Improving price transparency for guests

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Improving price transparency for guests

 

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Today, CEO Brian Chesky announced that we’re updating how prices are displayed to guests in Airbnb search results. Our goal is to maximize price transparency in places like the U.S., where showing nightly prices (before fees) is currently the travel industry standard.

 

Guests who currently find nightly prices in search results will be able to switch to showing the total prices. The total price includes the price per night, Airbnb service fee, and any Host fees for cleaning, pets, or extra guests. 

 

We’re making this change, along with a few others, to help you stay competitive and meet guest expectations. Get the details on the Resource Center. 

 

Displaying total price and simplifying checkout

 

What’s your strategy: Build your cleaning costs into your nightly price, or charge a separate cleaning fee?

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109 Replies 109

@Jenny I think if every host were to absorb the guest Airbnb fee and the cleaning fee and incorporate them into their rates, this issue would not exist, as guests would never see any kind of breakdown. I know some hosts have trouble with this concept, because it is a mindset shift to consider the fees in the same category as other expenses like rent, utilities, etc., and come up with a price-per-night rate that will cover expenses + make some kind of profit (unless they are just in this for the fun of it!).

 

I really think that this is what Brian Chesky wants to get to, and that, combined with Airbnb’s recent change of filtering, ranking and displaying listings based on the total of the rates and fees, instead of the nightly rate, should go a long way towards alleviating guest objections. Airbnb really needs to make the display of the total the default, though. Guests obviously don’t care about the nightly rate since it is so far out-of-whack with the final total.

 

As far as the taxes go, I don’t think those should be absorbed into the rate, but it would be helpful if they were included in the very first total shown to the guest after the search, even if they are broken out (since in the US, some states require this). So, every listing would display something like “<Total of rates+fees> + xxx.xx tax”. I’ve seen this format and behavior on several other websites lately.

Jenny
Community Manager
Community Manager
Galashiels, United Kingdom

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, @Pat271! I've made sure to add them to the feedback we're collating.

 

Jenny

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Martha943
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Pricing with clean included is much better and brings it into line with the EU where guests see the total price including clean.

  • Improvements to guest checkout: We’re providing guidance to Hosts that if they have checkout requests, they should be reasonable and displayed to guests before they book.  

    This is a good idea. I do it at checkin but at booking will be better. 

 

However: 

"Guests should not have to do unreasonable checkout tasks such as stripping the beds, doing the laundry, or vacuuming when leaving their Airbnb. But we think it’s reasonable to ask guests to turn off the lights, throw food in the trash, and lock the doors—just like they would when leaving their own home. "


I don't think it is for AirBnb to say what is reasonable. It depends a lot of the cleaning fee, obviously. 
In France it is totally normal for guests to strip  the beds and run a vacuum cleaner round. 
I personally don't ask for it, but most will do it anyway. 

Many places in France have a low cleaning fee because of this: the assumption is that  you will leave the place in decent  condition. 

It's totally reasonable for people to know what to expect, and a good idea.  But  not at all reasonable for Airbnb to dictate what the expectations are - these are very individual to each host and each house. 

For instance  I accept dogs. I don't  charge a fee for them.  I do ask  that if  people bring  a heavy shedding dog,  they use the cordless vacuum to keep the dog hair in the house under control. Everyone has seen this as reasonable.

But now  Airbnb tells me it is not! So now what? How do I make my very reasonable request if Airbnb have deemed it unreasonable? 







Jenny
Community Manager
Community Manager
Galashiels, United Kingdom

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts @Martha943 - I've made sure to note your feedback as I'm reading through everyone's comments.

 

Jenn

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Martha943
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Thanks Jenny 🙂

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Martha943 

 

From what I understand, Airbnb has managed to avoid litigation by several city councils by positioning itself simply as a listing platform, and therefore not responsible for the business that is conducted via that platform, i.e. that they are 'hands off'.

 

So, what happens when they start dictating what hosts can and can't require in terms of check out instructions, banning the hosts from charging a security deposit etc. penalising hosts for reporting disruptive parties (by suspending the listings, even though it is the guests, not the hosts who have broken rules), etc. etc.?

