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Airbnb’s search engine display isn’t terribly straightforward. When you search for a property it displays the nightly cost, then in smaller type below is lists the total cost of the rental for the period selected including cleaning and service fees. But that’s not the full cost of the rental as there are is an additional set of taxes and fees that are NOT included in this total and that you only see upon actually clicking all the way to the reservation page for rental. These fees vary tremendously based on country, city and even neighbourhood and can make it tedious to compare the total cost of multiple rentals.
A Reddit user shared a neat little tip to be able to see the full cost of each result without having to click all the way through to the rental page: search using Airbnb’s Australian site.
It’s Australian for “price transparency”
- See the full cost of Airbnb rentals on the search display page by using the Australian site: airbnb.com.au
Let’s check out an example. I’ve been looking for a vacation rental on the Washington/Oregon Coast in November. Here’s the search result page for a three night rental in Ocean Shores, WA:
Note these totals aren’t actually the final price. If I click through to the reservation page of the first option (Chalet in Ocean Shores), I get a final price of:
This is ~12% more than the total Airbnb gave me, due to the $41.63 of additional taxes and fees. Because of the way that Airbnb displays these results on the US page, it’s a pain to quickly compare the actual final cost of the various properties for the dates that I want.
Let’s take a look at the exact same search on the Australian site:
Gone are the confusing nightly prices. The only price listed is that of the entire stay, including all taxes and fees. It’s now extremely easy to quickly browse through the results and immediately know exactly what the entire cost of the rental will be for the dates that I’ve selected. Nice.
Two things to be aware of:
- You may notice that the price for the chalet above is ~$4.50 more on the Australian site than it is on the reservation page of the American site. The reason why is that Australia charges VAT on the Airbnb service fee, adding 10% to that portion of the total (in this case making the service fee $47.21 instead of $42.92). For that reason, it will save you a few bucks to actual book the property through the American site once you’ve decided on one.
2. The default currency of the Australian page will be AUD. In order to see result listed in USD, click on the small globe on the top right corner of the page:
You’ll now have the choice to change both default currency and language. Assuming you can understand Australian English, select “currency” and “US Dollar” and all prices will be displayed accordingly:
Final Thoughts
This is a nifty, little trick to simplify the prices listed on the Airbnb results page, especially when trying to compare dozens of properties at once. Just remember to switch over to the American site before making the final booking to avoid having to pay tax on the Airbnb service fee.
(h/t: Reddit user professor_doom via MEAB)
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Great trick and it seems to work with other booking sites, too! Looking at Puerto Rico properties on Booking.com, I was teased by a $49 rate that then turned out to have a 9% tax, a $40 service charge, and a $100 cleaning fee. I signed into a VPN using a server in Perth and all the prices on Booking.com started appearing with all taxes and fees included (the property in question was priced at $193 for one night). Congratulations to Australia for mandating price transparency. Everywhere else should as well.
Good for you for taking this one step further…I’ll have to play around with it some more. What a great solution.
Cool, thanks for the acknowledgment! I’m playing around with it as well. Extra fees are such a turn-off.
I’m probably going to write a post about this, either today or over the weekend…ok if I credit you?
Sure, fine with me and thanks!
Good example with the $100 cleaning fee for 3 nights. Insane. I skip those every time.
Regardless of your experience or the ridiculous fees, nobody should be using AirBNB because of the enormous widespread destructive effects Airbnb has had on the housing and rental market. It is a huge factor as to why housing has been skyrocketing to unaffordable levels in the past decade. Do not give the greedy scumbag “hosts” your money. They are sucking away EVERYONE’S money with their effect on the housing market
interesting…never heard this angle before. I don’t use AirBnB that much. 11 times in 10 years. 6 of those in last 3 though. I can guess the effect, but any more insights?
I will say some of the prices are on the ridiculous end.
Great tip but still will not sway me to use Airbnb. I’ve had some great experiences in Europe but the ability for the owner to cancel booking last minute, the lack of transparency regarding exact location until after booking, and the fact that Airbnb does nothing about complaints from renters keeps me far away from booking Airbnbs any longer.
Tim, you really should have found a listing that fully exemplifies Airbnb fees:
Damage waiver fee
Resort fee (I kid you not)
Booking fee (charged by the owner)
The list of fees is becoming like that on a rental car agreement. Between the fees and the risk of peekaboo cameras, Airbnb is absolutely off my radar.
This does work for me, but only if I’m not logged-in. Here’s a screenshot of .com vs .com.au.