Airbnb is testing a new 10% mobile discount, which appears to guests who make a booking through its app. The new feature has already started appearing for some hosts through property management software, but for now it gives owners and managers far fewer options than those offered by other major platforms.
The key point that short-term rental professionals need to know is simple: Airbnb’s discount is 10% and, according to the information available so far, the host cannot change the percentage or exclude specific dates.
The feature has not yet been presented in the same way on Airbnb’s official help pages. It has been identified and documented by companies that provide short-term rental management software, including OwnerRez, Hostaway, Smoobu and NextPax.
How Airbnb’s mobile discount works
The new offer applies to bookings made through the Airbnb mobile app. The guest sees a lower price, while the discount is calculated by Airbnb during the booking process.
For the host, this means that the price set through the pricing tool or channel manager remains the basis on which the discount is calculated.
The percentage, according to the information that has become known so far, is fixed at 10%.
In other words, the owner cannot choose a 5%, 8% or 15% discount, depending on the period or property.
Even more importantly, there does not appear to be an option to exclude specific dates.
This can be a significant limitation for a manager who wants to use discounts only when demand is low.
An example
An owner may want to offer a 10% discount on an apartment in November or February, when occupancy is low, but may not want the same discount in August, at Christmas or during a three-day period with particularly high demand.
With the current data, Airbnb’s mobile discount does not appear to offer this flexibility.
And this is perhaps the most important point that differentiates Airbnb’s new tool from similar offers on other platforms.
What Booking.com and Vrbo are doing
The practice of mobile offers is not new in the market.
Booking.com has had its own Mobile Rate for years, offering a discount of at least 10% and appearing to guests who use mobile devices. The key difference is that Booking.com’s partner can determine the level of the discount and better manage the dates on which it will apply.
Vrbo now offers a similar option, having integrated mobile promotions into its promotions system in 2025.
Thus, a manager who has properties on more than one platform may find themselves facing three different approaches:
- on Airbnb, a fixed 10% discount with limited control options,
- on Booking.com, greater flexibility in adjusting the mobile discount,
- on Vrbo, the ability for the host to set the offer themselves.
The difference is not simply technical. It directly affects the pricing strategy of a property.
Why the fixed 10% concerns hosts
For a property with low occupancy, a 10% discount can be perfectly reasonable if it helps bring in additional bookings.
The question, however, is what happens to a property that already has high demand.
If, for example, an accommodation fills up easily in August, the owner probably has no reason to reduce the price by 10% to attract a guest who might have made a booking anyway.
This is also why the ability to exclude specific dates is particularly important.
The discount can be useful for “filling” difficult dates, but less useful when it applies during peak periods.
There is also a second discount for top-rated guests
Alongside the mobile discount, a second Airbnb offer has also appeared for guests with a very good history on the platform.
According to the available information, the Top-Rated Guest Discount is 15% and applies to guests who have a rating of 4.8 or higher and at least three reviews.
Here too, however, there is a point that managers need to pay attention to.
It is not yet completely clear exactly how the specific offer works in combination with other discounts.
Airbnb’s general documentation states that one offer is applied per booking. However, an update sent by OwnerRez to its customers on July 6, 2026, referred to the possibility of combining the discount for top-rated guests with other discounts.
Until there is clear and consistent information from Airbnb, managers should approach the issue with caution, as a combination of offers could significantly affect the final price and revenue per booking.
The price the guest sees may be lower within the app
There is another parameter that is of interest to hosts.
The mobile discount is calculated by Airbnb during the booking process. This means that the reduced amount is not necessarily the price that has been sent to the platform by the manager’s pricing system or channel manager.
In simple terms, Airbnb may show the app user a lower final price than the one the host has set as the base price.
For the guest, this is an incentive to complete the booking through the app.
For the owner, however, it means that part of the price competitiveness is created through a discount that affects their own revenue.
What it ultimately means for short-term rental owners
Airbnb’s new mobile discount could prove to be a useful tool, especially for properties that have gaps in their calendars.
The problem is not so much the 10% as the lack of flexibility.
A professional manager usually wants to be able to use a discount where it is actually needed: during low-demand periods, on the last available dates or on days that show low demand.
By contrast, a tool that applies the same discount without the ability to exclude dates can lead to lower revenue during periods when the property could have been booked at its regular price.
For this reason, before activating the new feature, every host should view it not only as a tool for increasing bookings, but as a pricing decision.
The critical question is not “will it bring more bookings?”, but “will the additional bookings be enough to offset the 10% discount?”
This will depend on occupancy, seasonality, demand for each property and, above all, on whether Airbnb will add more options for controlling the mobile offer in the future.
