Airbnb Fee Structure ⚠️
Switching to a property management platform may automatically switch you to Airbnb's simplified pricing and change your Hosting Service Fee structure from split (host pays 3% and guest pays 12%) to host-only (host pays 15%).
For properties in the US, Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, The Bahamas, and Argentina
Please be sure to double-check your Airbnb account listing settings after importing properties and revert it back to the split structure or keep the new Host Service Fee as 15%. If you keep the new Host Service Fee, we suggest using the channel rate multiplier to increase the price. This can help offset some of your commission fees.
Although your properties are in the countries mentioned, you are still required to use the "Host-only Fee" if any of your listings on your account are under these property types: Hotel and Serviced Apartments. In that case, you might not find the option to switch back to the split structure.
If your properties are not in the countries mentioned, it is obligatory to switch to the new Host Service Fee when connecting to any property management software and you'll want to use the channel rate multiplier to adjust your rate for this channel. Again, this doesn't mean you are losing money, it just changes who is paying the fee to Airbnb and you'll need to increase your rates to offset that. You'll still stack up the same as your competition.
Getting Started
STEP 1: UNDERSTAND THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Please note that all listings you push to Airbnb via Hostfully will be automatically set to ‘Instant Book’ enabled. This means a guest reservation will be automatically confirmed by Airbnb if the calendar availability on your listing matches the inquired dates. If you want to change your listings into Booking Request mode, please refer to this help article on Booking Settings for more details.
If you are to sync to existing Airbnb listings, the sync needs access to the listing owner - the Airbnb account that created the listing on Airbnb.
Important related articles. Do check them out to have the correct property Main Settings before going live on Airbnb: Booking Settings and Booking Lead Time.
Airbnb only supports these Booking Window options: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, and unlimited months. If you select the Booking Window as 18 months or 24 months in Hostfully, Airbnb’s calendar will still be available 12 months in advance and guests will only be able to book up to 12 months ahead of time.
STEP 2: GET STARTED WITH THE HOSTFULLY CHANNEL MANAGER
Navigate to your Channels page
This can be found through the drop-down menu under your agency profile tab
STEP 3: TURN ON AIRBNB CHANNEL INTEGRATION
If you would like to adjust the rate for your listings on Airbnb, you may do so with the Rate multiplier.
STEP 4: CLICK THE CONNECT WITH AIRBNB BUTTON
Click the link Manage this channel (see below)
Once on the Airbnb Channel page, you will be prompted to connect to Airbnb account
STEP 5: LOG INTO AIRBNB
If you are new to Airbnb, click on the Sign up link instead:
No access to the listing owner account?
In case you don't have access to the Airbnb listing owner account (aka the account that created and made the listing go live on Airbnb) because the listing belongs to an owner, you can first create a Hostfully owner account, invite them to claim the account and import their properties from the Hostfully Owner's Portal under "Airbnb Connect". More instructions can be found here.
STEP 6: ALLOW THE CONNECTION
In this step, you are giving Hostfully permission to manage your Airbnb account:
You will then be redirected to the Airbnb Management page on Hostfully.
STEP 7: SET YOUR CANCELATION POLICY
Select your Airbnb cancelation policy and click Apply.
If you have a listing that has a different cancelation policy than others, you can set this for a particular listing under property's Main Settings tab (screenshot below) for that listing; otherwise, all listings will have the Cancelation policy selected on this Channel page.
Non Refundable Rates:
Additionally, you can also activate Non-Refundable discount rate for your Airbnb listings. Default rate is 10% and can be adjusted.
How they work
More from Airbnb here!
Alternatively, if you don't want the Non-Refundable discount rate to apply to all properties, you can go to Properties' Main Settings, and apply the non-refundable discount rate property by property.
Note:
If the Non-Refundable discount rate is set on the Airbnb Channel Management page (Agency level), discount percentage is reflected for all Airbnb-connected properties.
If the Non-Refundable discount rate is set on the Airbnb Channel Management page (Agency level), but it's manually deactivated on the property level (screenshot right above), then no Non-Refundable discount rate is applied on Airbnb for the property
STEP 8: CHOOSE THE PROPERTIES YOU WANT TO PUSH/SYNCHRONIZE TO AIRBNB
Important!!! - Make sure you are aware before toggling properties ON with Airbnb
If you are creating new Airbnb listings (not connecting to existing listings) please be sure the address is accurate before you toggle the property ON for Airbnb. Once a property is live on Airbnb, the only way to change the address is to contact Airbnb support directly.
Any changes to the property address or location in Hostfully will not be sent to Airbnb after the property is live.
Hostfully allows you to choose which properties you want to synchronize to Airbnb.
Just toggle ON the ones you want to have published and/or synchronized.
If your listing is already on Airbnb select the property from the drop-down. If your listing is not on Airbnb, select Create a new property. Once connected to an Airbnb listing, you can no longer delete the associated property in Hostfully if the connection is still there.
Note: If your listing is Airbnb Plus be sure to check the Limited / Partial Sync box to indicate this.
Next, you'll need to decide if you want to exclude blocks from Airbnb or not:
Should I exclude blocks from Airbnb?
