Minor things that bother you

[jeffandnicole]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

I'm ok with this one, within reason.  Some people are slobs and leave houses in atrocious condition. Other fees are just add-ons for no reason other than pure profit.

I'm not. It's part of the cost of doing business and should be wrapped into the regular rate.

A house that needs cleaning is gonna cost the same regardless if the previous renters were there 3 nights or 14 nights.  Including it with the rental cost will mean they need to charge more per night for shorter rentals if the owner doesn't want to lose money.

[JayhawkCO]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

Or at least the cleaning fees not being included on the price you see when you first search. I've seen $79 places with $100 cleaning fees. That's effed.

[SSOWorld]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

Or at least the cleaning fees not being included on the price you see when you first search. I've seen $79 places with $100 cleaning fees. That's effed.

Tips

[CtrlAltDel]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

I'm ok with this one, within reason.  Some people are slobs and leave houses in atrocious condition. Other fees are just add-ons for no reason other than pure profit.

I'm not. It's part of the cost of doing business and should be wrapped into the regular rate.

A house that needs cleaning is gonna cost the same regardless if the previous renters were there 3 nights or 14 nights.  Including it with the rental cost will mean they need to charge more per night for shorter rentals if the owner doesn't want to lose money.

True, and I'd be more amenable if such fees weren't deceptive and hidden, which in my experience is the general case.

[hotdogPi]

Uber has a driver able to hit a "customer left a mess" button and charge for that (and it can be disputed). No automatic charges.

[elsmere241]

When your wife buys lunch at a museum cafeteria, and doesn't notice the prices, and gets shocked by the total.

[Rothman]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

I'm ok with this one, within reason.  Some people are slobs and leave houses in atrocious condition. Other fees are just add-ons for no reason other than pure profit.

I have only experienced the latter

[Rothman]

When your wife buys lunch at a museum cafeteria, and doesn't notice the prices, and gets shocked by the total.

I needed this laugh today.

[LilianaUwU]

When your wife buys lunch at a museum cafeteria, and doesn't notice the prices, and gets shocked by the total.

I wish I had "doesn't have to read the prices" money.

[vdeane]

Don't get me started on the government of Canada making it law, which means that in the case of Facebook where they block links to Canadian media, fake news spread much more easily.

Not just Canadian media.  Browsing Northeast Roads is quite surreal when half the posts get "news is forbidden in Canada" or whatever the exact phrasing is.  There's one post where I only know what it's about because Scott Kozel's rant comment on the post included sufficient detail to figure out what was going on.

[elsmere241]

When your wife buys lunch at a museum cafeteria, and doesn't notice the prices, and gets shocked by the total.

I wish I had "doesn't have to read the prices" money.

We don't!

[JayhawkCO]

Airbnb cleaning fees.

Or at least the cleaning fees not being included on the price you see when you first search. I've seen $79 places with $100 cleaning fees. That's effed.

Tips

Not the same thing. When you eat at a restaurant, you can mentally add 20% to the price. When I look at an Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be - somewhere between 2 and 200%.

[GaryV]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

[J N Winkler]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning fee is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

[JayhawkCO]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning charge is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

Exactly. It's after clicking through. When I look at map view and I see 12 properties listed under $100, it's completely possible that zero of them will remain under $100 after cleaning fees. Or it's possible all of them will. It's a crapshoot.

[Rothman]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning charge is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

Exactly. It's after clicking through. When I look at map view and I see 12 properties listed under $100, it's completely possible that zero of them will remain under $100 after cleaning fees. Or it's possible all of them will. It's a crapshoot.

Pfft.  In my experience, none of them will remain under $100.

[SEWIGuy]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning charge is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

Exactly. It's after clicking through. When I look at map view and I see 12 properties listed under $100, it's completely possible that zero of them will remain under $100 after cleaning fees. Or it's possible all of them will. It's a crapshoot.

Pfft.  In my experience, none of them will remain under $100.

I have been using AirBNB and Vrbo for years and any fees are detailed long before reserving. Is it annoying that fees aren't built into the pricing?  Yeah. But it's not some sort of surprise charge.

[JayhawkCO]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning charge is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

Exactly. It's after clicking through. When I look at map view and I see 12 properties listed under $100, it's completely possible that zero of them will remain under $100 after cleaning fees. Or it's possible all of them will. It's a crapshoot.

