re: Should Airbnb, VRBO, and others like that include hidden fees in their room prices?

quote:

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It is frustrating looking for a house on VRBO or AirBnB.

You can have 2 houses both priced at $400/night. You go to book them for 5 nights and one is $2,400 and the other is $3,000.

If i'm telling you the dates i'm staying there, then just tell me the true average daily rate.

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This is all caused by VRBO and Airbnb trying to assist customers in comparing properties. VRBO likes to advertise an avg daily rate, so does Airbnb for that matter, which is an Avg that VRBO and Airbnb come up with. Its not an Avg entered by the host of the property. If you are talking about a seasonal property the rates will obviously fluctuate like crazy. So how does one come up with an Avg? If you put the Avg as the high season, then no one will book it in the slow season as the advertised rate would be way too high.

Again, its no different then looking at flights. You can't just ask, whats the cost of a flight from MSY to Berlin? Well that's going to depend on multiple factors like dates, time, stops, etc.

I've found the frustration by most in this is that they think they found a good deal and its not. No one is trying to trick you, its just how the pricing works.