# Vrbo vs Airbnb Fees for Hosts: 12% vs 15.5% > Airbnb now takes a single 15.5% host fee from most hosts, with no guest fee. Vrbo charges 5% plus 3% processing until October 29, 2026, then a single 12% commission, and still adds a traveler service fee on top. Vrbo leaves you more per guest dollar only while that traveler fee stays under about 4.1%. - Canonical URL: https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/vrbo-vs-airbnb-fees-for-hosts - Author: Om Patel - Published: 2026-09-29 - Topic: Growth Airbnb takes more from hosts than Vrbo, but the gap is about to shrink and the real comparison is not the headline rate. Airbnb now charges most hosts a single 15.5% fee with no guest fee on top. Vrbo charges 5% commission plus 3% payment processing today, and moves to a single 12% commission on **October 29, 2026**, while still adding a traveler service fee it does not publish. Vrbo's help center was republished on September 29, 2026 to describe "a flat, all-in 12% commission fee," and hosts posted the email on r/vrbohosts that afternoon. The pages ranking for this comparison still said Vrbo takes about 8%. If you already worked through [how much to raise Airbnb prices](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/how-much-to-raise-airbnb-prices-for-15-5-host-fee) in September, this is the second repricing of the fall. - **Airbnb:** 15.5% from most hosts, no guest fee. The legacy split fee was 3% host plus 14.1% to 16.5% guest. - **Vrbo until October 28:** 5% commission on rent and fees, plus 3% processing on everything the guest pays, taxes included. - **Vrbo from October 29, 2026:** a single 12% commission, per Vrbo's host email and its updated help center. - **The test that matters:** Vrbo still charges guests an unpublished fee, and it keeps you ahead of Airbnb per guest dollar only while that fee is under about 4.1%. - **To hold your Vrbo payout:** raise Vrbo rates and fees by roughly 4.1% to 4.5%. ## What do Airbnb and Vrbo charge hosts right now? **Airbnb takes 15.5% from most hosts, and Vrbo takes about 8% until October 29, then 12%.** Here is every structure you might be on, from each platform's own pages, read on September 29, 2026. | Platform and plan | Host pays | Guest pays on top | What the fee is charged on | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Airbnb single fee (most hosts now) | 15.5% (14% to 16% for some, 16% Brazil and Mexico) | Nothing | Nightly price plus host fees, excluding taxes | | Airbnb split fee (being phased out) | 3% (4% Brazil and Mexico) | 14.1% to 16.5% | Same base | | Vrbo pay-per-booking, until Oct 28, 2026 | 5% commission plus 3% processing | Traveler service fee, rate not published | 5% on rent and fees; 3% on the total you receive, taxes and damage deposits included | | Vrbo pay-per-booking, from Oct 29, 2026 | Single 12% commission | Traveler service fee, rate not published | Rent and fees charged to the traveler, not taxes | | Vrbo through property management software | 12% (12% to 15% in some regions) | Traveler service fee | Rent and mandatory fees | | Vrbo annual subscription | Closed to new partners | Traveler service fee | Most legacy accounts move to pay-per-booking from October 2026 | Sources: [Airbnb's service fee article](https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857), Airbnb's [Simplifying service fees](https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/simplifying-service-fees-on-airbnb-771) (updated August 24, 2026), and Vrbo's help center articles on [pay-per-booking fees](https://help.vrbo.com/articles/How-is-the-booking-fee-calculated), [software integration](https://help.vrbo.com/articles/About-Vrbo-integration), [subscriptions](https://help.vrbo.com/articles/How-do-I-pay-for-my-new-subscription) and the [traveler service fee](https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-is-the-service-fee). Airbnb's single fee "is mandatory for most hosts," and once you switch "you can't switch back." The price-adjustment deadline was September 15 outside the European Economic Area and October 13 inside it or in Switzerland; bookings made before your switch keep the old fee. Both platforms charge on your fees, not just the nightly rate. Airbnb's base includes "any fees charged by the host," and Vrbo's commission covers "cleaning, pet, and boat fees." That is why [Airbnb's fee on your cleaning fee](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/does-airbnb-take-15-5-of-cleaning-fee) catches so many hosts, and the same trap is waiting on Vrbo. ## What changes on Vrbo on October 29, 2026? **Vrbo replaces 5% plus 3% with one 12% commission, effective October 29, 2026.