Airbnb (USA) debuts all-in-one pricing

[JJD]

@muddy

but I think the majority of guests do want to see the total when searching.

They aleady see the total when searching. It’s not new. It has always been there as long as I can remember. It is nothing but a nasty rumor from dumb guests that there isn’t a total shown (because it is not possible to show a total if they don’t put dates in, obviously). Let me show you again how the total for the stay prior to taxes is always shown on the search page and then the total with taxes is always shown on the listing page.Now you tell me that you don’t see the total price on those listings in the search that I screenshot.

and then you can click for the breakdown of the price:

Maybe I need to put it context of the whole web page to make it clearer. This is a random search for a place to stay in Boston for 4 nights. Look at the list of listings. They all show a price, under the nightly price, that includes all of the fees, service, cleaning and whatnot. You can tap on the full price and see a breakdown for the total that is being shown. It includes everything but tax, which can be seen included in the price if you click on one of the listings. It is 100% transparent already.

For the love of god, please tell me how it was not already transparent. For reference, you can click on each line for more detail, for instance the $77 x 3 nights would show the cost of each night if one was $76 and the other was $78 but it averaged to $77. And if the nightly rate included any extra guest fees, those would also be shown in the detail, such as each of three nights being $57 and then $20 x 3 for extra guest fee but it works at $77 each night,

[muddy]

Okay, thanks for making it clear. So this is just a matter of guests not understanding that they can’t see a total price if they don’t enter dates and number of guests. Got it.

[JJD]

@muddy

guests not understanding that they can’t see a total price if they don’t enter dates and number of guests

Yes. And, in the most fantastic BS Airbnb PR move ever, guests still cannot see a total price if they don’t enter dates and number of guests (because that is impossible).

[zillacop]

@bigappledude

For me as a Guest, I don’t like it. As a Host, I’d still rather have it broken down.

Ah, now I see what they are clearly trying to hide, cleaning and service fees.

[JJD]

@zillacop

trying to hide, cleaning and service fees.

Yes. And all under the guise of being more transparent. It’s perfect, isn’t it?

I hope they put a note in that says, you can’t handle the math. Because the most straight-forward way of making something all inclusive is to hide the math.

edit to add: This is how you get hosts to effectively pay for everything.

[zillacop]

Just noticed in looking again while the little ditty “Upfront prices here, no surprises” has disappeared, when you put in dates for a place, cleaning and Air fees are not to be seen.
Think they might add “no surprises and certainly no coverup”.
I don’t charge for cleaning, I’m the cleaner, but hey, now I can slip an over-the-top fee in there and no one would notice the difference.
I really suspect Air is trying to hide their fees to guests. Bad publicity, you know.

[JJD]

@zillacop

Air is trying to hide their fees to guests.

Yes, I think so too. And it really irks me because they give that nightly rate with their enormous service fees added in and it implies that it is my nightly rate, even though it would be in the total price anyway, it is 14% of the price and they should continue to own up to it.

I guess they gave us hosts a chance to pay the guest service fees but since most of us didn’t go for it, they are just going to hide those fees.

I see why @gypsy asked about their push to get hosts to pay the guest service fee because that will now be the only way to get the nightly price down. I think the assumption is that hosts will initially raise prices to cover the guest fees and then will lower in competition. It is what has happened with the one host I could find that is covering the guest service fees. His prices were much too high compared to other listings but are now coming down even though he is still paying the guest service fee.

I just wish they would do this in the summer when everyone would book regardless.

[zillacop]

Guess they’re trying to make us look like the bad guys. Why have our rates gone up so much? And, innocent Air just rolls their eyes and whistles into the wind saying, it’s not us, it’s those bad hosts.

[Debthecat]

I have noted that the guest service fees have been as high as 20% on some bookings.
And on reviews I get marked down for value!

[JJD]

Okay this is messy and I was probably too character-y in it, but if you just look at the photos you’ll get the gist.

@Debthecat

fees have been as high as 20% on some bookings.
And on reviews I get marked down for value!

