Airbnb guests will soon be able to see the total cost of their stay, including cleaning and service fees, before taxes in a step towards better pricing transparency on the platform.
“Hey, what if we did Uber but for Hotels, except that we make it so its as expensive as a hotel and impose lots of ridiculous rules and expectations of our guests?”
I don’t even look at AB&B anymore when I travel. It used to be a bargain, but between ruining local real estate markets and the general asshattery of most AB&B owners, I’ll just stick with hotels.
One time I shared an Airbnb to try to cut costs on a trip. I got there around 4pm and hated it so much that by noon the next day I had already booked a hotel.
I just do king suites now since they’re about the same price as a double but include free breakfast, a kitchenette, extra pullout couch, etc. Cheaper than an Airbnb with the same (or more) amenities.
I travel a lot and used airbnb for a year or so during their heyday, I greatly preferred them to hotels. I would never go back to them now though. Ever since they started going crazy with the fees and chores, I prefer hotels where you know what you’re getting.
Yeah, it used to be great.
A while ago I got an email about my “planned trip” where I was added as a guest by someone I don’t know to a house on another continent… Because they speak another language there, everything in my email was also in that language I don’t understand as a bonus
It’s been years since I used Airbnb, just never deleted my account.
Apparently anyone can add anyone as a guest to their booking. There’s no way to decline being a guest, it just automatically accepts. There’s no way to cancel on the app yourself. And customer support kept alternating between “there’s no way this could have happened” and “anyone can do it, just block all emails from Airbnb if you don’t want to see it”.
Like, I still can’t get over how they could suggest the fix was just block all emails from their company.
So now my account is fully deleted, and Id advise anyone else with an old account to do the same.
The last thing I need is Airbnb coming after me for damages to a property someone unilaterally decided I was a guest at.
Yikes, that’s scary. I haven’t logged in in years, better see if I can dig up my password and delete my account.
Yeah, like maybe the booker just mistyped someone’s email and somehow got mine? I’d be surprised since my email doesn’t have random numbers or anything that would make it an easy mistake.
But also, if it was a scam to trash the house and have random people on the hook for damages, I have no idea how they got my email.
I have no idea what was going on, just reminded me how bad an idea it is to have an account like that with my personal and financial info just hanging out because “maybe some day Airbnb will stop sucking”.
If that every happens, I can just make a new account. That would be much less of a hassle than fighting a fraudulent charge from another country because Airbnb told me I stayed there.
Indeed. Loved the concept and have had some really great properties. If I can sus out the specific property now, I’ll see if they have a direct book and use that instead. I don’t mind the simple stuff on exit, that’s just polite, nor a small cleaning fee if the nightly cost is low (I think of it as a turning fee), but I hate having to play whack-a-mole on the site to find a property in budget when half of the fees aren’t included in the top line.
Except for large parties (me and the parents, or another family joining) in the same location, or the need for a full kitchen, there are few places where ABnB/VRBO has better pricing than major hotels with suites.
Airbnb, uber and doordash are all just attempts at market cornering.
I travel for work. Just stay at a Hampton Inn. Always coffee, breakfast, clean. Not to mention its usually close to whatever you want to go to. The garden Inn is good also, as well as holiday express. I don’t like double tree, even though they give you cookies.
Also Hamptons have a shuttle to theme parks in Orlando. Its really easy to wake up and eat breakfast then get driven to the park. Done need to worry about parking, where to get breakfast or how to get back.
It seems I went on a little rant. Oh well.
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I’m a fan of the Holiday Inn Express. Always consistent.
And those cinnamon rolls too, so tasty.
Why would you want NOT to see the total price anyway? That is so shady…
Nothing can fix Airbnb. It used to be a cheap alternative to hotels but now they are around the same price range (especially with the cleaning fees). If you are going to stay a couple of days then Airbnb starts to make sense but for short stays it’s just pointless. The biggest difference (and the reason why I stopped using Airbnb altogether) is that if you stay at a hotel or even a motel, you are treated like a guest a customer. But Airbnb hosts treat you like they are doing you a favor by letting you stay there even though you’re paying for the place. They make up 20 chores like you have to put the towels in the washer, you have to put the dishes in the dishwasher. Then what was the whole point of the cleaning fee. Just stay at a hotel.
Airbnb really needs to crack down on chores, and start treating hosts the way ebay treats sellers. If you wanna run an unregulated hotel you’d better fucking act like a hotel manager, not somebody’s mom. They’ve got people climbing over each other to be hosts, so they can afford to give bad ones the shaft.
I’m glad they’re doing this! I hate finding AirBnbs for less than hotel rooms only to discover the $200 in hidden fees bumping them above the hotel’s cost. I wanna see the all in, taxes and fees included, always.
I’ve been using airbnb for month-long rentals across Europe and I still haven’t found a good alternative.
There are no hotels that offer even remotely similar apartment size/price ratios. And I prefer apartments specifically, living in a hotel for a long time is just weird. All my airbnb hosts for the last two years have also been great. Btw, all were actual apartment owners, so none of that corporate crap. Many were helpful showing interesting places or best restaurants/shops around the neighbourhood.
On the other hand, local rental services and websites either have listings that start at 3+ months, or are completely unreliable, either taking weeks to reply or changing their mind on price or availability a few days before the arrival date.
And airbnb in Europe had that checkbox to display the final price since forever, so you’re not getting unknowingly ripped off anyway.
Is there something usable besides airbnb for 1–1.5 month long rentals across EU? At this point I’m not sure if it’s even a good idea to look for one.
It is different in Europe because of stronger consumer protection laws.
Vrbo is another option but more geared towards vacation rentals.
Personally I’ve had good experiences overall with Airbnb but it takes research to find the good ones from the suspicious listings.
This is partly because they have to do this by law in Australia, so you can go to the Airbnb.au site and use it to book rooms today with these settings.
They are just making the “hack” official to try to end run more laws compelling them to do so.
Why is it an “option” to show the full price? So like assholedesign stuff to me.
goes to see if c/assholedesign exists…
And why not include taxes? It’s not like you’re not going to be on the hook for them.
I’ve been looking for a place for the past couple weeks, doesn’t it already do this? It does in the UK at least. The price you see is the total price.
Been using airbnb for years- never ran into what you guys are complaining about. Nobody required any extra steps/chores… I do agree that the prices can be wonky- but you see it before you pay…
I’m not sure the prices even are that wonky. The cost to have someone drive to a property, clean it, and wash/dry all the bedding is by far the highest cost of anything related to running a property rental (at least in the US). That’s naturally going to make it abnormally expensive for short stays (compared to a hotel) and much cheaper for longer ones.
The problem really is that AirBnB is trying to position itself as an expedia competitor and not a vrbo competitor, and changing that will change how they are valued.
Edit: I think tiering pricing makes more sense here too. A host could easily say that the first night is $350 and subsequent nights are $150 (or something like that) and then it’d represent their cost structure better without explicitly calling out a high cleaning fee.
I think AirBnb screwed up in the same way that eBay did, where they let the price not be the price. In my opinion eBay should have made sellers enter their location and the weight/dims of the item and it’d work out a fair shipping price and not let that be changed.
