Updated October 2026. Every rate below was checked in October 2026 against the platforms’ own help pages and partner terms, with independent reports where a platform does not publish a number. This page replaces our two earlier commission guides.
The short version
Here is what the booking platforms take from a host in October 2026, on the booking subtotal (nightly rate plus cleaning and other fees, before taxes).
- Airbnb: 15.5% from the host, and the guest no longer pays a separate service fee. The old 3% host fee is gone for almost everyone.
- Booking.com: 10% to 25% depending on country and property, about 15% for most, plus 1.1% to 3.1% if Booking.com handles your payments. No guest fee.
- Vrbo: 12% from the host on bookings made from 29 October 2026 (12% to 15% in some regions), replacing the old 5% plus 3%. Guests still pay Vrbo’s own service fee on top.
- Expedia: your Vrbo listing is what appears on Expedia and Hotels.com, so Vrbo’s fee applies. Hotels and apart hotels that contract with Expedia directly pay around 15% to 20%.
- Agoda: 15% to 20% for most properties, with discounted rates of 5% to 15% offered to single unit hosts on Agoda Homes.
- Google Vacation Rentals: 0%. Google sends the guest to your own website and charges nothing, but you need a connected channel manager to appear there.
- Your own website: 0% from you. On a Hello Hosty direct booking website the guest pays a 0.9% booking fee and you keep every penny of the rate.
What changed in 2026
Two of the three big platforms rewrote their host fees this year, and both moved the same way: more from the host, less visible to the guest.
- Airbnb retired the split fee. Hosts who use property management software were moved to the single 15.5% host fee on 27 October 2025 in the US and Canada and on 13 April 2026 everywhere else. Everyone remaining had until 15 September 2026 outside the European Economic Area and 13 October 2026 inside it. Once switched there is no way back. Brazil and Mexico pay 16%.
- Vrbo announced on 29 September 2026 that from 29 October 2026 every host pays a single 12% fee per booking, payment processing included where Vrbo processes the payment. The 5% plus 3% pay per booking model and the $499 to $699 annual subscription are gone for new bookings. Software connected managers who were paying 5% see their Vrbo cost more than double.
- Booking.com’s commission did not move. Its payment service fee did get more attention, because for hosts on Payments by Booking.com the real cost is commission plus 1.1% to 3.1%.
- The old advice that connecting a channel manager “costs you the 3% deal” on Airbnb is dead. Everyone pays 15.5% now whether or not they use software, so connecting your listings costs you nothing extra on Airbnb.
Airbnb: 15.5% and no more hiding it in the guest’s total
For years Airbnb ran two models. The split fee, where the host paid about 3% and the guest paid a service fee of 14.1% to 16.5% on top of the price, and the single host only fee of about 15% that was compulsory for hotels and for hosts who connected software. In late 2025 Airbnb standardised the single fee at 15.5% and began moving every host onto it. By mid October 2026 the migration was complete in every region.
In practice: the guest sees your price and pays it. Airbnb deducts 15.5% of the subtotal (nightly rate, cleaning fee, pet fee, extra guest fee, not taxes) from your payout. On a $1,000 booking you receive $845. A handful of hosts sit at 14% to 16% depending on their region and terms, and Brazil and Mexico are at 16%.
Airbnb’s argument is that a clean price with no guest fee converts better, and there is something in that. But the number that used to be split two ways now lands on one side, yours. If you priced your Airbnb listing years ago on the assumption that you pay 3%, you are now 12.5 points short and need to re price. The full workings, including how much to raise your prices, are in Airbnb host fees explained (2026).
Booking.com: about 15%, and the payment fee most hosts forget
Booking.com charges commission on the subtotal including cleaning fees. The rate is set in your Accommodation Agreement and depends on country, property type and which programmes you join. Globally the average is about 15%, the range runs from 10% to 25%, and there is no guest facing fee: the price you set is the price the guest sees.
The costs that creep in are the ones around the commission. Payments by Booking.com, where Booking.com takes the guest’s card and pays you out, adds 1.1% to 3.1% per payout depending on your country and currency. Preferred Partner adds about 3 points of commission for the badge and the visibility, taking a typical host to around 18%. Genius does not raise your commission, it has you fund a 10% to 20% discount for Genius guests instead, which costs you more than 3 points on most bookings.
So a Preferred Partner on Payments by Booking.com in a mid range country is really paying 19% to 21%, not 15%. Read your agreement and the Extranet, not the brochure. The full breakdown, including VAT on the commission and the parity change, is in Booking.com commission explained (2026).
Vrbo and Expedia: 12% from 29 October 2026
Until now Vrbo was the cheap one. Pay per booking cost 5% commission plus 3% payment processing, about 8% all in, or just 5% if you connected through software and used your own processor. High volume hosts could buy a $499 to $699 annual subscription and pay only the 3% processing per booking.
