Tricks Airbnb is playing in 2023 to skyrocket their revenues (+ how to avoid being cheated)

Let’s start with a simple question:

“Do you prioritize your travel time, hate complications, and choose to ensure safe accommodation rather than risk your whole trip?”

Did you answer yes? You’re likely to prefer staying at hotels - they might be boutique, unique, not necessarily big chain properties. But still, you choose to play it safe. And if you’ve wanted to answer no, and choose Airbnb, here are the tricks you didn’t know Airbnb uses to impact the price (some of them might even sound offensive). You might reconsider booking Airbnb next time. 

Let's dive down to the tricks:

#1 DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE

No people will soon be left booking 2-day Airbnb stays for $500 when they can book a safe hotel for $300 with a pool, daily cleaning, breakfast, and room service. 

Here are only a few examples I found scrolling through social media. Cleaning, service, and occupancy fees add up, and you have more taxes to pay rather than the nightly cost in general. 

But probably the worst thing about all these fees is that they strongly depend on your IP address. That’s exactly what I meant by offensive. In other words, if you’re looking at a property from the UK and from Canada, you’ll end up booking it at different rates. 

For example, if connected to the UK, you get one service fee:

While connected to Canada, you get cheaper service fees: 

#2 UNFAIR PRICING

It’s not just about the different service fees. The price per night also varies depending on your location. Airbnb hosts have to cover the loss, right? 

Here’s an example of people in the US paying less than Spanish: 

Price when connected to the US:

The same date and apartment when connected to Spain: 

#3 ILLUSIONARY PROPERTIES

If you found listings on Airbnb in a particular destination, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the host and Airbnb abide by local laws. 

• In 2014, 72% of bookings made in New York City were illegal. 
• In 2015, 44% of listed properties on Airbnb were permanently available for rental. But hosts of these properties disobeyed the law in France’s capital stating that holiday rentals are capped at only being available for 120 days of the year. 
• If your host in Germany gets caught renting the Airbnb without a city permit, they will be fined up to 100,000 euros, and you could be left without accommodation. 
• 35% of Airbnb listings in Australia are uploaded by people who don't even own the property. 

So, when we're talking about experiencing being a local in some countries, be aware of the laws. This would never happen with hotel bookings, though. 

#4 “CLEAN” IS JUST A WORD

I found this story while scrolling the internet, and it’s horrible. 

The tourist, Shannon, was shocked to discover one side of her bed covered in urine and feces, leading her to believe that a possum was responsible for the unpleasant mess. Feeling unsettled by the incident, Shannon emphasized that she was staying at a beautiful Airbnb and was unaware of the unwelcome visitor during the night. Just look at the footage.

What you can do today to stop Airbnb hosts - is to use the RatePunk browser extension. It's absolutely free and can show you which country offers the lowest price. All it takes is one second to install to save a lot.