And that is about to get worse. The new system shows the price with everything combined and then presented as a nightly price, including their enormous service fees. It is presented as if it is your nightly price. So now your nightly price looks to be much higher and even people who could mentally separate your price from Airbnb’s service fees before will not be able to do so now. Here’s an example. I am still seeing the regular reservation box but @bigappledude is seeing the new approach and we compared a couple of places.

Old/current version that I see for Ellie and Bruce’s listing. $105 / night is a sweet deal even though I know I am paying the fees and taxes as shown below. It is still a great nightly rate.

New version that bigapple is seeing. $134/night. I don’t usually pay that much to stay in _____. Last time I stayed with Ellie and Bruce I certainly didn’t pay that much. I am not really noticing that I am not paying any additional fees on top of the nightly but I am now more aware of the taxes than I was previously because they used to be added in already but now they aren’t added into my price yet and mostly, I am super distracted with how the nightly rate because it said $105 on the map but here it says $134 and there is no explanation that I can see, there is no math shown. And that total up there has no explanation whatsoever, Ellie and Bruce are clearly trying to pull a fast one.

This is annoying too.

If you offer a discount for booking a 3 days or a week or 18 days, whatever, that discount is getting lost in the shuffle. Whereas the old/current way that I still see, your discount shows in the math equation as a negative number and in a different color (so that your guest notices it, because it is special and they should know you’re giving a discount). If I book a week with Janet here, I can’t help but notice that I am getting a $32 discount. It’s not a lot but it is still rather nice of Janet to give me a discount. Yay Janet!

However, if bigappledude goes to book the same week with Janet, he doesn’t see anything at all about the discount. The price reflects the discount but since they aren’t showing any math anymore, he might never be aware of Janet giving a discount. Janet does not get a “yay Janet” for her discount if he books right now because this is all he sees. Honestly at this point, Janet should just keep her $32 and be glad it’s not a bigger discount that no one is going to notice.

However, if bigapple clicks on the “includes fees…” under the total then he kinda almost sees the discount. However, it is not even labeled as a discount and it does not say that Janet is giving the discount. It says I’ll save $32. Airbnb is giving me $32 off of my stay just because they like me, plus they aren’t charging me those service fees anymore so they must be the ones giving me $32 off of my bill. I wonder why Janet didn’t give me a discount, I’m staying a whole week. Boo Janet and her stupid high nightly rate, look at that enormous price that doesn’t even include tax. Janet is raking it in at the same time that Airbnb stopped charging me. I bet Janet will have to lower her prices soon enough, haha.

[Debthecat]

So this pricing method is making Airbnb look good and the host bad.
A bit like when they ask the hosts to provide free accommodation during times of disaster …Airbnb makes out that it is all coming from them, yet the host pays!

[muddy]

I agree that Airbnb may be doing this to hide their service fee, but it also may be due to the fact that some hosts are now using host pays all fees and some aren’t. Wouldn’t this new feature make that discrepancy more even- handed? Hosts who have opted for the host-only fee may otherwise be at a disadvantage because their listing looks so much more expensive before entering dates.

Or am I looking at this wrong?

The other thing is that Airbnb is notorious for rolling out features that they don’t seem to have considered all the repercussions of. Like the enhanced cleaning protocol, or crossing out “carbon monoxide detector” with a bold black line, as if the host is being negligent, when in fact, they have zero possible source of carbon monoxide.

[JJD]

@muddy

Or am I looking at this wrong?

@muddy

may be due to the fact that some hosts are now using host pays all fees and some aren’t.

I think we may just looking at it from different directions. I think that pushing hosts to raise their rates and then pay for the guest’s service fee instead of Airbnb was an additional way to hide Airbnb’s service fees. Both of these things have that effect. If a host pays for the service fees then no service fees are listed. And in this new non-breakdown of the total price where they don’t list out any of the costs there are also no service fees listed. Makes me think that not enough hosts volunteered to pay the service fees so they decided to just hide them in our nightly rates anyway. What I know for sure is that they are hiding the service fees from guests. Well, at least until guests get to the confirm and pay page where they can, if they know to do it, click on the price details to see how much the service fee is but there is no accounting for it while they are deciding to book, so it may just be another way to try and get us to drop our prices. I don’t know.

