Airbnb’s Fee in Spain: What Changes on 13 October

On 13 October, Airbnb stops charging the guest its service fee in Spain. From that day the host pays all of it: 15.5%. It is the last phase of a change Airbnb has been making in stages for some time (I explained it in July, with all the numbers).

If your apartments are connected to a PMS or a channel manager, you already pay this way. Now it is the turn of the hosts who run their listings directly on Airbnb. Many of them compete with you, and you will notice what they do with their prices.

And sixteen days later, on the 29th, Vrbo changes its commission.

Whose turn it is on 13 October

Airbnb has gone in waves. It started with the hosts connected to a PMS, and then went country by country with those who run their listings directly on Airbnb. On 15 September it was the turn of everyone left outside the European Economic Area, and on 13 October it is the turn of those inside it, Spain included.

After that date nobody is left on the old model.

Raise the price and you earn the same as before

Under the old model, a host running listings directly on Airbnb paid 3%, and the guest paid between 14% and 16% on top. Under the new one, the whole fee comes out of the price, cleaning fee included. To earn the same as before you have to raise the price by 14.8%, and then the guest ends up paying practically the same. (If you cannot deduct the VAT on the fee, the rise is 18.6%.)

Whoever does not raise the price will earn less on every booking. Airbnb does not raise it for you.

For a few weeks, part of your competition will be cheaper

The listing of a host who has touched nothing by the 13th will show up around 13% cheaper to the traveller, and its host will earn about that much less. According to Rental Scale-Up, most of them correct it within weeks.

In the meantime, some of the listings in your area will be cheaper without anyone having decided it. And the total price, compared with that of similar listings, is one of the things Airbnb looks at to order the results.

I would not lower the price to follow them. Those hosts have not lowered theirs: they have made a mistake, and they will fix it as soon as they see what they are paid. Lowering yours is giving away margin for a mistake that is not yours.

And on 29 October, Vrbo

Vrbo moves its hosts to a flat 12% commission (except those who already paid more). Until now, a host connected to a PMS paid 5%, and one who was not paid around 8%. The annual subscription goes away.

Airbnb’s change moves the fee from one place to another. Vrbo’s is a rise. On a €1,000 booking, a host connected to a PMS goes from paying €50 to paying €120. The fee the guest pays goes down but does not disappear, according to Skift, and Vrbo has not published by how much.

Vrbo tells hosts to review their prices. At the same time, its new terms require that the price on Vrbo is no higher than on any other channel, your own website included. With Airbnb and Booking that takes care of itself, because they charge a higher commission and the price there already comes out higher. With your own website it does not. That one is for each manager to decide.

In Spain Vrbo is a small player, true. But anyone who has it open should run the numbers before the 29th.

Three channels, three commissions, one price for each

Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo charge different commissions, and all three come out of your price (Booking has always charged this way, at around 15%).

The rule we apply at ListingOK is that the price on each channel has to cover that channel’s commission. In the PMS or the channel manager you do it with a markup per channel on top of the base price. The base price is the one that moves with demand, and it is the same for every channel.

This month I would check:

• The apartments you run directly on Airbnb, with no PMS: raise the price when the change arrives, not before, because until then the guest still pays the guest fee on top. Airbnb puts a tool in the account that raises the prices of all your listings in one go.
• The ones you have connected: check that the Airbnb markup really covers the fee, VAT included if you cannot deduct it.
• Vrbo: change its markup on the 29th.
• And raise each price in one place only. Raising it twice, on the platform and in the PMS, is the most expensive mistake in all of this.

What this means for a manager with twenty apartments

That each channel’s commission comes out of your price, that it is different on each one, and that it has to go into the price channel by channel. With twenty apartments on two or three channels, that is a lot of prices to watch, and they change every time a platform moves its commission.

That is the part we run at ListingOK for our clients, who are managers like you: the prices, the channels, the PMS and the channel manager. If you manage six or more apartments and October finds you with this unchecked, ask us for a demo and we will look at it on your own apartments.

Let’s see how many remember to raise the price on the 13th.

Sources

• Rental Scale-Up, Airbnb’s single host fee (13 August 2026): the calendar of the waves, and what happens to hosts who do not adjust the price.
• Airbnb Resource Center, the single service fee: the tool to adjust prices, and which bookings the fee applies to.
• Rental Scale-Up, Vrbo’s new commission (30 September 2026): the earlier commissions, Vrbo’s email to hosts and the terms about the price on other channels.
• Skift, Vrbo raises its commissions (29 September 2026): the guest fee, and the condition about the price on the host’s own website.
• ShortTermRentalz, Vrbo’s change of model (30 September 2026): the date, and who it does not apply to.