Upfront pricing appear a little differently for my listings in two different countries. The search results for my St. Lucia space do display the upfront price in two places, and the link below the total price clearly states it includes fees before taxes.
When you click the link, the pop-up says taxes will be added at checkout.
There is no price breakdown on the listing details page. A guest must click the Reserve button to go to the checkout page and see the taxes. Currently, in St. Lucia there are no additional taxes to be collected. I have the host paid service structure, and do not charge a separate cleaning fee, because I want the total price displayed to be exactly that.
In my Georgia listing the placement the words Upfront pricing and the Fees included link are not next to each other like my other listings. So, this appears to an A page vs. B page type of testing.
The message in the pop up window is the same as my other listings.
Like I mentioned earlier, there no longer is a break down of fees and taxes on the listing's detail page. Just the total "upfront" price.
Guests must click the Reserve button to go to the checkout page, and see the taxes. Since this listing is in the US, and people are used to seeing taxes separately, to me this is not really a big issue.
Similarly, Booking has always required a call to action to see before displaying the fees and tax breakdown.
You must click the I'll Reserve button to be taken to the checkout page to see the individual fees and taxes (no taxes in St. Lucia).
One of the primary benefits of hosting on other platforms is that a host can collect a damages deposit, and has the guests credit card details. Many hosts have said that they charge higher rates and fees on Airbnb versus other platforms due to the lack of a true damages deposit being collected. The truth is that I rarely collect the deposit (so I don't have to do a refund later), but the knowledge that I have the guests credit card details helps to modify their behavior. I do charge a service fee which covers the credit card processing costs.
This year, the reservations from Booking is 200% more than what I've received from Airbnb. Typically, they each represented about 30% of my bookings. It appears that my guests prefer Booking. Instant booking is enabled for my Airbnb listings, and the cancellation policy is similar on both platforms, 30 days prior to check-in for a full refund.