Starting today, Airbnb is showing the full price of every stay—before taxes—by default to all guests worldwide. No more "Total Price" toggles. No more clicking into listings to find the real cost. It’s all visible right in search results.
Airbnb’s Announcement Highlights:
- Global Rollout: After testing transparent pricing in select regions since 2019 and offering it as an optional setting in 200+ countries, Airbnb has now made total price display the standard globally.
- Strong Guest Demand: Nearly 17 million guests used the total price toggle over the past two years, signaling a clear preference for upfront pricing.
- Improved Booking Experience: Guests can now compare listings more easily and book based on actual costs, not just base rates.
- Tools for Hosts: Airbnb has given hosts pricing tips and a “similar listings” tool to help them stay competitive. Over 2 million hosts have used the similar listings tool to compare average prices in their area in the last year.
- New Tools for Guests: Airbnb has introduced tools for guests that highlight weekly and monthly stays, encouraging longer bookings and potential savings.
Our Take
Is This Good for Hosts?
In our article The Impact of Price Transparency on Airbnb, we looked at the UNLV Lee Business School study on how showing the full price upfront (including cleaning fees) affects both host and guest behavior.
The Study Found:
- Cleaning Fees Dropped a Bit: Listings trimmed cleaning fees by 2–4%. With total prices shown upfront, hosts had less reason to hide costs in the cleaning fee.ee.
- Nightly Prices Went Up for Listings Without Cleaning Fees: About 27% of listings didn’t charge cleaning fees at all. Those hosts raised nightly prices by 5–6% after transparency went live. Why? They realized their total prices were lower than competitors.
- Mixed Results Overall: Cleaning fees dipped, but nightly rates went up more—especially on listings with no cleaning fee before.
Bottom Line:
Price transparency is a double-edged sword.
- Good: Guests get fewer surprises, better comparisons, and lower cleaning fees.
- Bad: Hosts often raise nightly rates to compensate.
But here's the key point: price transparency led to fewer bookings and shorter stays. Even though some hosts charged more per night, they made less money overall.
The study found more affordable listings saw a drop of about $307 per month in income, as higher prices made guests book shorter stays.
Our advice: Hosts shouldn’t overreact to price transparency. Lowering cleaning fees but raising nightly rates might seem smart—but if bookings drop, you could lose more than you gain.