Most likely, you'll want to exclude blocks from Airbnb. If the majority of the blocks you want to import from Airbnb are for actual reservations (ex: a manually added block for a direct booking or Vrbo reservation), please be aware that you may already have those blocks in the system. Importing blocks over actual reservations may create hidden blocks that can cause conflicts and affect your availability. We do not recommend importing blocks if the majority of the blocks are for actual reservations.
Once a property has been synchronized, the toggle button will show as "ON" and you will be able to click on the link "See Listing" to view the listing on Airbnb.
You will also receive an email from Airbnb telling you your new listings have been published. This can be confusing when you're not creating new listings but it's part of the Airbnb process to send the email. Don't worry! As long as you mapped the listings, you're all set.
STEP 9: VIEW YOUR IMPORTED LISTING DATA IN AIRBNB
The “Sync” page in your Airbnb account is where you will confirm your listings are synced with Airbnb. Login to Airbnb > Host > Listings.
You do not need to do anything else as long as you see Everything (or, Partial for Airbnb Plus listings) under Sync Status and the Hostfully sync button.
STEP 10: AUTO APPROVAL
In order for listings to be published on Airbnb, they must meet our minimum quality standards. Listings that don’t meet the following criteria will be auto-rejected:
7+ photos (JPEG preferred) at minimum resolution of 800x500 pixels
5+ amenities
50+ characters in the description field
30+ days of availability over a 12 month period
8+ characters in the title field
Internal property name field under Properties > Main Settings tab does not use all-caps (following Airbnb's policy)
Full Sync:
First, Airbnb imports all your listing data
○ For new listings:
■ The listing data from your third party system will create the Airbnb listings
■ Any changes to listing data from your system will be reflected on Airbnb
○ For existing listings:
■ For listings that already exist on Airbnb, you can map imported listing data to an existing listing
○ For listings that already exist on Airbnb:
■ The content on your third party will erase and replace any content on the Airbnb listing
■ Everything will be managed via your system including rates availability, descriptions, photos, and content
■ Your reviews and ratings will remain intact
Partial / Limited Sync:
First, Airbnb imports all your listing data
○ For new listings:
■ The first limited sync will sync all data (to create the listing)
■ Subsequent syncs will sync only rates and availability
○ For existing listings:
For listings that already exist on Airbnb, you can map imported listing data to an existing listing.
■ In this case, Partial Sync only syncs rates and availability from your third party
■ Descriptions and photos will need to be edited in Airbnb
■ Your reviews and ratings will remain intact
Please refer to this article for more details on Airbnb Luxe Listings
FAQs
What should I expect after syncing?
What should I expect after syncing?
Reservation data:
Once the sync is completed, you will see all Airbnb reservations in Hostfully 1 year prior and 2 years into the future.
Airbnb does not provide us with guest data for prior reservations and they will come in as "unknown, unknown". Ongoing & Future reservations will have all guest details.
Length of Stay Discounts
You still have access to the "Promotions" tab in Airbnb, which includes the length of stay discounts, even when connected to a PMP. This means you are not bound by the pricing rules we have in Hostfully for the length of stay discounts and can also use the functionality on Airbnb as well.
However, note that there's this button "Override Airbnb Rule-sets with these Hostfully Pricing Rules". If you toggle it ON, the 4 rules below (with Airbnb icon) will be pushed to Airbnb and override your Airbnb Rule-sets.
Triggers for imported reservations:
There are 2 types of triggers:
Instant triggers: NEW_BOOKING, NEW_INQUIRY, NEW_BLOCKED_DATES, ...
Time-based triggers: BEFORE / AFTER STAY STARTS / ENDS
and only time-based triggers work for imported Airbnb reservations. No matter if such time-based triggers are created before or after the import, as upon the import, or when a trigger is created, all leads will be scanned and applicable ones will be scheduled with correct triggers.
Icals
When syncing the listing, we delete all the Airbnb ical entries for that property from Hostfully. Please go to the calendar tools and ensure you do not have any Airbnb icals syncing for your listing still, or they will come back. This can lead to duplicate leads which you don't want.
Upon integrating, Airbnb will remove all the iCal connected to the listing. If before Hostfully you had iCal from other channels (for example, VRBO) being input in Airbnb, it will no longer be there in Airbnb. You'll need to put the iCal in Hostfully instead in order to block the calendar in Hostfully. The integration will then sync these blocks over to Airbnb.
I turned on Airbnb Smart Pricing before connecting Hostfully. How do I turn it off now?
I turned on Airbnb Smart Pricing before connecting Hostfully. How do I turn it off now?
To turn off Airbnb Smart Pricing, you should first disconnect Hostfully from Airbnb. After that, go to your Airbnb account and turn off Airbnb Smart Pricing. Once done, you can connect Hostfully to Airbnb again.
What if I toggle OFF the Sync?
What if I toggle OFF the Sync?
All your Airbnb reservations will be removed from Hostfully. Your listing will still be live on Airbnb and the data within the listing will be what Hostfully sent upon connection.
Need more help?
We hope you got the Hostfully help you needed! If not, reach out to a human via that little chat box on the bottom right corner of your screen. We’re always here for you and your Hostfully needs.