Lodging website Airbnb and online travel agency eDreams have been told to clean up their act after running afoul of Australian consumer law for slugging customers with service and other fees that were not properly disclosed when they were booking accommodation. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement both companies misled and deceived customers by failing to adequately disclose to consumers in Australia these mandatory fees, including service fees and, in the case of Airbnb, cleaning fees. The ACCC has accepted court enforceable undertakings from the brands' respective parent companies – Airbnb Ireland and Vacaciones eDreams SL – following concerns that the companies made online price representations to consumers in Australia that were in breach of the Australian Consumer Law. Airbnb, a darling of the so-called disruptive or sharing economy, engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct since November 2012 by failing to adequately disclose service fees and cleaning fees applied by the accommodation host, according to the ACCC.
Australia will improve its pricing practices following a probe by a consumer watchdog which was concerned that its representations were misleading and deceptive, potentially breaching the law. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said today that Australia and rival platform Vacaciones eDreams had accepted court-enforceable undertakings to improve their practices so that prices displayed will incorporate what were undisclosed fees. The regulator said Australia and eDreams had engaged in “misleading and deceptive conduct by failing to adequately disclose mandatory fees, such as for service and cleaning, on key pages on one or more of their online booking platforms”.