Airbnb Host Fees: Gross vs Net for UK Hosts

If you let a place on Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com, there is one number that trips up almost everyone: the amount that lands in your bank account. That payout is the tidied-up, net figure after the platform has taken its cut. HMRC does not want the tidied-up figure. It wants the full booking amount before fees, then your fees claimed separately as an expense.

Getting this the right way round matters more than it used to, because the booking platforms now report UK hosts' earnings to HMRC every January under the rules for digital platform operators. If your declared income is lower than what the platform reported, that gap is easy for HMRC to spot.

Declare the gross booking amount

Gross means the total the guest paid for the stay, before Airbnb or Vrbo deducts anything. Your payout is net: it already has the host service fee taken off, and sometimes other adjustments too. So the payout understates your real income.

The fix is simple once you know it. You report the gross booking amount as income, and then you claim the platform's fees back as an expense. The two approaches land on the same profit, but only the gross-plus-expenses version matches what the platform tells HMRC, so that is the one to use.

One thing worth clearing up: since April 2025 the old furnished holiday lettings rules have gone. Short-term let income is now treated as ordinary UK property income, the same as a normal buy-to-let. So this is all just property income on your tax return.

Host service fees are an allowable expense

The fees the platform charges you to run the booking are a genuine cost of letting your property, so they count as allowable expenses. In HMRC's language for renting out a property, these sit under legal, management and professional costs: the platform is effectively managing the booking and taking payment on your behalf.

So you can claim the host service fee, any payment-processing or commission charged to you, and similar booking costs. Keep the platform's own paperwork for this. Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com all produce earnings summaries and commission or service-fee invoices that show the gross figure and the fees separately, which is exactly the split you need.

Cleaning fees: income one way, expense the other

Cleaning causes the most confusion, because the word appears twice and means two different things.

When you add a cleaning fee to a booking and the guest pays it, that money is part of your income. It came in as part of the total booking, so it belongs in the gross figure you declare.

When you then pay a cleaner to turn the property around, that is money going out, so it is an expense you claim. The cleaning fee you charge and the cost of cleaning you pay are two separate lines. One goes in the income column, one goes in the expenses column. Do not net them off against each other in your head, because the platform is reporting the full booking (including that cleaning fee) as your income.

A worked example

Rachel lets a one-bed flat on Airbnb. Over a quarter she has bookings that total £4,000 gross. That £4,000 includes £600 of cleaning fees she charged guests on top of the nightly rate.

Airbnb takes a host service fee of, say, 3%, which is £120 across those bookings. So her payout lands at roughly £3,880.

Here is the tempting mistake: pop £3,880 down as income because that is what hit the bank. If Rachel does that, her declared income sits £120 below what Airbnb reports to HMRC, and she has also quietly lost the ability to show her real costs.

The correct version:

• Income: £4,000 (the full gross, cleaning fees included)
• Expense, platform fee: £120
• Expense, cleaner she pays: £450 for the quarter

That leaves a taxable profit of £3,430 for the quarter. Same reality, but now her figures reconcile with the platform's report and her genuine costs are captured. Over a full year those small fee and cleaning lines add up, so claiming them properly is money back in her pocket.

Where MTD fits in

If your total gross rental and self-employment income is over £50,000, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts from 6 April 2026, with £30,000 following in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Note that the threshold is measured on gross income, the turnover before expenses, so it is that £4,000-a-quarter style figure that counts, not your profit. You can check the threshold dates on GOV.UK or in our guide to MTD income thresholds.

Under MTD you keep digital records and send four quarterly updates plus a year-end tax return. Recording bookings gross with fees as expenses from the start keeps those quarterly updates clean.

This is exactly the fiddly bit software should handle for you. Quarterwise imports the earnings and commission files from Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, so the gross booking amount and the host fees come through already separated instead of you unpicking a payout by hand. There is more on reporting property income to HMRC if you want the wider picture.

This is general information, not tax advice. Please check your own position with HMRC or a qualified accountant.