That ends on 29 October 2026. Every booking made from that date carries a single 12% host fee on the rental amount and mandatory fees (cleaning, pet, extra guest), with payment processing included where Vrbo processes the payment. Some regions sit at 12% to 15%, and your exact rate is shown in your Vrbo dashboard. The annual subscription is closed to new hosts, and existing subscribers move to 12% when their term ends. Bookings made before 29 October keep the old rate.
Guests still pay Vrbo’s separate traveller service fee at checkout, reported at roughly 6% to 15% of the subtotal and falling as the booking value rises. Vrbo says it expects that fee to come down after the change but has not published a figure. So a $1,000 Vrbo booking costs you $120 and costs the guest another $60 to $150 on top. We have a full breakdown in Vrbo fees explained (2026), including who pays more and how to reprice before 29 October.
On Expedia, Hotels.com and the rest of the Expedia Group sites, whole home rentals appear through the Vrbo listing, so there is no separate Expedia fee for a host to pay: Vrbo’s 12% covers the distribution. Hotels, serviced apartments and apart hotels that contract with Expedia directly are a different case. Expedia does not publish a universal rate and industry estimates put it at 15% to 20% for most small properties, with 25% plus possible in some markets, agreed in Partner Central at contracting.
Agoda and Trip.com: 15% to 20%, with a discount for single unit hosts
Agoda, strong across Asia Pacific and growing elsewhere, works on a hotel style commission agreed in its partner platform. Standard rates for most properties are 15% to 20%, and industry estimates run from 12% to 25% depending on region and distribution deals. Agoda Homes, its programme for individual residential hosts, offers discounted commission of 5% to 15% for single units. There is no guest facing fee reported, and Agoda can hold a new host’s first payout for up to 30 days. The full breakdown, including the growth programme fees and the payout rules, is in Agoda commission explained (2026).
Trip.com, which matters if you take Chinese and wider Asian guests, is similar: 15% to 20% is the figure most often cited for accommodation partners, with market guides quoting 10% to 25%, and the rate you actually pay is the one in your contract. Both platforms connect through a channel manager, and both are on Hello Hosty’s channel list.
Google Vacation Rentals: 0%, if you can get there
Google is the odd one out. Google Vacation Rentals shows your property in Google search and maps next to the Airbnb and Vrbo results and sends the guest to your own website to book. Google charges no commission and no fee for the listing or the referral. The catch is that you cannot list there yourself: your rates and availability have to reach Google through an approved connectivity partner, which for most operators means their channel manager, and you need a direct booking website for the guest to land on. The platform is free. The plumbing is what you pay for.
What they actually take, side by side
Rates checked October 2026. The last column shows what leaves your pocket on $100,000 of bookings, before any card processing you pay yourself.
| Platform | Host pays | Guest pays on top | On $100,000 of bookings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbnb | 15.5% (16% in Brazil and Mexico) | Nothing | $15,500 |
| Booking.com | 10% to 25%, about 15% typical. Plus 1.1% to 3.1% on Payments by Booking.com. Plus about 3 points for Preferred Partner | Nothing | $15,000 to $18,100 for a typical host |
| Vrbo (from 29 Oct 2026) | 12%, up to 15% in some regions, processing included | Service fee, reported 6% to 15% | $12,000 (was $8,000, or $5,000 if software connected) |
| Expedia and Hotels.com | Through your Vrbo listing: Vrbo’s 12%. Direct hotel contracts: about 15% to 20% | Depends on the route | $12,000 to $20,000 |
| Agoda | 15% to 20% standard. 5% to 15% for single units on Agoda Homes | Nothing reported | $15,000 to $20,000 |
| Trip.com | About 15% to 20%, by contract | Nothing reported | $15,000 to $20,000 |
| Google Vacation Rentals | 0%. Needs a channel manager and your own website | Nothing | $0 |
| Your own website on Hello Hosty | 0%. Your card processor’s standard rate only | 0.9% booking fee | $0 |
What this means for your pricing
Three practical things follow from the table.
First, price per platform. A $200 night on Airbnb nets you $169. The same night on Vrbo nets $176 from 29 October, on Booking.com $170 or less, on your own website $200. If you push one rate to every channel you are quietly accepting a different margin on each. Hello Hosty lets you set a rate modifier per platform, up or down by an amount or a percentage, so you can load the dearer channels and keep your direct price the sharpest one on the internet, which is exactly what guests who search around are looking for.
Second, stop assuming Vrbo is the cheap one. From 29 October it costs 12%, and for software connected managers who were paying 5% that is more than double. It is still cheaper than Airbnb and Booking.com, but the gap has closed from 10 points to 3.
