Differences Between Listing on Airbnb vs. Booking.com

Owned by Kelsey McCormick (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 24, 2022 by Kristin Archer
6 min read

The purpose of this documentation is to outline the fundamental differences between distributing your properties to Airbnb and Booking.com. This document outlines the larger aspects of distribution and what might directly affect you as a property manager or owner.

 

Who is the Merchant of Record?

Airbnb

Airbnb is the merchant of record for all properties distributed on their platform. There will never be a direct transaction between the host and the guest staying all transactions will be done through Airbnb's resolution center.

Ex. You have a guest staying and they let you know they are bringing a pet, which will incur a pet fee for your property. You would need to submit a request through Airbnb's resolution center to charge the guest. (https://www.airbnb.com/resolutions)

Booking.com

With Booking.com the host or trip provider is the merchant of record. The trip provider is entirely responsible for charging the guest as Booking.com will not directly charge the guest. Think of booking.com as the facilitator, but not directly involved in any part of the transaction. Booking.com will provide the guest payment information directly to the host. Each guest's credit card details can only be viewed 3 times, for up to 10 days after the check-out date. If the booking is canceled, credit card details are available for up to 10 days after the cancellation date. (https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/policies-payments/how-can-i-access-guest-credit-card-details)

Ex. You have a guest staying at your property and they let you know they are bringing a pet, which will incur a pet fee for your property. You will have access to guest payment information and be able to charge the guest yourself.

How are Taxes Handled?

Airbnb

Airbnb as they are the Merchant of Record in certain areas will handle the taxes. Dependent on location, Airbnb may remit taxes on the host's behalf. You can check the location of tax remittance here https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2509/in-what-areas-is-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-airbnb-available. If Airbnb does not remit taxes of your behalf we can configure this within your Rezfusion Boost account. 

Ex. If Airbnb is remitting taxes for the state of Florida, but not within my county. I would have to apply my county tax within Boost to any Rent & Fees that would be sent to Airbnb.

Booking.com

Booking.com is not the Merchant of Record and will not remit taxes on the host's behalf. However, during the transaction process whatever tax is applied to the rent will automatically be applied to fees as well. If the host has certain fees that are not taxable they will have to reach out directly to Booking.com and Booking.com will have the tax not applied to the fee. If your fees are taxed at a different rate than your rent we can configure this within your Rezfusion Boost account.

Ex. Booking.com will never remit taxes on my behalf, so I will need to add this into my Boost account. 

What Cancellation Policy can I choose?

Airbnb

Airbnb has a selection from Flexible, Moderate, Strict, Super Strict 30 & Super Strict 60. More details regarding this can be found here: https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies

When you select either Flexible, Moderate, or Strict, Airbnb will only charge you a 3% commission based off any bookings made through the site.

If you select a Super Strict 30 or Super Strict 60 policy, Airbnb will charge a 5% commission as they are providing more protection to you as a property manager.

Ex. I choose Airbnb Super Strict 30, Airbnb when they send the payout to me will take a 5% commission out of my total.

Booking.com

Booking.com has a variety of cancellation policies to choose from at least over 50. No matter what type of cancellation policy you choose for Booking.com they will take 15% commission on Rents & Fees.

If needed, your Software Implementation specialist can help match up a Booking.com cancellation policy to your current policy or the chosen Airbnb policy

Ex. I choose a 30 day cancellation policy and decide to change to 7 day cancellation policy, Booking.com will always charge you 15% commission Rents & Fees.

How Do They Collect Their Commissions?

Airbnb 

Dependent on your cancellation policy, Airbnb will take anywhere from 3-5% from the host side on rent and fees. As Airbnb is the merchant of record when they send you the payout from the booking they will take their commission out of the payout. Airbnb will typically release your payout about 24 hours after your guest's scheduled check in time. More information can be found here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/425/when-will-i-get-my-payout

Ex. Each time I receive a payout from Airbnb they have already taken their "cut" of the reservation as they are Merchant of Record.

Booking.com

No matter what cancellation policy you choose Booking.com will invoice a 15-18% commission on both Rents & Fees from any booking made through their site dependent on your agreement you have with booking.com. Booking.com will send you a monthly invoice of what you owe so you can make one monthly payment to them. Commissions will be charged for the month in which the guest checks out and pays for their booking. More information can be found here: https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/working-booking/what-commission-do-i-pay-bookingcom-and-when-do-i-pay-it 

Ex. I will receive a monthly invoice from BDC and I will send the money directly to Booking.com through their Extranet.



How Do My Descriptions Come Across?

Airbnb

Airbnb you have the ability to put in information regarding House Rules, Guest Access, Interaction with Guests, The Neighborhood, Getting Around, and Other things to Note. These can all be entered into your Rezfusion Boost account. If you want to add any information regarding yourself as a host you will need to do that directly in your Airbnb account. There are fields available in Boost called Private Fields that are initiated during an inquiry or post booking you can configure. These include Airbnb House Manual, Airbnb Messaging Initial Inquiry Reply, & Airbnb Directions. 

Your Airbnb area named "The Space" is coming directly from your property management system, you can make changes within your Boost account talk with your implementation specialist to consult on this.

The mandatory field within your Airbnb details is House Rules in order to be active on Airbnb, other fields help you gain super host status and have a stronger presence on Airbnb. See article here, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/431/how-do-i-make-my-listing-more-competitive

House rules will not allow any contact information regarding phone numbers, payment details, more information can be found within this article here, Airbnb House Rules Best Practices

You can control the amenities and property type that filter through to Airbnb within Rezfusion Boost and that will show within Airbnb as well. You will need to select 5 in order to send your units to Airbnb.

Ex. As a host on Airbnb, I can configure via Boost the way my listing comes across in the summary and description fields. The only field I would have to add is Host description via my Airbnb account.



Booking.com

With Booking.com you have limited access to adjust your listing. All Booking.com descriptions on listings are computer generated within Booking.com provided by your own amenity data, more information can be found here: https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/property-page/how-can-i-make-changes-my-property-description. If you are unhappy with how the description reads or find a mistake, you can request a correction to the description directly to Booking.com. They will either accept or reject the suggestion based off their best practices within their team.

You can add Hotel Property type, Services, Pet Policies, Room Amenities, Room Type, and a Smoking Policy within Rezfusion Boost that will be sent to Booking.com and help to generate the description for Booking.com.

Within Boost, you have the ability to add Host Information that will show up on your listing and can provide more context to guests that are booking. 

Ex. When I post my listing on Booking.com, the summary regarding my listing will be generated directly from Booking.com's team.



 

 

Additional Resources