Airbnb makes sense in towns where there aren’t suitable hotels. It makes sense to rent a full house for a large family or when traveling with a group of friend. But the current homesharing model is very broken, and as a result choosing Airbnb makes no sense for most stays.
The company understands that and wants to change that. It’s updating how prices are shown, and shaming hosts that impose bizarre conditions on guests. In fact, the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb is shaming owners who make guests do laundry before they leave.
When you turn this on, you’ll see the total price (before taxes) in search results, as well as on the map, price filter, and listing page. You can also view a full price breakdown with Airbnb’s service fee, discounts, and taxes.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 7, 2022
Guests shouldn’t have to ‘turn this feature on’ it should be the default. And, to be clear, it’s pre-tax pricing that’s shown even when total price is selected. It’s fine to include fees but not taxes in display, in my view, but that isn’t really the ‘total price’.
What’s just as important here as making it easy to compare pricing, without having to click through each listing to calculate what a stay will really cost inclusive of fees like cleaning charges, is that Airbnb is also changing their search algorithm so that listings which charge higher fees, and thus have a higher total cost, will be rank lower. They’re also introducing host tools that they see as driving price competition and discounting, in hopes that Airbnb might re-capture some of the affordability which drove its early success. Remember, the company shares its growth projections are headed downward.
But it’s not just pricing. While Airbnb isn’t necessarily doing anything about it, its founder and CEO calls out unreasonable requests from hosts. And he defines what is reasonable.
Reasonable:
- Turn off lights
- Throw food in trash
- Lock doors
Not reasonable:
- Strip beds
- Do laundry
- Vaccuum
If Hosts have checkout requests, they should be reasonable and shown to you before you book.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 7, 2022
Presumably chore lists like mowing the lawn or waiting for plumbers are also not considered reasonable.
These crazy fees will still exist, and so will crazy chores, but Airbnb will become more useful and less frustrating as you figure out what to book.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg solving problems with the platform. Just as big a deal is that there are too many scams (like properties listed for rent that aren’t actually being rented out, if they even exist); that when things go wrong with a booking it can be challenging to get your money back, let alone get help finding somewhere to stay; it doesn’t work well for short stays because of per-stay (rather than per-night) fees; and check-in and check-out times aren’t nearly as flexible as with hotels.
Baby steps are appreciated, because home sharing should be a viable alternative to hotels for more than just places where there are no hotels.
Holy F
Now it’s your turn MARRIOTT HILTON IHG HYATT
Add the f***** resort fee in the first quoted price
Airbnb’s not a more affordable option in major cities? Have you see hotel pricing recently?
What @Fauci said.
They need to actually do something about the asinine chore lists. Maybe a blanket policy that if cleaning fees >$50 (or local equivalent thereof), only “reasonable” tasks are to be expected and ABNB will not support an additional charge absent some kind of extenuating circumstances. I didn’t stop using ABNB because I was too braindead to comparison price shop; I stopped using it because I had to pay $300 for a cleaning fee then do some host’s weekend chores too. No thanks.
Airbnb is a dumpster fire
@Gary – You should listen to the interview Cheske did with Kara Swisher on her podcast, On. It’s interesting, not least because he says he wants to get to where there aren’t any “fees” beyond the booking price (and maybe the AirBNB fee… not sure on that one). It’s clear he’s thought about it and doesn’t want users to see the cleaning fee as part of the breakout, even if hosts end up wrapping it into the pricing structure on the backend. Thought you might find that interesting since you constantly rail against mandatory fees not being part of the overall pricing/cost of doing business.
AirBnB is painful but there’s little alternative other than VRBO which is just as bad. There are far too many scams, such as guests faking reviews, guests blackmailing hosts, guests breaking things and then demanding discounts for the item they have just broken, let alone trashing the place or breaking rules about parties / smoking etc.
All of these matters were easily handled when we used property management agencies with staff on the ground, but AirBnB has knocked them out of the market.
It’s not just hosts who behave badly, it’s guests as well (or, to be precise, far more frequently).
So, Gary, stop endlessly dumping on the industry but consider instead how it has evolved, from personalized vacation rentals to an unregulated s*** show.
You can get 500 valuable elite points at Hilton and Marriott hotels in exchange for doing routine housekeeping chores like taking out the trash, changing the toilet paper in your room, or skipping the complimentary continental breakfast. However, when staying at an Airbnb, it is heartwarming to learn you can save money when you cut the grass, pull the weeds, do the laundry, fix the plumbing, wash the windows, clean the bathroom, replenish the bathroom supplies, and pick up the piles of cat and goose poop left around your Airbnb.
Never trusted air bnb owners. When people can make their own rules without any guidelines to follow they will and do take advantage.
