Air lowered it to the wrong price, but finally decent customer service

I have had suspicions a few times that air bnb lowered my price without my knowledge. I actually had proof this time. I had blocked out the entire month of July at $205/night. Someone booked at rate of $155/night (my lowest allowed on smart pricing) totally some sort of glitch as the smart pricing for July is over 190/night anyway. Luckily I was able to quickly speak with someone by phone to reversed everything. I’m glad I caught it, and from now on will screen shot all my rates so I have proof in the future. They of course tried to blame me and said this will be a one time courtesy so we will see what happens next time.

1 Like

You’re absolutely, positively, 100% certain that you clicked on Save after changing those nightly rates? You went back at that time and looked at the rate on your calendar?

I find it hard to believe that AirBnb or their software just randomly, indiscriminately, goes around changing values on random hosts listings. They would have absolutely NO incentive to lower your rates, they would make less money.

2 Likes

Ken is right that you might have made a mistake. Smart pricing should work according to the parameters you set. Another host here complained he got an instant book despite not having instant book. At our urging he double checked and wouldn’t you know? Instant book was on.

Don’t depend on Airbnb to fix this is the future. Double check your settings and prices. If it happens again you might be penalized for the cancellation.

1 Like

At times I’ve been burned by Airbnb’s poor notification of an old/expired session. At least that’s what I suspect has happened. I can navigate, move through screens, and “reply” to guest messages in a window that’s been open several hours/days. During the “phantom session” it looks like a message has been sent, or changes made, but if I start a new session, it’s like the phantom session never happened. It’s really frustrating when I think I’ve sent a message, only to find out days later that it didn’t. :confused:

I wish they bumped me to a logoff page like my banking institutions do.

I wonder if your price changes could have happened in a similar way?
Has anyone else experienced this?

1 Like

I made this post so that other host can share if they have had anything similar or a reminder to keep an eye out as computer systems are not perfect.

Yes Ken, I am 100% percent certain. Let me explain: I check my calendar every couple of days (yes really), since Air has smart pricing as a different color with a little arrow next to it, I would have easily noticed if 3 random days in an open month are different color than the rest. Fact 2: I blocked out the entire month of July, (in fact the month prior and post were taken off smart pricing at the same time).by dragging the mouse across the entire month on my desk top, I did not select one day at a time. Fact 3: Smart pricing for the month of July ranges from $196-$203, Ken could you explain to me how the 3 booked days just happen to all be $155? Not even close to what any other day of the month is. Strange isn’t it???

Never did I say this was a system wide random, indiscriminate assault on my rate or did I insinuate that air bnb intended for this to happen. I clearly said it was some type of glitch and wanted other hosts to be aware. I hope you find that less hard to believe.

I had multiple calls with Air bnb to trouble shoot this and go through all the obvious questions before posting. The fact that they are looking into how this happened should also count for something. I hope someone finds this post helpful to them.

2 Likes