I saw this today when I was checking prices myself in California market. And then I just saw the article.
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Yes, I believe it happened a couple of days ago. Do you think it will change your pricing strategy?
Itās a bit onerous because guests have the option to see the total price on the map (or not). That means that there are two different audiences looking at our listingsā prices on the map, in two different formats.
Iāve been kind of ignoring it because weāre booked up right now anyway but am not sure what I think about it. Curious about what the other listings near me will do and feel fortunate to have the time to watch it play out.
The greatest difference for me is that Iām pet-friendly and donāt charge a pet fee. But now that makes me the cheapest pet-friendly listing on the map. I donāt ever want to be the cheapest. Itās not ego, itās just that itās not the way to get the best guests for my listings. Theyāre old but cute and my guests love them but if Mr-Cheapy-McGee books it because itās the least expensive and he really loves a contemporary space then he wonāt be so happy in my place.
Curious if other hosts are noticing these kinds of issues with the new system?
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I just lowered my cleaning fee and opted for the weekly discount after checking my listing and noticing that it didnāt appear on the first page. I just checked a minute ago and now Iām third down on the first page.
Usually by this time Iām fully book for the summer but now my calendar is pretty much wide open. Hopefully with the lowered prices Iāll get a few bookings for the summer.
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Does anyone know why they arenāt also including taxes?
Most likely because every listing will have the same taxes in an area.
Not showing them makes it look cheaper until checkout.
Just like the grocery store, etc.
Interesting POV. I never thought of the dual searching experiences.
Iām not changing anything. Cleaning fee serves a purpose for me. It makes multi night stays cheaper than single night stays.
A pet fee would make it cheaper for non pet bringing travelers.
If you are booked up and donāt want to appear the cheapest, just raise your prices. I agree being cheapest is not the best strategy.
Because not all locations integrate with airbnb on tax remittance. My city and state do, but many other places do not, so it would be impossible for airbnb to include them, as airbnb does not know the tax situation.
Not sure if that matters. My city switched from not remitting to partial remitting. We have TOT and another tax\fee. Airbnb only remits 1 of them and we remit the other. (The dumbest possible situation ever)
Before remitting half for us, I set the taxes in Airbnb, Airbnb paid them to me , I remitted to city.
So either way Airbnb is able to calc the tax and show it. If no taxes set that is even easier.
Worst case is some hosts have it set up wrong or add extra padding to cover 3% host fee for instance. And that would make for unpredictable final fees.
Also, imagine the map recalculating all cleaning and taxes and fees on every listing every time you move map or change filters. It adds up to lots of extra work behind the scenes. Could slow the site down.
This makes no sense to me. Of course Airbnb knows the tax situation. Yes, in some locations Airbnb collects the taxes, or collects some of the taxes, and in some not, but if their software knows when to charge taxes, it also knows when not to.
In my case, it always adds 4% state occupany tax and 16% VAT and does for every rental in my state. Thereās no reason it couldnāt be included in the total on the site.
Not always, although they could gather a lot more information and do it. But the overhead would be astronomical. I would not want to if I were in their place. Too many tax laws that change al the time and theyād have to have a lot of people (costs money!) to keep track of everything. And what happens if they are wrong? Unhappy guests.
For instance, in St Lucia, thereās a nightly tourism levy tax of up to $6US per person per night. But itās halved if your nightly rate is $90US or less (no details on whether the rate is per-property or per-bedroom for multi-bedroom properties). And that is halved for kids 13-17 (as of the time of the stay) and itās zero for under 13. But only properties that apply for import VAT concession have to pay the levy. Thatās in addition to VAT, which paid only by businesses that have revenue of over $400,000 EC (about $150,000 US) per year.
So are you saying that the host calculates the appropriate taxes in your situation in St. Lucia, or Airbnb calculates them based on whether the booking includes children, etc., and how would Airbnb know anyway what your total yearly revenue is going to be to apply the appropriate amount?
In some areas, taxes are paid by the homeowner quarterly, for example. Airbnb is not privy to your personal tax situation and is not responsible in these cases for collecting taxes for you. What would airbnb show as ātaxesā? Zero? Not a good thingā¦
The host has to calculate the taxes. Some owners include it in their rate. Others collect it in cash upon arrival. Others donāt bother to pay it and wait to get caught. And some, like us and most of my neighbors, arenāt even subject to it.
My point was that AirBnB would have to gather a lot more information from every location and host, and stay on top of it to be sure they get the right number.
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A big mistake when dealing with airbnb pricing etc is to assume everywhere is ājust like yoursā. With taxes, in the US, outside of income taxes, most taxes on individuals are collected and created by states and local municipalities. My town has airbnb collect occupancy taxes for them but another town 10 minutes away does not.
Iāve never assumed other areas operate like mine, but either Airbnb collects and adds taxes for various areas or they donāt. If they collect taxes, there is no reason why they canāt add it to the total guests see, and if they donāt, itās either included in the nightly rate, as PitonView says, in which case it would already be included in the total, or hosts charge it separately, in which case the algorithm could state āListings in this area may have taxes added after this totalā.
I think airbnb says it is up to the host to set and collect correct taxesā¦ (if airbnb doesnāt do it automatically in that region).
If the host doesnāt set any taxes and fees on the listing, then airbnb would display the correct amount that the guest would pay.
So we arenāt talking about what is the official correct tax to collect. We are talking about displaying correctly what the guest will pay on airbnb.
Iām personally thrilled with this change - when I travel as a guest itās really frustrating to be interested in a small $80/night place and then it has a $200 cleaning fee. Itās predatory and shady, just increase the price instead of doing that!
As a host, I have a reasonable $45 cleaning fee for my small unit, and Iām ok with that being shown in the final price.
Yes. It is perfect for the guest.
But many hosts do not put a high cleaning fee to be sneaky. If you are looking for a 1 night stay. The cleaning fee of $200 would be a big deal. But a 2-3 week stay $200 would be nothing. So the cleaning fee should reflect actual cleaning costs. And if a guest is willing to pay it for a 1 night stay. That is their choiceā¦
But the new search showing everything makes it much easier for a guest to compare final pricing.
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But how much does it cost to clean your place? It doesnāt cost $45 to clean it. I also have a low cleaning fee. I charge $49 but I know that itās not representative of the actual cost of cleaning my place because I do it myself. If I had to hire a cleaner for my smallest place it would cost $200+.
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But $45 or $49 IS the actual cost to clean your place. Because that is what you UNDER pay yourself.
That is your market advantage in this case.
There is no right or wrong way to do this. It is just pricing strategy choices.