How to read your Airbnb earnings report

Airbnb's earnings report is the one document that explains every number in your hosting year, as long as you read it by row type and by column meaning, not by total. Most of the confusion comes from adding up the wrong rows or the right rows twice.

Here is how to get it, what each line is telling you, and the four checks that tell you it's right.

Getting the report

From your host account, open Menu → Earnings, then View earnings summary → Get CSV report. You can filter by dates, listing and earnings type, and for money already paid, by payout method.

Two views matter. Paid is money that has already left Airbnb for your account. Upcoming is money for reservations that haven't paid out yet. For anything to do with a finished month or year, work from Paid, because upcoming amounts can still change with cancellations and adjustments.

Don't go looking for exact column names.

Airbnb renames, adds, and removes columns in this export from time to time, and hosts regularly find a field they relied on has moved. So look for each column by what it contains. Whatever it's called, every reservation carries the same handful of facts:

• Which listing the booking was for, and the dates or nights.
• The gross amount: what the booking was worth before Airbnb took anything.
• The service fee: Airbnb's cut, now a single 15.5% for most hosts.
• Cleaning fee, if you charge one. It's part of the booking, not extra money on top.
• Taxes collected, where Airbnb collects occupancy or tourist tax from the guest and passes it to the authority for you.
• Any fast-pay fee, if you chose to be paid early.
• The amount paid out: what actually left Airbnb for your bank.

If you can find those seven things, you can read any version of the report.

One reservation, read line by line.

A made-up example, round numbers, to show how the pieces fit:

Notice what the service fee is calculated on: the subtotal of nights and cleaning, not the tax. The tax comes in and goes straight out again, so it never belongs to you, but it still sits inside the gross figure. That's one of the reasons gross is always bigger than what you received. The full picture of that gap is here.

The mistake that doubles your income

An export can contain more than one kind of row. Some lines describe a reservation. Others describe a payout, the transfer that bundled one or more reservations together. Adjustments, resolution payments, and cancellations can appear as their own lines too.

If your file has both payout lines and reservation lines, add up one kind, never both. Summing the whole amount column counts the same money twice, once as the booking and again as the transfer that paid it. Filter by the row type first, then total.

Reservation lines are the useful ones for your books, because they carry the listing. Payout lines are the useful ones for checking against your bank. How to split a payout that covers several listings.

Four checks before you trust the numbers

1. Payouts match the bank. Total the paid-out amounts for a month. It should equal the Airbnb deposits on your bank statement for the same period, give or take a transfer that landed a day or two later.

2. The arithmetic closes on every line. Gross, minus the service fee, minus taxes collected, minus any fast-pay fee, should equal the payout. A line that doesn't close usually has an adjustment attached to it.

3. The dates are the ones you meant. Check whether the date you filtered on is the payout date or the stay date. A stay that crosses a month end, or New Year, can land in a different period from the one you expected.

4. Every listing is present. Filter by listing once. A property with no rows in a month when you know it was booked means a filter is hiding something.

Do those four once a month, and the report stops being a January problem.

If you're also tidying up what guests see, the free guest guidebook templates are 18 editable Canva pages covering check-in, wifi, house rules, and local tips.

Where the report stops helping

The export is Airbnb only. Vrbo, Booking.com, and direct bookings each keep their own records in their own format, so a year across several channels means several files that don't line up with each other.

It also shows income only. Cleaners, supplies, repairs, and utilities live in your bank and your receipts, and nothing in Airbnb's report connects them to a listing.

That's the job our rental income and expense tracker does. Airbnb's export pastes straight into it, bookings from other channels sit in the same ledger, and expenses are recorded against the same listings, so each property shows what it actually earned after fees and costs.

Start by downloading this year's report and running the four checks on one month. And the guest guidebook templates are free here.

Common questions

Where do I download my Airbnb earnings report?

In your host account, open Menu → Earnings, then View earnings summary → Get CSV report. You can filter by dates, listing and earnings type before you download.

Why does my Airbnb CSV total look too high?

The most common cause is adding up both reservation rows and payout rows, which counts the same money twice. Filter to one row type first, then total.

What's the difference between Paid and Upcoming earnings?

Paid is money that has already left Airbnb for your account. Upcoming is for reservations that haven't paid out yet and can still change with cancellations or adjustments. Use Paid for a finished month or year.

Does the Airbnb earnings report include my expenses?

No. It shows income, fees and taxes only. Cleaners, supplies, repairs and utilities have to be recorded separately and matched to each listing yourself.

This article is for organizational purposes only and is not tax or accounting advice. It describes how Airbnb presents earnings data, not what you should report. Confirm your filing with a qualified professional in your own country.