Airbnb’s announcement on August 25, 2025, signaled a major turning point in its commission model. The company confirmed that the familiar split-fee system, where hosts paid about 3% and guests covered 14–16%, is being phased out.
Starting October 27, PMS-connected hosts will transition to a host-only model charged at 15.5% globally, slightly higher at 16% in Brazil.
For years, this dual-commission setup was one of Airbnb’s most recognizable policies. Hosts enjoyed lower immediate fees, while guests saw a separate “service fee” line added at checkout.
However, Airbnb’s broader shift toward total price transparency, introduced in April 2025, has changed how costs are displayed to guests. Now, only a unified price appears in search results, leaving the fee structure invisible.
The timing of this change reflects Airbnb’s broader operational aim: to simplify pricing presentation and standardize fee systems worldwide.
But while simplicity may benefit travelers, hosts and property managers must now adjust their pricing methods to maintain their earnings, particularly those using property management systems (PMS) integrated with pricing tools such as PriceLabs or Hostaway.
How Airbnb’s New 15.5% Fee Works
Under the new model, Airbnb takes a 15.5% cut directly from the host’s gross payout, covering the nightly rate, cleaning fees, and any extra guest charges. This single fee replaces both the original 3% host commission and the 14–16% guest service fee.
That change might sound steep, but it doesn’t necessarily mean lost income for hosts. The key lies in recalculating rates correctly. As outlined in official guidance, the formula to retain your previous payout is
New Price = Old Price × (0.97 / 0.845) or simply, New Price = Old Price × 1.1479.
This multiplier ensures that, after Airbnb’s 15.5% deduction, hosts continue receiving the same payout they had under the split-fee structure. For example, if a nightly rate was $100 before, it should now increase to $114.79. Airbnb’s 15.5% cut ($17.79) would then leave the host with $97, the same as before.
That 14.79% adjustment becomes especially vital for PMS-connected managers who rely on percentage markups to sync rates across multiple platforms.
Most managers will need to update their Airbnb markups from roughly 3% (used during the split-fee period) to about 18.3%, reflecting the new cost structure and ensuring parity with other channels like Booking.com or Vrbo.
Global Timelines and Who’s Affected Most
The rollout occurs in stages:
- August 25, 2025: Newly connected PMS hosts already begin under the single-fee structure.
- October 27, 2025: Most PMS-connected accounts worldwide switch automatically to 15.5% (16% in Brazil).
- December 1, 2025: Non-PMS hosts on single-fee terms also standardize to 15.5%.
The most significant disruption will hit U.S.-based property managers. Many of them were still using the split-fee setup until now, meaning their effective commission cost rose dramatically from 3% to 15.5%.
Managers across Europe and Asia, by contrast, have been operating under host-only terms since 2020 or 2021, typically at 15%. Their change is minimal, a half-point upward adjustment.
Airbnb Ranking (Credit: Reddit)
Hotels with special Airbnb Travel LLC contracts remain exempt, and listings with stays longer than 28 nights may qualify for reduced host fees. Still, the shift toward a uniform structure means nearly all professional operators will soon face identical terms across markets.
Why Total Price Display Matters More Now
One of Airbnb’s most subtle yet powerful changes came months earlier, when the company started showing the total price (excluding taxes) in search results. This adjustment means travelers no longer see a separate “guest service fee” line; they simply view one all-inclusive cost.
For hosts, that transparency neutralizes the competitive disparity between split-fee and host-only models. Whether a manager pays 3% or 15.5%, the guest never sees the breakdown. The only visible metric that affects booking decisions is the final total price.
This approach resolves long-standing confusion among users and helps Airbnb strengthen conversion rates by reducing surprises at checkout. It also allows property managers to adopt more predictable pricing strategies without worrying about how fees appear to potential guests.
How Hosts Can Protect Profit Margins
For professional hosts, preserving profit margins requires taking proactive steps right now. The basic math suggests increasing all host-charged components, nightly rates, cleaning fees, and any add-ons by roughly 14.8%.
If you use a PMS platform like Hostaway, Guesty, or Smoobu, adjusting your markup is often as simple as updating one percentage field. Typically, you’ll raise it from 3% to about 18.3%. This ensures Airbnb’s 15.5% deduction comes from the gross total while leaving your base rates unchanged in your pricing tool.
Hosts using direct Airbnb pricing (without PMS systems) must manually adjust rates or leverage Airbnb’s pricing calculator via their listing dashboard. A quick spreadsheet formula, multiplying old prices by 1.1479, will ensure consistency across all fees.
