Taxes and Fees applied in OTAs

If you are connected to Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, or HomeAway/VRBO via the channel manager, taxes and fees will be exported in a specific way. In the following, you will learn how fees and taxes are synchronized with each platform, how taxes are calculated, and how fees and taxes are displayed in OTA bookings.

Read about:

Which fees and taxes are synchronized

Please carefully consult the below table prior to setting up your Fees and Rental Taxes.

💡 Note: Tax remittance is managed by the respective OTAs. Please refer to their support channels for further information.

  Fees Taxes
Airbnb 
(REST API)
Please review the table below.
  • ✔️ Taxes set as percentages are exported (will be separated from the room rate).
  • ❗ Fixed amounts are only exported if they are set as per guest per night (will be separated from the room rate).
  • ❌ Fixed amounts that are set as a single charge per stay are not exported.

⚠ Important: The exportation of taxes to Airbnb in general depends on your Airbnb tax collection scenario.

Booking.com

If you are connected with full sync:

See the table below

If you are connected with partial sync:

  • ✔️ Fees set as percentages are exported (will get included in the room rate).
  • ❌ Fixed amounts are not exported.
  • ❌ Short stay fees (set under Additional restrictions) are not exported.

If you are connected with full sync:
All tax types are supported regardless of their calculation method, except for Tourism Assessment and Unknown tax types.

If you are connected with partial sync:
Only taxes set as percentages are exported (will get included in the room rate).

Expedia

❌ Fees are not exported.

❌ Taxes are not exported.
HomeAway/VRBO

✔️ Fees set as a percentage or flat fee are exported (will be separated from the room rate).

✔️ If you have two or more fees with the same fee type, both fees will be exported to Vrbo.

✔️ Taxes set as a percentage or flat fee are exported (will be separated from the room rate).

Airbnb fees synchronization

Fees exportation

If you have two or more fees with the same fee type:

  • With different calculation models: these fees won't be exported to Airbnb. You will need to change the fee type or remove duplicates for them to be exported.
  • With the same calculation model: The amounts will be summed, and a single fee will be exported to Airbnb. All fees are included in the nightly price, while only taxes are displayed as a separate line item.

In this table, find whether the fees are exported to Airbnb based on their type and calculation model:

Fee type Single charge per stay Single charge per night Single charge per guest per stay Single charge per guest per night
Cleaning (Flat amount)
Short-term cleaning (Flat amount)
Pet (Flat amount)

💡 Note: It can also be configured per animal per stay

Linen¹ (Flat amount)
Community² (Percentage or flat)
Management³ (Percentage or flat)
Resort⁴ (Percentage or flat) ✅ 
Unknown ❌ Not sent to Airbnb

¹ Any fee categorized under Linens, LinensBath, LinensBed in Lodgify will be sent to Airbnb as a Linen Fee.
² Any fee categorized under AdditionalBed, AirConditioning, BabyBed, Electricity, Equipment, Gas, Heating, Internet, Parking, Spa, Toiletries, UtensilsCleaning, Water, Wood in Lodgify will be sent to Airbnb as a Community Fee.
³ Any fee categorized under Class, DrinkingWater, FoodUtensils, Gardening, HotTub, Laundry, Oil, OnSitePaymentMethod, WaterCraft, or WaterCraftMooring in Lodgify will be sent to Airbnb as a Management Fee.
⁴ Any fee categorized under Concierge, DamageProtectionInsurance, Food, HighChair, Labor, Phone, Pool, PoolHeating, PropertyAssociation, Rent, Resort, ServiceFee, Tour, Transportation, TravelInsurance, Vehicle in Lodgify will be sent to Airbnb as a Resort Fee.

Fees mapping

The fee names in Airbnb may not match exactly with those in Lodgify. For instance, Lodgify’s “Additional bed” fee corresponds to Airbnb’s “CommunityFee”.

When several Lodgify fee types map to the same fee category in Airbnb, they will be combined and displayed as a single total fee. This is particularly important to consider when using the taxable base feature.

The table below shows the different Lodgify fee types and how they sync with Airbnb.

