Ive been quiet on this issue, until now. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with these fees.
I’ve been using Air B n B for years now. I’ve stayed in places from Skagen in Denmark, to a Church in Yakima, Washington, to a Sea Divers shop in Crescent City, California and a few more. I’m pretty seasoned in the ways of Air b n b, and I’ve even turned my friends on to this site, I love it so much!
I’ve enjoyed every property, and the hosts have been absolutely wonderful!
But I’m very concerned and a little disappointed with what Air B n B is turning into, with regards to letting property management companies tack on fees, and increasing their own fees.
I understand that hosts may charge what they see fit, but these fees are getting ridiculous!! Mostly, it’s the fact that the advertised price NEVER reflects the actual out of pocket cost by quite a lot.
This is infuriating to folks who are trying to help out the little guy by renting their places, but are being forced to find other places because of the sticker shock.
I’d much rather give my money to a neighbor than to big business.
In the beginning, I thought it was a spectacular deal, especially in Europe where hotels aren’t very cheap.
But lately I’ve noticed hidden or ‘non advertised’ fees are taking up to, or greater than, the original amount posted per night.
For example, my stay in Denmark was $100 a night for 7 nights, after the cleaning fee, a service fee, taxes, and in the fine print an ‘electricity and water use fee’ which means I’ll also be charged for the utilities AFTER my trip.
$700 turned into $1300. This was in the fine print, hidden in pages of rules from a property management company that was renting out homes for the owners. Why are they not required to state upfront that there’s additional fees?? Why do I have to find out a month later when the bill comes due? I could’ve stayed at a decent hotel for less.
That defeats the purpose of why this site was started.
Now I’m booking in Wyoming for 2 nights, at the advertised $150 a night, which is $300 total.
With a $50 cleaning fee, a $50 service fee, and an ‘occupancy tax’ of $50, the ACTUAL price is $450!! That’s like an automatic 50% added on!
50%!! WTH Air B n B??
How did we get from $300 to $450???
This is very deceiving, and fraudulent (I’m no expert). I want to be clear, I have no issue with what the hosts want to charge. What I have issue with is that the advertised price should reflect the total amount.
So guess what? Sadly, I ended up going to Booking and booked a cabin with AC, a kitchenette, private bath, WiFi, and all the goodies, I was looking for at a hotel for $95 a night. And guess what? The final cost was...
$95 a night.
Please clean this mess up soon! The hidden fees, the management companies, the advertised prices. I would really hate for this great idea of homeowners renting their places, to price itself out of business.
