Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said today that the company is refining its search to show users’ charges inclusive of fees like cleaning fees. The company will roll out this feature through a toggle next month and will also prioritize the total charges (before taxes) for your trip in search instead of the nightly price.
Chesky said that once you turn on the toggle, you will see the total price (excluding taxes) in search results, map listings, price filters, and listing pages. Plus, users will be clearly able to see the breakdown of fees, services charges, discounts and taxes for the property and the trip. Despite these changes, it’s still annoying that you won’t know how much taxes do you have to pay until you reach the last step in the booking.
It’s not clear why the company is making the price inclusive of all fees an opt-in experience through a toggle rather than making it the default search parameter.
The company is making these changes as customer complains about cleaning fees and other hidden charges that have grown in recent times. After customer outrage. A report published by Nerdwallet in June surveying 1,000 U.S. rental properties on Airbnb said that 34% of listings had a clearing fee in the 20-30% range of the base fee. Airbnb published a blog post last year saying it transparently displays all fees on all listings. But clearly, that wasn’t enough and the travel company was forced to make these changes.
Along with these new search tweaks, Airbnb is also rolling out pricing and discount tools for hosts that will let them set competitive final prices that are inclusive of all fees. This will help hosts attract more guests as they might want their property to get listed under a certain price filter when it comes to total fees.
Airbnb registered $2.9 billion in revenue for Q3 2022 — up 29% year-on-year. This also beat the analysts’ estimate of $2.8 billion for the quarter. The company said that nights and experiences booked grew 25% year-on-year for Q3.
In Europe, the company and its rivals have been asked to share booking data with the European Commission as there are growing worries about the short-term rental economy creating a housing shortage by pushing out low-income residents.
source: TechCrunch
