Airbnb charges a service fee each time a booking is confirmed. There are two different fee structures: a split fee and a host-only fee.
With the split fee, the host pays 3% to Airbnb. The exception is for host that have very Super Strict cancellation policies. This fee is calculated from the booking subtotal (nightly rate, cleaning fee, plus any additional guest fee, excluding Airbnb fees and taxes) and is automatically deducted from the host payout. In this situation, the guest pays 14.2% or less of the total booking subtotal.
For host-only fees, the entire service fee of 14-16% of the booking subtotal is taken from the host's payout. Hosts with Super Strict cancellation policies may pay more.
In the UK, Airbnb service fees have 20% VAT applied.