The same rule applies to cleaning fees, which also face Airbnb’s deduction. A $100 cleaning fee should rise to $114.79 if you wish to maintain the same payout.
Competitor Fee Comparison and Market Impacts
How does Airbnb’s new 15.5% fee compare to its competitors? Vrbo charges hosts a total of 8% (5% commission plus a 3% payment fee) and adds a guest service fee ranging from 6 to 15%. This structure makes Vrbo less expensive for hosts but more costly for guests.
Booking.com typically applies a 15% base commission, sometimes rising beyond 18% when combined with payment-processing or “Preferred” program costs.
Viewed holistically, Airbnb’s revised model places it roughly on par with Booking.com in terms of host-side charges but potentially more appealing to guests, thanks to the absence of extra checkout fees.
Analysts predict the pricing shift might cause some PMS managers to reconsider channel distribution. Vrbo could attract hosts aiming for slightly higher margins, while Airbnb might appeal to guests seeking clearer and potentially lower all-in pricing.
Yet for most professional hosts, platforms remain less about fee levels and more about audience reach and booking volume.
As Airbnb’s Head of Product Marketing for PriceLabs, Thibault Masson, has emphasized, “This isn’t about losing margin; it’s about understanding the new distribution cost and passing it on smartly.” His statement captures the essence of this transformation: strategic adjustment, not loss.
What Comes Next for Airbnb Hosts
By standardizing its host-only fee, Airbnb is streamlining a process that has often confused both hosts and guests. For PMS-connected managers, the transition period between late October and December 2025 is crucial. Proper markup adjustments will determine whether or not they maintain profitability.
The shift also underscores a broader industry trend of transparent pricing models replacing complex fee breakdowns. Guests prefer clarity at checkout, and Airbnb’s simplified structure delivers just that.
Meanwhile, hosts who recalibrate their rates intelligently will likely find that earnings remain consistent, if not improve slightly, as conversion rates rise under the total-price system.
From a business standpoint, the 15.5% host-only model clarifies where value resides within Airbnb’s ecosystem.
The company gains consistency across markets, hosts gain predictable accounting metrics, and guests gain straightforward pricing. The key is adaptation. With the right calculations, this change doesn’t mark a loss; it marks a recalibration.
The gaming industry’s recent wave of cancellations has left fans disappointed and developers frustrated. Titles long anticipated by players were abruptly shelved after years of development and millions in investment.
These cancellations did not merely end projects; they exposed the internal struggles, shifting priorities, and financial caution dominating major studios today.
A Chain of High-Profile Cancellations
Over the past two years, the list of cancelled franchise games has grown alarmingly long. Major developers, including Naughty Dog, Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, Respawn, and Ubisoft, have all halted projects once seen as surefire hits.
Among the most notable was The Last of Us Online, officially cancelled in December 2023. It was envisioned as a multiplayer expansion of one of PlayStation’s most acclaimed series.
After years of teasing and rumors about early footage, Naughty Dog confirmed the cancellation, citing concerns about the sustainability of live service models.
Just weeks later, Blizzard ended Project Odyssey, an ambitious survival game that had been in development since the mid-2010s. The internal team reportedly struggled with direction and technical constraints. The company’s restructuring and layoffs dealt another blow to morale, ultimately leading to its termination in January 2024.
Eidos-Montréal followed suit, cancelling an unannounced Deus Ex game in January 2024 after Embracer Group’s cost-cutting spree.
EA’s Battlefield Mobile, terminated that same month, marked the end of the publisher’s mobile shooter experiment. For every studio, the reasoning echoed: escalating costs, market saturation, and lack of clear profitability.
Live Service Dreams Collide with Harsh Realities
One of the industry’s biggest shifts in the 2020s was the obsession with live service models. Major studios like Bend Studio, Bluepoint Games, and London Studio invested heavily in online live service titles. Yet by early 2025, these projects were quietly cancelled.
Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games had both been working on multiplayer adaptations of PlayStation’s classic franchises. Publicly, the studios described a “refocus on core strengths,” but insiders hinted at internal friction between creative aspirations and executive expectations.
London Studio’s untitled live service game, cut in February 2024, represented years of effort in virtual environment design that never reached the public.
When Big Studios Pull the Plug: Behind Gaming’s Most Costly Cancellations
The growing industry skepticism became clear after Project Payback, a planned Destiny spinoff from Bungie, was shelved in mid-2024. Bungie insiders revealed that player fatigue around continuous updates and monetization models had diminished the enthusiasm for another persistent-world shooter.