I am curious if hosts will maintain any knowledge of how much of a service fee the guests are paying. Normally, in my calendar, I can click on a date and it will show me the breakdown of what the guest will pay including their service fees and the taxes. It will be interesting to see if they take the details away from us too. @bigappledude if you have time, could you check your calendar to see if it still shows you the breakdown with the Airbnb service fees included?

This also reeks of hotel pricing. I hope they don’t think I am going to start pricing like a hotel because I’m not. If a guest is comparing my place to a hotel and it comes down to a difference in price, then I am happy for them to go stay in a hotel.

They are doing something that benefits themselves somehow and the smoke and mirrors is them pretending to kowtow to guests about “hidden fees” by…urghhh…actually hiding the fees, instead of just reminding guests to enter dates for a total price.

[bigappledude]

Yes, still shows breakdown in calendar:

[muddy]

To me, it’s really bad business sense and unworkable to have an option for host-only or split fees. All hosts on a platform should be using the same pricing structure, otherwise some listings look deceptively more expensive or cheaper than others.

And here’s a question I’ve asked before and never gotten an answer to. If hosts opt for host-only fee, what happens when a guest cancels and gets a refund? If guests pay the service fee and cancel, Airbnb doesn’t refund their fee. If a host is taking on the entire service fee, and Airbnb issues a full refund, do hosts get to keep the service fee, as Airbnb does, or does Airbnb refund that as well, since it’s “all inclusive”.

[GardenFairy]

@bigappledude

For me as a Guest, I don’t like it. As a Host, I’d still rather have it broken down.

This all-in-one pricing looks like a way to invite guests to mark us down for value and blame us for Airbnb’s high service fees.

[NordlingHouse]

@bigappledude

I just checked my listing (looking at it as a guest) , and now Airbnb rolls up all fees (nightly rates, cleaning fee, guest fee - but not taxes) into one final rate.

They seem to be rolling it out across geographic areas - Europe was first to get it:

Dunno where in the US you are, but my listing here in Alaska was displayed that way when it went live in June.

As a guest, I’d want to know the Airbnb fee and the cleaning fee separately, just for my sanity.

If you click on the listing you will see the breakout.

[Annet3176]

There are countless blogs about Airbnb’s fees being too high.

I agree with most of the posters here, the new pricing display is an attempt to hide fees & push us to the hosts to paying all booking fees.

In my market, STR vacation managers, hotels, & resorts do not include the fees & taxes in their posted nightly rates. Airbnb nightly rates appear higher but they really aren’t.

Airbnb pushed out this change without considering how it affects how the listing appears to the guest who’s shopping and what is the market norm.

I feel hosts will be pushed to keep their nightly rates the same but hosts pay the full booking fees or face possibly losing bookings because the initial search makes our rentals appear overpriced.

[JohnF]

@JJD

not enough hosts volunteered to pay the service fees

There is no volunteering in Spain. If you are a “connected” host (i.e. use a channel manager) then since December last year you are on the 15% host only scheme whether you want to be or not. It’s arbitrary.

If you’re not Vat registered, then it costs the host the difference between paying the Vat on 3% fees and 15% fees. Which on a high value booking can be a fair amount of money.

@muddy

All hosts on a platform should be using the same pricing structure

Correct. I suspect the 15% host only fee will eventually be rolled out across the board.

JF

[zillacop]

Just looked at local Airs. If you put in dates you’re looking for, instead of showing the cost of each rental so you can see up front the cost, they say,“Upfront prices, with totals not including taxes”. How clear is that? So if you’re searching you still have to click on each individual Air.
When I looked again, this BS was gone. They clearly don’t have a clue.