this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
317 points (99.4% liked)

World News

38968 readers
2340 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 82 points 10 months ago

Misleading? Pretty sure that's illegal.

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago

Just like many of these other types of middle ground platforms, it should be a small company managed by a team of like 10 people max making small money with ads and a small kickback fee on each transactions (like a few cents, not the 20%+ they take now).

[–] phx@lemmy.world 39 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A lot of companies seem to pull this shit. Went to buy a product from ba Canadian company (in Canada) on their website. Prices were in dollars but no mention of CAD or USD. I used PayPal as the last step so thankfully it told me it'd be converting currency, at which point I cancelled. If I'd tried to pay by card to directly I would likely just have been charged with no idea of the currency difference until later

[–] 0000@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

DBrand did this to me years ago. I'm still salty about paying USD to a Canadian company in Canada after all this time.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They're fucked. Consumer protection is no joke in Australia.

[–] Marsupial@quokk.au 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes and no. We have a lot of rights as individuals consumers, but we’re still a country led by 2 neoliberal parties.

AirBnB got fined $15 million, or about $250 per customer ripped off. Hardly a big deal for them.

[–] Railison@aussie.zone 2 points 10 months ago

Expect the ACCC to come on them like a ton of bricks now

[–] Haagel@lemmings.world 21 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I have never had a good experience with Airbnb. It was a great idea that the company completely ruined. I hope that it dies and that a better service comes up in it's place.

[–] Poggervania@kbin.social 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ideally, we’d be able to have a healthy mix of hotels either in or near city centers and short-term rentals for maybe tourist destinations that are away from the center, with a hard limit on how many AirBNBs and hotels can be existing at a time. The idea sounds nice on paper, at least.

Adam Something made a video on how awful AirBNBs are for locals, and the same concept applies to a lot of places where it’s mainly hotels in the area.

[–] Haagel@lemmings.world 9 points 10 months ago

Agreed.

In my opinion, this is an area where local governments need to step in and regulate, otherwise the industry can be disastrous for local homeowners.

[–] rifugee@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a fantastic idea on paper; you, and another family, want to go on vacation but want to be more comfortable than in a hotel while renting your homes out while you're gone so someone one else gets the same comfort and you get to make a little of money to help pay for the vacation. And everyone saves a little on their vacation accomodations to boot. Everyone wins! And then capitalism and greed happened and people turned the rentals into a business and ruined it.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

So, as usual?

[–] Fal@yiffit.net 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I've never had a bad experience

[–] Haagel@lemmings.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It might be a regional thing. Perhaps the property owners in popular destinations know that they can get away with more money and less accommodation.

[–] Fal@yiffit.net 1 points 10 months ago

I don't doubt that. But that's also true of hotels

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago

Me neither, mainly in Europe though, not sure how things are in the states

[–] chitak166@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Stop using airbnb, lol.

As soon as the 'luxury' crowd took over, it's become useless.

Just get a motel. It's cheaper, easier, and you don't have to interact with the owners as though you're lucky they're letting you stay.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Seriously, a hotel never charged me a cleaning fee while requiring that I clean the room before leaving.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

Okay, so when will top management be put behind jail for theft?

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 5 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Airbnb had earlier provided the court with an undertaking that it would pay as much as AU$15 million in compensation to eligible customers.

Airbnb’s Australia and New Zealand regional manager Susan Wheeldon said ensuring consumers could book with confidence was the company’s priority.

“While only a very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted, we are disappointed that this happened,” Wheeldon said in a statement.

Wheeldon said the company was committed to price transparency and Airbnb would continue to find ways to improve systems so guests and hosts could enjoy travel.

“Consumers were misled about the price of accommodation, reasonably assuming the price referred to Australian dollars given they were on Airbnb’s Australian website, searching for accommodation in Australia and seeing a dollar sign,” the commission’s chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement.

Airbnb had blamed customers for selecting prices in U.S. dollars, including consumers who had not made that choice.


The original article contains 405 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 62%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

I remember using a US credit card in Australia. Never did see those charges.