These cancellations signal that while live service games can produce billion-dollar successes, such as Fortnite or Genshin Impact, most others fail to sustain long-term interest or community engagement. Studios can no longer justify sinking years and massive budgets into uncertain returns.
Franchise Fatigue and Declining Risk Appetite
Another recurring factor is franchise fatigue. Ubisoft’s cancellation of Assassin’s Creed Project Scarlet in 2024 was a wake-up call. Once the industry’s most reliable brand, Assassin’s Creed was already stretched thin by annual releases. The decision illustrated a growing reluctance to oversaturate the market.
Similarly, the cancellations of Perfect Dark, Everwild, and Hytale in 2025 reflected increased caution among publishers. Microsoft-backed studios Rare, The Initiative, and ZeniMax Online Studios all faced scrutiny for managing rising development costs with unclear gameplay direction.
By mid-2025, three of their titles had been scrapped on the same day, symbolizing how corporate restructuring now dictates creative schedules.
For Monolith Productions, the cancellation of the Wonder Woman game in early 2025 demonstrated a shift away from single-hero AAA adventures. Cliffhanger Games and EA also terminated their Black Panther project by May 2025, confirming a broader pattern: licensed superhero titles were losing their luster in a risk-conscious market.
Studio Culture and Employee Reactions
Behind these cancellations lie human stories of teams who spent five to seven years building worlds that never saw daylight. At Naughty Dog, developers described the cancellation of The Last of Us Online as emotionally draining. Many had shifted their careers entirely to multiplayer systems before the title’s sudden end.
Eidos-Montréal employees expressed frustration at how corporate restructuring abruptly ended their creative progress. For these teams, years of work vanished not due to creative failure but executive decisions driven by shareholder confidence.
Internal Slack messages from Blizzard and Bungie employees echoed similar sentiments: developers feeling blindsided by cancellations despite internal praise for their prototypes. The sudden shifts also raised concerns about mental health and job stability in gaming.
As layoffs continued to escalate through 2024 and 2025, many workers questioned the promise of “passion projects” when corporate decisions could erase progress overnight. A recurring phrase among affected teams was, “We built something great that no one will ever play.”
Investment vs. Outcome: Counting the Cost
Financial analysts estimate that collectively, the cancelled projects between 2023 and 2025 represented more than a billion dollars in sunk development costs. That figure doesn’t include marketing budgets, which often begin years before official announcements.
For example, Perfect Dark was rumored to have consumed significant resources from both The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics, with multiple engine resets and staff turnover raising costs.
Similarly, Rare’s Everwild spent half a decade in pre-production without a clear gameplay identity, increasing financial pressure on Microsoft’s internal studios.
While these investments are massive, cancellations also serve as a cost-control measure. Studios often cancel projects to avoid even greater losses, betting that reallocating resources toward proven franchises or smaller-scale innovations is wiser in the long haul. Yet for fans and creators, such logic offers little comfort.
The Future of Big-Budget Games
The lesson from these cancellations is clear: scale no longer guarantees success. The industry’s biggest names are reassessing what makes a project sustainable. Studios increasingly prioritize iterative design, smaller teams, and flexible production cycles instead of decade-long blockbusters.
Meanwhile, independent developers and AA studios have started filling the creative space left vacant by these cancelled giants. Games with modest budgets and innovative mechanics, such as Lies of P or Helldivers 2, have proven that impactful experiences don’t always need billion-dollar budgets or franchise backing.
Still, major studios remain cautious. As the global audience shifts toward multiplayer hybrids and cloud integration, developers face tough decisions about balancing creative risks against market predictability.
The casualties of 2023–2025 serve as stark reminders that even the most iconic studios are not immune to failure.
A Reset Moment for the Industry
The cancellation wave may mark a turning point for gaming’s future. Rather than a signal of crisis, it could represent an overdue correction, a move away from overambition toward creative focus.
While the loss of beloved franchises hurts, it also forces studios to rethink how they measure success beyond shareholder expectations. For developers, these experiences reaffirm an old truth: passion alone cannot protect a project from business realities.
As gaming grows more competitive and unpredictable, transparency, communication, and creative flexibility might be the industry’s path forward. The stories behind The Last of Us Online, Project Odyssey, and Perfect Dark testify to both the fragility and resilience of modern game creation.
