Airbnb faces backlash from guests over extra fees and taxes

Vacation rental platform Airbnb recently faced the lash of the users on the social networking platforms after complaining of extra charges. Many of the users went on to say that Airbnb became way more expensive and hotels were more reasonable. The cheap rental platform was launched in 2008 but in recent times users started to complain about the extra laden charges that seemed too much for many. One of the users dropped a post on Twitter that had a screen shot of a $99 listing that came to a total of $413.95 for two nights after including the additional fees and taxes.

The post went viral on the internet and generated thousands of comments. But Airbnb did not choose to be silent and defended about its charges. Nate Blecharczyk, one of the founders of Airbnb explained that the cleaning fees was always included with the stay but the social media reaction was new. However, Blecharczyk assured that the team would review the charges in partnership with their hosts.

The co-founder added that the cleaning fees is set by the host as per their needs despite the fact that they recommend the hosts to keep the charges reasonable. But in the recent times, the cleaning process has also been enhanced due to the coronavirus pandemic and every guest needs a clean property. Blecharczyk also said that 45 percent of their listings do not charge any cleaning fees and people who do, the cost on average is lower than ten percent of the overall reservation.

It was also revealed that the service fees and occupancy taxes are set by the local governments adding that the cleaning fees is always visible before the guests are asked to pay. Airbnb has now assured that it will be reviewing the fees and make recommendations to the hosts to keep the pricing more transparent. The recent incident surfaced after Airbnb introduced more than 100 updates to make the site more user friendly.

Photo Credits: Pixabay