 

There is something rather contradictory about this branding...

That "hands off" has never been really hands-off as Airbnb was canceling guests who's political views they did not like, dictating policies to hosts, unilaterally deciding who gets a refund etc. They were acting as property manager/agent.  So will be very hard to argue the "hands off" bit. 

@Victoria-And-Todd0  They canceled guests because of their political views? That’s a new one on me. When did this happen?

Asian woman - Michelle Malkin. 

The Norwegian version of this text does not have this wording, @Martha943 . It says they have received feedback that these tasks are considered unreasonable, not that they ARE. How can Airbnb demand anything when different countries are given different information?

As I've told many people before, also in Norway and other Scandinavian countries it is common that the guest has a full cleaning of the rental before leaving. Airbnb can't take it upon themselves to ban culture when they are so adament on how cultural differences are part of their filosophy?? That travelling through Airbnb is learning about other cultures?

Sorry, I'm about to make a generalisation but then I would be banned outta here as well...

 

This must not be thought through but decided in haste due to some hype in focus with some bad publicity, @Stephanie @Jenny 

And also @Huma0 

 

As for the pricing. It's been clear from EU that hiding prices and fees are illegal on this continent. We've had open and transparent prices on Airbnb for years!

Jenny
Community Manager
Community Manager
Galashiels, United Kingdom

Hi @Mariann4 

 

I understand that there's some cultural differences surrounding check-out tasks and I've received a little more information around this which I thought might interest you:

At this time, Airbnb has not fully defined their checkout task guidance.  They look forward to workshopping this with Hosts in the coming months.

 

I hope this gives you some reassurance that your concerns will be considered during this process.

 

Jenny

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Yes, I read the fine print @Jenny I saw that they will be spending time to develop this. The communication however is completely off. They send us European host the same info as the American ones and call for hoorahs. Only this is old news for us. And then they deem something unreasonable because a few American guests complain they have to pull off some pillowcases. Only here that is the norm. 

Airbnb needs to step off the one-size-fits-all-wagon. That's not how they started. That's not how they advertise. And that's not how is's working. Rembember the fight when they tried to make linen and soap mandatory? I don't think Airbnb do..... 

"The Norwegian version of this text does not have this wording. It says they have received feedback that these tasks are considered unreasonable, not that they ARE. " 
That's an interesting and crucial difference, implying that it's maybe the expectations that are the problem, rather than the actual tasks. Which would be much helped with the proposed solution of making them clear at the time of booking. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Martha943 

 

Of course, one size does not fit all. I don't charge a cleaning fee at all, so should my guests be required to do/not do the same on check out as a host who charges a £250 cleaning fee?

 

What about the overall price? What if it's a camping situation? What if it's a shared listing? There are so many variables. It just doesn't make sense for Airbnb to dictate, throw out food but don't strip the beds.

 

Personally, I would never ask guests to strip the beds (some of them do it anyway, so clearly it's not an uncommon thing for hosts to ask), but that's just me. In some places, it's normal for the guests to bring their own bedlinen.

 

Also, what about listing price? If someone books a luxury, high end, top price bracket listing for a holiday, naturally that guest would not be expecting to strip beds/take out trash or whatever. More likely, they would expect daily housekeeping. If someone is booking a room in a humble homeshare in an ordinary apartment in a suburb, and paying very little for it, should they expect the same?

 

Unless Airbnb develops some kind of formula for cleaning fees that takes into account the type of listing and the price, this whole strategy doesn't make sense.

  I also allow dogs and would hope guests would run a vacumm.  But, most do not.  I also do not get any bookings if I charge a pet fee.  But, my cleaning crew charges me an extra $100 on top of the $385 normal cleaning fee if they have to deal with pet hair all over the cabin.

 

I keep hoping airbnb will show hosts that we matter.  Instead airbnb keeps expecting hosts to make less and less.  It seems airbnb views hosts as expendable because new property owners will always list on airbnb.,