Hi, I am a host but am writing today from a guest's perspective and would love your feedback as hosts.
Let me explain,
Back in September, my party booked a place for a 2night stay in November (large party of 10 + 2 dogs). Upon booking the home, my friend who is handling the booking assumed all the fees were already included on the "invoice" when she proceeded.
She booked the place from her phone and did not read all the About the Space description. She just wanted to make sure dogs were allowed and that we had enough beds for our party. She did read the house rules and Additional Fees to see if there were any fees for the dogs, which seemed they were none.
With that being said, 50% of the amount was paid upon booking and the remaining 50% was been paid in October. At this point, we still had not heard from the host.
The day after everything was paid (over a month after the initial booking), the host finally contacted us and started asking questions about the dogs, and the day after, as we are now passed the deadline to cancel our booking for a full refund, the host contacts us explaining me that we owe an extra $707 for taxes and pet fees (out of the over $2K already paid), which is a substantial "unexpected" increase for a 2-night stay. This info was indicated in the listing description under "Other things to note", which my friend did not read.
You can imagine our surprise. From a listing that first shows as $450/night to almost $1,400/night when you change the dates and add all the fees, this was beyond what we could spend. But impossible to cancel for a full refund.
So my question is: We DO know many guests do not read the entire listing description, so when it comes to disclosing/requesting extra fees after a booking, what should be the delay for a host to disclose/ask those fees to the guest? We feel that because of the increase in price, the host intentionally waited for the cancellation period to kick in to initiate a money request.
Like I mentioned, I am a host and am not able to add my local tax to my listing, so the first time I had a booking I immediately informed my guest that there was a local tax to pay and I understood if they wanted to cancel. I feel this is the ethical thing to do even if it is written somewhere in a listing that already has a lot more information.