Feature Request: Filter and sort by TOTAL price—including fees

Cassandra176
Level 10
Richmond, VA

Feature Request: Filter and sort by TOTAL price—including fees

Feature request: please allow users to filter by TOTAL price —and— sort by TOTAL price. Also, you need to display the total price in the app as well as on the desktop searches. With fees varying so much, the listed price ends up meaning NOTHING anyway.

 

Recent True Life Example: I filter for a rate under $100 a night but many listings have fees that double or triple the total price. By using the price range feature I've unknowingly filtered out a stay with a nightly rate higher than $100 but no fees that would end up costing much less overall than others that are listed within my "price range." 

 

Obviously, this feature would be N/A if a person had not yet selected a number of nights. An alternative solution would be to have the fees added to the nightly rate by default, then those fees would be divided up by the number of nights chosen. Because, either way, it would be a much more honest reflection of the cost. 

 

 

AIRBNB—If you care about user experience at all, as I've heard from colleagues you do, please make this feature work more FOR users instead of AGAINST them. Also, you're rewarding hosts who try to game the system by setting artificially low rates with high fees and punishing those that are being straightforward with their prices.

 

Please upvote if you agree.

 

78 Replies 78
Cassandra176
Level 10
Richmond, VA

@Emilia42 Thanks for holding down the fort for me! 

 

Yes, my beef is with the search functionality.  I may have muddied the water with comments about cleaning fees. Let's not get sidetracked. 

 

The total price should be displayed in all search results, web or app, esp. on the map. Filtering by price range should relate to the total price instead of the nightly price. AND there should be the ability to sort by total price (as well as maybe sort by proximity to a destination.)

 

On the web, I can see total price of search listings side-by-side with a map, but the total price is not displayed on the map. In the app, I see total price until I switch to map view, then the total price disappears from the listings (and as stated earlier total price never shows on the map.) 

 

Without filtering or sorting by total price, I can't filter out the 100's of listing that are irrelevant to me. Nor can I compare the ones that are relevant on one page by price or distance. If they added the functionality as I've described it, I would be able to see all of (and only) results in my price range, together on a map, by total price, and choose from there. And don't say I should add them to a "saved" list because the total price is disabled on those as well!

 

IMG_8F24BACA3A9D-1.jpegIMG_5794.PNG

 

 

Sally221
Level 10
Berkeley, CA

@Cassandra176, wouldn't it be nice if airbnb took your feedback to heart? It is going to be a challenge for everyone in the hospitality industry for the foreseeable future & an easier interface for potential guests is a very good idea.  Personally, I don't charge a cleaning fee, as I consider my place a micro bnb & I do provide a rather nice breakfast. People searching at my actual price won't necessarily see my listing. (I did stop listening to those airbnb  nudges  quite a while back, learning curve & all that)   Have a fab time in New York, this was going to be the year we went !What will happen in 2021 is anyone's guess!

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Cassandra176  @Jason1408 Just one more thing I noticed, and maybe you have already mentioned this: when you search with dates entered, you do see the total.  There's a nightly price in bold, and then the total below that.  Have you noticed that and does that help?

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-14 at 9.26.14 AM.png

 

 

Stefanie307
Level 1
Seattle, WA

Yes, I totally agree. It's become ridiculous with all the fees that are added on after the search... We can no longer search according to our budget. Useless!!! 

Lynda129
Level 3
Palm Beach, FL

   The problem about the "total" price is that it does NOT add up anyways.

 

   If you run a search including dates; Yes, you will see a total price (in fine prints under the nightly rate), but guess what !!!  Once you click on the listing to book, the final or "real" total price becomes different than the one quoted initially.  (Higher of course...)

   

   I can't tell you how many guests are complaining about that.  I have been reporting that "glitch" to Airbnb who just pretends to not even understand the issue.  They sent me a long reply pretexting fees, cancellation policies, and more nonsense, were the reason why both "totals" did not match.

 

 The way I look at it, guests care about one thing only: TOTAL PRICE.

 Not "fake total" before "real total".  Not "total not including" who knows what.

 They want to know what will be the REAL complete TOTAL from the first page of the search.

 

   Airbnb so far has been deceiving our guests with FAKE news, by showing a fake total, for the guest to click on, only to realize..., that there is a NEW total on page 2.

 

   If you challenge Airbnb phone representatives about that "system glitch", they have been trained to read a very long script that makes no sense whatsoever, in the attempt to justify why their advertised "total" price (on page 1) does not match the final total price (on page 2).

 

   I believe Airbnb came up with their own definition of "total", which is not the one you will find in the dictionary.

