Staying at an Airbnb can be a really fun way to visit a place you've never been before or to have a weekend getaway. They can be less expensive for longer stays or large groups, and you normally deal with a lot fewer people than you would in a bigger hotel. As unique as staying at an Airbnb can be, one Iowa, Airbnb host, had started to feel a bit of an impact on how many customers she was booking until changes occurred to Airbnb's policy.

Unsplash - Karsten Winegeart
Unsplash - Karsten Winegeart
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According to KCRG, people who are booking an Airbnb now have the option to see the full price of the stay upfront. While first reading that you might be thinking to yourself "well, what's the big deal, don't you always see the price of something before you buy it?" Yes, you do. The problem Airbnb customers were having was finding additional charges being added, right before checkout.

If you've never booked an Airbnb before, you might be unaware that the website originally wouldn't add some of the fees included in your stay, until the very end. Right before you were ready to confirm your stay, you could see a sudden increase in the total price. This led to a lot of complaints from across the rental platform.

Before you wanted to confirm the booking, customers would suddenly find cleaning fees or a chore list could be added, and it could leave customers disappointed with such an increase in the price. After finding additional charges right before checking out, some people would just opt out and switch to staying at a hotel. To combat these hidden charges, Airbnb now gives customers the option to see the entire price upfront.

Brian Chesky is the CEO of Airbnb and back on November 7th, in a tweet, he mentioned changes coming soon to booking with Airbnb.


Krystal Fitzpatrick is an Iowa Airbnb host, who has a place to rent called Glam Cottage, in Cedar Rapids. Before this change in Airbnb's policy, she started to notice a drop in bookers around November.

I did notice a drop in bookings, I would say November first it just kind of went dead which is hard because it is your small business and you went from being pretty much totally booked to just dead.

Fitzpatrick is in favor of this policy change as she says it helps with transparency. Having a lot of returning guests has also helped Glam Cottage. She told KCRG,

One of the things that I do is I don’t leave a list of chores so my guests know that, and I have a lot of returning guests which really helps. It has to be an experience and not just someone’s empty little house for you to stay in.

You know the old saying, "transparency is always the best policy." I'm not sure if that's actually a saying but am I wrong in wondering how this wasn't the standard policy from the beginning? Why wouldn't Airbnb try to be as upfront about the costs to use their platform as possible? I've also never run a company worth $55 billion, so what the heck do I know?

Now that you'll be able to see the all costs for Airbnb bookings, you should check out some of these fantastic places you can stay, right here in Iowa!

You'll Love this Gorgeous, Historic Cedar Rapids Airbnb

This Cedar Rapids Airbnb is a registered Local & National Historic property.

Have Your Dream Farmhouse Stay in this Artsy, Renovated Barn Airbnb in Iowa

An Airbnb outside of Ames, IA is a converted barn with a bed you have to see!

 

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