Fee Type Airbnb
Additional bed CommunityFee
Air conditioning
Baby bed
Electricity
Equipment
Gas
Heating
Internet
Parking
Spa
Toiletries
Utensils (cleaning)
Water
Wood
Class ManagementFee
Drinking water
Food utensils
Gardening
Hot tub
Laundry
Management fee
Oil
On-site payment method
Water craft
Water craft (mooring)
Concierge ResortFee
Food
High chair
Labor
Phone
Pool
Pool heating
Property association
Rent
Resort
Service fee
Tour
Transport
Travel insurance
Vehicle
Linens LinenFee
Linens (bath)
Linens (bed)
Pet fee PetFee
Cleaning fee CleaningFee
Security deposit SecurityDeposit
Unknown N/A

Booking.com fees synchronization (full sync)

If your rental is connected in full sync, use this table to see whether the fees are exported to Booking.com based on their type and calculation model:

Fee type Supported Fee name on Booking.com Supported calculation type Notes
AdditionalBed Rollaway fee All  
AirConditioning Air conditioning fee All  
CleaningFee Cleaning fee All  
Electricity Electricity fee All  
Gas Gas fee All  
Heating Heating fee All  
Internet Internet fee Flat /single charge/ per night This is sent as information but is not included in the guest fare calculation.
Linens Linen package fee All  
LinensBath Towel charge All  
LinensBed Bed linen fee All  
Oil Oil fee All  
Parking Parking fee Flat /single charge/ per night or stay This is sent as information but is not included in the guest fare calculation.
PropertyAssociation Club card fee All  
Resort Resort fee All  
ServiceFee Service charge All  
Transportation Transfer fee All  
Wood Wood fee All  
Water Water usage fee All  
PetFee     If the “Pets Allowed” amenity is turned on, guests will see that it is allowed and charges may apply.
BabyBed      
Class      
Concierge      
DamageProtectionInsurance      
DrinkingWater      
Equipment      
Food      
FoodUtensils      
Gardening      
HighChair      
HotTub      
Labor      
Laundry      
ManagementFee      
MiscCharges      
NULL      
OnSitePaymentMethod      
Phone      
Pool      
PoolHeating      
Rent      
Spa      
Toiletries      
Tour      
TravelInsurance      
Unknown      
UtensilsCleaning      
Vehicle      
WaterCraft      

How taxes and fees are calculated in Airbnb (REST API)

Taxes

Taxes exported to Airbnb via REST API will show separated from the room rate in the quote.
They are calculated on the amount of the base rate. They will be shown as a separate line item in the Airbnb quote.

🔎 Example: In Lodgify, you have set up 2.5% City tax and 20% VAT. The amount exported to Airbnb will be 22.5% and the taxes will be separated from the room rate in Airbnb's quote. 

Your setup in Lodgify Price sent to Airbnb

Your room rate in Lodgify is: $100

City tax: 2.5%

VAT: 20%

Room rate sent to Airbnb: $100.00

Taxes sent to Airbnb: 22.5% * 100 = $22.50

🔎 Example with cleaning fees: In Lodgify, the VAT for cleaning fees will be included in the taxes line of Airbnb's price breakdown. If you have set up a 10% VAT on the cleaning fees, this VAT amount will be separated from the room rate in Airbnb's quote and showed in the taxes:

Your setup in Lodgify Price sent to Airbnb

Your room rate in Lodgify is: $100

VAT for the room rate: 20%

Your cleaning fees in Lodgify are: $50

VAT for the cleaning fees: 10%

City tax: 2.5%

Room rate sent to Airbnb: $150.00

Taxes sent to Airbnb: (22.5% * $100) + (10% * $50) = $27,5

Make sure to select the appropriate Tax type in the configuration of the tax. To do so:

  1. Go to Settings, click Local taxes.
  2. Choose to create a new tax, or Edit a tax by clicking on the three dots.
  3. Then scroll down to the Tax Types section:
    Screenshot
  4. Once done creating / editing your taxes, click Save.

If your tax Scenario allows, make sure to add both the Business tax ID and the TOT registration ID into the respective fields, at the bottom of the Pricing section of your rental. Find out more here about what a Business Tax ID is and where to find it.

Taxable base for Airbnb

The availability of taxable base is currently limited to some accounts.

The taxable base lets you define which items a tax should apply to.
🔎 For example, if you need to set a tourist tax that only applies to the base price, you would set the tourist tax at 3%, and it would apply only to the Base Price.
Screenshot 2025-05-06 at 11.06.20.png

This option is only available for Local taxes calculated as a percentage.
You can apply it to the following items: Base Price, Cleaning Fee, Linen Fee, Resort Fee, Management Fee, Community Fee, Pet Fee.

You must select at least one taxable base per rule, with multiple selections allowed.

When you select a taxable base using one of the fee types supported by Airbnb, the tax will apply to all fees that are mapped to the corresponding Airbnb fee type. For example, if you set up a hotel tax with CommunityFee as the taxable base, the tax will apply to all fees mapped as CommunityFee on Airbnb, such as Additional bed, Air conditioning, etc, if any of these are set up in your account. You can find the full list of fee mappings here.

Airbnb tax collection scenarios

You have 4 possible tax collection scenarios that you can apply to your Airbnb listings.