“But the current homesharing model is very broken, and as a result choosing Airbnb makes no sense for most stays.”
You’re stuck in 2005 Gary. I’ve moved a lot of my stays to Airbnb over recent years, other than for one-night airport stays and such. And I’m more likely to pick a traditional bed & breakfast if the Airbnb options aren’t good. The gutting of most hotel points programs helped accelerate the change but it’s also about other factors. I have a wider range of neighborhoods to choose from and can experience in many cases more of the flavor of local life. Sometimes you can stay in unique properties. I can choose a place with a kitchen and cook my own meals if I want and a place with a washer both of which are handy for longer stays. Generally I have more room to relax. The price is often significantly less in many places, and I get more for my money. I’ve yet to encounter any draconian policies that weren’t included in the guest rules or other part of the listing (though I don’t doubt that it can occur).
Is Airbnb perfect? Of course not. Nothing in life is. Cancellation policies can be much more strict with some listings, than a hotel – though I’ve never failed to find plenty of options with free cancellation or whose policies are similar to a hotel. You do have to compare the total price by looking at each listing which is annoying. And you need to read the guest rules ahead of time.
A hotel doesn’t guarantee a problem-free experience whether it’s resort fees/junk fees, poor housekeeping, lacking advertised amenities, charges for things I didn’t order that I have to sort out, confiscatory fees for parking, uneven room quality, not properly honoring elite benefits, etc. Reviews and ratings can be just as commonly faked and unreliable for hotels.
Airbnb corporate should continue these types of improvements.
When you least expect it, you’re elected, you’re the star today . . . smile . . . you’re on Candid Camera. (For those who remember the jingle.)
In may 8 of us stayed at an airbnb in Verona Italy for 5 days only list the host had was to make sure the front door was locked to the apartment. She had a 12 pack of water for us and fresh cookies from a local bakery. Great time
All-inclusive pricing should be the standard. Once some hotels/aibnb hosts start putting more and more of the price into fees, the only way to compete is for all hotels/airbnbs to reduce advertised price to a minimum to appear in the low-price list, with all the profit baked into fees. The only way to combat this is for the platform or the government to mandate all-inclusive fees, to force the market back to a system of truly competing on price. As for ridiculous check-out asks, you really can’t fix stupid. If someone is willing to jump into an airbnb without reading the house rules, that’s on them.
We’ve rented our studio above our garage for eight years on AirBnB. We have never charged those ridiculous ‘cleaning fees’ and don’t require guests to do anything except show up and leave on time. I feel that ALL so called fees should be a cost of doing business. If I go to the hardware store, I don’t want to have a fee added to my box of screws for them to sweep the floors at night.
If we’re not traveling, our place is usually booked. We do have a three night minimum which cuts down on our cleaning. Go figure.
@Lee – you mean like the ESPN reporter gal (Erin Andrews) whose nude pics were taken IN A HOTEL ROOM and then plastered on the internet ?
Gary – how soon you forget the debacle you complained of so bitterly just a couple of weeks ago when a HOTEL had a fire alarm pulled in the middle of the night and you lost sleep along with all the other guests. Anyone ever had that happen at an Abnb ? Not I. Nor do I get awoken by amorous, arguing or drunken guests in an adjoining room, the clatter of an ice machine in a hotel vending area or heavy hotel doors slamming as other guests arrive after I’m asleep or leave before I’m awake, or by screaming children running gleefully down the hall we all are forced to share.
For me, to paraphrase this post – “hotel rooms may be a passable option for cities or areas where a decent, far superior sty at an Airbnb is just not available.” My preferences flip-flopped over half a decade ago, and I can’t see ever going back to hotel room stays, for about a bazillion reasons I’ve recited on here many times – far more room for less money, invariably quieter, no elevator or front desk waits, better parking, better amenities, easier access, greater location flexibility, washer/dryers & full kitchens, more variety, etc.
Best of luck to those of you still doing the hotel thing, which is truly a dumpster fire.
Cleaning fees are an utter rip-off. I stayed ONCE at an AirBnB, they advertised sleeping accomodations for 6, but as it turned out there were only sheets for 4. The other 2 were supposed to sleep on couches without sheets. After 2 days of communicating with the owner, sheets never were delivered. We were told we had to do our own dishes, our own laundry of all the bedding and towels, our own disinfecting and cleaning of all floors & surfaces. We did it ALL. 2 of our 6 never had bedding.
And then we had to pay a cleaning fee on top of everything else, despite leaving the place sanitary, spotless, vacuumed and garbage-free.
AirBnB is a RIP-OFF.
I’ve never used it since.
Guests shouldn’t have to ‘turn this feature on’ . SOOOO much easier to sleep at an honest hotel than pay a 100% fee for “cleaning” after the guest has already done all the cleaning.