Why Our Service Fees Exist — and What They Mean
Let’s talk openly about something most platforms hide behind small print: service fees.
Yes, ours are higher. And no, that’s not something we take lightly.
We’re not a Silicon Valley Giant. We’re family.
misterb&b was born from a simple idea: that LGBTQ+ people deserve to travel safely, feel at home anywhere, and meet each other in spaces where we’re free to be ourselves.
But we’re not a billion-dollar company with thousands of employees or massive tech infrastructure. We’re a small, independent team of 30 queer humans, building this with love, resilience, and way too much caffeine.
We don’t have global corporate backing; what we have is a mission: to make travel safer, more inclusive, and full of real human connection. Every member of our team is personally committed to that mission because for us, this isn’t just business, it’s personal.
Why are our costs different?
When you serve a niche community, not the mainstream, things get harder, not cheaper.
We operate in more than 200 countries and 300,000 localities. That means we deal with strict financial regulations, ongoing discussions with governments, local tax collection and payments, and legal compliance, the same obligations global giants face, but far harder to absorb when you don’t process millions of bookings every day.
On top of that, we invest over $1 million every year in technology to keep misterb&b running securely:
- maintaining two mobile apps and our global booking platform,
- preventing fraud and identity theft,
- verifying hosts and license numbers in thousands of municipalities,
- ensuring payments and refunds are safe and instant.
These are not luxuries; they’re what it takes to keep LGBTQ+ travel legal, safe, and welcoming everywhere.
The LGBTQ+ people behind the platform
Behind every booking are 25 team members, from our multilingual customer care team to our Trust & Safety heroes, all dedicated to making sure your trip goes smoothly.
They’re LGBTQ+ themselves, living proof of why we exist: to create jobs, visibility, and dignity for our community.
When you message support, you’re not talking to an outsourced call center. You’re talking to one of us, someone who understands.
Where your fees go
Here’s what your service fees make possible:
- Keeping our platform and apps secure and up to date.
- Paying fair wages to LGBTQ+ employees around the world.
- Covering 5% in unavoidable banking and payment processing fees.
- Managing tax compliance in hundreds of thousands of cities.
- Running campaigns to help LGBTQ+ hosts be seen and booked.
- Funding Mister for Good, which directly supports queer nonprofits and even helps displaced LGBTQ+ people, like the refugees from Ukraine now safely housed in Berlin and Lisbon, thanks to our community.
A fragile ecosystem worth protecting
Could we make our fees cheaper? We wish we could.
But keeping misterb&b alive, compliant, and truly safe comes with the same structural costs that global giants face, except they process millions more bookings every day, spreading those costs across enormous volumes. For us, each booking carries a real weight.
Every euro you spend here isn't just a fee; it’s a vote for belonging.
It’s your contribution to keeping a fragile ecosystem alive: a world where LGBTQ+ travelers can stay, connect, and feel seen, and this counts a lot nowadays.
Your booking isn’t just a trip. It’s a statement: that visibility, safety, and love still matter, and always will.