Summer travel season is officially upon us, but globetrotters have been given pause by surprise fees charged by one of the leading vacation rental companies in the world, Airbnb. Fortunately, customers’ concerns were heard and changes are being made.
In a recent Yahoo report, Airbnb CEO discussed their new pricing transparency policy that allows users to see exactly what they’re getting charged, and why.
“What we’re asking hosts is to do a reasonable task, not ask for anything unreasonable,” Brian Chansky, the company’s leader said in a recent Yahoo interview. “We’re setting new guidelines. And anything a host requests, we want to make sure that’s up front stated so you know what you’re getting into before the booking. So I think the combination of showing an upfront price, showing better values up top, providing more discount tools for hosting, providing better deals and better– more guidelines to provide more reasonable checkout tasks, hopefully people will feel like this is an even more guest-friendly service to them.”
The platform wrapped in more than 50 upgrades designed to make it easier for guests to budget accurately when securing a stay.
The “total price display” clearly show all fees (excluding taxes) in the search results, maps and listings pages.
“This is the most extensive set of improvements that we have ever made,” Brian Chesky, the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, said at a press event in New York City earlier this year. “Airbnb’s original tagline was ‘travel like a human,’ and the human part was always more important than the travel part because the most memorable part of traveling is the other people you’re with. Meeting somebody new, walking in their shoes and seeing the city through their eyes: this is the soul of Airbnb.”