** The host email posted to r/vrbohosts reads: "Beginning October 29, 2026, you will transition to a single, transparent 12% commission fee," and adds that Vrbo is updating its Host Terms of Service and Accommodation Fee Collection Agreement from the same date. "By continuing to use our services after October 29, 2026, you agree to the updated terms." Vrbo's help center already reflects it. The pay-per-booking article, republished on September 29 at version 22, now lists the booking fee as "A flat, all-in 12% commission fee," charged "on the rental amount and any additional fees you charge to the traveler." Taxes and refundable damage deposits are outside the 12%. Two things are still unclear: 1. **Is the 3% processing fee really gone?** Vrbo calls the new fee "all-in," and the host who posted the email checked their dashboard and wrote: "No more payment processing fee. It's just a straight 12% instead of the 5% + 3% before." But the same help article still contains the old paragraph saying "The 3% payment processing fee is charged on the total payment amount you receive from your guest, including taxes." Its VAT line still says "5% commission." 2. **Do bookings already on your calendar change?** Vrbo's email says "beginning October 29" and does not say, in anything we could read, whether reservations confirmed earlier keep the old rate. Airbnb's help center is explicit that bookings made before the switch are unaffected. One r/vrbohosts host with bookings "a year in advance" said they were "taking a huge hit." Ask support in writing. Vrbo's marketing has not caught up either: on September 29, host.vrbo.com and Expedia Group's partner page still quoted 3% processing and 5% commission, "about half the amount of what some platforms charge." ## Same booking, four payouts **On one $750 booking, you keep between $634 and $728 depending on the platform and plan.** Take 3 nights at $200 plus a $150 cleaning fee, a $750 subtotal, with 12% occupancy tax ($90) as an illustration. Your local rate will differ. | Structure | Platform takes | You keep | Share of subtotal | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Airbnb split fee (legacy) | $22.50 | $727.50 | 97.0% | | Vrbo until Oct 28 (5% + 3% incl. tax) | $62.70 | $687.30 | 91.6% | | Vrbo from Oct 29, if 12% is all-in | $90.00 | $660.00 | 88.0% | | Vrbo from Oct 29, if 3% processing survives | $115.20 | $634.80 | 84.6% | | Airbnb single fee | $116.25 | $633.75 | 84.5% | The legacy Airbnb row looks best only because the guest paid 14.1% to 16.5% on top. And if Vrbo keeps 3% processing on top of 12%, its host side becomes almost identical to Airbnb's, a $25 difference on this one booking. On a year of bookings, it scales. A listing that books $40,000 of rent and fees on Vrbo would pay about $3,344 under 5% plus 3% (at this tax mix), $4,800 at a flat 12%, and about $6,144 if both 12% and 3% apply. Check your own year in your Vrbo payout reports, the same way you would [check an effective rate](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/how-to-calculate-effective-rate-on-merchant-statement) on a card processing statement: total fees divided by total booked. ## The fee you do not see: Vrbo's traveler service fee **Vrbo takes less from you than Airbnb, but it also takes a fee from your guest, and that decides which channel really costs more.** Vrbo's help center says the traveler service fee "is a percentage of the reservation total (before taxes and refundable fees)," that "the percentage varies depending on the reservation amount," and that "hosts cannot waive or reduce the service fee." It does not publish the rate. Airbnb's single fee has no guest fee, so at the same nightly price the Vrbo guest pays more. The fair test divides what you keep by what the guest pays before taxes: - **Airbnb single fee:** you keep 84.5 cents of every guest dollar. - **Vrbo at 12%:** you keep 88 cents divided by (1 + the traveler fee rate). The two are equal when Vrbo's traveler fee is **4.1%** of the reservation (0.88 divided by 0.845, minus 1). Above that, a guest on Vrbo is paying more for your place, per dollar you keep, than a guest on Airbnb. At an 8% traveler fee you keep 81.5 cents on Vrbo; at 10%, 80 cents; at 12%, 78.6 cents. Airbnb stays at 84.5. Find your real number in five minutes: open your own Vrbo listing as a guest, pick real dates, go to checkout, and divide the service fee line by the reservation total before taxes. A property manager with more than 220 homes put their all-in Vrbo take at "probably 17, 18%... between the guest and us" on the Life Well Booked podcast, under the old 8% host fee. That is