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Links to posts on this forum are in this article in the LA Times. Lots of people will find various things to critique, like the writer not realizing he quoted the same site, not a “similar forum.” I think most people here will agree that transparency on fees would be a good thing. The comments linked to are from over 2 years ago so the writer did a quick google and this forum popped up high in search as it often does. Neither of the members quoted is active here and at least one no longer hosts at all.
I want to point out that we often warn people that their posts here can be read by anyone.
It’s a big nothingburger. It sounds like the guest who was posting here a couple of days ago about prices going up and up. Maybe he was fishing for quotes and didn’t get any so had to dredge up some old ones.
Skimmed so far but I don’t know why they have singled out Airbnb in the title (well I do, click bait) but have they any idea how high resort fees are in hotels? How much parking is in hotels when so many Airbnb rentals offer free parking? That all accommodation (STR, hotels etc.) is subject to bed tax?
It’s also giving readers the impression that the cleaning fee and Airbnb commissions are added to every night. It says that an Airbnb rental was;
…advertised for $99 a night but actually costs $253 when the $125 cleaning fee and $29 service fee are added…
It’s not making it clear that the additional fees are one-time but makes it seem as though the nightly price, instead of being $99 was $253.
I think the most valid point is that Airbnb listings lack transparency. We have all seen and complained about the listing that has a big $15 on the search results and when you click on it it’s really $85 with cleaning or only $15 for one night not to be found anywhere on the calendar. It’s a colossal PITA to find an Airbnb as it is, these pricing tricks don’t help.
I just got an email from a New York hotel with rooms as low as $109 a night. When I stayed there three years ago my room was $330 a night. But sure enough, there are many sub $200 nights scattered across their calendar on this particular sale. The taxes and fees added if I book will be the same percentage regardless of rate, no clicking on it and finding a $300 cleaning fee. No bait and switch.
In principle I agree, but I found this extension really useful when trying to set our own prices. I factor the costs of cleaning into the rate and most competitors charge a separate fee. I prefer to do it my way and this complaint is (one reason) why.
I’ve always wished that Airbnb would say “starting at” and then the daily rate when guests search without dates. I think it is a little misleading of them to just put “$150 per night” or whatever your lowest rate is. Some guests are surprised when they put in a date and the price changes.
I also wish they would include cleaning fees in the search results list, so if you do a search for two nights and someone’s listing is $100/night with a $50 cleaning fee it should say “$125 per night”. Right now for this example it would say “$100 per night” and then has a tiny question mark which expands to show the cleaning fee. I always feel transparency is better - I don’t want guests to have unpleasant surprises.
Yes! I want it to be easy for a guest to find what they are looking for on Airbnb.
I was helping a friend, new to Airbnb, find a listing and they were really frustrated. First Airbnb wouldn’t show her the ones in the town she was looking for, it kept zooming out the map and showing her nearby towns that she wasn’t interested in. Then every time she found one and the price looked good they would have astronomical cleaning fees. Finally, she chose one and when she booked it the host told her it wasn’t available for those dates!
I wonder how many people have an experience like that and just give up and book a hotel, never to return to Airbnb again. We all lose out when that happens.
I spent hours looking for a NYC airbnb in 2014 and then waited almost 24 hours to be told it wasn’t available. That’s why I use IB most the time when booking and have little sympathy for hosts that screen guests.
That’s been my experience, too. They ask hosts so many things about our properties and then so little of it is available as a filter criteria. So I weed through pages of corporate apartments posing as hotels and find the cute neighborhood-based Airbnb, only to send a request and get declined. Repeat 2x in order to land a confirmed reservation.
I’m doing like @KKC and booking IB only, or sending inquiries to multiple hosts and booking the one that replies.
Before I’d get those request messages “Are these dates available?” and they’d make me think “well, yeah, duh…they’re open on the calendar! ” After having been on the guest side it all makes sense.
I also find that filtering for SH helps. I did have a booking with a host in ME this summer who never sent any message over a two plus week period. So I canceled my reservation and booked with someone else.
Agree. I used to have a cleaning fee but very soon felt it was cheating precisely because it does not appear in the initial search. So I now factor it into the nightly fee. Transparency is a huge issue for any business these days and AirBnB needs to address this.
There are so many additional fees associated with staying in a hotel. Phones, beverages, parking, internet, taxes…and btw, when was the last time a host was tipped?
” After having been on the guest side it all makes sense.
