Stayz has recently changed to a purely commission-based model, which angered many homeowners subscribing to the site. Could this mean more would subscribe to Airbnb in the coming days?
Stayz has changed its profit scheme to commission-based, which could mean an increase of up to 600 percent on fees being paid for by property owners, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. As a result, many subscribers went berserk and are thinking of pulling out their ads and moving them to Airbnb, another popular online holiday rental site.
According to Stayz owner Anton Stanish, the adjustment is done to make payments more just for all home owners.
"More than half of our owners will pay the same or less than they did last year, assuming they accept the same number of bookings as they did last year. (But) some owners will pay more this year for the same number of bookings, but they were getting a steal before - significantly below industry standard commission rates," Stanish told The Australian.
Stayz used to have a fixed $15.90 a night commission per property. However, with the new scheme, every owner needs to pay a 10 percent of the rental fee per night. Therefore, if an accommodation costs $200, home owners will have to pay the American-based site with $20.
On the other hand, Stayz abolished their mandatory fee of $164 per year which is paid for by property owners.
If the Stayz ad posters will indeed move to Airbnb, they would only have to pay a commission of three percent of the rental fee per night. Therefore for a $200 home rent, the owner would only need to pay $6 to Airbnb, which is $14 less than what they will be paying to Stayz.
According to one home owner listing his house on Stayz, many are getting ratty about the new payment scheme. He revealed that there is not much profit from home rentals as people might think and so the Airbnb deal looks more reasonable at the moment.