one manager's estimate, not a Vrbo figure, but it suggests the traveler fee is well above 4.1% for many bookings. Because Vrbo says the percentage "varies depending on the reservation amount," the answer can differ between your 2-night winter weekend and your 10-night summer week. Run the checkout test for both. Not sure what each channel really kept last year? Send us your Airbnb and Vrbo payout exports and we will show you the effective take per booking on each platform, the fees that were charged on cleaning and taxes, and where your pricing did not keep up with either fee change. It is a written list from your exports, with no logins. ## How much should you raise Vrbo rates after October 29? **Roughly 4.1% to 4.5% on the nightly rate and every fee, if the 12% is truly all-in.** Going from 8% of the rent to 12% needs a 4.5% raise (0.92 divided by 0.88). Because the old 3% was also charged on taxes, the exact figure for most listings is closer to 4.1%. The r/vrbohosts thread landed in the same place: "about 4.5%." A few rules keep the raise honest: - **Raise the fees too.** The 12% applies to cleaning, pet and other traveler-charged fees, so a nightly-only raise leaves the commission increase on your cleaning fee uncovered. - **Do not copy the Airbnb number.** Hosts moving from Airbnb's 3% to 15.5% needed about 14.8%. Vrbo's jump is a third of that. - **If 3% processing survives,** going from 8.4% to 15.4% of the subtotal would need about 8.3%. Check your first post-October 29 payout statement before deciding. Our guide on [raising prices without losing customers](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/how-to-raise-prices-without-losing-customers) covers the general playbook; for rentals, the calendar tells you fast if you overshot. ## Why the same nightly price is now wrong on both platforms **After both changes, Airbnb shows guests your price, and Vrbo shows guests your price plus its fee, so matching nightly rates no longer means matching guest totals.** Under Airbnb's single fee, the price you set is the price the guest sees before taxes. Airbnb's own example: set $115, "guests see $115 and you earn $97." On Vrbo, the guest sees your price plus the traveler service fee. Push one base rate to both and Airbnb looks cheaper but pays you less, while Vrbo looks pricier and pays you more. An r/vrbohosts host noted that hosts who never repriced for Airbnb "are essentially 14% cheaper," pulling bookings from hosts who did the math. Pick what you want to hold constant, then set channel markups deliberately: - **Hold your payout:** Airbnb price is payout divided by 0.845; Vrbo price is payout divided by 0.88 (after October 29, if all-in). - **Hold the guest total:** set Vrbo lower than Airbnb by roughly the traveler fee you measured at checkout. Most hosts hold payout. If bookings then slow on one channel, work through [why Airbnb bookings dropped](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/airbnb-bookings-dropped-what-to-do) before you cut the rate. ## If you are on a Vrbo subscription, this is the bigger change **Vrbo is closing its annual subscription, and most legacy subscribers move to pay-per-booking from October 2026.** Vrbo's help center now opens its subscription page with: "Partners can no longer opt in to the pay-per-subscription (PPS) model. Starting October 2026, most legacy partners still on the PPS model will be switched to the pay-per-booking (PPB) model." That is a much larger jump than 8% to 12%. A manager on the Life Well Booked podcast said their grandfathered Vrbo subscription "now" costs $699 a year; at 12%, a listing booking $40,000 on Vrbo would pay $4,800. Your cost of the switch is last year's Vrbo rent and fees times 12%, minus your subscription invoice. ## Refunds and cancellations: who keeps the fee? **On a full refund, both platforms give the fee back; on partial refunds, Vrbo keeps its booking and service fees.** Vrbo's help center says that when a guest gets a 100% refund, "we'll return both the commission and payment processing fees on the booking." For partial refunds, "Booking and service fees are not refunded," and the processing fee "is reversed for the amount refunded and is only charged on the funds kept." Airbnb's rules depend on who cancels and how you send the money; the full breakdown is in our guide to the [Airbnb host fee on refunds](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/airbnb-host-fee-on-refunds-and-cancellations). On either platform, a cancellation policy you never check is a fee policy you never chose, the same logic behind [how much of a deposit you can keep](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/customer-cancelled-how-much-deposit-can-i-keep). ## If you use a channel manager or property management software **Software-connected hosts were already on the new rates: Airbnb's single fee is mandatory for them, and Vrbo already charges software-connected listings 12%.