• Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I can guarantee you can get a pretty nice hotel for less than that without bullshit fees. Anyone still using Airbnb or any of the other short term rentals deserve what they get.

    • Psythik@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The major thing that keeps me from trying Airbnb is the fact that you have to clean up after yourself. I go on vacation to relax, not clean.

      Also bedbugs.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
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      8 months ago

      In general, AirBnB is where we get places where we want to sleep 10 or 12 in one place.

      • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Sure, but this is 2 guests unless they’re planning on lying about it. In which case, double whammy when they get hit with another fee for extra people.

        • Dave@lemmy.nz
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          8 months ago

          Sorry it wasn’t a rebuttal. Rather, I was agreeing thatvfor situations like this a hotel is better, bit it’s hard to match AirBnB when you want to sleep lots of people in one place.

        • Confused_Emus@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          There are plenty of hotels with kitchens, though? I know they’re often called extended stay hotels, but you can still just book a few nights.

    • Fal@yiffit.net
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      8 months ago

      Are you kidding? It’s totally common for hotels to charge 50 bucks a night in bullshit fees

        • witten@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Lots of hotels tack on “amenity fees” or “resort fees” separate from those. It’s pretty obnoxious, especially since they don’t show them to you til you’re halfway through booking.

          • phx@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            Parking (at a remote resort with no other reasonable way of accessing) comes to mind as one of the bullshit’ish fees I’ve had to pay, but most of the rest are usually fees passed up from the municipality etc

        • RatherBeMTB@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          In the US it is common to have an amenities fee that you will only know, in most cases, the day of your check in. The fee applies whether you use the amenities or not.

          • tal@lemmy.today
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            8 months ago

            California just passed a law banning any mandatory fee if it isn’t included in the advertised rates; the ban goes into force starting middle of next year.

            https://www.frommers.com/blogs/arthur-frommer-online/blog_posts/california-bans-deceptive-resort-fees-see-what-s-affected-and-when

            The new law, which takes effect on July 1, 2024, “make[s] unlawful advertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction.” If a fee is not optional and cannot be removed from a bill, the fee has to be disclosed from the top.

            That being said, I would imagine that there is some wiggle room on “mandatory”. Like, a hotel is going to be allowed to charge for use of items in a minibar, for example – that’s not a mandatory fee. I don’t know what the bar is for notification that a given action will incur a fee.

              • tal@lemmy.today
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                8 months ago

                Right turn on red didn’t exist anywhere until some states started allowing it; a lot of people thought that it would be too dangerous. Then it worked out okay, and other states added it, and eventually essentially everyone was doing it.

                Just saying that it sounds like the direction things are going right now is to legislatively-restricting what hotels can charge without disclosure.

                From my skim online, it sounds like the addition of hotel fees like this is relatively recent, and so this is something of a backlash.

              • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                California is so big that often, when they make a law, companies follow it nationally. It can be cheaper than having to maintain different rules for sifferent states

        • Ambiorickx@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Around 2004-5 I regularly stayed at a large chain hotel near Tucson airport (something like Doubletree, but I’m not sure if it was that one). They charged a daily fee for the phone in your room. Not for using it, mind you, just for the phone being there. And no, they did not have rooms without phones.

      • Jamie@jamie.moe
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        8 months ago

        Last week I stayed in a hotel for 3 days at a said and done price that was still about $100 cheaper than this 2 night Airbnb’s base price, not even adding in their fees.

        • Fal@yiffit.net
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          8 months ago

          Ok? That tells us nothing without comparing location, etc.

    • Princeali311@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      And you don’t have to put the sheets in the wash, run the dishwasher, and take the trash out.

    • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Seriously. This year for a similar amount per night, while I didn’t get a whole house to myself,

      Just a two bed room, bathroom, desk, mini fridge, microwave, and coffee maker to myself.

      I got an actually good free breakfast every day, a pool, a gym, free room cleaning, free Internet, and there was like a mini food store next to the front-desk if I needed food in the middle of the night.

      Sure there are crap hotels, but if you read reviews it’s not too hard to find decent ones. And there’s usually no surprise extra fees.

