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.

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Which fees and taxes are synchronized

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

💡 Note:  If your taxes and fees have restrictions applied (e.g. Stay of night restrictions) they won't be exported to the channels.

  Fees Taxes
Airbnb
(REST API)
  • ✔️ Fees set as percentages are exported and will get included in the room rate (except for the cleaning fee).
  • ❗ Fixed amounts are only exported if they are set as a single charge per stay (e.g. Cleaning fee).
  • ❌ Fixed amounts that are set as a per guest per night are not exported.
  • ✔️ 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: If taxes, in general, are exported to Airbnb or not depends on your Airbnb tax collection scenario.

Booking.com
  • ✔️ 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.

✔️ 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).

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

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 total amount of the Room Rate + Cleaning fee. 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% = €22.50

 

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 Fees and Taxes section of your rental.

 

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

Fees can be exported to Airbnb as long as they are set as a % or as a fixed amount as a single charge per stay.

🔎 Examples:

Fee set as a %

💡 Note: All fees will be included in the room price.

Your room rate in Lodgify is: €100

Resort fee: 5%

Price exported to Airbnb: €105

Fee set as Cleaning fee with a fixed amount single charge per stay.

💡 Note: All cleaning fees will be summed up and will be displayed separately from the room price.

Your room rate in Lodgify is: €100

Cleaning fee: €25

Linen fee: €10

Price exported to Airbnb: €100

Cleaning fee exported to Airbnb: €35

Fee set NOT set as Cleaning or Linen fee with a fixed amount, single charge per stay.
💡 Note: All fees will be included in the room price.

Your room rate in Lodgify is: €100

Resort fee: 5€

 

Price exported to Airbnb: €105

💡 Note: 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 use derived rates.

To use derived rates, follow these steps:

  1. Check out this article from our Knowledge Base to learn how to set up derived rates.
  2. Once you created the derived rates, please contact our Connectivity Team to connect your derived rate to your Airbnb connection.

How taxes and fees are calculated in Booking.com

Taxes will be added to the daily rate 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.

🔎 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: €344

(= 250 + 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 either use negative mark-up, or use derived rates.

To use a negative mark-up To use derived rates

Follow these steps:

  1. First, download this excel file to calculate the negative mark-up %.
  2. Then go to the Channels page of your rental(s) and scroll to the section Booking.com API. 
  3. Click on the little pencil icon and enter your desired negative mark-up % (preceded by a minus sign). Then save the changes. 

Follow these steps:

  1. Check out this article from our Knowledge Base to learn how to set up derived rates.
  2. Once you created the derived rates, please contact our Connectivity Team to connect your derived rate to your Booking.com account.

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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