Renting out a home on Airbnb can be a good way to earn some extra cash — but a new fee policy shows how quickly the economics of running a short-term rental can change.

By Sept. 15, Airbnb is moving all U.S. hosts to a new fee structure, the company says. Under the old system, hosts generally paid a service fee equal to 3% of the booking subtotal while guests paid a separate 14.1% to 16.5% service fee on top of that price at checkout. Under the new system, hosts will instead pay a single 15.5% service fee, with no separate service fee added for guests at checkout.

The move may prompt some hosts to raise their listed prices to avoid earning less from bookings. When Airbnb moved an earlier cohort of hosts to the new structure last year, about 30% raised prices enough to fully offset the higher fee and another 30% partially offset it, according to an analysis by short-term rental data firm AirDNA.

The change has led to complaints on Airbnb host forums, including from commenters who say they're considering leaving the platform or switching to long-term rentals. But other hosts tell CNBC they're taking the change in stride, while raising listed prices to preserve their payouts.

"I feel like the new 15.5% is more transparent," says Chris Dickey, a communications professional in Jackson, Wyoming, who has rented out a single-family home in Moab, Utah, since 2021. Dickey raised his listed prices to account for the fee, while keeping the total price guests pay roughly the same.

"We are seeing a slow-down of booking, though, so I would suspect that the market has yet to normalize the fee change," Dickey says. 

Airbnb tells CNBC Make It the change is intended to give guests clearer upfront pricing, which it believes could help drive demand and benefit hosts.

The fee change is just one variable short-term rental owners have to manage. Fluctuating demand, operating costs and local regulations can also determine whether a property makes money, hosts tell CNBC Make It.

Short-term rentals are "not an easy way to make money. Far from it. It's very intense," says Sébastien Long, founder and CEO of furnished-rental operator Lodgeur. "You kind of have to be a little bit of a masochist to go into this."

What to consider before becoming a short-term rental host

Short-term rental hosts may rent out a single room or home or manage portfolios of hundreds of units, but even at the smallest scale, hosting requires active management of pricing, expenses, guests and the property itself — and can take up a significant amount of an owner's time.

"Hospitality shouldn't be a hobby," says Long, whose company operates about 200 furnished rentals in Texas. "It's quite a serious undertaking to host people in a home."

That applies even at the mom-and-pop level. Dickey, who owns a three-bedroom rental house and manages it himself, says "it's definitely a small business."

If you're looking for "passive income and not active income, don't touch it," says Jason Baxter, founder of short-term rental revenue management firm Marketics. "If you don't like hospitality, don't touch it." 

Hosts and short-term rental operators who spoke with CNBC Make It highlighted four factors that can determine a rental's success: 

1. Booking platforms

Hosts have to account for changes to booking platform fees and policies, including Airbnb's new fee structure.

"Airbnb is the market leader by a long shot and has the largest marketplace of renters," Dickey says. "Unfortunately, as an STR owner, you just have to play by their rules."

That dependence can extend beyond fees and policies to how hosts reach potential guests. Long says changes to a platform's search algorithm can affect where listings appear in search results, which can influence how much exposure they receive.

2. Pricing and demand

Before buying a property to use as a short-term rental, owners need to consider local competition, seasonal demand and the rates they can realistically charge, says Avery Carl, who owns and self-manages 10 short-term rentals and runs The Short Term Shop, a real estate brokerage specializing in short-term rentals.

"Location really matters," Dickey says. "I do think that there are a lot of amateur Airbnb owners who fail to fully do their homework before buying an STR property."

Dickey says owners can run into trouble by buying in an oversaturated market and then struggling to fill the property.

Pricing also requires ongoing management. Carl says two identical homes in the same neighborhood can generate "wildly different income numbers" based on how they're managed. She recommends regularly reviewing and adjusting nightly rates based on demand and competition, even when using automated pricing tools.

"Systems are great, but you have to manage the systems," says Carl.

3. Operating costs

Cleaning, maintenance, utilities, insurance and other expenses reduce what owners ultimately earn from a property.

"This is something that investors should research and have an idea of before they buy," Carl says. She recommends estimating monthly operating expenses in advance and keeping an emergency fund for costly repairs.

Some costs can be easy to underestimate. "Cleaning is always the sleeper," Dickey says. He typically budgets for 2.5 hours of cleaning between guests, but says the work often takes longer, particularly when washing and drying linens is factored in.

Hosts can still offset some of that expense by charging guests a cleaning fee. But Airbnb has acknowledged guest frustration over cleaning fees and advises hosts that setting them too high can discourage bookings.

Airbnb allows hosts to charge guests a separate cleaning fee to help cover those costs. But because the fee adds to the total price of a stay, hosts also have to consider how much guests are willing to pay.

The accumulation of smaller expenses is "death by 1,000 cuts," including maintenance and software services hosts may use to manage their properties, Long says.

4. Local regulations

Local regulations can determine where short-term rentals are allowed and impose additional permitting, licensing and tax costs on owners.

Those rules can also change after an owner has already begun operating. New York City began enforcing new registration requirements in 2023 that further restricted Airbnb-style rentals of entire homes or apartments for stays of less than 30 days.

To mitigate that risk, "investors should choose vacation markets dependent on tourism, with a longstanding and established short-term rental industry," Carl says, where restricting STRs "would so negatively affect the local economy that it's extremely unlikely to happen."

Regulations can also benefit existing operators by limiting new competition. Dickey's Moab property has commercial accommodation zoning in a community where new short-term rentals are difficult to develop.

"The local regulations can definitely be pricey, but in our case, they also protect us from over-saturation by making it nearly impossible for new STRs to be developed," Dickey says.

Either way, prospective owners should research both the current rules and the regulatory history of a market before entering the short-term rental market, says Long.

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