In San Francisco restaurants, I’ve seen this tactic applied liberally. Maybe AirBnb and DoorDash are rubbing off on them:)
A common one sees the restaurant charge you separately for the employee health benefits, cynically marketing it to consumers as “healthy SF” and “SF health mandate”.
What’s sort of fun is that like cryptocurrencies, you can always materialize new ones out of thin air.
One popular establishment demands that you pay a separate “carbon offset fee”.
OMG, "The Screener" is something I've always wanted.
There's a lot to love about this.
Something I am nervous about is using a @hey.com email. Similarly to domain, it's a world-visible and sticky, but unlike domains, it isn't portable, the only options are: pay Basecamp forever, or lose access. gulp
The 24/7 support sounds promising. This has been their Achilles heel for many years.
Anecdotally, I once checked into an Airbnb with a leaky roof.
After spending a good 20 minutes trying to get to a human (a small eternity when you’re in an unfortunate situation), Airbnb asked that I spend hours negotiating with my non-responsive host on a solution, which is obviously nonsensical given the situation.
Being able to instantly talk to someone and feel like I am being taken care of would have made all the difference in the world.
Instead, I churned from their platform.
My personal experience with Airbnb is that they simply don't know how to do support.
Even basic issues take multiple days to resolve, and usually involve many phone calls.
HotelTonight has been awesome there. You can get a representative on live chat and resolve most issues while you're still en-route from the airport.
On one hand, I am hopeful Airbnb will be able to learn from HotelTonight, but in reality, it seems most acquisitions end up with the acquired company diffusing into nothingness :(
If the goal is keeping people informed, one can show various breakdowns, piecharts or any other creative infographic at the canvas of the bill.