Airbnb Class Action

[justinbrett]

You may be eligible to claim compensation from Airbnb in relation to a booking that you made between 1 January 2018 and 30 August 2021 following legal action by the ACCC in Australia.

Airbnb has established a secure Claims Portal that is hosted by Deloitte Financial Advisory Pty Ltd (Deloitte) and is available here: Login - Airbnb Claims Portal

You will receive an email from Deloitte which contains important information about your eligibility for compensation and a unique registration number to access the Claims Portal. Please read the email.

If you have questions you can contact Deloitte’s dedicated support team by sending a message via the enquiry form on the Claims Portal. You can also contact them at 1800 931 206 if you have questions or are having difficulties accessing the Claims Portal. Deloitte’s operators are online between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM AEST, Monday to Friday (excluding Victorian Public Holidays).

Emails went out today, I have a US$576.65 booking that's saying is entitled to a $304.94 refund.

I was genuinely duped as I remember thinking it was a great price (it was within a Peppers property and was less than half the Peppers rate) but never noticed even after billed. It was a Jun 2020 stay so think I was just happy to travel during Covid.

You need PDFs to claim foreign exchange fees (a further A$26.41) so I couldn't submit my claim until I get the archived statement from Amex, but I could proceed without that easy enough (there was just a single question stating I believe I made the transaction in AUD).

 

[SYD]

What‘s the back story for the Class Action? I must have missed something.

 

[SYD]

Ah, this one.

Airbnb to pay $15m in penalties and up to $15m compensation for misleading consumers

The Federal Court has ordered Airbnb Ireland UC (Airbnb) to pay $15 million in penalties, and Airbnb will offer up to $15 million in compensation to eligible consumers, after Airbnb admitted it misled consumers about the currency of the prices on its accommodation platform.

www.accc.gov.au

We mainly use AirBnB overseas, so it doesn’t look like we were affected - plus we probably would have noticed at the time?

 

[justinbrett]

Ah, this one.

Airbnb to pay $15m in penalties and up to $15m compensation for misleading consumers

The Federal Court has ordered Airbnb Ireland UC (Airbnb) to pay $15 million in penalties, and Airbnb will offer up to $15 million in compensation to eligible consumers, after Airbnb admitted it misled consumers about the currency of the prices on its accommodation platform.

www.accc.gov.au

We mainly use AirBnB overseas, so it doesn’t look like we were affected - plus we probably would have noticed at the time?

Me too, but this was a 2020 covid stay - June, it was within weeks of pubs reopening in NSW.

Not sure why I didn't notice.

 

[SYD]

Me too, but this was a 2020 covid stay - June, it was within weeks of pubs reopening in NSW.

Not sure why I didn't notice.

A 3% international transaction fee is usually a good bad sign.

As a matter of fact, I’ve had a few things I’ve paid online in “AUD” but still charged a 3% fee! Maybe I should be sending a note to the ACCC also…

 

[justinbrett]

A 3% international transaction fee is usually a good bad sign.

As a matter of fact, I’ve had a few things I’ve paid online in “AUD” but still charged a 3% fee! Maybe I should be sending a note to the ACCC also…

Back then I rarely even read my statements. I do now though. Amex don't do separate transactions for the fee, so not as noticeable.

My HSBC visa did separate transactions for the fees - and yes I once elected to pay for my US rental car in AUD and was charged the 3% anyway. Only made that mistake once! (cancelled the card recently due to excessive annual fee increase)

 

[tdimdad]

Ah, this one.

Airbnb to pay $15m in penalties and up to $15m compensation for misleading consumers

The Federal Court has ordered Airbnb Ireland UC (Airbnb) to pay $15 million in penalties, and Airbnb will offer up to $15 million in compensation to eligible consumers, after Airbnb admitted it misled consumers about the currency of the prices on its accommodation platform.

www.accc.gov.au

We mainly use AirBnB overseas, so it doesn’t look like we were affected - plus we probably would have noticed at the time?

Oh, yes, I remember falling into that trap at least once and cursing it many other times.

But AirBnB is not the only site doing similar. I passionately wish all sites would 1) use the local currency by default and 2) have the country & currency selection switch / dropdown someplace easy to use (instead of concealed in microscopic font in the page footer).

If I'm looking at properties in SIN, show me the prices in SGD. If I hop over to Germany, show them in EUR. Simple! Let me complicate and convert them to whatever I like myself if I feel the urge for it.