The EU Would Very Much Like Airbnb To Know That the Rules Are Different in Europe (fortune.com)

Airbnb is facing fresh regulatory pressure in Europe. But this time it's not about the short-term home rental platform's core business model -- it's about its terms and conditions, and the way the company presents pricing to consumers. From a report: On Monday, the European Commission and a number of EU consumer watchdogs accused Airbnb of breaking consumer law. If the company does not change the way it operates by the end of August, then it could face legal action. Specifically, the regulators said Airbnb must show people total prices up-front that include all charges and fees, and it must clearly tell customers whether a property is being offered by a private host or a professional. The American company's terms and conditions are illegal under EU law for a variety of reasons, the regulators added. For example, the company tells people in the EU that they cannot sue a host in cases of personal harm or other damages, and it claims it can unilaterally change its terms and conditions without giving customers a warning and the option of cancelling their contracts. These sorts of terms might fly in the U.S., but they're banned in Europe.

Comments

Governments should not allow abuse.

[Futurepower(R)]

AirBnB "tells people ... that they cannot sue a host in cases of personal harm or other damages, and it claims it can unilaterally change its terms and conditions without giving customers a warning and the option of cancelling their contracts."

The U.S. government should not allow companies to manipulate, trick, and otherwise abuse customers.

"... the [EU] regulators said Airbnb must show people total prices up-front that include all charges and fees, and it must clearly tell customers whether a property is being offered by a private host or a professional."

It is shocking and extremely unpleasant to see how much dishonesty there is in U.S. advertising, and the extreme weakness of the U.S. government in preventing abuse.

Resort fee

[ruddk]

We are not used to that.
The whole:” the hotel is 299 pr night”
But then there’s the:
Resort fee, that’s another 50 pr night
Oh the tourist tax, that’s another 10 pr night
Ah you want to park your car? That’s another 25 or night.
And of course that’s without taxes.

And if you are using a hotel search engine, expect only the room price to be listed so you still have to do the calculations yourself.

I have learned to research it when I plan my vacations so it’s not a problem, just annoying. :)

Re:Resort fee

[AmiMoJo]

The rule in the EU is that the price advertised must be the price you pay for everything you would reasonably expect, including things like taxes and random fees. Parking might be included sometimes, it depends what it is you are booking (e.g. airline tickets won't include airport parking).

They also can't get away with advertising offers where there are only one or two available and the rest cost much more, aka bait and switch. Comparison prices can show them and let you book them, but they can't do billboards or TV ads for them.

The next step is to ban comparison sites and search engines from pressure selling to you. A lot of them claim to only have a couple of rooms left or only hold the flight for 1 minute.

Re:Resort fee

[houghi]

In Europe we are used to pay what we see displayed. You go to a restaurant and if the price says 3EUR for a beer and 12 EUR for a pizza, you pay 15 EUR.

In the US you see some random number and at the end they have added some numbers and then you need to calculate on top of that how much you are going to pay. (Could still be the same amount)

And yes, I have heard the excuses that it is difficult because all of the different taxes in the US. If that is true, how come the prices including the taxes are known when you pay?

As for hotels, I use booking.com and I have have yet to pay more than what was advertised. Even in Spain, where there is a tourist tax, I will see the total before I do a payment. Most things I see is if breakfast is not included. As I do not take breakfast, I do not care.

The most annoying ones are the airlines who seem to get away with not clearly indicating prices (even in Europe) and even the railroads where they advertise a price, but reserving a seat is X EUR and you MUST reserve a seat (on certain trains).

Meanwhile Ajit Pai

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile in the USA, if you want to complain about a telco screwing you over, it now costs $225 to file a complaint with the FCC. Non-refundable. There use to be an informal free complaint system, Ajit has done away with that.

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/273212-fcc-may-gut-informal-complaint-process-force-consumers-to-pay-225-fee

Ajit Pai again.

Re:ridiculous regulation

[mrvan]

That's an easy question :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

US is around 19T$, EU is 17T$ and relatively easy to do business in (strong rule of law, some convergence between countries). Next are China at 12T$, but if you find EU too much of a hassle don't even think about it, after that Japan (4T$) and India (2T$), also not easy markets.

So, if you don't think US is a big enough market, EU is a pretty natural second. But to play ball here, you gotta play by the rules. Which is true across the pond as well, just check out the fines EU banks were hit by in response to (presumably) violating US laws or statutes.

Re:The EU may not be perfect..

[GNious]

Just tried using them (trip in August).
Reading their rules and regs, saw various potential options for hosts to scam guests.
Booked trip, host immediately tried to change price etc (city pretty booked due to intl event, easy scam).
I refused, told the host to cancel so I'm not stuck with fees etc.
Host refuses to cancel, since then he's not paid anything.
AirBnB? They are not picking up, no matter how I'm trying to contact them. Only option is to do a chargeback on the CC used for the original booking, which jeopardizes my replacement booking.

Lesson: Stay the fsck away from AirBnB