9 mo. ago • 99%

Airbnb admits misleading Australian customers by charging in US dollars instead of local currency

apnews.com Airbnb admits misleading Australian customers by charging in US dollars instead of local currency

An Australian court has ordered Airbnb to pay a $10 million fine in compensating customers who had been unaware they were being charged in U.S. rather than Australian dollars.

23 comments

Misleading? Pretty sure that's illegal.

86
A lot of companies seem to pull this shit. Went to buy a product from ba Canadian company (in Canada) on their website. Prices were in dollars but no mention of CAD or USD. I used PayPal as the last step so thankfully it told me it'd be converting currency, at which point I cancelled. If I'd tried to pay by card to directly I would likely just have been charged with no idea of the currency difference until later

40
- DBrand did this to me years ago. I'm still salty about paying USD to a Canadian company in Canada after all this time.
  
  4
Airbnb needs to die.

40
- Just like many of these other types of middle ground platforms, it should be a small company managed by a team of like 10 people max making small money with ads and a small kickback fee on each transactions (like a few cents, not the 20%+ they take now).
  
  2
  
  I don't agree at all. I don't think any of these "app" jobs or gig BS should be a thing. Airbnb is screwing with the housing market, and when things with an Airbnb goes wrong there's little to no recourse.
  
  Hotels already exist, and they're an established and regulated form of business. With a hotel you more or less know what to expect, and there are consumer protections in place.
  
  1
They're fucked. Consumer protection is no joke in Australia.

30
- Yes and no. We have a lot of rights as individuals consumers, but we’re still a country led by 2 neoliberal parties.
  
  AirBnB got fined $15 million, or about $250 per customer ripped off. Hardly a big deal for them.
  
  23
- Expect the ACCC to come on them like a ton of bricks now
  
  2
I have never had a good experience with Airbnb. It was a great idea that the company completely ruined. I hope that it dies and that a better service comes up in it's place.

27
- Ideally, we’d be able to have a healthy mix of hotels either in or near city centers and short-term rentals for maybe tourist destinations that are away from the center, with a hard limit on how many AirBNBs and hotels can be existing at a time. The idea sounds nice on paper, at least.
  
  Adam Something made a video on how awful AirBNBs are for locals, and the same concept applies to a lot of places where it’s mainly hotels in the area.
  
  15
  
  Agreed.
  
  In my opinion, this is an area where local governments need to step in and regulate, otherwise the industry can be disastrous for local homeowners.
  
  11
- It's a fantastic idea on paper; you, and another family, want to go on vacation but want to be more comfortable than in a hotel while renting your homes out while you're gone so someone one else gets the same comfort and you get to make a little of money to help pay for the vacation. And everyone saves a little on their vacation accomodations to boot. Everyone wins! And then capitalism and greed happened and people turned the rentals into a business and ruined it.
  
  6
  
  So, as usual?
  
  2
- I've never had a bad experience
  
  2
  
  It might be a regional thing. Perhaps the property owners in popular destinations know that they can get away with more money and less accommodation.
  
  1
  
  Me neither, mainly in Europe though, not sure how things are in the states
  
  1
Stop using airbnb, lol.

As soon as the 'luxury' crowd took over, it's become useless.

Just get a motel. It's cheaper, easier, and you don't have to interact with the owners as though you're lucky they're letting you stay.

16
- Seriously, a hotel never charged me a cleaning fee while requiring that I clean the room before leaving.
  
  2
This is the best summary I could come up with:

Airbnb had earlier provided the court with an undertaking that it would pay as much as AU$15 million in compensation to eligible customers.

Airbnb’s Australia and New Zealand regional manager Susan Wheeldon said ensuring consumers could book with confidence was the company’s priority.

“While only a very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted, we are disappointed that this happened,” Wheeldon said in a statement.

Wheeldon said the company was committed to price transparency and Airbnb would continue to find ways to improve systems so guests and hosts could enjoy travel.

“Consumers were misled about the price of accommodation, reasonably assuming the price referred to Australian dollars given they were on Airbnb’s Australian website, searching for accommodation in Australia and seeing a dollar sign,” the commission’s chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement.

Airbnb had blamed customers for selecting prices in U.S. dollars, including consumers who had not made that choice.

The original article contains 405 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 62%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

5
Okay, so when will top management be put behind jail for theft?

4
I remember using a US credit card in Australia. Never did see those charges.

1

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