The shapes differ, not just the numbers. A licence is fixed: it bills the same in February as
in August, booked or empty. A percentage fee is variable, costing nothing on a dead month and
real money on a full one. Which suits you depends on how full you are.
The figures below come from our published indicative model. It is a market model for
Bournemouth and Dorset, not a record of what our properties have earned, and not a quote. Take
a two-bedroom flat in central Bournemouth: an indicative base of £142 a night, a central
multiplier of 1.10, so about £156. At the 68% occupancy the model assumes for a
well-distributed, actively priced property, that is roughly £38,700 a year. At 47%, its
assumption for a property on one or two channels at a rate that never moves, roughly £26,800.
On the higher figure, 5% is about £1,900 a year and
15% about £5,800. Now price option one properly. Add your licences per
property per month, then add the part nobody invoices: count last month's hours honestly, every
message, every rate change, every call to a plumber, and multiply by what an hour of your time
is worth. Software is cheap only if your hours are free.
Judge it on what lands in your account at the end of the year, in pounds, not percentages. The
arithmetic runs further in
management fees explained and in
managed versus self-managed Airbnb.