3 ms·

Airbnb has always been highly misleading with the prices. You never pay what you think you will at the start of the transaction IME.

tinco 4y ago
I've never experienced that, how is the price different? I've always payed upfront with a credit card, never any surprises.
- mcast 4y ago
  I think they mean the total price shown on the search result page and the final reservation page are different.
  - dannyw 4y ago
    Not in Australia, it's the exact same price.
    - rajup 4y ago
      Even in the USA it seems to depend on the length of stay. For 28 days or less, the search pages has a per-night rate AND the total next to it, that includes cleaning fees, taxes etc, i.e the exact price you would pay. For monthly or more stays it does not seem to show the total which seems like a very inconsistent user experience.
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  I booked a place in Singapore for 30 days. Searched, found a place available for 30 days. It says 100% refundable. So I booked it. Received the notification. Great. 4 weeks before I was due to go to the place, Taiwan border opened up and we flew over asap. I had to cancel. Turns out they had hidden in the terms and conditions, not presented anywhere. If a booking is over 28 days it’s up to the owner to decide on refund policy, and the owner had decided it’s not refundable. So fuck Airbnb. I could have booked the same place on Agoda for about $200 more and had 100% cancellation as long as I cancel 24 hours before checkin. I’ll use agoda in the future.
  - ab-dm 4y ago
    Whenever I've seen the 100% refundable, it tells you later that the first night will be taken off the refund as well, even when it's just a single night stay..
- rootsudo 4y ago
  The price shown on the map or per day does not take into account the cleaning fee or the local taxes, or the booking fee. So if the host has a base rate of $45/day, when you go to book it it recalculates it as base rate + cleaning rate + tax rate + airbnb rate. Then the dates specific can also have different pricing set by the host, so it becomes base rate(days) + special rate(days) + cleaning rate + Tax rate (local city/state) + airbnb fee (10-15%) Meaning when you use the user interface, and select a schedule it does the above - it should try to do the mean average and show it on the map, e.g. a one week / 7 day stay, base no special rates set by host should be $45(7)+$20 cleaning rate+5% tax rate+airbnb 10%= so, 457= 315. Add the cleaning fee of $20, so it's $335. 5% tax, 16.75, total of 351.75 10% of that is 35.17, grand total of 386.92 but it will display $45/day or "$315" a week, while the true price per day is $55.27 or $386.92. Now that example isn't so egregious, but when you deal with reservations in the thousands, having "15%" added in misc fees make sit feel like "what happened to the original rate displayed" It's not truly transparent until you go to the listing, set the dates exact, and then see the first number and then continue through the workflow to check out and pay. If you don't have dates set, then it will always* show the lowest rates on the listing or on the map aggregate, which, sure, I get no dates means it can be the lowest, but the customer path from there to higher fees and prices really makes hotels seem more "honest" in pricing even though they sometimes hide the state/city taxes, and some platforms like booking.com won't even include them at all so you have to pay for them at check in! tl;dr price shown first is never the price you pay on airbnb. 500+ reviews, yeah.
- benjaminwootton 4y ago
  They hide service charges and cleaning fees from the upfront price here in Europe. The “cleaning fees” can sometimes +50% the price.

tinco 4y ago

I've never experienced that, how is the price different? I've always payed upfront with a credit card, never any surprises.

mcast 4y ago
I think they mean the total price shown on the search result page and the final reservation page are different.
- dannyw 4y ago
  Not in Australia, it's the exact same price.
  - rajup 4y ago
    Even in the USA it seems to depend on the length of stay. For 28 days or less, the search pages has a per-night rate AND the total next to it, that includes cleaning fees, taxes etc, i.e the exact price you would pay. For monthly or more stays it does not seem to show the total which seems like a very inconsistent user experience.
philliphaydon 4y ago
I booked a place in Singapore for 30 days. Searched, found a place available for 30 days. It says 100% refundable. So I booked it. Received the notification. Great. 4 weeks before I was due to go to the place, Taiwan border opened up and we flew over asap. I had to cancel. Turns out they had hidden in the terms and conditions, not presented anywhere. If a booking is over 28 days it’s up to the owner to decide on refund policy, and the owner had decided it’s not refundable. So fuck Airbnb. I could have booked the same place on Agoda for about $200 more and had 100% cancellation as long as I cancel 24 hours before checkin. I’ll use agoda in the future.
- ab-dm 4y ago
  Whenever I've seen the 100% refundable, it tells you later that the first night will be taken off the refund as well, even when it's just a single night stay..
rootsudo 4y ago
The price shown on the map or per day does not take into account the cleaning fee or the local taxes, or the booking fee. So if the host has a base rate of $45/day, when you go to book it it recalculates it as base rate + cleaning rate + tax rate + airbnb rate. Then the dates specific can also have different pricing set by the host, so it becomes base rate(days) + special rate(days) + cleaning rate + Tax rate (local city/state) + airbnb fee (10-15%) Meaning when you use the user interface, and select a schedule it does the above - it should try to do the mean average and show it on the map, e.g. a one week / 7 day stay, base no special rates set by host should be $45(7)+$20 cleaning rate+5% tax rate+airbnb 10%= so, 457= 315. Add the cleaning fee of $20, so it's $335. 5% tax, 16.75, total of 351.75 10% of that is 35.17, grand total of 386.92 but it will display $45/day or "$315" a week, while the true price per day is $55.27 or $386.92. Now that example isn't so egregious, but when you deal with reservations in the thousands, having "15%" added in misc fees make sit feel like "what happened to the original rate displayed" It's not truly transparent until you go to the listing, set the dates exact, and then see the first number and then continue through the workflow to check out and pay. If you don't have dates set, then it will always* show the lowest rates on the listing or on the map aggregate, which, sure, I get no dates means it can be the lowest, but the customer path from there to higher fees and prices really makes hotels seem more "honest" in pricing even though they sometimes hide the state/city taxes, and some platforms like booking.com won't even include them at all so you have to pay for them at check in! tl;dr price shown first is never the price you pay on airbnb. 500+ reviews, yeah.
benjaminwootton 4y ago
They hide service charges and cleaning fees from the upfront price here in Europe. The “cleaning fees” can sometimes +50% the price.