FTC bans hidden fees for live events and short-term rentals, effective May 12

[rcjordan]

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/05/ftc-bans-hidden-fees-for-live-events-and-short-term-rentals-effective-may-12/

[ergophobe]

I've been awaiting this. I *hate* hidden fees and refuse to have them, but it has historically put us at a disadvantage.

I've sometimes looked at competitors and seen they were much cheaper than us on Airbnb. Then when I click through they have
 - cleaning fee: $160 (which is reasonable - we pay $130 plus $50/mo)
 - linen fee: $60 (wait, this isn't part of the cleaning?)
 - management fee: $120


For a two-night stay it double the cost. That said, I've sometimes wanted to have fees like this *if* it were transparent in the pricing for the simple reason that it is actually more fair.

For example,  I just build the cleaning cost into the price. I base it on an average stay of 4 days. So I say, okay, that's $35/night. That means that someone staying 2 nights is paying $70 for a cleaning and someone staying 10 nights is paying $350 for a cleaning.

But my cost is the same and I would rather have the ten-day guest than five 2-day guests. By not having a cleaning fee, I'm also discouraging the type of guest I actually want.

So I have no problem with people having fees when it's a fixed cost per stay rather than a cost per night. So this is a good law - have the fees, but Airbnb/Vrbo/Booking.com are required to show the full price, no BS.