Pfft.  In my experience, none of them will remain under $100.

I have been using AirBNB and Vrbo for years and any fees are detailed long before reserving. Is it annoying that fees aren't built into the pricing?  Yeah. But it's not some sort of surprise charge.

Never said it was a surprise, but when you're looking for a place to stay, you get 40 search results, and they all look like reasonable choices based on the thumbnails, map, etc., needing to click onto each property to get the total price is pretty annoying.

[jeffandnicole]

Airbnb, I can't begin to guess what the cleaning fee will be

Don't they tell you the fee before you hit Submit?

That was how it worked in 2016, the last time I tried to use Airbnb.  (I was rejected by the hosts I picked out.)  The problem is that the cleaning charge is not included in the total charge in a way that allows potential Airbnb lodgings to be sorted on the basis of total cost per night.

Exactly. It's after clicking through. When I look at map view and I see 12 properties listed under $100, it's completely possible that zero of them will remain under $100 after cleaning fees. Or it's possible all of them will. It's a crapshoot.

Pfft.  In my experience, none of them will remain under $100.

I have been using AirBNB and Vrbo for years and any fees are detailed long before reserving. Is it annoying that fees aren't built into the pricing?  Yeah. But it's not some sort of surprise charge.

Never said it was a surprise, but when you're looking for a place to stay, you get 40 search results, and they all look like reasonable choices based on the thumbnails, map, etc., needing to click onto each property to get the total price is pretty annoying.

You should be clicking on each property to view the pictures and description anyway. Full costs, fees and charges are part of this search. Just like hotels with resort fees, the charges are often not subject to the percentage commission that AirBnB takes from the nightly rate.  Blame the site for the game; not the players.

[JayhawkCO]

You should be clicking on each property to view the pictures and description anyway. Full costs, fees and charges are part of this search. Just like hotels with resort fees, the charges are often not subject to the percentage commission that AirBnB takes from the nightly rate.  Blame the site for the game; not the players.

Sigh. I do click the links for pics and descriptions as well. But it's nice to at least be able to narrow down the options to ones that fit in the price range I want. Shit, I can just say "Room in France" and click through the 180,000 listings or whatever, but it'd be obviously far more helpful if I could say "Hey, I want to be in this area of Paris and pay between $100-$150 all in", but I can't do that. I can try by selecting anything between $75-$140 "base price", but I'll inevitably find a whole bunch that jump out of the price range by the time you add the fees.

As to who gets the blame, the site or the players? Both, since some of the players have a $100 room and a $200 cleaning fee. That's absolutely absurd -- a) having the price increase by 200% from what was "advertised" and b) claiming that it costs $200 to clean a room.

[elsmere241]

When the mail on my block gets delivered one house off.

[J N Winkler]

You should be clicking on each property to view the pictures and description anyway. Full costs, fees and charges are part of this search. Just like hotels with resort fees, the charges are often not subject to the percentage commission that AirBnB takes from the nightly rate.  Blame the site for the game; not the players.

I'm with JayhawkCO on this one.  I don't care if Airbnb hosts use inflated cleaning charges to lock in profit, like the airlines do with baggage fees or online sellers do with shipping charges--I just want to be able to see the total cost per night up front.  It should be possible for them to do this when search parameters include length of stay.

[kkt]

When the mail on my block gets delivered one house off.

I hardly ever get that.  Instead I get mail delivered for my house number, but several avenues off.
I love being the final block delivery for USPS.  /s

[Rothman]

You should be clicking on each property to view the pictures and description anyway. Full costs, fees and charges are part of this search. Just like hotels with resort fees, the charges are often not subject to the percentage commission that AirBnB takes from the nightly rate.  Blame the site for the game; not the players.

I'm with JayhawkCO on this one.  I don't care if Airbnb hosts use inflated cleaning charges to lock in profit, like the airlines do with baggage fees or online sellers do with shipping charges--I just want to be able to see the total cost per night up front.  It should be possible for them to do this when search parameters include length of stay.

Short of it is that they like presenting one price to lure you in before they hit you with the real one.  It's annoying, frustrating and an inconvenience not easily tolerated.

[Scott5114]

Unfortunately, a lot of hotels are doing this too, but instead of cleaning fees, they're "resort fees".