** Vrbo's integration article says the commission for pay-per-booking listings managed through software "is 12%," collected after checkout and invoiced monthly, and that "your software provider will charge you for payment processing based on your service subscription." In Europe, Australia and New Zealand the rate can be 12% to 15%. - **Processing is a separate bill.** If your software processes Vrbo payments, your real Vrbo cost is 12% plus whatever the software or its payment processor charges. - **Off-checkout bookings still cost 10%.** Vrbo charges "a 10% booking fee" when a reservation originates on its sites "but wasn't booked through our check-out flow." Moving a Vrbo guest to your own checkout does not avoid the fee, and doing it with an Airbnb guest breaks Airbnb's terms. The honest way to cut platform fees is [direct bookings](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/how-to-get-direct-bookings-for-short-term-rental) from new guests who find you through your own site, Google or repeat marketing, and then watching the card processing on those bookings, which is where the [payment processing fees](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/topic/payment-processing-fees) hub starts. ## Head to head: Airbnb vs Vrbo for hosts | | Airbnb | Vrbo | | --- | --- | --- | | Host fee | 15.5% single fee for most hosts | 5% + 3% until Oct 28, 2026; 12% from Oct 29 | | Guest fee | None on single fee | Traveler service fee, varies, not published | | Fee charged on | Nightly price and host fees | Rent and traveler-charged fees; 3% processing (old model) also on taxes | | Old bookings | Keep the old fee | Not stated in the pages we read | | Full refund | Depends on who cancels | Commission and processing returned | | Software-connected | Single fee mandatory | 12% (12% to 15% some regions), processing billed by your software | **Choose Airbnb as your main channel if** you run short stays or rooms and your Vrbo checkout shows a traveler fee well above 4.1%. **Choose Vrbo as your main channel if** you run larger whole homes with longer stays and your measured traveler fee keeps Vrbo ahead. **Stay on both if** you can keep calendars in sync. The managers on the Life Well Booked podcast, who run more than 220 homes, put it bluntly: "You have to choose both." ## What hosts are doing about it Hosts are split. In r/vrbohosts, one host with 7 US properties and about $500K in annual revenue said "2025 was the first year VRBO surpassed AirBnB in bookings" by dollar value. In the thread about the 12% email, another wrote: "12 years ago VRBO was 100% of my bookings. Now it's 7%." A retired couple renting the downstairs of their beach house said Vrbo remitting their taxes is worth it: "Unless their rate increases way more than 12% we'll continue to use them." The main complaint was notice: Vrbo's email gave a month, and one host said support told them it "did not have the information yet." A host who missed Airbnb's switch "lost over $200" on one booking before fixing it. For October 29, check the first payout, not the announcement. ## The 15-minute check on your own numbers Do this before October 29, with last year's payout exports from both platforms. 1. **Find which Airbnb fee you are on.** Open a recent payout. A service fee near 3% of the subtotal is the split fee; near 15.5% is the single fee. 2. **Find your Vrbo plan.** Pay-per-booking, subscription, or software-connected. Subscribers: note your renewal date. 3. **Calculate each channel's effective take.** Total platform fees divided by total rent and fees booked, per platform, for the last 12 months. 4. **Measure Vrbo's traveler fee.** Check out your own listing as a guest for a short stay and a long stay. Is it above or below 4.1%? 5. **Reprice Vrbo for October 29.** Raise nightly rates and every fee by about 4.1% to 4.5%, unless your first new statement shows 3% processing still charged. 6. **Set channel markups on purpose,** holding either payout or guest total. 