Gabriel3221
Level 1
Everett, MA

Yes yes yes to this. Also agree that they used to list the full price and everyone knows that transparent pricing helps SELL. So I believe it is not only in our interest as users (renters) but also for hosts!!! I am instantly disappointed by massive price jumps especially when looking at long term rentals where the difference in list price vs. final price can be over $1,000. 

Hope they see this feedback and take action! 

Keith575
Level 2
Albany, CA

I sent feedback to Airbnb yesterday before even finding this post that basically asked for the same thing, so I am glad to read the discussion here. The current price filter is useless. There have been many good points made here, about the reasons for listing the cleaning fee separately, but as a user, I just want to filter out prices that are too high. Plus I think this incentivizes hosts to have high cleaning fees and low nightly fees. With a low nightly fee, they can show up in more search results and then get users excited before they see a large cleaning fee. I agree that total price should show up on the map too!  

 

In the example below, it is listed as $240 / night above and $548 total below it. $240 is what shows up on the map and what is filterable. However, I would prefer it said $548 total above and $240 / night below. I don't care about how much it is per night, I just want to see what the total will be for my stay. The $548 is what should be filterable and what should show up on the map. 

 

I get the point that Airbnb needs to compete with hotels and hotels list low nightly prices and have hidden fees, so Airbnb wants to do the same. Currently, though, it's easier to get a cheap hotel than a cheap Airbnb. I don't want an Airbnb because it's the cheapest, necessarily, I just want to find a cool place to stay. If I want somewhere cheap just to crash, I will go to the Best Western. I thought Airbnb is supposed to be selling experiences, not just a place to crash. Well, fix this user experience on your website.

 

I understand that people have biases that might make this low pricing be an effective strategy. But taking advantage of people's biases for profit is not helpful for the user. It would be nice if there was just price transparency and users could figure out how to compare it to hotels, even if the hotels cheat in how they display their prices. Price transparency would also put pressure on the hosts to optimize their pricing to compete with hotels as well.

 

Screen Shot 2021-02-04 at 6.50.24 PM.png

Sayan14
Level 1
Milwaukee, WI

This will save a lot of time. Can't wait to see this filter

Alfredo10
Level 2
New York, United States

@Cassandra176 hit the nail on the head with this post.  This is SO extremely frustrating... especially as it seems Airbnb has increased fees and municipalities and states across the country have tried to get their piece of the pie by adding taxes, which have both made this situation worse. I've honestly been switching back to hotels/motels more because it is so hard to find comparable pricing with this situation (not to mention all these fees now seem to make airbnb more expensive than the alternatives, unlike before).

 

Is there any sign from Airbnb that they intend to improve the transparency? I'm assuming not because they would have done it already.


@Alfredo10 Its March in 2022 and the same frustrations are still happening. 

Nakisa0
Level 1
Plymouth, MN

showing me just the room price and not the TOTAL price absolutely useless and generates resentment. Is it possible to stay at any Airbnb without paying the service fee, cleaning fee and taxes? NO. So what's the point of showing the price before all the extras - other than frustrating people? At the least let the people turn off the imaginary price and always see the total price. 

I am guessing it's just another dumb corporate thing - like putting a .99 in front of every price, playing with people's heads. Airbnb is just another corporation bent on selling, despite their feel-good propaganda.  

Mark3800
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Just saw this post.

Interestingly for customers in Europe AirBNB will display total price inclusive of all fees in search results, and will show the nightly fee as the average cost per night of the total (all inclusive) price, not the nightly price set by the host (excl. fees).

An example is here: https://imgur.com/ZsC2QX1 

The functionality exists on the platform, and I can only assume the reason it's done in Europe but not North America is because of regulatory requirements in Europe. 

Very frustrating. 

Edit: Yep, it was a regulatory action in 2019 that forced AirBNB to do this: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airbnb-full-price-private-professional-host-eu-... 

An excellent point! What I would give for a simple US regulation that all prices shown must reflect all costs, taxes and fees. Everything from financial products, medical care, hotels, to meals! That would be amazing, and libertarians/free marketers and paternalists alike should embrace it in theory. Only special interests and manipulators would be against it.

Ward829
Level 1
Seattle, WA

Yes, this! I've seen cleaning fees double the price of the per night rental fee! Hosts are clearly gaming the pricing system to make their places appear cheaper by back loading large fees, and of course Airbnb is doing the same thing. Add in ALL fees and show me the per night price for the days I select! At least give me the option to search that way if you're not going to make it the default. Thanks Airbnb team!

 

Conner16
Level 1
Redwood City, CA

I gave up on Airbnb for precisely this reason and have switched to Vrbo, since they give you the information you need to search

 

Shame on you Airbnb.  Make the product the way you'd want to use it if you were a user, and not the scammy way to try to bait and switch people.

 

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 20.35.14.png