Australia: Regulator says Airbnb was misleading

Airbnb can’t hide surprise fees anymore after the consumer watchdog pushed the user-to-user accommodation service to improve its pricing policy.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accepted undertakings from Airbnb and rival online travel agency eDreams to fix their pricing practices after the ACCC considered both were misleading consumers by not disclosing their mandatory fees straight up.

The watchdog says Airbnb didn’t include service and cleaning charges within the advertised prices on their listing pages while eDreams hid mandatory service and payment costs.

The cases are part of the ACCC’s crackdown on the practice of drip pricing, where companies advertise a headline price and don’t reveal any extra charges until the booking process.

‘Drip feeding consumers with information about charges can cause detriment to competition and result in consumers paying a higher price than the advertised price or spending more than they realise,’ ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

Full content: The Sydney Morning Herald

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