- Moto Z4 shows up on Amazon, already shipping to customers by Android Authority.
- Wait, Is Google Flights About To Offer Qatar Airways Discounts? by God Save The Points. Wouldn’t be surprised to see this, although I suspect if they do offer it will be for Google One customers, similar to how they do it with hotel discounts.
- Airbnb Eliminates Most Guest Fees to Take on Booking Holdings by Skift. Something that should have happened a long time ago.
Deals starting/expiring at the end of today or starting today (view the full deal calendar here):
- Buy 10,000+ Hilton Honors Points, Get a 100% Bonus (0.5¢ Per Point)
- New IHG PointBreaks List To Be Release On May 28th
- eBay/Paypal Extras Mastercard $5 Bonus with $50 Purchase [Targeted]
- PPDG: Save 10% on iTunes Gift Cards; Bonus Applebee’s GC with $100 Staples GC Purchase
- [YMMV] Lyft Ride Pass: $9.99 For $5 Off Per Ride, Up To 10 Rides
- Ellevest Online Investing $50 Signup Offer via Referral + $50 Referral Bonuses
- $50 Bonus for Opening a 529 Plan with ScholarShare [5/28-5/31]
Deals starting/expiring at end of tomorrow:
Here are some of the most popular posts from yesterday:
Wework is going at valuation of 47 billion + .
What a crock. The business platinum amex benefit is useless. You get a shared communal desk and free coffee and 120 pages of printing. That’s it.
The only benefit is networking. If that’s a benefit.
A separate post maybe?
The Wells Fargo $400 bonus is expiring Jul 26 and not this month and started a while back. The in-branch version of the deal goes on till Dec 31, 2019.
I would start staying in airbnb again once they fix their cleaning fee model which is akin to resort fees.
Why does it matter how they break up the total price? I always look to the total price when you do the search, and then compare it to the cost of other lodging options (like hotels). One minor annoyance I’ve found lately is that in some states, like Washington, the final cost doesn’t reflect some local occupancy tax, which is added on the payment screen. I dislike this, as it complicates an apples to apples comparison to other lodging sites. That said, I’ve also noted some slippage with booking.com, which used to quote the “all in” price when you shopped. Lately, I’ve noticed some smaller properties are trying to game the system by adding cleaning fees and such on booking.com that also aren’t displayed until the payment page. Boo! Everybody is always trying to game everything — the travel websites shouldn’t allow it.
agreed I even stayed at a place with bed bugs and dog hair everywhere that charged a $115 “cleaning fee”.. when contacting the “Superhost” he just said it’s “not my problem” “i already clean” and “i listed it as dog-friendly” what a douche.. it’s immoral to charge a $115 cleaning fee when it’s cleaned by yourself and not done properly. can’t believe that guy is/was a superhost.
oh i forgot the conclusion to the story.. after two phone calls to Airbnb support, Airbnb only agreed to refund half the cleaning fee. my travel mate had to go to the urgent care clinic due to an allergic reaction to the bed bug bites. It’s just immoral. However, I still have to use Airbnb because they are in practical terms a monopoly of house rentals.. in my city you can’t even find housing for 3 months (I go to university here) without renting an Airbnb. because I only need 3 months at a time.. and my city is popular to move to. 🙁
Even if all the fees were technically charged to hosts, hosts could always raise the price to transfer the fees to guests.
Just a note that I believe the Hilton offer is a 100% bonus on 5000 points or more. I purchased 5000 points last night and got a 5000 point bonus.
AirBNB is not eliminating guest fees. They are allowing professional property managers to have “rate parity” across channels by allowing them to set prices that do not have an extra service fee. This will NOT apply to the vast majority of AirBNB listings run by regular hosts. Those will still have the service fees as always.
Amazon started as online only put bricks and mortar out of business and now is opening bricks and mortar. Airbnb started as an anti hotel and increasingly becoming a hotel booking platform.
Amazon brick and mortar is nothing like legacy B&M — the goal is data collection and testing to see how consumers actually operate in a live setting. Effectively exposure customers to additional situations to understand preferences. Legacy B&M used buildings to sell things, for Amazon the sales are a side effect.
Airbnb is recognizing that it’s easier to add customers by hiding all the fees and passing on a fixed price