Third, the channel manager question is settled. Connecting your listings to software used to cost you Airbnb’s 3% deal. It no longer does, because the deal no longer exists. The only platform where software changes your fee is Google, where it takes you from invisible to listed at 0%.
The money left on the table
Here is what the platforms take from a 20 property operator turning over $1,000,000 a year with 85% of bookings through the platforms, which is a normal mix. $850,000 at a blended 15% is $127,500 a year leaving the business before a single clean is paid for. Over three years that is $382,500.
Now move one fifth of those bookings to your own website. Repeat guests, guests who found you on Google, guests who checked your site after seeing you on Airbnb. $200,000 a year that used to pay 15% now pays 0%, and the guest covers a 0.9% booking fee. That is $30,000 a year back in the business, $90,000 over three years, from the same guests sleeping in the same beds. The software that makes it possible costs $410 a month for those 20 properties on Hello Hosty, $4,920 a year, website included. The shift pays for the software six times over, and that is before the upsells.
Most operators never make that shift because the website costs extra, or sits on a separate tool, or carries its own percentage. Hostaway charges guests 1.8% on its booking engine, Hospitable charges the host 1% to 7%, Guesty sells its advanced websites as an add on. We covered all three in Guesty vs Hostaway and Guesty vs Hospitable.
Hello Hosty includes a direct booking website on your own domain in every subscription, with the channel manager for Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Agoda, Trip.com and 50 plus platforms, the AI assistant that answers guests on every channel, and the digital guidebook that collects the guest’s email and sells upsells, so the next booking comes to you and not to a platform. $24 per property per month, $17 from your 11th and $12 from your 31st (£17, £12 and £9 in the UK), no setup fee, free migration, and every price on the website. Nothing is taken from your bookings.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Airbnb take from hosts in 2026?
15.5% of the booking subtotal for most hosts, deducted from the payout, with no separate guest service fee. Hosts in Brazil and Mexico pay 16%, and a small number of hosts sit between 14% and 16% depending on their region and terms. The subtotal is the nightly rate plus cleaning, pet and extra guest fees, not taxes.
Did Airbnb get rid of the 3% host fee?
Yes. The split fee, 3% from the host and 14.1% to 16.5% from the guest, was retired during 2025 and 2026. Software connected hosts moved to the single 15.5% fee on 27 October 2025 in the US and Canada and 13 April 2026 elsewhere; everyone else had until 15 September 2026 outside the European Economic Area and 13 October 2026 inside it. Once a host is on the single fee they cannot switch back.
What commission does Booking.com charge hosts?
Between 10% and 25% of the subtotal including cleaning fees, with about 15% typical. The exact rate is in your Accommodation Agreement and depends on country, property type and programmes. Payments by Booking.com adds 1.1% to 3.1% per payout and Preferred Partner adds about 3 points. Guests pay no Booking.com fee.
How much does Vrbo charge hosts?
From 29 October 2026, a single 12% host fee per booking on the rental amount and mandatory fees, including payment processing where Vrbo processes the payment. Some regions are 12% to 15%. Before that date the pay per booking model was 5% commission plus 3% processing, or 5% for software connected hosts, and the $499 to $699 annual subscription is now closed to new hosts. Guests pay a separate Vrbo service fee on top, reported at 6% to 15%.
What is Expedia’s commission for vacation rentals?
Whole home rentals reach Expedia and Hotels.com through the Vrbo listing, so the host pays Vrbo’s 12% and nothing extra to Expedia. Hotels, serviced apartments and apart hotels that contract with Expedia directly pay a negotiated rate, typically 15% to 20% and higher in some markets.
What is Agoda’s commission for hosts?
Standard commission is 15% to 20% for most properties, agreed in Agoda’s partner platform, with industry estimates running from 12% to 25% by region. Single unit residential hosts can get a discounted 5% to 15% rate through Agoda Homes. No guest facing fee is reported, and Agoda can hold a new host’s first payout for up to 30 days.
Does Google Vacation Rentals charge commission?
No. Google charges nothing for the listing or the referral and sends the guest to your own website to book. You cannot list directly: your rates and availability must reach Google through an approved connectivity partner such as a channel manager, and you need a direct booking website for the guest to land on.
How do I pay less commission on my bookings?
Price per platform so the dearer channels carry their own cost, keep your direct price the lowest, and move repeat and search guests to your own website, where the only cost is card processing. A direct booking website on your own domain is included with Hello Hosty; the guest pays a 0.9% booking fee and you keep the full rate. Try it free for 14 days.
Sources: Airbnb Help Centre (service fees), Vrbo partner help and the 29 September 2026 fee announcement, Booking.com partner terms, Agoda and Expedia partner guidance, Google Vacation Rentals documentation, and independent reports from PriceLabs, Smoobu, Houst, Hostaway and Hostex, all checked October 2026. If a platform changes a rate, tell us and we will update the table. That is a standing promise for this page.