7. **Read your first post-change payout** line by line: commission, processing, and whether it hit taxes or deposits. A surprise at step 3 usually means fees you never raised, processing on taxes, or prices that never caught up with Airbnb's switch. The broader version of this check is our guide to [where a small business loses money](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/where-is-my-small-business-losing-money). Stuck on step 3 or 4? Send us your Airbnb and Vrbo payout exports, plus a card statement if you take direct bookings. We will list what each platform took per booking, which fees hit cleaning, taxes or deposits, and whether your prices hold your payout after October 29. ## Can you do this yourself? **Yes, for one or two listings.** The math is two divisions: payout divided by 0.845 for Airbnb, payout divided by 0.88 for Vrbo after October 29, then a checkout test to measure Vrbo's guest fee. It stops being worth your time with several listings, a manager taking a percentage of gross, channel markups, or direct bookings on a separate processor, because the fees then sit in four or five reports. If someone else manages your listings, check whether [what your co-host charges](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/what-should-an-airbnb-co-host-charge) is calculated before or after the platform fee, because a manager's cut on gross now includes the markup you added to cover Airbnb. And if occupancy tax is part of your picture, [occupancy tax on the Airbnb service fee](https://www.pavadotech.com/blog/occupancy-tax-on-airbnb-service-fee) is the next thing to check. The short answer to Vrbo vs Airbnb fees is that the host-side rates no longer tell you enough. After October 29, compare what you keep per guest dollar on each channel, using your own checkout test, and price each platform on purpose instead of pushing one rate to both. ## FAQ ### Is Vrbo cheaper than Airbnb for hosts? On the host side, yes. Airbnb takes 15.5% from most hosts under its single fee. Vrbo takes 5% plus 3% processing until October 29, 2026, then a single 12% commission. But Vrbo also charges the guest a traveler service fee that Airbnb's single fee does not, so the guest pays more for the same nightly price on Vrbo. ### When does Vrbo's 12% commission start? Vrbo's email to hosts says: 'Beginning October 29, 2026, you will transition to a single, transparent 12% commission fee.' Its help center pay-per-booking article was updated on September 29, 2026 to describe a 'flat, all-in 12% commission fee.' Vrbo is also updating its Host Terms of Service and Accommodation Fee Collection Agreement from the same date. ### Does Vrbo still charge a 3% payment processing fee after October 29? Vrbo calls the new fee 'all-in,' and a host who checked their dashboard on r/vrbohosts reported it is 'a straight 12% instead of the 5% + 3% before.' But on September 29, 2026 Vrbo's own help article still contained its old 3% processing paragraph. Check the fee line on your first booking after October 29 before you reprice on assumptions. ### How much should I raise my Vrbo rates for the 12% commission? About 4.1% to 4.5% to keep the same payout, if the 3% processing fee really goes away. Going from 8% to 12% of the rent needs a 4.5% raise; because the old 3% was also charged on taxes, the exact figure is closer to 4.1% for most listings. Raise cleaning, pet and other fees by the same percentage, since the commission applies to them too. ### Does Vrbo charge guests a service fee? Yes. Vrbo's help center says the traveler pays a service fee that is a percentage of the reservation total before taxes and refundable fees, and that the percentage varies with the reservation amount. Vrbo does not publish the rate, and hosts cannot waive or reduce it. Airbnb's single fee has no separate guest service fee. ### Does Airbnb's 15.5% fee apply to my cleaning fee? Yes. Airbnb calculates its service fee on the nightly price plus any fees the host charges, excluding the guest service fee and taxes. Vrbo's commission is also charged on the rental amount and fees charged to the traveler, such as cleaning, pet and boat fees. On both platforms, a price change that skips your fees leaves money behind. ### Can I stay on Vrbo's annual subscription instead? Probably not for long. Vrbo's help center says partners can no longer opt in to the pay-per-subscription model, and that starting October 2026, most legacy partners still on it will be switched to pay-per-booking. If you have been paying a flat yearly fee, model your Vrbo revenue at 12% before your renewal date. ### Can I move guests off Airbnb or Vrbo to avoid the fees? No. Taking payment off Airbnb for a guest who found you on Airbnb breaks Airbnb's terms, and Vrbo charges a 10% booking fee on software-connected reservations that originate on its sites but are not booked through its checkout. Direct bookings mean new guests who find you through your own channels, not guests you poach from a platform.