I think this is an underestimate. They also charge a per-booking transaction to the person booking. It is around $10. Assuming that the average booking is 3-nights that's another $3M.
You're right. I suppose the 3% is meant to just about cover the credit card fees then.
E.g. http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/73581 . Click the 'more info' link that's just below the 'Book it' button. It says in tiny print "Excludes Airbnb service fee ($9)".
Odd how they're hiding that fee; much worse than the typical hotel website that tries to hide taxes. Airbnb folks, I know you're reading: that instantly changed my impression of you guys from awesome to sleazy. Please make it more visible.
Hotels, unlike Airbnb, get to make money off of the actual room charge. They also get to charge high rates for late bookings and general "just because."
Airbnb is a different business model than hotels. The $9 service fee is something that I happily pay for their service.
Edit: it is also right there on the submit reservation page:
Yes, instead of hiding it under that little 'more info' link they should probably just show it with the room cost, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them sleazy.
I just used them two weeks ago for a trip to SF, and never felt surprised by their service fee during the booking process.
