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Thursday, March 10, 2022

AirBnB Bait and Switch

I used to be a big fan of AirBnB. I mean, what's better than sticking it to the hotel industry by staying in a spare room in someone's house for $25?

Sadly, like most things, AirBnB was too good to last. Nowadays, I find that a decent AirBnB may run me as much or more than the local hotel. But I still like to use it when I can. It's still more interesting than staying in the same stuffy hotels all the time.

What I really find annoying is the bait and switch you get when trying to find the cost of a reservation. For example, here is a typical search that I did recently:


Notice that in the map on the right they (supposedly) show you the prices of available units. Then when you click one it shows up on the left. But the real price is usually much more than what it says on the map. Here I clicked on the "$65" item shown on the map. But if you look on the left, the actual price of that unit is "$131 total" (more than double what I expected!). This is ridiculous. The $65 on the map is meaningless. It should say $131 on the map. You can see the same issue with the other two units shown.




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