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Comment by elif | Hacker News Reader

Not sure what you mean about lying about prices.. I've booked 28 stays on 5 continents since 2014 and never been lied to.

Do you mean having to click on "price breakdown" to see the service and cleaning fees?

Do you mean hosts asking for cash payments for things like linens and key deposits? (These have happened to me, but it is against ToS and Airbnb took my side)

My current travel plans are chaos due to cancellations. We have up to 10 flight segments over a month away that we are eating 100% of the cost on due to a cancelled cruise. We are dealing with 3 airlines with multiple hour waits and confusing policies with no success so far.

AirBnB, by comparison has been a total delight. In the app, I push the "cancel" button, and it's like "yea, that's months away, no problem here's 100% to your credit card today"

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> Not sure what you mean about lying about prices

challenge accepted: https://imgur.com/gallery/6UeavrH

* I've searched for 4 nights in SF some time in May

* the second result is 99$/night

* bill for 4 nights end up being 561$. 150$ magically appeared.

That's a 40% increase at checkout time lol.

Again I love AirBnB but this is scamy.

Your screenshot says "$492 total" which includes the cleaning and service fees. The service and cleaning fees are set by the host, and can be $0.

Then it adds the California taxes on the checkout page. That is what hotels do too.

Ah, looks like they added august last year, hadn't noticed that!

It is still hidden, and not the fair price (which they could calculate).

> That is what hotels do too

Hotels who do this are scammy IMO. I've only seen this in the US.

Scammy hotels?

I just tried on Marriott and Hilton in SF.

They both did this.

That's bad :/

hopefully they stop this anti-consumer practice. I'm hopping AirBnB can lead the way there.

Indeed, but this is completely baffling to anyone in Europe. Simple example: In the US, if I have $5 in my pocket, I can't go to a store and buy a thing that's listed as costing $5.00, because at the cash register some more money has magically appeared on the bill. In Europe on the other hand, you pay at the register the exact amount that is on the price sticker.

And yes, I know the difference is due to taxes not being included in the sticker price, but why oh god why is it up to me to do weird math to figure out if I actually have enough $$$ to pay for what I'd like to have.

> why is it up to me to do weird math to figure out if I actually have enough $$$ to pay for what I'd like to have.

Well, one reason is: to make you aware of the tax burden (and judge if that % is kept at a reasonable level), rather than hiding it in the total price.

And why do I, as a customer, have to expend that effort to "be aware of the tax burden"?

It also seems to have nasty incentives, I've never heard of people talking about taxes so much before moving to the US. Here everybody is afraid of taxes going up, and people who support Sanders' ideas are not voting for him because "he is going to raise the taxes".

But in my opinion it's backward, instead of being up-front about costs, they are HIDING costs. I can still see how much taxes is taken when I get a receipt in France for example, it's just not hidden from you at the beginning of the transaction.

Pro-tip: Use https://www.airbnb.com.au - the site will show the real final price, by Australian law.

What do you know, such issues can be resolved via proper regulation....

(Btw, you can also change the currency by clicking on the "world icon" at the top right).

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