      Pretty much the only issue I ran into was at one hotel, the claimed free breakfast was watered down coffee, a waffle maker, cereal, and frozen solid orange juice. Had to go out for breakfast every morning which was annoying.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, but at a hotel, do you have to wash the dishes, change the bedsheet, take out your trash, mow the lawn, retile the roof and breastfeed the house baby while paying the same amount of more like in an Airbnb?

      Thought so.

      • Acamon@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        No idea why you’re getting downvoted. Most of the time I’ve rented an Airbnb is because I’m looking for a homelike environment, kitchen, lounge, etc. Depending on what country I’m in sometimes it’s cheaper to stay in a hotel, sometimes it’s cheaper to stay in an airbnb. But they’re very different experiences, so it depends what you’re looking for.

  • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Host fees

    They love to make it look like the fees are being charged by anyone except them

    Stop using Airbnb FFS

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I don’t get it. Are you saying these fees are from Airbnb, but made to look like the host? (Apart from the fact this is an obvious bug)

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I actually work in this industry, looking after properties for owners when they’re not being rented.

        I will not work with Airbnb properties.

        On every single other property rental site, the fee you see is the fee you pay, it includes everything from the booking agent’s percentage to the property owner’s cut of the rental

        Airbnb try to split it up to make it look less, and they can shove their site up their arse.

        Use local rental agencies in the place you’re staying. Cheaper for you and more money for the owner.

        Stop feeding billionaires!

        • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          Can you give some pointers on how to find these agencies? People keep using Airbnb because it’s the only one they know (aside from traditional hotels)

            • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Yep, they’ll be on the first search page along with Arbnbullshit

              Go to the second, third and fourth pages for the actual local agencies. People who live there and know the area.

              The days of “If it’s not on the first page of Google, I’m not interested” were five years ago. Now the first page or two are paid ads.

              Try Kagi search. New but getting there

              Also, find the area on Maps and search for rental agencies “in this area”

              • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Yeah, I’ve got a few different sites that I avoid using that are often high up on searches, but I haven’t had issues just scrolling past them.

                Going with a top result just means your results will be biased towards sites with good SEO. Bad SEO or ignoring it doesn’t mean the product, service, or site will be bad. IMO they could be better because the owner isn’t obsessed with doing everything they can to maximise money.

        • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Ah, fair enough. That’s actually illegal in many countries because it’s considered false or deceptive advertising.

  • ZooGuru@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Late booking + early booking = booking. Math checks out. I don’t see the problem here.

  • graycube@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    I think amenities fees should be illegal. When I asked what amenities, they said “housekeeping, the free wifi, the exercise room”.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I started using the Australian site (it can still be used for searching elsewhere), because they’re required by law to list the final price as the listing price

      You can sort by price and all the bullshit fees are built into it

      • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
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        8 months ago

        We’re travelling in the US at the moment, and as an Australian this habit of posting prices that aren’t actually the price really grinds my gears.

        In Australia, the listed price is the price you’ll pay. The only exception is if they specify that it excludes GST, in which case the total price will be 10% higher.

        In the US, the listed price is the starting price. Then you’ll have a city tax, a state tax, a federal tax, a congestion fee, a service fee, a minimum gratuity, and then of course the optional (but not really) additional tip on top with a suggested minimum of 25%.

        It’s making buying things a really sour experience. Just yesterday I bought some clothing that came in a little under $250 and I had $300 cash on me. Easy, that’ll cover it. Nope… ended up having to bust out the card because the total was closer to $320 once all the fees and taxes got thrown on top.

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          And the contexts in which you can list prices excluding GST are pretty limited.

          My heart goes out to you friend. Get home safe ❤️

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      In order, fine, that’s not free, and we both know I’m not going to use it.

    • pdxfed@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      It was VRBO actually, have never booked with them so have no idea if that’s an error or some insane "this is normal business approach. Didn’t book. Most times I’m tempted to do a house rental after looking at the prices, fees and amenities it almost never pencils out unless it’s a huge group trip.

  • Fushi@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    in my country you could get a whole villa with a pool and play court for 3-4 days for that amount of money