As anyone who’s used Airbnb no doubt already knows, the up-front price is just the start of it. Additional costs like cleaning fees, service fees and taxes can be extortionate – sometimes amounting to hundreds of pounds or dollars – and can cause the end price to be much, much higher than originally advertised.
But that’s now all set to change. Airbnb has announced it is scrapping its hidden ‘junk fees’, which will instead now be included in the cost advertised up-front. This will allow users to search according to the overall price, rather than have to wait until they’ve clicked on the listing to find out the total cost.
And that isn’t all. Airbnb is also getting rid of what it says are ‘unreasonable’ demands from hosts. Currently, some rentals require guests to do certain chores such as vacuuming and laundering the bedding – often on top of a cleaning fee. Airbnb wants to clamp down on these demands, saying that all host requirements will be viewable before guests book.
It should be noted that Airbnb isn’t getting rid of all host demands – just the ones it deems unreasonable. Asking guests to turn off the lights and lock the door before they leave is the kind of stuff the platform sees as more ‘reasonable’ requests. The changes to both Airbnb’s pricing and host demands will be effective from December.
Sounds pretty good, eh? Just think, no more dashing around pre-checkout doing tedious chores! Now that really is a holiday...
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