we first started, I had Airbnb send all of the money to us.
Then I would turn around and pay the cleaner separately.
Nobody told me there was another option.
After enough clicking around and fumbling through settings, I discovered split payouts.
Now, Airbnb sends the cleaning fee directly to our cleaner.
The guest paid:
$175.00
And Airbnb sends that amount directly to her.
There is no additional fee for using this arrangement.
And honestly?
This might be one of my favorite discoveries so far.
I don’t have to:
- Write checks
- Send Venmo payments
- Track individual cleaning payments
- Remember to pay the cleaner after every reservation
- Worry about handling that money myself
And, based on how Airbnb’s system handles the payment and reporting, it also simplifies the recordkeeping around those cleaner payments.
One less thing for me to manage.
I’ll take that win.
Finally, We Get Paid
After the applicable fees, our payout looked like this:
Room revenue after discounts: $1,216.20
Less Airbnb host fee: -$41.74
Net payout to us: $1,174.46
Now the numbers finally made sense.
So Where Did the $1,719.77 Go?
Here’s the whole reservation in one place:
Government taxes: $132.16
Airbnb fees: $238.15
Cleaner payout: $175.00
Our payout: $1,174.46
Total distributed: $1,719.77
Nothing disappeared.
Nobody stole our money.
And Airbnb wasn’t secretly keeping the entire difference.
I just wasn’t looking at the transaction from the right perspective.
My Biggest Lesson
The guest-paid number is not your income.
That’s probably the biggest takeaway I have from this whole experience.
The taxes were never ours.
The guest service fee was never ours.
And now that we have split payouts set up, the cleaning fee isn’t ours either.
What initially looked like a huge gap between what the guest paid and what we received actually had a perfectly logical explanation.
I just had to dig for it.
Coming from the real estate world, I expected Airbnb to walk me through everything step by step.
Instead, the pattern seems to be:
Publish first.
Learn second.
Discover hidden settings third.
Repeat.
Apparently, that’s just part of becoming an Airbnb host.
You don’t learn everything before you start.
You learn it as you go.
And, once again, I’m discovering that the things that seem the most confusing at first usually make a lot more sense once you finally figure out where to look.
Related Blog
You Have to Publish Before You’re Ready? The Backwards Airbnb Process
Next Blog
The Hidden Airbnb Settings Nobody Told Me About (Split Payouts, Cleaner Payments, and More)
Written by Tanya Peterson, Principal Real Estate Broker
Next Level Real Estate PNW | John L. Scott Market Center
Tanya Peterson, Principal Real Estate Broker
Next Level Real Estate PNW | John L. Scott Market Center
503-260-2164 OR Lic #200407018
ABR ~ CRS ~ GRI ~ e-Pro ~ SRES
#TanyaPetersonRealEstate #NextLevelRealEstatePNW
Connect With Me
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyapetersonrealtor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TanyaPetersonRealtor/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyapetersonrealtor
Explore the Market
Zillow:https://www.zillow.com
Homes.com:https://www.homes.com
Realtor.com:https://www.realtor.com
