Airbnb’s shifting fee structure is shaking hosts, but the real issue goes deeper—pricing psychology, guest behavior, and knowing your market.
In this episode, Thibault shares actionable strategies that hosts can use to protect margins, win more bookings, and scale smarter.
• Why Airbnb’s new fee model has hosts freaking out
• How to price for what guests see (not what you keep)
• Tools like PriceLabs—and why they’re useless without context
• How European vs. U.S. guests think about fees differently
• When to simplify pricing and present “one clean price”
• The principles of occupancy, demand, and market alignment
00:05:12 – 3 Pricing Foundations Every Host Must Know
00:07:02 – Why Hosts Are Freaking Out About Airbnb Fees
00:08:22 – The Real Reason Airbnb Changed Its Fees
00:09:15 – The Only Price That Matters to Guests
00:10:24 – Why “One Clean Price” Converts Better
00:11:50 – Airbnb vs. Vrbo vs. Booking.com Costs Compared
00:12:09 – How Airbnb Went From Host-Friendly to Guest-First
00:24:50 – Are More Bookings Always Better?
00:25:04 – AI + Pricing Strategy: Where the Future Is Headed
00:25:22 – Who Owns Mistakes—You or the Machine?
Guest Bio:
Thibault Masson is the Head of Product Marketing at PriceLabs. His short-term rental journey started as a villa owner in Bali and St. Barts, which gave him firsthand insight into the opportunities and challenges of hosting. That passion for hospitality later brought him to Booking.com, where he worked on vacation rental strategy at a global scale, and inspired him to launch Rental Scale-Up as a platform for industry knowledge-sharing. Today at PriceLabs, Thibault brings together his experience as a host, tech marketer, and industry advocate to help property managers worldwide grow through smarter pricing and revenue management.
Guest Link:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibaultmasson
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