Starting in December, Airbnb will begin offering users the ability to view the full price of a listing upfront, including service and cleaning fees, but not taxes.
The total will also be displayed on the map, filter and list page – but this is not a default feature, the company said.
The change will apply to countries that do not yet have price display requirements (listings in the EEA, including Ireland, among others, already display full charges).
So-called “hidden” fees can significantly increase the price of an Airbnb rental, once cleaning and service charges and minimum stays are calculated.
“I heard you loud and clear – you feel like pricing isn’t transparent and payment tasks are a pain,” CEO Brian Chesky tweeted on Monday.
“We prioritize total price (instead of price per night) in our search ranking algorithm,” the company said.
“This means that for similar listings in the same area, the ones that offer the best quality and the best total prices will rank higher in search results.”
The precise timing of the new price display has not been announced.
Airbnb also said it advises its hosts “that if they have check-out requests, they should be reasonable and displayed to guests before booking.”
“Guests shouldn’t have to perform unreasonable payment tasks like pulling out beds, doing laundry or vacuuming when they leave their Airbnb,” he said. “But we think it’s reasonable to ask customers to turn off the lights, throw food in the bins and lock the doors, as they would when leaving their own home.
The move comes as the EU this week proposed rules that would require Airbnb and other short-term home rental companies to share data on the number of people using their platforms.
New rules are being drawn up for short-term rentals and holiday rentals in Ireland, including a landlord register, overseen by Fáilte Ireland, but the deadline was recently postponed for several months.
Airbnb has lost about 37% of its share value so far this year, according to Reuters, but recently reported record third-quarter results.
In the third quarter of this year, it recorded nearly 100 million nights and experiences booked, revenue growth of 29% to $2.9 billion, and its most profitable quarter with net revenue of 1. $2 billion.
Chesky described the post-pandemic era as ” a golden age of travel”.
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