Airbnb announces transparency of fees and payment rules

Airbnb is introducing greater price transparency in the US and beyond, rolling out a feature to show total costs, including fees, and urging hosts to implement “reasonable” payment requests.

Starting next month, the company will display the total price of a reservation allowing customers to see the final cost of a listing, including fees, an Airbnb spokesperson confirmed to Travel + Leisure tuesday. Fees often include a cleaning fee and service charges.

The company will also prioritize the total price over the base nightly rate in the search ranking algorithm, ranking listings with the best total prices higher in the search results. according to Airbnb. The total price will include pre-tax charges and will be displayed in search results and on map, filter and list pages.

Travelers in the United States can currently see the full price of a property by hovering over a grayed-out number, but moving forward, this will be the only number they’ll see for a listing. The expansion of this tool comes after Airbnb rolled out full pricing in select markets in 2019, including Europe and the UK, an Airbnb spokesperson told T+L. Full pricing is also available in Australia, Canada and Korea.

In addition, Airbnb will provide “guides” to hosts on what payment requests are considered “reasonable” and require that they be displayed prior to guests booking. The updated guidelines come as memes of exaggerated payment requests circulated the internet, comparing the company’s short-term rentals to hotels.

“Guests shouldn’t have to perform unreasonable payment tasks such as stripping beds, doing laundry or vacuuming when leaving their Airbnb,” the company wrote in a statement. “But we think it’s reasonable to ask guests to turn off lights, throw food in the trash and lock doors, as they would when leaving their own home.”