  1. Go to your Rentals section, then click on the rental you want to edit.
  2. Click Sync Settings and scroll to the section Airbnb API. 
  3. Click on the three dots at the right to Edit Listing Settings, and go to the section Taxes.
  4. Now check your Airbnb tax collection scenario.Screenshot
If your Airbnb tax collection scenario is... this means.... Action to take if you don't want to export taxes to Airbnb
Ineligible Airbnb either automatically collects and remits certain taxes, or occupancy taxes are not supported. You won't have the option to export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb. The toggle Send user taxes will be disabled and no changes will be required from your side in Lodgify.
No Airbnb collected tax Airbnb does not collect or remit any taxes. 
In this case, if you don’t export taxes from Lodgify, no taxes will be applied to your Airbnb listings.
To export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, enable the toggle I acknowledge that I understand the tax collection scenario, as well as the toggle Send user taxes. If you don't want to export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, disable both toggles.
Override Airbnb collected tax Airbnb automatically collects and remits certain taxes in this area. 
In this case, you have the option to export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb. However, this will override the taxes collected from Airbnb.  
To export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, enable the toggle I acknowledge that I understand the tax collection scenario, as well as the toggle Send user taxes. If you don't want to export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, disable both toggles. 
Stacked Airbnb collected tax Airbnb automatically collects and remits certain taxes in this area. Occupancy tax values, if specified, are added to the default values, and taxes are remitted to the host. To export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, enable the toggle I acknowledge that I understand the tax collection scenario, as well as the toggle Send user taxes. If you don't want to export taxes from Lodgify to Airbnb, disable both toggles.

Fees

All fees will be included in the room price.

🔎 Examples:

Fee set as a %

💡 Note: The pet fee must be calculated as a flat amount.

Your room rate in Lodgify is: $100

Resort fee: 5%

Price exported to Airbnb: $105
Fee set as a flat amount.

Your room rate in Lodgify is: $100

Cleaning fee: $25

Resort fee: $5

Price exported to Airbnb: $130

If you don’t want to send fees to Airbnb because you already have them calculated from Airbnb's side, or you don't want them to be included in the room price:

You can restrict fees to specific OTAs.
For example, you can exclude a fee from Airbnb by adjusting the fee restrictions.
Then click Save.

💡 Note: By default, restrictions apply to all connected OTAs.

How taxes and fees are calculated in Booking.com

Taxes will be added to the daily price sent to Booking.com only if set as % in Lodgify. If you have more than one tax created in % inside Lodgify, they will be summed up. The taxes will be included in the room price of the quote received from Booking.com, so they won't be listed separately.

💡 Note: Since October 1, 2025, in certain regions of Canada, Booking.com automatically calculates, withholds, and remits specific taxes when payments are made via virtual credit card (VCC). You can find more information in our dedicated article and in Booking.com's official documentation.
 

🔎 Example:
In Lodgify you have set up 2.5% City tax and 20% VAT. The amount exported to Booking.com will be 22.5% and the taxes will be included in the price of the Booking.com quote.

Your setup in Lodgify Price sent to Booking.com

Your room rate in Lodgify is: $100

Mark-up: 15%

City tax: 2.5%

VAT: 20%

Cleaning fee: Needs to be set up in Booking.com

This is an example of how room rates, fees, and taxes are broken down in Lodgify.Screenshot

Total price sent to Booking.com: $137.5

(= 100 + 15% + 2.5%+ 20%)

 

This is an example of how room rates, fees, and taxes are broken down in Booking.com.Screenshot 02-22-2021 10.33.55.png

💡 Note: If you don’t want to send taxes to Booking.com because you already have them calculated from Booking.com's side, or you don't want them to be included in the room price, you can:

  • Use a negative mark-up:

Follow these steps:

  1. First, download this excel file to calculate the negative mark-up %.
  2. Then go to the Pricing page of your rental(s) and scroll to the section mark-up. 
  3. Enter your desired negative mark-up % (preceded by a minus sign). Then save the changes. 

OR

You can restrict taxes to specific OTAs.
For example, you can exclude a tax from Booking.com by adjusting the fee restrictions..
Then click Save.

💡 Note: By default, restrictions apply to all connected OTAs.

How taxes and fees are calculated in Expedia

Taxes and fees are not sent to Expedia. Lodgify only sends the room price to Expedia, so you will need to set up your taxes inside your Expedia partner central as well as in Lodgify. Understand your tax setup in Lodgify.
 

Here you can see how the quote will show up in Lodgify. All fees will be summed up in the Miscellaneous amount separated from the room rate.Screenshot

 

How taxes and fees are calculated in HomeAway/VRBO

Taxes and fees are sent to HomeAway/VRBO and are shown separately from your room price inside a HomeAway quote. The price breakdown will show exactly the same as for a booking created inside your Lodgify website.

💡 Note: For VRBO, the tax will only be calculated on the room rate.
Screenshot


 

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