

Airbnb start performing price / listing discrimination if coming from Google Ads - dazbradbury
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/support/article/994

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dazbradbury
As per the article, Airbnb are now changing the site depending on whether
you've come from a Google Ad or not. This impacts guests / hosts differently:

a) As a guest, you'll only see hosts who haven't opted out (ie. listings
discrimination) based on where you've been referred from. Presumably the
cookie is saved, and you'll never be able to see opt-out hosts properties even
if you later go direct!

b) As a host, Airbnb are passing on the cost of Google Ads (and potentially
making a pure profit on them) directly to you, if the booking comes from a
Google Ad.

Not sure how this benefits guests or hosts - and just seems to be a profit
making exercise. Imagine most consumers won't understand, and will simply
wonder why sometimes they're charged +5% on bookings, and sometimes they
aren't.

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noer
Isn't the goal for "sharing economy" businesses to pass off all of the risk to
someone else while keeping all of the revenue/profits? Sounds like a genius
idea to me.

