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AAPThe West Australian Airbnb can’t hide surprise fees anymore after the consumer watchdog pushed the user-to-user accommodation service to improve its pricing policy. The Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission has accepted undertakings from Airbnb and rival online travel agency eDreams to fix their pricing practices after the ACCC considered both were misleading
consumers by not disclosing their mandatory fees straight up. The watchdog says Airbnb didn’t include service and cleaning charges within the advertised prices on their listing pages while
eDreams hid mandatory service and payment costs. The cases are part of the ACCC’s crackdown on the practice of drip pricing, where companies advertise a headline price and don’t reveal any
extra charges until the booking process. "Drip feeding consumers with information about charges can cause detriment to competition and result in consumers paying a higher price than the
advertised price or spending more than they realise,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said. He said that under consumer law, additional fees had to be clearly disclosed so consumers weren’t misled.
The watchdog launched cases against Virgin Airlines and Jetstar in the Federal Court in 2014 for allegedly failing to show booking fees to customers buying cheap airfares. Airbnb and eDreams
cooperated with the ACCC during the recent investigation and have both pledged to update their policies. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails